Double width very low sew dress wins 3rd Place in Wearable Art at Convergence.
This dress is a series of “what ifs”.
- Can I weave double width – one side open and one side closed to create an 88″ wide piece of fabric in AdaCAD?
- Can I use layer exchange in place of sewing to essentially cut the piece from the loom, wet finish it, and wear it?
- How will 30/2 linen perform as a warp? Can I count on the process keeping layers separated as fixing mistakes in double width cloth that has been inappropriately stitched together is a massive pain?
The design is a bunch of supersized Mardi Gras beads flowing across the fabric. I designed an individual bead and then used Illustrator to make a pattern brush that I then applied to curves. This was a great method to test the weaving and the approximated appearance but there were a few problems with this I could not solve with tools and automation:
- Even bead spacing and shape could not be maintained at the same time.
- Overlapping strands had to be on top or bottom for the length of the curve, 2 intertwining strands could not be created without breaking the curve.
- The biggest issue was that beads will show the same reflective image in the same orientation regardless of size or position. The Illustrator pattern brush changed the orientation of the beads to respond to the direction of the curve. Although OK for testing, this would not fly, once I saw it, so I had to individually place the beads along the curves in a consistent orientation to the ground which made the right side of the image and left side of the image require opposite orientations (the fold is at the shoulder).
- I designed the fabric in inches assuming a square aspect ratio.
- I tested the PPI and determined that I needed 56 PPI for each layer. The EPI for each layer is 22.5.
- I created a new Illustrator file with units in pixels and stretched the vector graphic to match the required aspect ratio – 1350 pixels went to 3000 in height, 1980 pixels (number of heddles) in width.
- I opened the Illustrator file in Photoshop so I got an indexed image with only the specified colors – no dithering.
- I added black to create tubular selvedges on the far right and left hand sides – 8 pixels each.
Steps to make drafts:
- Make indexed image
- Slice into AdaCAD sized slices
In this case, 990 x 500 - Load top and bottom images – if replacing, double check that the colors map correctly!
- Map to weave structures
- Tubular selvedge – black
- 1/6 satin – white
- 2/5 satin – yellow and pink
- 3/4 satin – aqua
- 4/3 satin – lavendar
- 5/2 satin – green
- 6/1 satin – blue
- Flip the bottom layer so that the open selvedges, when overlapped, will be on the same side.
- Invert the flipped bottom layer so that the “right size is facing down. This is necessary to keep the right side of the fabric continuous when it is removed from the loom.
- Use Layer Notation to combine the 2 layers into a single draft that can be woven top – bottom – bottom – top. This will create a draft that is doubled in height from what is required.
- Use Trim operator to cut out the double.
- If the slice has layer exchange, make sure to put a layer exchange draft in the exchanged areas in Photoshop.
Well, weaving was really hard as the loom was having issues on a few modules. The separate layers were not maintained, randomly, which was a nightmare. Ultimately, the issue was resolved after many hours of unweaving and testing fixes – it seems that there was a communication issue that seemed to be resolved by moving the antennae above the heddle modules.
Finished just in time to submit to Convergence and was accepted into the Wearable Art competition. Results to be determined but I am excited to see it walk down the runway instead of hanging on the mannequin, sitting in the driveway to get some sunlight on it for photos. Photoshop took out the background but left the reflections in the mannequin base – see the trees?
