Fabric Construction

A8: Fabric Construction | HCDE 451 | Aut 2019

Nanda
Nanda
Nov 4 · 3 min read

The Assignment

This assignment was an exploration of how to work with fabric construction to create prototypes for wearables, bags, and more. We were tasked to work with simple materials, such as thread and muslin fabric to create a piece that can hold something. We had to use the sewing machine to complete the sewing for this and also needed to include a closing mechanism.

I saw a need for a pouch to hold my headphones and charging cables. Currently, I have them all in one bag and they frequently get tangled.

Sketching

For this prototype, I needed to keep in mind three things:

  1. Size of the wire that I’m going to place in the pouch.
  2. What kind of closing mechanism would be the most convenient?
  3. Sewing efficiency — reducing the amount of thread I have to use.

My sketch took several iterations, but my final design incorporates a folded closing method to decrease the number of snags my wires might get tangled up in.

Prototyping

I created smaller prototypes to make sure that my closing method worked, and to get used to sewing small hems. I wanted to use denim instead of muslin to make my final product look polished, and recycle cloth that was already unusable.

It took several tries to get the folds and seams just right, and I came up with this final step by step sewing process to achieve my final prototype.

  1. Cut a rectangular piece of cloth a little wider than the width you want your final pouch to be.
  1. Fold the bottom up and sew the two sides. Trim bottom corners to avoid bunching and to create a flat corner seam.
  1. Flip inside out.
  1. Iron the creases created by the initial sew.
  1. Trim the top, fold over, and sew.

Creating the Final

The final prototype was a much larger piece to hold larger wires, such as my iPhone or iPad chargers. I made this with the bottom piece of the denim so that the hem of the pant can be the folded closing area.

Feedback and Improvement

One piece of feedback that I got from peers in my class was that it would be nice to hem the edges of the smaller pouches so that they wouldn’t fray and be a little sturdier. I also got feedback that the pouch itself was a little shallow to fit a larger adapter, such as my Macbook charger. the fabric allows for some stretch, but putting a larger charger in the pouch would deform it.

Nanda

Written by

Nanda

Student at the University of Washington, c/o 2020

Tangible Designs and UX Prototyping

My process blog for HCDE 451, UX Prototyping. Autumn 2019, University of Washington.

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