Lesson video

Hello, my name's Mrs. Taylor, and thank you for joining me for our lesson today.

The lesson is "Sustainable Fabrics for Wearable Technology." And this is part of the "Functional Prototypes: Wearable Technology" unit.

The outcome, "I can select and justify material choices and fabrication techniques for a wearable technology product." There are four keywords.

Fabricate, which is to join materials together.

Bonding, which is joining things securely with adhesive, heat, or pressure.

Synthetic, which is manufactured, not naturally occurring.

And natural, everything in the world not made by humans.

There are two parts to the lesson, fabric materials and fabricating fabrics.

Let's begin with fabric materials.

Fabrics may be from natural sources or synthetic.

Natural sources include cotton, silk, and wool.

Synthetic examples are polyester, nylon, and elastane.

Can you think of any more natural or synthetic fabrics? Here we have a check for understanding.

Which fabric is not natural.

Is it A, cotton, B, silk, or C, polyester? Pause the video and have a go.

Wonderful.

Let's check.

That's right, it's C, polyester.

Well done.

Fabrics can further be categorised by the manufacturing method.

Knitted.

Knitted fabrics are created by looping yarns together.

Jersey fabric is an example.

Woven.

Woven fabrics are created by crossing two sets of yarns at right angles.

Cotton calico is an example.

And non-woven.

Non-woven fabrics are created by felting or bonding fibres.

Acrylic felt is an example.

Examples of fabrics.

Acrylic felt, woven, polyester mesh, and woven cotton.

Here we have a check for understanding.

Which examples are woven fabrics? Is it A, acrylic, B, polyester, or C, cotton? Pause the video and have a go.

Wonderful.

Let's check.

That's right.

It's B, polyester and C, cotton.

Well done.

We can choose to buy new fabrics, or a more sustainable option is to reuse existing fabrics.

Here we have some fabric samples.

In order to make a design decision about which would be suitable to use, we can test them.

Observations, manipulating, and cutting the fabric are examples of tests which will provide us with some information to make a design decision.

Here we have Task A.

Using a collection of fabric samples, conduct the following tests and record your findings.

The first part is to observe the fabric samples.

What do they look like? Are they woven, non-woven, or knitted? The second part is to manipulate the fabric samples.

How do they feel? Can they be stretched? Do they fray? And the third part is to cut the fabric samples.

Which ones are easy and which ones more difficult? And Part 4, choose a suitable fabric for your design and explain why.

Pause the video.

Wonderful.

Let's have a look at some of the answers you may have come up with.

Andeep says, for Part 1, when observing the fabric samples that the denim looks like it has two colours, the fibres look like they twist.

And Laura says, "The wadding is fluffy and does not lie flat like the other samples." For Part 2, when manipulating the fabric samples, Andeep says, "The denim is very stiff and thick.

The felt was soft but not stretchy." And Laura says, "The ripstop nylon was very noisy when I scrunched it up in my hand." For Part 3, cutting the fabric samples, Andeep says, "The denim was really difficult to cut with scissors." And Laura says, "The ripstop nylon was easy to cut in a straight line and did not fray." For Part 4, which is to choose a suitable fabric for your design and explain why, Andeep explains his design decision.

"I have chosen the orange polyester mesh for my design.

It is a bright colour, so will be noticeable and help to keep children safe when in the dark.

The polyester mesh does not fray and is also a little bit stretchy, which means it will be more durable as the child uses it." Well done.

We're now going to move to the second part of the lesson, fabricating fabrics.

To fabricate means to join materials together.

We can join fabrics using different methods, stitching, mechanical fixings, or adhesives.

Stitching, using hand or sewing machine to join fabric together with thread.

Mechanical fixing or using mechanical fixings such as buttons or zips to create a join.

Or using adhesives to bond fabrics together.

Here we have a check for understanding.

Which fabrication technique is an example of bonding.

Is it A, adhesives, B, stitching, or C, mechanical fixings? Pause the video and have a go.

Fantastic.

Let's check.

That's right.

It's A, adhesives.

Well done.

Stitching can be by hand with a needle and thread.

An advantage of this is that you don't need any specialist machinery or equipment.

But it is slower and can be hard to achieve an accurate finish with uniform stitches.

Machine sewing is quicker once you have the equipment set up and have been trained.

The stitches are uniform and the quality is high.

There are different types of stitches which suit different materials and designs.

For example, running stitch, overstitch, backstitch, blanket stitch, or zigzag.

Here we have a check for understanding.

What advantage does machine sewing have compared to hand sewing? Is it A, quicker, B, uniform stitches, or C, expensive equipment? Pause the video and have a go.

Fantastic.

Let's check.

That's right.

It's both A and B.

It is quicker and it also allows for uniform stitches.

Well done.

Mechanical fixings are useful with fabrics as they offer a method of fixing, which can be semi-permanent, meaning it can be opened.

Examples include hook and loop, press stud, or a button.

We can test different fabrication techniques and use this information to justify our design decisions.

For example, Laura says, "I want to test the hook and loop.

I think it will be easy to stitch onto my fabric and will make putting the wearable device on and off easy for young children." Andeep says, "I want to test machine sewing two pieces of my fabric together, and test both a straight stitch and a zigzag.

The zigzag looks more interesting, but I don't know if it will be strong enough." We now have Task B.

Part 1 is to choose three fabrication methods to test.

And Part 2 is to test the three fabrication methods.

Part 3, describe the results.

And Part 4, explain which method you have chosen and justify this decision.

Pause the video and have a go.

Wonderful.

Let's have a look at some of the answers you may have come up with.

For Part 1, you might have said, "I chose to test stitching.

Running stitch, both on the same machine and by hand, and machine zigzag stitching." And Part 3, describe the results of the test that you can conducted in Part 2.

"The hand stitching was easy and quick to complete, but it was difficult to make sure the running stitch stayed straight.

The machine stitching was easier to control as there are guides on the machine to put the edge of the fabric against." And Part 4, "I have chosen to join my two pieces of fabric together using a machine straight stitch.

This is accurate and uniform and can be controlled to be in a straight line, which ensures the product will be of good quality." Well done.

Here we have a summary of our learning today.

Fabrics can be categorised as natural or synthetic.

They can further be categorised by the process by which they are created, woven, non-woven, and knitted.

Fabrics can be fabricated by stitching, adhesives, or mechanical fixings.

Testing different materials and fabrication techniques can help to make informed and justified design decisions.

I'm really pleased you could join me for this lesson today.

Thank you very much and well done.