In the standard garment industry, about 15-20% of fabric goes to waste. The intention of the project was to eliminate pre-consumer textile waste during manufacture. Primary design step is the cutting process which influences the design of the garment as the designer works with the space of the fabric width. This approach doesn’t focus on sketching, but it can be a useful tool to support the process.
The item designed in the project was a zero-waste skirt, which is possible to mass produce using 150 cm wide fabric. Grading is possible, but each size requires a different pattern.
Zero waste skirt
Tutor: Marta Moorats
Zkirt
zero-waste skirt
The first step of product development was to sketch the approximate shape of the item to set the direction of the pattern. The first pattern was made on paper. By fitting the first model on a mannequin, folds were adjusted and direction of folds
were set. It required several fittings to achieve the desired look. After that, the second paper pattern was made according to the changes made during the first fittings. The paper pattern was digitized using the OptiTex program in the company Technical Garment Design. The second model already was the final one.
Product development
To make it easier to recycle the item after its life cycle, all the materials used are made of the same fibre, in this case, cotton. The only non-cotton detail used is the button which can be taken off from an old piece of cloth. A zip is not used as it makes it more difficult to recycle.
As the cutting off the edges with overlock doesn’t qualify as zero-waste technique, all the edges are finished with hems and nothing is cut off. To add some vivid touch and contrast, hems are in red.
Materials and finishing
