3. Circular fashion - The Mousharabieh Veil

ASSIGNMENT WEEK3

1. Design and prototype with paper and scissors modular configurations and locking connections. Document the paper prototypes
2. Run tests of laser cutting of your designs in fabric and document the parameters for the chosen fabric.
3. Design and Document the process.
4. Laser cut the modules. Create a modular or seamless garment, showing that the connection is well designed and holds the pull/stretch of a garment. Document the assembly process and tests.
5. Upload the open source file in pdf, in correct scale with 1-5 pictures at (https://oscircularfashion.com) (preferably in white background)
6. EXTRA POINT Submit some of the modules to the analog or digital material library of the lab. (20cm *20cm aprox)

The files for cutting the units of the mousharabieh can be found in the following link : Cutting units of the mousharabieh

Inspirations for the Mousharabieh Veil

My inspirations for this design come from my cultural background, growing up in morocco, we always had a mousharabieh wall in our home. I love these patterns as they represent a mixte of intimacy and privacy.

I was inspired to design a veil with a mousharabieh pattern.

My First drawings are:

First drawing	Iteration on the drawing with possible connectors

Paper prototyping

The first paper prototypes I made to reproduce the mousharabieh pattern are:

Paper prototypes	Connectors Design

After trying paper prototypes, I realized that the size was too big and that the connectors were not solid enough. I iterated on the design with the following choices :

Iterating on the Design	Testing the connectors and size with foam

Choosing the material

I made a choice of 4 possible material to cut, linen, cotton, wool and leather.

Mix of wool linen cotton and leather	Image 2

Designing the units on Fusin360

I used the drawing feature on Fusion360 and draw the lines that delimited my units. I chose to reproduce the size that I prototyped with foam, with the length of each edge being 2cm.

The unit	The connectors

I then exported it into DXF format that I could open in CorelDRAW

Cutting the units

I started experimenting the cutting on those materials. I set up my laser cutter Epilog Laser Fusion CO2 75 watt. I opened the exhaust system. I set up the Z-height and XY homing (see previous assignments for details on these).

I opened CorelDRAX with my DFX file and started cutting one unit on each material.

The Parameters of the cutting for leather that I found allow an accurate cutting only when cutting multiple times (3 times): 1. speed = 15% 2. power = 100% 3. Frequence = 50%

The Parameters of the cutting for the linen, cotton and wool fabrics are the same. After multiple trials of lowering the speed and increasing the power, I found that these parameters allow an accurate cutting: 1. speed = 50% 2. power = 35% 3. Frequence = 50%

Experiments on leather	Experiments on fabric

I disgarded the brown "wool-like" material because it released fumes that felt toxic. I also disgarded the leather because it was too heavy for the other fabrics and would destroy the connectors with its weight. I focused on both the linen and cotton fabrics.

On CorelDRAW I duplicated the units to cut multiple ones at the same time:

Duplicating the units	laser cutter parameters

I first cut the linen fabric, which was beautiful, but also appeared quite fragile to assemble:

Assembling the linen fabric	additional photos

I then cut the cotton fabric, and that was much more solid, and also beautiful to mix with the linen.

I started assembling the whole which I illustrated in the video hereafter.

The project PDF was uploaded into : Mousharabieh Veil

A full video on the whole making process can be found here :

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Last update: 2021-12-17