CLEΘTETRΔ
Final project 3
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Interview
{In the making of}
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CLEOTETRA
In Space/Materiality, students were to create a garment that turned inside out to a bag, that is inspired by one of the polyhedron shapes and also includes a zipper as a part of the design. Yunsun Lee created a raincoat using vinyl from a shower curtain, that turns into a backpack, by connecting zippers on the sides of the coat. She was inspired by the see-through aspect of the vinyl that represents the outer space as protection and the skin and the inner side as an organ that holds everything together.
1. How did deconstructing the garment/bag help you understand dimension and designing for you body?
It helped me to understand the importance of extra 5/8 inch border around the actual size and how that makes the seam much more finished look. It also helped me to see the different patterns for the bag that I deconstructed. I deconstructed a small tote bag, which was eventually useful because some of the elements such as the straps were used for my backpack.
2. How did drawing assist with your design process? Which steps involved drawing?
For this project, I feel that the drawings were not as useful as the other projects because the 3D model (mini-me) was more effective in understanding the full pattern and connection. I also made another Mini-me because it turned out to be very useful! It aided me in understanding the transformative part of the raincoat to a totebag, which I changed to a backpack later on.
3. How did your design change over time?
My design changed in terms of the placement of the polyhedron. I was going to make a tetrahedron backpack but I realized that It would not fit the coat inside. Also, Initially I was going to make a tote bag half the size of the back of the rain coat but I realized that it would not work because of the side seams of the coat, so I changed it to a backpack.
4. Did your project came out the way you intended? How? Or how is it different from what you expected and why did this happen?
I thought I was going to make triangles and cut it out and stitch them together to make the coat but I realized that it was hard to make the overall structure so I made a pattern for the coat instead.
5. Which new tools and equipment did you use for this project?
I used the sewing machine the first time and learned how to sew! Vinyl was also a new material. Basically all of the materials used for this project was new to me.
6. Which tools were used for a previous project but you were able to apply knowledge to this project?
For the headpiece, I used the awl and sewing machine to make holes so I could connect the plastic sheets with wire. It was kind of similar in terms of connecting like
I guess the plastic side of the vinyl because I used plastic for all my projects
7.What materials were new to you?
All the materials were new to me for this project.
Vinyl, thread, holographic sheet,
8. What did you learn materials and how did they relate to each other through this project?
I tried to connect this project with my other projects as well, trying to use plastic. My project as it goes on, follows a descending order of the density of plastic that I used. Project 1 I used plexiglass, Project 2 I used plastic sheet and for this I used Vinyl. They also related because I reformed and took materials and elements from other existing products such as an umbrella and for this project I used the shower curtain for vinyl. I also learned that the thinner vinyl works much better than the thicker, and it works better on the machine too. I later figured out that the plastic footer works much better than the metal one! but I only figured it out at the end…
9.What was the easiest part of this project? The most enjoyable? The most challenging?
The most challenging was figuring out the sewing machine and sewing the sleeves together. I should have made the sleeves less curvy because I realized that vinyl gets big creases instead of softly curving on the seam like other materials. It was hard because it was my first time sewing and the first material I used was vinyl– very rigid and hard to correct the mistakes due to permanent leave of holes.
10. What did you learn most about yourself through doing this project?
That I actually really enjoyed using the sewing machine although it gave me a tremendous amount of time, stress and effort to figure it out. However, once I got used to it, it got really addictive!!! I might even do fashion 😀
DESIGN PROCESS
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How did you start?
1. In class we made an armature of a garment that we chose in groups, using strips of bristol boards
2. We deconstructed our garment/ bag and took down the pattern with 5/8 seam allowance
3. We drew our 9 Head to toe drawing of our transformative design and made a mini-me
Actual making of Cleotetra
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Purchased Shower curtain
Pattern of the front jacket
Because I only took note of the pattern from the Liquiteria tote bag, I was unsure how the garment actually worked as it was my first ever attempt to make a garment. So I took the pattern from my coat but did not deconstruct. It was not a very precise method, which I kind of got aggravated because it was hard to take the garment down on paper for different sections ie. arm sleeve, hood
I also purchased a holographic sheet to add on to my vinyl, because without a colored outer shell, the vinyl would not have been so visible, and I wanted to show the clear aspect of vinyl as a juxtaposition to an opaque side. I also found out the perfect method to stick the sheet on to vinyl after several failures with multifarious air bubbles. But I only found out towards the end…
Learning which part to sew first & the making of a hood
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POLYHEDRON
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For the polyhedron, I chose to include tetrahedron, which initially was supposed to be just on the bag but I wanted to include it on the garment as well, which I ultimately came up with the idea of quilting. Please note that this was my first time ever using the sewing machine!
* I got a little excited about the project coming together
I didn’t know how to quilt so I drew the pattern of the tetrahedron on a tissue paper and taped the vinyl onto it while I sewed it on the machine. The method was very effective!
Making of the bag
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Trial Back view
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Trial Side view
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Measuring length of the straps
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Horrendous sewing
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Terrible sewing
I was initially going to make a tote bag but later realized that I had to change my design because the coat did not flip completely from inside out as I imagined. Thus, I had to remove the side stitching that connects the front and back pattern of the coat, and insert a zipper there. Unfortunately I could not document the zipper part but the video below shows the general idea. Also, I have included tetrahedron on the bag, also using the quilting method. I had to remake the straps because as it is shown above, my first attempt was horrible! It was very difficult to control the thin strap of vinyl on the machine and sewing on the edge of the strap.
Final snapshots
Your project is so well made and so detailed, I don’t know how you could have gotten it all done!! You put so much thought and work into the design of it and it really shows. It looks super professional and unique.