Author: claireyo@andrew.cmu.edu

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Independent Project

Independent project final blog post-Claire Yoon

Final documentation

Intended effects

My original intention for my final project was to create a reversible tote bag made from my personal clothing that I no longer wear and would have otherwise donated. By repurposing my clothing I wanted to attach meaning to the clothing during this process. As a design student a lot of the projects I create are client based projects where each design choice is carefully thought out and has intent behind it and so for this project I wanted to do something more whimsical and focus on just what I enjoy and like. On one side of the tote I planned on screen printing the word Eggalicious on one side of the tote with material from an unused tote bag and material from a trench coat on the other side. On the flipped side I designed a fake egg log documenting how many eggs I had over the course of three weeks to computer embroider on the side made from the tote bag and the trench coat fabric on the other side.

Initial iterations

Final design

Challenges

After creating my design and was setting up the file I ended up taking out the numbers that symbolized the dates on the calendar as already just setting up the file was taking up too much time and I had too many intricate elements on my design already. But after seeing the end result I think it actually looks better without the numbers as it might look too clustered considering the size of the design as well.

In order to use this tote bag for my repurposed tote bag I realized I needed to remove this screen printing from the fabric and I was able to remove it by first rubbing the fabric with nail polish remover and an iron and a wet cloth.

Unfortunately, I had to pivot from my original design as I tested positive for Covid and was not granted campus access a few days before the submission deadline for this project. Therefore I was not able to screen print my Eggalicious logo and hand sewed the entire tote as I did not have a sewing machine at home. For the sewing, I practiced back stitching as I have never properly hand sewn something before and tested out different thicknesses for the yarn. Also I made the egg log design into a pocket and used an iron for the folds and extra needles as pins when sewing. When hand sewing, I struggled the most with sewing the straps as the material was a lot thicker and I had to make smaller stitches.

  • Inside of the tote

Successes

Despite the unexpected change of plans for my project, I am overall pleased with how my tote turned out and enjoyed hand stitching. I wish I was able to present my work in person and get feedback on my design but I still happy that I got to finish the tote. In the future, once I get access to a sewing machine again I would like to sew in the trench coat fabric on the inside and still be able to screen print my Eggalicious logo. I think this was a really fun hands on project and a great way to familiarize myself with embroidery.

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Gallery Independent Project

Independent Project Proposal-Claire

Concept

The concept for my final project is to create a custom tote bag and an additional pouch (if I have extra time). I have always been interested in fashion and as a design student there has always been a desire to incorporate my own design into things I use daily. I plan to incorporate different pieces of fabric from clothes I don’t wear anymore and screen printed design on the other side with either hand embroidery or computerized embroidery for some added texture

Materials

Embroidery machine

Embroidery thread and needles

Sewing Machine and thread

Pieces of fabric

Circuit Machine

Screen printing materials

Timeline

Nov 23: Submit proposal

Nov 24 – 27: 

Sketch a rough draft of the tote design

Create a design to screen print on illustrator

Finalize and gather materials needed

Nov 28 – Dec 3: 

screen print the design

start sewing the tote together

Dec 4 – Dec 6: Add embroider details

Dec 8 – Dec 9: Finishing touches

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Encoded Cloth from the Future Gallery

Encoded Cloth Pt 4 Claire Yewon Susan

The process of conceptualizing and making this weaving is we first thought about our concept, which had to deal with nature and technology in the future. And we were leaning towards who prominent climate change will be in the future, and discussing different weather changes such as ocean rising and more wildfires, we were thinking of focusing this as our main topic. Then a team member thought about a plant called ___, which is a plant that can survive very harsh conditions and so were thinking of creating each leaf to represent on type of climate change. One representing ocean, one-surviving the harsh cold weather with good future clothing fabric, and lastly one resembling forest fires. In process of making our weaving, we first thought of using the plant, which had a base, and three leaves. And we thought each team member could each create their own leaf to symbolize the three different representations of nature as well as future of clothing fabric. And thus, after each member finished their pieces we gathered together and pieced together the entire display. 

We think what worked well was separating the pieces and each of us our individual creative spirit for the pieces, and we thought it worked well because each of us had so much to add and create with our own hands. We also that the dyed fabric we created the other day worked really well as the base, because it contained symbols of nature including the sun, leaves, fruit, etc..

In the future, we would like to add more leaves to the plant. For now, we made three leaves that each address a specialized function but we would like to add 4~5 leaves that deal with other functions in the future. The plant will have more diversity by having more leaves and would be able to survive better in harsh conditions. Also based on the feedback, we would like to have the plant fit more into the context by making it seem like it is growing out of the ground instead of being potted.

We enjoyed incorporating the sewing techniques we have learned over these past few weeks into this project and hope to continue using them for future projects as well.

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Encoded Cloth from the Future

Encoded Cloth Pt 3 Brainstorm-Claire, Yewon, Susan

Plant theme character from future 

Concept: 

In the future, climate change will have an increasing impact on the environment and in order to combat this we want to create a character that can survive in harsh environments (cold/hot weather, natural disasters). 

We want to make something that symbolizes nature and technology, and what better than having a character with a ‘cloth’ fitbit, glasses, green leaves around it, etc.

For the base, we want to have a felted ball, and then sew a covering on.

We also want to incorporate the pattern of green nature related symbols with our character (possibly as a handkerchief the character uses).

We want to create character that symbolize hope and survival in a harsh environment. In the future, we believe that many people would suffer from hunger and due to global warming, it would be very hard for people to survive. However, the character can symbolize survival in the environment. 

We can use red fabric as the hair, similar to wildfire, and the character sits on a sea of water (as though there are ice polars melting). 

They can have metallic wings (airplane – looking to symbolize future in technology like flying cars)

Materials 

  1. Wool for felting
  2. Foils 
  3. Glitters 
  4. Patterns we created 
Categories
Gallery Tapestry Weavings

Weaving in progress-Claire

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Tapestry Weavings

Weaving of interest-Claire Yoon

This weaving is called Aneurism and it was made by Terri Friedman. The materials used are wool, acrylic, cotton, hemp, jute, metallic fibers .The weaving resemble the disheveled elegance of the bright and busy Coogi sweaters popular in the 1990s. They are “unstable, uncertain, and unmonumental,” she explained—humble, fragile qualities that inspire Friedman. “The work does not strive for perfection in a traditional craft sense, but more for emotion and storytelling in an abstract way,” she said. The weaving is about 102 x 96 in and the weaving was made in 2018. This weaving is used as a wall hanging sculpture in a museum.