Metatronic Calculations
Melissa Lockwood is available to teach fashion designers to use their pattern waste fabrics to design additional garments. She teaches designers how to design clothing from the shapes created between their pattern parts when they are laid out. By adding this simple step into the design production process more garments are made and less waste. Melissa is available for online and in person consultations, fees are negotiable.
During mass production of clothing, typically 30% of the fabric is thrown away or recycled. This happens because the patterns are not zero waste and have 30% is waste areas between the traditional pattern pieces.
The larger areas are pattern pieces for a jacket and shorts, the smaller piecrs in-between are the fabric that is thrown away or recycled. My method makes it possible to create clothing with the between pieces. This is done by calculating the shape,size and number of each piece that will exsist at the time of cutting out of the garment pieces. This can be predicted as soon as the traditional garments pattern pieces are placed on the pattern layout plan. One just has to look at the shapes which are created in multiple and decide how many are needed to create a cylindar the size of the deried garment. Through my experience thins is easy and predictable as the shpes become common dur to the common items general similarity, like my above pattern layout it is of traditional shorts and a jacket.
This can be avoided by designing with the stacks of same shape pieces created during the initial design phase in consideration of the quantity of garments planned.
This shows a flat schematic drawing of a pattern waste shape next to a pants pattern part. Behind that is the 3D shape created when the multiple same shape pieces are assembled into a cylindar or specifically a trucated cone.
This pattern layout method utilizes pattern waste fabrics during the design process. Taking into account the usability of the traditionally disregarded pattern waste area pieces. The technique is applied during the pattern layout phase, that is when the shapes are created.
Typically designers disregard the waste area shapes on the pattern layout, but it is a viable design area. This is an important aspect to consider, as it is where the fabric sent to landfills is generated. This method enables designers to create additional garments with these fabrics.
These are dresses made from fabric that was thrown away in NYC, the pieces were still intact in the stack of same shape pieces when I pulled it from the dumpster. You can see the shape and the result of somply sewing the pieces together into a cylindar.
This image shows where the above dresses patterns parts come from in this tradition pattern layout of a jacket. It is the front of the jacket and the under sleeve of the jacket that the new found dress pattern parts are created in stacks during multiple/mass production.
This method utilizes the pattern waste area shapes, taking into account how many of each are made when the number of original garments is planned. By viewing the garment pattern layout in the big picture it is possible to design with and utilize the stacks of same shape pieces to create additional garments.
The design technique is based on traditional panel patterns often used to create skirts and dresses. Though planning one can avoid the waste of fabric, it is really not that hard to calculate garments based on cylindar made from the ewing together of the multiple same shape pieces.
Melissa’s main impetus is to lower the impact of fashion industry waste on our planet. She recognizes the potential of this practice to greatly reduce fabric waste. She offers her experience, technique and to teach designers how to create garments with the fabrics they usually throw away.
Melissa is available for online consultations, in person studio visits and factory visits. Her goal is to empower designers with a tested theory and technique so the industry will become regenerative and sustainable in a major way.
If you would like to learn more about this project, process and or schedule a learning session feel free to contact Melissa at:
melissa@iqtest-nyc.com
Faculty Art Exhibit "Creating with pattern layout waste fabrics”. This artwork explains a technique that if uses can greatly reduce fashion industry waste of pattern layout fabrics.
