Assignment 2 – Push/Pull Part 1

For this Push/Pull project, I knew that I was entering into unfamiliar territory, being introduced to using a sewing machine and to hand sewing. For this reason, I wanted to focus my time and energy on shapes that wouldn’t require advanced sewing prowess. The first inflatable I decided to make was a pentagonal cylinder with a cylindrical hole in the center. I chose this shape because I had been interested in the technical skills required to create an inflatable with a hole. This was challenging because I had sewn the inside cylinder on the wrong way twice, making un-sewing and re-sewing an entirely difficult and unnecessary part of the process. As a result, much of the stitching is too visible from the outside. I also encountered some difficulty using the sewing machine to sew together the light, almost plastic-like yellow material with the denser fabric with the silver leaves, but that was easily fixable after slowly growing more accustomed to using the machine.

Although I encountered the most difficulty with this shape, it was a great starting inflatable for me to quickly learn how to use a sewing machine and hand stitching using the ladder technique.

 

 

 

For my second inflatable, I chose a simpler design to work with, using simply-shaped cutouts. I thought creating a cube would be unchallenging, coming off of my first inflatable, so I used two squares, eight identical triangles, as well as four quadrilaterals. From the side, you can see that the object takes on the shape of a drum. Personally, after making the object, I felt that it was too simple, and the process of making it didn’t feel very challenging.

 

 

 

The last inflatable that I made came from my favorite design, a cylindrical heart with a connecting upside-down heart in the middle. I especially liked this design because of the fabrics that I chose for the inside heart and outside heart. This time, while creating the middle heart, I had a much easier time than I did with the first inflatable I created. However, one difficulty I faced was getting the heart shape to come out clearly as a heart rather than just another cylindrical hole. Although one side came out nicely, the other side is difficult to interpret as a heart. I’m also prouder of the hand stitch job that I executed with this inflatable.