Juried Design Scholarship

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Xepoleas, Lynda M. and Denise N. Green. (2020) “Collision”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 77(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.12223 

*Recipient of the 2020 ITAA Sustainability Award for Design Scholarship–Graduate Level

Collision explores the potential for apparel computer aided design software to optimize the upcycling of pre-consumer textile waste—excess fiber, yarn, or fabric generated during the manufacturing of apparel (Hawley, 2006). According to MacQuillen (2011) standard production methods only use about 85% of the fabric bolt, while the other 15% is left on the cutting floor. Compared to the upcycling of second-hand clothing, pre-consumer textile waste is quite easy to upcycle because of the volume produced and the consistency of the size or shape of each cut-off. Collision made use of pre-consumer textile waste collected from cut and sew facilities located in Bengaluru, India. Once it was determined how much yardage had been collected, an appropriate trend projected by WGSN for S/S 21 that matched the color story of the textile waste was selected. The patterns for Collision were then drafted manually and digitized using the apparel computer aided design software, EFI Optitex. Afterwards, the dimensions of each cut-off were superimposed on top of the digitized pattern pieces to determine how the textile waste should be orientated in order to optimize each cut-off.  Each pattern piece was then cut and assembled using french seams and pick stitching for the neckline and hem.