Application of Makeuse Platfo
Application of Makeuse Platfo
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 827 (2020) 012047 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/827/1/012047
A Scerbaka1,2
1
Faculty of Materials Science and Applied Chemistry Design Technology Department,
Riga Technical university, Riga, Latvia
2
Author to whom any correspondence should be addressed
[email protected]
Abstract. The article explores the challenges of the clothing industry by focusing more on textile
and the clothing industry interactions to reduce industry fabric waste and promote sustainability.
The main research focus is to gather and analyze various possibilities for fashion designers to
achieve zero waste designs in nowadays context. The introduction gives insights on the problems
of the fashion industry and formulates the purpose and tasks of the research work, identifies and
unpacks problems and also justifying the relevance of this study. Attention is drawn to the
analysis of pre-consumer waste generation in the clothing production processes and the ways to
drive the industry towards sustainability. The rich source of zero waste design ideas can be found
in the ethnographic costumes’ solutions. Integrating historical experience with the methods and
approaches defined by the 21st century designers can significantly reduce or even avoid fabric
pre-consumer waste. The paper will reflect the collected principles of achieving zero waste
fashion by using Make/Use platform, an open source system for zero waste user, modifiable
fashion practice. The methods of Make /Use platform are described, and its practical application
is illustrated through the zero-waste coat design. Premeditate changes are based on the fashion
designer's thinking encouraging minimizing the waste in the early stages of the costume idea
development, providing a sensible use of the fabric with its silhouette and design specificity.
1. Introduction
Although most consumers are aware of the amount of waste that they generate themselves, relatively few
are aware of the waste generated in the course of producing the goods that they consume. Fashion is one
of the most resource-intensive industries in the world, which is complex and takes a leading role in world
economics. Michael F. Ashby describes the last two centuries as being an era of material abundance,
pointing out our ability to locate, mind, refine and use materials increased and, with it, material
availability and affordability. Claiming the dominant business model, in material terms, was one of take
- make – use – dispose, focusing more on economic growth resulting in increasing consumption [1].
This system has created sustainability issues including fabric waste at the pre and post-consumer stage,
it is in this part of the process where industry has the opportunity to take more responsibility.
The fashion and textile industry is one of the largest environmental pollutant on earth [2];
Garment waste is a growing problem in the clothing industry: in pre- and post-consumer stage;
In traditional clothing cut-sew production system, at least 15% of the cut off fabric is thrown
away; [3] it is a waste of energy from invested resources, which could be used more rationally
to not generate environmental pollution;
One of the most preferred steps in the waste management hierarchy when it comes to sustainable
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution
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Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd 1
7th International Conference on Intelligent Textiles & Mass Customisation (ITMC 2019) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 827 (2020) 012047 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/827/1/012047
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7th International Conference on Intelligent Textiles & Mass Customisation (ITMC 2019) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 827 (2020) 012047 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/827/1/012047
The coat was made taking in account all considerations and recommendations found on the platform
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7th International Conference on Intelligent Textiles & Mass Customisation (ITMC 2019) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 827 (2020) 012047 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/827/1/012047
as well as fabric specifics and design ideas. The final look of garment was influenced by a lot of factors
such as designer’s choice of details for joining edges, the drape of the cloth. Used material: 100% wool
fabric, which was steamed, ironed, cut off not even edges of fabric bought in shop.
Pattern was printed according to instructions on website; transferred on to the fabric. Before cutting
the fabric, considering the possibility of inaccuracy the pattern was checked with the base grid available
in the system. The length of the coat was increased taking in account fabric length.
The fabric was cut in the indicated lines: in the central part vertically, the collar mark, the horizontal
line which separates sleeves from torso part. The joining edges of the collar's back was sewn together,
to form a shawl lapel and reveal a rectangular opening in the back of the coat and is seen as design detail.
The cut edges were joined in the back vertical seam, horizontal back seam which forms sleeves. It was
decided to reduce the size of the sleeves by folding cuff, thereby creating bigger volume on elbow part
of sleeve.
Cut edges were joined in creative way, examples of stiches are shown in Figure 4. Needle felting,
hand stitching as the insertion stitch, machine stitch has been given as example in platform.
Figure 4. Examples of cut edges joining’s. From the left: needle felting technique; needle felting
technique with large stroke stitches; the selvedge stitched with straight hand stitches; diagonal hand
stitches over needled felt; straight stitch; the insertion stitch.
In traditional fashion system exist 3 main evaluation criteria: appearance, fit and cost. [9] Usually
these elements are viewed together as they depend on each other. To evaluate zero – waste design Timo
Rissanen and Holly McQuillana have developed five primary criteria that should be taken into account
when designing zero-waste patterns: appearance, fit, costs that can compete with traditional fashion cost,
additionally should be valuated fabric waste and sustainability criteria, as well as the criteria for
manufacturability. The weight of these criteria depends on the imposed privileged preferences.
It was detected that for non-experienced user achieving well-constructed garment could be
problematic without guide of expert who understands how to get garment flat to form, even thou all
instructions are given. Problems was detected on printing the given pattern in home environment, but
solution was found by given possibility to recheck the pattern with the base grid available in the system.
The available grid was helpful to understand how to adjust the pattern for specific fabric length and
width for using all the fabric as was tested in prototype creation.
As one of main platform missions is to provide zero waist patterns, this is achievable if the fabric
edges are accurate straight. During the creation of the prototype the only left-waste were pieces of the
fabric what end up from the edges of the fabric, when not cut straight when the fabric was brought
directly for the wholesaler. What is shown is the waste that was created due to the way fabric is sold
to the consumer (Figure 5(2)).
Different practical solutions were made to join cut edges, the aim was to understand and valuate how
many possibilities in this particular case can exist. The conclusions were that the design has the potential
for future development and variability by adding design value such as functional details. As well as
fabric manipulating possibilities were detected to the design of the original prototype; as in upgraded
prototype was customized sleeves to match desirable silhouette. Also, the edges of the savage are
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7th International Conference on Intelligent Textiles & Mass Customisation (ITMC 2019) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 827 (2020) 012047 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/827/1/012047
Figure 5. 1 Long coat from Make/Use platform on female (front, back and side view) and male
figures (front, back and side view); 2 – The waste from the edges of the fabric.
Many criteria were considered to evaluate zero waste coat prototype result that includes appearance,
design, fitting, sustainability and future possibility for production, zero waste approach. This can be
seen in the table 1. All criteria were found approached and future possibilities have been observed.
After analysing the coat, observations show that the coat’s appearance and fit are good, appearance
can be considered as unisex, equally well suited to both genders (Figure 5(1)), its loose fit allows the
garment to cover large range of sizes and it’s easily adaptable to different body shapes.
4. Conclusions
1. Zero waste design is a new way of thinking about the possibilities of the fashion design
industry, it offers new opportunities to develop design ideas.
2. Make/Use Platform allows to discover, approach and successfully presents patterns for
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7th International Conference on Intelligent Textiles & Mass Customisation (ITMC 2019) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 827 (2020) 012047 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/827/1/012047
interested users. It’s a good source to get familiar to zero waste clothing pattern making.
3. The practical part of research - the coat prototype - uncovered a lot of positive qualities and
reached objectives, for example zero waste result.
4. Understanding Make/Use platform application can help understand how to incorporate such
techniques and methods into production that drives industry closer to the aim of the
prevention of waste. Further studies should be made.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding by Riga Technical university grant, Latvia, PVS ID
3926.
References
[1] Ashby M F 2015, Materials and Sustainable Development, Butterworth Heinemann p.312
[2] Climate Works Foundation Quantis 2018 Measuring Fashion: Insights from the Environmental
Impact of the Global Apparel and Footwear Industries study p.7
[3] Hayes S, McLoughlin J and Fairclough D Cooklin's 2012 Garment Technology for Fashion
Designers 2nd edition, UK: A John Wiley and Sons, Ltd. p,210
[4] Gertsakis J and Lewis H 2003 Sustainability and the Waste Management Hierarchy: a discussion
paper on the waste management hierarchy and its relationship to sustainability. RMIT
University, Melbourne, pp.1-15.
[5] TED, The Textile Environment Design The Ten, [online] [01.03.2019]. Available at:
http://www.tedresearch.net/teds-ten/.
[6] Timo Rissanen H M 2015 Zero waste fashion design, London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc p.
224.
[7] Make/Use research project led by Holly McQuillan, [online] [03.03.2019]. Available at:
makeuse.nz.
[8] McQuillan H, Archer-Martin J, Menzies G, Bailey J, Kane K and Fox Derwin E 2018 Make/Use:
a system for open source, user-modifiable, zero waste fashion practice. Fashion Practice,
10(1), pp.7-33.
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