3. Circular Open Source Fashion¶
References & Inspiration¶
The first reference you see below is a bag by Moschino for the 2025 Ready to Wear Spring/Summer Collection. I liked how the assembly is very rough around the edges. There is a lot of texture to it and it feels playful and a bit DIY.
I love simple stripe patterns that vary the scale and size, like this bag by Balenciaga in 2016.
Zero Waste Systems
This documetary follows Amy Powney, fashion desginer at Mother of Pearl, as she attempts to reduce the massive carbon footprint required to source, ship and build a fashion label.
🎥 Watch the Trailer: Fashion Reimagined (2023)¶
Research & Ideation¶
I started this week by doing a few paper mock ups of how you could change the pattern of lines by folding them in different ways.
I'm especially interested in pattern and geometry so I thought this would be a fun exercise to play with scale and proportion.
You can see my tests below:
 Folding Horizontally |
[ Folding Vertically |
[ Paper Bag Test] |
 Folding Horizontally |
 Folding Vertically |
 Folding Vertically |
Process and workflow¶
The first thing I did was scout for fabric. I knew it needed to have a grid. I also wanted something that would work with the laser.
The material I landed on was 50 percent polyester and 50 percent wool. When I tried a match test it burned slightly but extinguished quickly and seemed to melt at the edge which was a good sign.
In the lab, with my material purchased, I then cut a test strip to the length of my laser bed (29" long x 1.5" tall).
I measured my pattern and drew it up in CAD, placing marks at the edges of the pattern transition to get a sense of which cutting position would line up best with the pattern.
For example I varied the longer maroon blocks of pattern in one side at 3-1/8" and 3-1/16". Over long stretches even 1/16" could skew the cutting for my pattern so I wanted to figure out the best measurement because it was to hard know otherwise.
- The green lines are how the fabric's existing pattern is laid out.
- The red line is the cut material border. I had to center the red line on the green line pattern to make sure the cut material would also have a centred pattern.
- The pink lines indicate the laser bed and its centre line.
- The deep blue lines are were I would slightly mark the fabric to help it bend but not cut all the way through.
- The yellow lines are cut though lines. These are where I would sash the pattern together.
The light blue lines are dimensions.
What's great about building my files in CAD is that I can leave all the lines in my final .DFX if I like and tell the laser what to do for certain colours - dark blue and yellow in this case.
For this project I used a Power of 50% for the cut lines and a speed of 2,25%. The mark lines were also at Power of 50% with a speed of 10. Next time I would go even slower or reduce the power slightly because they are a little too deep but nothing cut all the way through so I was happy with that.
Assembly¶
Below you can see how I attached all my peices together.
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Since the bag was cut as all one piece, I folded in the edges like a box.
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I had to cut small flaps for the sides of the bag. The length is the xact width of the side, minus the flaps, which were 1". At this size the flaps felt secure and don't pull out easily.
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I also cut long strips with flaps on the end. These pieces act as sash so I can cinch the bag in different ways. The can also double as the handles.
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The handles can be manipulated into both backpack style or a tote bag style.
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[ Paper Bag Test] |
Fabrication files¶
Below you can find the three seperate AutoCad project files - the overall bag with female slots - the side tabs with male tabs - the strings/ sash with male tabs