Stretching....it sounds simple....

I’m so glad I sat down and had a chat with Jeanne last week because she put me on the right track. I was just telling her how stuck I was and the problems I was having with my stretch idea. I was struggling because I wanted to stretch the fabric, but not when it was sewn or before it had been cut. Now that I think about it, it seems a little obvious but Jeanne suggested that I stretch the patterns when they were cut out. This set me on a good run and I started sourcing fabrics straight away. I went to Tessuti which looking back now may have been a bit of a waste because the first sew toile’s haven’t been very successful. In Thursday’s class I talked with Ricarda about the fibre’s and fabrics that I should be using. Basically I need something that has poor recovery. Looking at the Bonds singlet’s from the last entry I was going to need a rib structure, knits (although it depends what structure again), fibre’s like viscose, cotton, polyester etc.
I started by trying to weaken the fibre’s in the fabrics by boiling them. I put 10cmx10cm samples of each fabric in boiling water for five minutes. I was quite surprised that it didn’t affect the samples at all. Apart from being weaker when I tried to stretch the samples, nothing radical happened to the fabrics which left me rather underwhelmed.
Looking back at this experiment it was probably wasn’t going to do anything because the conditions weren’t extreme enough. So my next move is to put some of my samples into the washing machine on a high spin in hot water. Hopefully then I’ll see some major recovery issues with my samples!

These are the prototypes I have tried:
1. I’m told that this is a cotton fabric (courtesy of RMIT). I made up a basic long-sleeved top and then tried to stretch the pattern pieces by hand and used sand paper to try and damage the knit. It wasn’t ever tight fitting but it seems to have slumped back into place.


Before stretching (first sample)

After Stretching (First Sample)
2. I decided to test out my idea of stretching the fabric. So I shrunk the patterns by 70% on the photocopier and then tried to stretch the fabric in two different ways.
-The wool/modal blend was wrapped around a stretch machine that my Dad had in the shed. I’m not sure what it’s actually used for. I should have soaked the fabric in water first, it would have stretched more. When I sewed the garment up it basically was still at 70%.

The 70% pattern

Trying to stretch one of the 70% toiles over a size 8 mannequin

Left-Regular Right-70%

The Stretching machine

Stretching with the brick

-The wool/viscose blend didn’t work either. I soaked the fabric and created a hammock and used a brick to weigh the fabric down. Unfortunately the fabric has BRILLIANT recovery and didn’t do much!
3. The next blend I tried was a viscose/elastane. Instead of using the 70% patterns I decided to go with the stretch in the weft. In the previous trial I tried stretching the warp and weft, and the warp didn’t move an inch, so I decided go with the grain and shrink the length of the pattern. I did this on illustrator by scanning in the pattern, tracing it and then shrinking the length. I’ve just stretched the fabrics, haven’t sewn it together, but it seems to have stretched a bit more. Having said that the previous tests didn’t stretch, so I’m not sure that’s saying a whole lot.

Something that I am worried about is the design of the garments I want to produce. I don’t want a series of long-sleeved tops as my collection but it’s hard to design when you stick to the block. Ricarda and Adele suggested I move totally away from the block. When they said that the first thing that came to my mind was, well how am I going to get patterns to hand in? It’s stupid but old habbits die hard! The thought of moving away from the block or any patterns is completely foreign so I’m going to have to try and get over that. Eeeeee!

What next?
I want to try shrinking now, so I’m going to get close to my washing machine tonight! I’ve had a little chat with Diana and she gave me a few quick tips but hopefully I’ll get some more ideas when she emails me back.
I’m going to Sydney Road tomorrow to find some cheap, cheap, cheap fabrics! No more spending money on beautiful knits with beautiful recovery! Aaaaaggghhh!