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3. Circular Open Source Fashion

Dragon Scales & The Knitted Net Saga

Hey fashion fam! Welcome to my Week 3 documentation, where I embarked on an adventure to create a two-part modular dress using eco-friendly materials and a whole lot of patience. The top is inspired by dragon scales made from felt and velvet scraps, while the bottom uses a knitting-inspired technique that creates a net-like effect, all without a sewing machine! Let’s break it down step by step, because this was quite the ride.

Throughout this process, I’ll be attaching photos of my sketches, prototypes, and final model so you can see exactly how things evolved from concept to reality!

Research & Ideation (aka ‘Let’s Google Everything!)

I went all in on researching modular circular patterns and the endless possibilities they offer. The idea of creating something modular, flexible, and eco-friendly really hooked me. It’s like fashion Lego—you take a single piece and transform it into various forms and functions!

Then I stumbled across these gorgeous network pattern dresses that completely blew my mind. I was amazed by how intricate these patterns could shape-shift and transform a garment. So naturally, I thought, Could I recreate this effect in my own design? I was determined to figure it out, and I’ll attach some inspiration images and sketches I made based on these ideas.

weekly assignment

Check out the weekly assignment here or login to your NuEval progress and evaluation page.

about your images..delete the tip!!

  1. Remember to credit/reference all your images to their authors. Open source helps us create change faster together, but we all deserve recognition for what we make, design, think, develop.

  2. remember to resize and optimize all your images. You will run out of space and the more data, the more servers, the more cooling systems and energy wasted :) make a choice at every image :)

This image is optimised in size with resolution 72 and passed through tinypng for final optimisation. Remove tips when you don't need them anymore!

get inspired!

Check out and research alumni pages to betetr understand how to document and get inspired

Add your fav alumni's pages as references

Sketching The Moment I Realized I’m Not Leonardo da Vinci

Once I had my idea in place, I started sketching out what I wanted. The top of my dress would feature this modular dragon scale pattern—structured but dynamic—while the bottom would incorporate a netted look, inspired by knitting but without any actual yarn.

• Initial Sketches: Before I went digital, I did a lot of paper-and-scissors experimenting to understand how these modular joints could work. I’ll attach some quick sketches and cut-outs from this phase to give you a feel for the trial and error process.

• Prototyping the Top in Fusion 360: After my rough sketches, I jumped into Fusion 360 to work out the joint design for the top. It took me several rounds of trial and error to align the horizontal and vertical joints perfectly. The goal was to have them overlap smoothly for both functionality and aesthetics.

• Choosing the Fabric: After prototyping, it was time to find materials. I searched through the lab’s waste fabric and found some eco-friendly materials—felt for the top and a turquoise-blue velvet fabric for a mix of texture. I’ll show you the fabric swatches and pattern layouts that I was testing.

  • Two images side-by-side

describe what you see in this image describe what you see in this image


  • Image reference

centered image with credits/reference
  • Download reference

Links to reference files, PDF, booklets,

about your images..

  1. Remember to credit/reference all your images to their authors. Open source helps us create change faster together, but we all deserve recognition for what we make, design, think, develop.

  2. remember to resize and optimize all your images. You will run out of space and the more data, the more servers, the more cooling systems and energy wasted :) make a choice at every image :) This image is optimised in size with resolution 72 and passed through tinypng for final optimisation.

Tools

Prototyping This Is Where the Fun and Frustration Began

Here’s where things got real. I started by creating multiple paper prototypes to figure out the structure, which was tricky to perfect. I’ll attach photos of these paper mock-ups so you can see my early tests.

•   Testing Other Designs: At this point, I went back to the oscircularfashion.com website to check out other alumni’s projects. Testing their patterns helped me figure out what could work for my design. I’ll share the comparison photos between what I tested and what I finally developed on my own.
•   Netting Technique: For the bottom, I used a cutting technique that allows the fabric to stretch and create a net-like effect. I’ll attach close-up images of this part to show how even a 1mm difference in the cut made a huge impact. The challenge here was balancing the strength and visual effect of the net—it was either too fragile or stunningly perfect. No middle ground!

describe what you see in this image

Step

This module [^1] was obtained by..

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum."

Lights, Camera, Laser

Once I had everything prototyped and sketched, I moved into Rhino and Illustrator to finalize the top design. I set up the laser cutter for felt and velvet, adjusting the settings to avoid burning the edges while keeping the cuts precise. I’ll show you the machine settings and material tests that I used. Trust me, this part is where things can either go smoothly or terribly wrong, so patience is key!

Final Thoughts

Here are my top takeaways and what I’d recommend to anyone tackling a similar project:

Sketch first, prototype later: Don’t skip the sketching phase! I’ll attach my initial fashion sketches to show how much clearer the process became once I had a visual idea in place.


Pay attention to dimensions: When working with modular joints, even a millimeter can make a huge difference. I’ll show you side-by-side images of my failed and successful prototypes to highlight just how crucial this is.

 Learn from others: Don’t be afraid to explore existing designs. Testing someone else’s work helped me understand what I wanted for my own.

Take your time with the laser cutter: Rushing through settings will lead to wasted fabric. Do a few test cuts, as I did, and adjust from there. I’ll include my laser cutting settings and material notes for reference.

This model [^1] was obtained by..

The laser cut nesting [^2] was created using..

footnote fabrication files

Fabrication files are a necessary element for evaluation. You can add the fabrication files at the bottom of the page and simply link them as a footnote. This was your work stays organised and files will be all together at the bottom of the page. Footnotes are created using [ ^ 1 ] (without spaces, and referenced as you see at the last chapter of this page) You can reference the fabrication files to multiple places on your page as you see for footnote nr. 2 also present in the Gallery.

Assembly videos

learn how to add video of tutorials or time-lapse of the assembly, etc

From Vimeo

Dragon Scales oscircular fashion ### From Youtube --- --- ## Fabrication files [^1]: File: Modules [^2]: File: Laser cut sheets