FUNKY TOWER

We made regular 2-level and 3-level towers last week, which is a good preparation for the funky tower. As a result, building a funky tower in paper is not hard. Actually, I find it easier and more interesting to make a funky tower because it’s irregular. However, it’s not that easy to sew it in fabric because it’s not that easy for me to line up all the points and notches.

I began with the lowest level.

To make it funky, I tried to avoid right angle and too sharp angle on the flat.

The edge along the side must be perpendicular to the edge of the flat, and edges that intersect at the same corner must be of the same length.

The bottom part is 1” high, and some space should be saved for joining together later beside the bottom part.

Cut out the piece for the next layer atop of it.

After I stuck together each side of the layer, I found that they were not perfectly fitted in the part that was cut out, so I did some adjustment to make it fit in. Maybe it would be easier to start from the top level.

Then flatten the 3D pattern to 2D pattern by cutting it from corner to corner.

Transfer to pattern paper with all marks, and add 1/2” seam allowance.

Copy to muslin with marks.

This step troubled me a lot because I failed to make accurate line so I redid it so it took a long time to transfer the pattern onto muslin.

Cut notches along edges, and pin it on each corner, and cut some corners to line up.

I redid some stitches because they were not lined up on both sides.

It’s time to do the final funky tower in the fabric of my choice, which I find out harder than doing it in muslin. I follow the same step as I did in muslin one. The heavy cotton fabric is thicker so it’s harder to line up and sew together. Because of lack of experience, to control some of the industrial sewing machines is hard and they are too fast. So I need more practice in the industrial machine. And I think sometimes it’s hard to line up because of inaccuracy of copying pattern onto the fabric.Building towers from the most basic one to the final funky one is a good learning process in making pattern and using a sewing machine, and it develops our understanding of 2d and 3d transformation. This is a good start and we’ll be getting more and more confident.