New Weaving - Textile recycling pattern for interlocking pieces
Instruction
This is a project where old clothing and other fabrics can be recycled. Using laser technology, the fabrics are cut into special pieces that can easily be assembled together. This allows the creation of larger fabric sheets that can be used for new clothing designs. Each piece creates a unique pattern, telling the story of its previous use, while crafting something new and contributing to sustainability. There are nearly no limits to size and creativity.
The puzzle piece developed is sized in such a way that even smaller dismantled clothing items can be efficiently used. Of course, you are free to scale the design as needed.
I have tested many different fabrics, and the best results were achieved with material compositions ranging from 100% polyester to 60% polyester + 40% cotton. I used former workwear, which was mainly composed of a 70% polyester + 30% cotton blend.
This work only with woven fabrics.
Each fabric reacts a little differently, so you’ll need to experiment. Have fun!
Prepare fabric pieces
- cut off all the seems
- iron it flat
- sort it by type
The fabric has to be as flat as possible. So I fixed it with tape on a 4mm wooden plate. You can use what you want from HDF to aluminium.
Measure your fabric piece and position the pattern as needed.
As any fabric reacts a little bit differently, you should do some tests on the material, until you like the result.
If you are processing different fabrics only time by time it might take a little before you have a sufficient collection to assemble. But don't worry … it's a process!! Maybe ask your friends for old cloths to fasten up the collection.
If there is enough material, free your creativity to combine your unique patterns, invite your friends to enjoy and make a social happening out of this creation process.
To make one piece that is capable to create new clothes you need to combine the assembled pieces with a iron-on fleece on the back side. Iron it good and let it cool down before you begin to sew it.
Finally you can create your design. If the lasercutter you use is big and strong enough, you can cut entire pieces out of the new created fabric as I did, but its also possible to work with any craft work method for textiles that existed befor laser technology ;).
Have fun and please share your final designs.