#constrvct

Gift Guide 2014: Editor’s Picks

Here at Circuits & Cable Knit, we are not only about wearable technology and smart watches. There are a lot of other exciting things that technology brings into our life. We have selected some of our favorite things that your techie and non-techie friends alike will love to receive this holiday season. (more…)

Trending Now: Collaborative Textiles

By this I mean the emergence of several companies that share some common characteristics, namely:

a) they offer designs on fabrics b) the designs are selected from winning entries of competitions open to members c) competition participants vote for their favourite designs, and further raise the profile of the company by publicising this via social media d) prizes include getting the winning design…

Here are 10 things I like from the March 2013 issue of Real Living.

I’m a fan of multi-purpose furniture, and this sofa with storage space underneath gets my vote. Plus, it also unfolds out into a single guest bed. How cool is that!

This huge, comfy thing (I’m not sure what exactly to call it – a giant bean bag?) gets my two thumbs up too. It’s made from a patchwork of colourful rag rugs. It…

(via How close is custom printed fashion to the mainstream? | NEXT Berlin)

            Although glamorized, fashion design is a very technical process - not unlike coding a website! As we collect the first designs for our launch, we want to share with you the design process in a "Behind-the-Seams" three part blog series, beginning with the first step in fashion: pattern making.

Drafting is where pattern making starts.  A draft is a two dimensional layout of a three dimensional object.  Think of it as a blueprint for a garment. Most companies still draft by hand using sample measurements, but more tech savvy companies, like Constrvct, are venturing into digital, 3-D, pattern making.  Like pieces of a puzzle, paper pattern pieces are traced off of the draft.  Patterns (as shown from our studio below) are templates, for pieces of the garment, that are placed onto fabric to then be cut and sewn together.

Once a pattern piece is created it is then laid out and cut in muslin, an untreated cotton. Muslin is used because it is inexpensive and it mimics the properties of other cotton-based fabrics. 

The muslin pieces are then sewn together into a sample muslin garment. Here is the muslin from our first design! 

Continuum Fashion, originally known for their 3D printed shoes and bikini, is part fashion label, and part experimental design lab. Co-founder Mary Huang talks to us about revolutionizing the idea of bespoke fashion and designing software and platforms like CONSTRVCT and D.dress that enable crowd-sourced fashion design.