The third machine my group got introduced to by Jess was the vinyl cutter. After the other two and with previous knowledge of the plotter in the fashion department, this machine was a lot less challenging for me. It is also based on illustrator files, so I could adapt my rose design here as well.

The fabric paint I used in the first sample was a pink spray, which was very liquid, so bled a lot and as it was meant to be applied to black fabric I was also concerned with the coverage. The next samples are included in the final outcome pants blog.

The vinyl cutter can not only be used to cut vinyl, but the blade can be exchanged for a pen to draw on fabric. More elaborate designs can be achieved that way, but also “invisible” pens, which only show under black light, can be used for precise designs.

design in Illustrator –> laser cutter template on fablab page
focus button on cutter, push to focus, arrows to move up and down, focus tool gap line up with carriage
material must be flat
line weight and colour important: 0.1 mm – CYMK colours: red to cut through, Blue for surface cut/engraving, grayscale for rasterised colouring
don’t use masks on illustrator as laser cutter will cut them out too
two types of extraction, bed extraction for light/soft materials –> two switches down on wall and red lever turned to left
push play button to start
pause button to stop laser, moves it back to rest position
push resume to continue, play would start all over again
laser must be booked with the file timed
clean bed after using it

Below are some examples of laser cutting from the fablab. I was particularly interested in those as they allow by design to expand from a small size to cover a much larger surface. In regards to sustainability this is a concept that allows the usage of less to achieve more.

laser cutting sample from the fablab

fablab laser cutting sample

fablab laser cutting sample

Faith’s post it idea wall at the fablab

table display with books and samples laser cutting

laser cutting sample from the fablab

fablab laser cutting sample

fablab laser cutting sample

In one of the displayed books I also found examples of the applied to garments, where via laser cutting the 3D body shape is achieved without any darts. I then experimented with that concept at home using paper and scalpel.

However, I didn’t just want to have geometric lines, but some kind of pattern I could reuse for other designs as well. So I searched the internet for suitable patterns. I found a rose pattern, which I liked so I tried to laser cut it. Due to the complexity of the design however, it would have taken 4 hours for a piece about 15×20 cm, so I only tried a bit. It looked amazing lying down, but a lot of pieces were completely cut out, so it all fell apart.

At the textiles department Hannah introduced us to felting today. She explained how felting works and how to use the felt loom, hand felting and the needle punch machine.

Felting can be used to create a nonwoven and nonknit fabric, which doesn’t fray. Generally make from wool, but can incorporate other fibres (recycled yarns), felting can be used to join to fabric, however the needle punching will break the fabric. A loose weave fabric works best. It can also be used to join to layers of fabric.

I also made a sample using the felt loom. I left it quite loose to be able to process it further.

Thinking about useful applications for felting:

• Add padding (shoulders) or lining to an existing garment
• Extend a garment by adding felting into ‘gaps’
• Adding an interesting decoration
• Close a hole or tear in a garment

The common methods of creating fabrics/textiles are weaving, knitting and felting. Today we looked at weaving. In weaving you have a weave, which is the vertical fixed yarn structure and the weft is woven through the weave. Different structures are created by different ways of interlocking, e.g. twill, satin and sateen. We made some samples in paper.

Then we had to incorporate weaving into a zero waste paper garment. I chose to weave through the front, joining the fold over top to the side, which makes a seam there redundant and allows for easier disassembly and reuse of the fabric.

We also briefly looked at weaving software for creating weaving patterns, which then can be shared as an open source.