Laser Cut Clothing (moved)

Lindsay's Slide

Lindsay's Final Reflection

Originally I wanted to make a human hamster wheel but Mr. D said no. So he and I began to brainstorm topics that would require less resources. I went on Pinterest, Instagram, and every website you could think of and I found no interest in any of it. Until I came across laser cut fashion...  When I first saw it I was like wow this is pretty cool. Little did I know about a month later I would have laser cut five shirts, sewn a skirt, and made a key ring sample of all my etches. At first I had no idea what I was doing at all whatsoever. My first experiments were cutting shirts and I did catch a few shirts on fire, however, I got it under control. Throughout the trial and error process, I learned that I am good with controlling the settings and using the laser cutter. Although I really did not know what to do with the laser cutter, or how to use it in general, I figured out and learned how to etch and cut really cool and intricate designs. My partner Lizzie, was great at making designs and managing the fires I would accidentally set. For our final project, we made a key ring sample with all of materials with an etch design, and also a skirt that we etched on. Overall, I am really happy with how our final products turned out and with our effort we put forth during this project.

After creating designs and examples, Mr.D gave us feedback and showed us some websites to use and then he helped us with our inks cape model.

We are first starting off by laser cutting a piece of cardboard to see how our designs look. We are also starting off with an experimental piece because we need to see what settings to use, how it looks, and what modifications we need to make. 

Link: http://www.instructables.com/id/Laser-Cut-Shirt/

here is our second drawing as we get ready to laser cut a shirt shaped piece of cardboard and test our design. We tried to simulate a design on a shirt. We drew numerous designs that Mr. D gave us feedback on. The ones that work are the circles, lines, diamonds, and rectangles. 

Here is our cardboard prototype. We tried out different designs to see how they looked laser cut. 

Reflecting on our cardboard piece, I think we created some great designs that we will use in the future. Our favorites are the stars, rectangles, polygons, and diamonds. Our next design printed on cloth will be stars. We learned what settings we needed and how to focus the laser cutter. 

This is our first shirt cut from cloth! It looks great! We learned that we must turn on the air exhaust. The stars look great however, we are going to change our settings so we do not leave burn marks on the shirt. 

This is our second prototype. We decided to try more designs. We discovered that the star design does not work well because the corners fold. We would like to retry the circles and polygons. Also we can not use tape underneath the laser because it creates a fire. We burned the shirt again, we are going to try different settings again. 

This was our third attempt. In these cuts, we tried to center it, but auto and manual focus did not work. Mr. D is going to teach us a new laser technique so we can have our design centered. We like our designs, but want to center it. Also, we are also going to stop printing on white shirts because the laser burns white shirts. 

While preparing for our laser cut, we measured out the length and width of the shirt, so our cut will be centered. Mr. D recommends making measurements because it would more accurately center our design. 

Our print was successful! Claire tried it on and it looked great! We are going to continue to come up with designs and new prints. 

Our design is a success!!! We had Madison model for us. We are going to create new designs to print now that we know how to center our designs. Our next steps will be to create a revolutionary design or way to print designs. Next class, we will come in with new design and will print at least 3 shirts. 

First, we measured out our fabric according to the design package. We decided to use suede material and make a wrap skirt. 

Secondly, we measured and pinned our fabric to the design and learned how to properly cut, measure, and stretch the fabric. 

Third, we cut the fabric and individually cut each piece. 

Lastly, we sewed it all together. We are not completely done with the sewing because we are laser cutting parts of the skirt. After we laser cut, we are going to hem the skirt and create our final product on a new skirt with different material. 

During our last class, we drew "model sketches" to show where we want to cut and etch. We learned that when you etch suede, it creates a golden color that looks really cool. 

This is our final cut/etch. For our final product, we decided to cut instead of etch because we are going to the layer the fabric with different colors so the cuts reveal another layer or style. We have now perfected the settings for suede and have mastery on how to use the laser cutter.  

We tried another design on the blue fabric and when we etched, the fabric turned gold. We really like this design and the colors of the fabric. 

This is our final tester with this fabric. Although it looks cool, we decided we are not going to use this material because it would be uncomfortable to wear as clothing.  

We tried a new design to see if we would like this on our final project. We made the lines too thin and did the settings incorrectly. We will try this design again because we like its concept. 

Today, we tried to print onto our final skirt. It did not work. The settings were messed up and instead of the original color, it gave a brown color when we etched it. 

Here is our final skirt pieces... We decided to change our final project to small samples of every material we used. We also decided to use our favorite design that worked successfully on our suede skirt. 

 This is our final. We worked very hard to achieve what we have. I am also satisfied with our final results. Mr. D recommended that we use a sample key ring. Which turned out to look very good! We went through many shirts and trials to get what we have today... Throughout this unit we have learned to use the laser cutter efficiently and in the right way. We only caught a few shirts on fire in the beginning...But now that we know the setting for each kind of material, we do not set any more fires. I am really happy I chose this project because I became very interested about fashion through the fab lab. I was interested before, but know I know how some of my clothes are made.  

Also, here is our skirt!!!

Lindsay's Slide

Lindsay's Final Reflection

Originally I wanted to make a human hamster wheel but Mr. D said no. So he and I began to brainstorm topics that would require less resources. I went on Pinterest, Instagram, and every website you could think of and I found no interest in any of it. Until I came across laser cut fashion...  When I first saw it I was like wow this is pretty cool. Little did I know about a month later I would have laser cut five shirts, sewn a skirt, and made a key ring sample of all my etches. At first I had no idea what I was doing at all whatsoever. My first experiments were cutting shirts and I did catch a few shirts on fire, however, I got it under control. Throughout the trial and error process, I learned that I am good with controlling the settings and using the laser cutter. Although I really did not know what to do with the laser cutter, or how to use it in general, I figured out and learned how to etch and cut really cool and intricate designs. My partner Lizzie, was great at making designs and managing the fires I would accidentally set. For our final project, we made a key ring sample with all of materials with an etch design, and also a skirt that we etched on. Overall, I am really happy with how our final products turned out and with our effort we put forth during this project.