Re-Innovate |sustainability|

After de-constructing my father's trousers, I moved on further to place my panels on another fabric to create a new marker block for my re-innovated garment to achieve minimum or zero wastage. I took a 7-year-old cotton bed-sheet (since my mother was going to give it my maid, therefore, I thought it would be the best option to use) to place my panel pieces which, eventually turned out to be an interesting exercise. I tried to do it twice or thrice to get the best placement with minimum waste.

After achieving the best placement, I traced my panels on the bed-sheet and cut out the new panels. Then I went to weight the wastage along with the cut-out panels separately to derive the total marker percentage. The panels weighed 204 grams and wastage weighed 42 grams therefore, the total wastage percentage was 17% that cannot be considered less or ignored! Until I was introduced to all such concepts, I never thought about this waste though, it was happening in front of my eyes, now being aware of the truth I feel it's important for everyone to understand this that where does all this waste eventually ends up or how much harm it does to our environment.

After this, I started to think about what to construct out of these puzzling pieces to accommodate all the pattern pieces as well as the wastage. I also looked up to create something wearable enough, so I just started going them by visualizing a shrug out of it. It seemed to be quite difficult and confusing as I had this picture of trouser in my mind and never thought that a garment could be construed even like this - altering, hampering, distorting, folding the pattern pieces. Still, I just went on by joining and then trying those pieces on my own body.

IDEATION - 1

SHRUG WITH BELT

I used almost all the panels to make the shrug .While I also used techniques like Boro to incorporate certain wastage pieces as well as to add aesthetics to the garment .Though I couldn't use all of the waste fabrics but tried my best to reduce it to a certain extent.

Wight of left over fabrics= 22 grams = 9% Wastage reduced =17- 9 = 8%

IDEATION- 2

DRESS WITH HALTER NECK

After creating the first garment , I used the same panel position to create the second garment. I reversed the sides to achieve a fuller front and backless look. It also uses similar techniques like the first one, but the element of belt was removed which lead to a decrease in the wastage reduced.

Wight of left over fabrics= 26 grams = 10% Wastage reduced =17- 10 = 7%

IDEATION - 3

HI-LOW TOP

This top was created using the similar drape used to making the shrug. The element of belt was retained and the neck line was changed to achieve this look. While the belt was included along with some there waste fabric used like for the straps, the wastage reduction increased.

Wight of left over fabrics= 21 grams = 8.6% Wastage reduced =17- 8.6 = 8.4%

Though I faced some difficulties while constructing the back since the panels were much larger than my size, I still feel happy as I was able to achieve something that I wanted to.It could be worn with a dress, shorts, jeans, tube tops etc. The task was pretty complex yet came out to be very interesting and also made me re-think about what I always used to think of how a garment is made. Well, it doesn't need to be perfect always, it can be achieved with imperfect pieces of fabric as well and can give amazing results at the end !