Turban...Making the base

1. Making the base was a lengthy process. After fiddling around trying to think of the best way possible to create a decent edge to the base I found that the neckline of the shirt below was near perfect the measurement I needed: 57cm circumference.

2. I started to pleat and fold from the front of the forehead towards the near centre of the back & front trying to create a moulded head shape. Once I was satisfied with the fit I cut the pinned areas from the shirt as you can see below:

3. I managed to get a very fitted, pretty neat little base. I then hand-stitched the folds and joining seams together:

4. I was hoping it would fit a normal human head but once I tried it on it was too small. So below show how I pushed the forehead edge backwards so I could add a piece to the front to enlarge it:

5. I then cut out a semi-circular piece from the bottom front hem of the shirt. It was a bit too large so I inserted into the back a piece of elastic band which I took out from a second hand skirt. I cut a slit up the back and inserted it into either side. It didn't help much!

6. I the turned it inside out so I could then have neat inside for the turban.

7. I found some scraps of foam and silver carpeting from purchases I had made from Reverse Garbage last semester. I decided that I cut up what I had of the silver carpeting to add some sturdiness to my base to help keep the mould in place. I then cut the foam into 5 strips and placed them in certain areas to add some volume. I hand-stitched it all to the base, making sure that the base was stretched out a little so it wouldn't create tension when putting it on.

So there we have my base of my turban! It looks a bit like a martians hat at this stage but I am starting to fiddle around with the rest of the garments to create the actual turban. Stay tuned for the next step of making a turban out of second hand clothes...

Resue, Recycle, Renew, R...(3)

The Environmental analysis of textile products article by Chen and Burns (2006) basically laid out for me every aspect of the textile industry that effects the environment. With focus on the issue of textile waste, I have lodged here the definitions that make up the environmentally ethical ways of dealing with textile waste:-

• Re-Think: Design with the entire fashion and product life cycle in mind giving thought to the end-of-life and how your designs could be re-used or disassembled for recycling. Choose fibres that will have less impact on the environment. Avoid using fibre blends as they complicate recycling processes.
• Reduce: Minimize energy and natural resource use as well as waste materials created.
• Reclaim: Collect and re-use waste products and materials only selecting those that would have been disposed of otherwise.
• Recycle: Select materials that have already been recycled from waste materials
• Upcycle: Use waste materials to create products of equal or increase, not decreased, value and quality than the original waste materials.
• Repair and Remake: Give existing items a face lift or revamp them for a new end use.
• Recreate and Revamp: Creatively reignite an existing design idea.
• Embrace Technology: Use technology to develop new processes and practices reduce the negative impact of fashion on the environment.

Every green bible you read these days withholds the idea of the Four Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Renew in regards to textile waste. There are actually two kinds of waste that make up textile waste: preconsumer or postconsumer. Preconsumer textile waste consists of by-product materials from fibre, yarn, or fabric production. 750,000 tons of this waste is recycled annually into new resources & as fillings for the automotive, paper, equipment, mattress, home furnishings, and other industries. At least this helps with the landfill issues which are where approximately 75% of the preconsumer textile waste is diverted from and recycled. Then there is postconsumer textile waste which is made up of any type of garments or household textile items that owners no longer need and throw away. This is what we are doing during this project by getting hold of second-hand garments and re-thinking, reclaiming, up-cycling, and repairing / revamping them. Really, if you think about it, this is where fast fashion and the desire of consumers to pay the least price possible for products has help lead to overconsumption and postconsumer waste. Among the postconsumer textile waste that is recovered, only about 48% is recycled as second-hand clothing and shipped to overseas markets (commonly in Africa) whereas the remainder is thrown into the trash and ends up in urban landfills (Council for Textile Recycling, 2003). With knowing how much textile waste is created I have to ask myself, as a consumer as well as a designer, if I make ethical choices. I can definitely say with embarrassment that I have previously not made very ethical decisions when purchasing textiles. I am certainly being smacked in the face with facts that my decisions have not been good. Apparently the textile recycling industry trying to encourage the recovery of an additional 1 million tons of postconsumer textile waste dumped into landfills annually.

Preconsumer waste has been recycled well by the textile industry, but the postconsumer waste still poses a big threat to the environment. It is the mixed blends and properties of fibres, dyes and all types of finishes and accessories that make it difficult to recycle postconsumer waste. Currently, there are still difficulties linked with the recycling of complex postconsumer textile waste, and the reluctance of the industry to use the recycled postconsumer fibres has made the circumstances worse. As a designer and a consumer I think I will find it very hard to incorporate these changes. For the future though, when hopefully I will be setting up my own business, I can implement recycling processes somewhere along my garment production by not only recycling and reusing preconsumer waste but also the fibres recycled from second-hand clothing.

Did you know this about recycling textiles:

1. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that about 97% of post-consumer textile waste is recyclable.
2. By simply donating all of your used textiles to participating thrift stores, you can help to significantly reduce the burden on our landfills
3. Over 70% of the world's population uses secondhand clothes, so your old clothes can be used to help people in need.
4. By recycling textiles you benefit your local community by creating local jobs that generate local tax revenue.
5. Textile recycling companies work closely with charitable institutions to find new homes and uses for old clothing and fabric items, thus reducing the operating costs for thrift stores and freeing up funding to house, feed, and train the less fortunate.
6. Textile recycling requires less energy than any other type of recycling.
7. Textile recycling does not create any new hazardous waste or harmful by-products.
8. Unwearable textiles can be reused as rags by paint stores, machine shops, auto shops, government, business and industry.
9. Unwearable textiles can be converted for industrial uses such as noise reduction or upholstery.
10. Each new home that is built uses 100 pounds of rags - isn't it preferable that these be locally generated recycled material that was saved from a landfill?
    

If you want to read up more/ interested:
http://ecco.org.uk/textiles.html

http://dustfactoryvintage.com/2007/06/rag-bone-textile-recycling-101.html

GOONJ PROJECT: Textile Recycling Initiative in New Delhi: Read more: GOONJ PROJECT: Textile Recycling Initiative in New Delhi Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/Textiles.html

(References:Chen H.-L., Burns L.D. (2006) Environmental analysis of textile products: Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 24 (3), pp. 248-261; Council for Textile Recycling. (2003). Don’t overlook textiles. Retrieved August 16, 2010,
from http://textilerecycle.org/ctrinfo.html; 1. Bangkok Post. (2010). Mylife living green - ATTITUDES MUST CHANGE
The Post Publishing Public Company Limited. All Rights Reserved; Cirillo, J.(2007). Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Beverage World, 126(1779), 58. Retrieved August 18, 2010, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 1370720891).)

John Rawlings and the 1940s

I am just loving John Rawlings photography of the 1940s and 50s. There are magnificant, rich, feminine turbans everywhere! There seem to be a few shoots that he did in 1941other than the onees with turbans, which encapture Heidi and I's designer and artist inspiration and love for "candy spew" tones, lace, femininity, florals, 18th & 19th century soft, delicate, pucketed, rich fashions. A few bonnets here too!

Here are some I adore of some stunning turbans:

Actres Lorreta Young wears a cashmere turban with silk flowers, 1941

1942

Cerise and yellow flowers with a green and gold turban, 1941

Model wearing blue silk satin and purple velvet with clusters of pansies, 1941

White clipped velvet turban with velvet flowers, 1941

Us Vogue September 1, 1944

These pictures are inspiration to me as colour concepts and the kind of aesthetic that is inspiring me in relation to Heidi's work:

1941

1948 & Model at Prince and Princess Gourielli's shop, 1941

1941 & Model Jean Patchett, 1950 & Vermillion pink hat with pink roses, 1944

Some bonnets for Heidi:Actress Gene Tierney wearing a Punchinellp bonnet, 1946

Vermillion hat with pink roses, 1944

Paul Poiret as feminine inspiration of the 1920s

How To Tie A Turban

I've been you-tubing how to tie/wrap/make a turban, it's pretty detailed at how to tie a very very neat traditional turban. It's not really teh kind of turban i am hoping to create but it's great to have these processes in mind.

Natural vs. Synthetic? (2)

I've previously completed a unit about Textiles at uni but we never really looked at their impact on the environment. I felt it would be substantial to look at the whole lifecycle of producing a textile fabric from: growing or manufacturing the starting materials, the fibres, the processes right to the point at which the end product is actually put in the hands of the consumer,in order really realise the entire carbon footprint the textile industry produces. And unravelling a garments green credentials isn’t easy!

I started off researching natural fibres individually and their impact on the environment. Slater (2003) mainly provided me with a hefty amount of information about the environmental impact of textiles, focusing on the actual beginning fibres, along with others: Lee (2009); Bailey (2006); and Santisi (2010). The first fibre that I ever remembered from my first encounter with fabric as a kid was cotton. Cotton has been the most popular natural fibre for years. Cotton is a bush grown fibre and can only be grown in a moderately fine belt of the earth’s surface. To reach the top quality cotton fertilisers, herbicides and insecticides that are poisonous and damaging to the environment are used to improve the growth conditions to produce the finest cotton. Irrigation water is pumped by the gallons to water these plants.This flow of water itself causes erosion and chemical leaching problems. During harvesting, the machinery and tests that need to be taken are even more environmentally destructive. I remember when I was about ten years old we went on a school excursion to a cotton farm out in the country back home in Zimbabwe. Everything to do with the whole process seemed so vast and I remember thinking to myself that the huge fields must need so much water to keep the plants fed. Well the statistics definitely prove that naive comment at the time.

Other stem, or bast, fibres tend to be less ecologically harmful than seed-hair ones. Linen, flax and hemp are more examples of natural fibres. The selection of premium quality fibres are handpicked in many countries which is more environmentally beneficial, but more costly. For the fibre to be of better “quality” mechanical or chemical process were introduced which in turn again damages the planet.
Silk is produced from silkworms mainly and therefore needs controlled atmospheres and employs rigid growth conditions which create environmental costs. Nadigar (2001) fights that wild silk on the other hand is exceptionally eco-friendly, since it uses no hazardous chemicals and encourages the socially beneficial activity of preserving forests.But again the production processes are environmentally costly.
Wool is a natural animal fibre of a different kind, made from the inner fibre hair of the sheep/ goat. Normally categorised as the most desirable fibre—it goes through a huge number of chemical treatments aswell. So altogether the theory that natural fibres are much better for the environment is not all that true.

On to looking at synthetic fibres, there are "three types: true synthetic polymers, regenerated materials, and modified natural ones." They have three main production techniques: dry spinning, wet spinning and melt spinning.
Oil is the raw material to prepare a synthetic polymer. Oil is very damaging to the earth through the burning of oil, oil spills and all its complex processes. The entire operation of creating a polymer uses large amounts of energy and it produces waste in the form of liquids, gases, and solid by-products. Polyester is one that is man-made by melting and combining two types of oil-derived plastic pellet to create the polymer polyethylene teraphlalate. Manufacturing most polyester is done through using antimony as a catalyst with which carcinogen is created and is also toxic to the heart, lungs, liver and skin (Lee, 2009).

In the long term, all these processes taken to create such fibres are harmful to the environment.
With the shirts that I found at the Salvation Army two of them have polyester present in them. After researching such information and not getting much positive feedback about either natural or synthetic fabrics and their impact on the environment, I feel bad at using textiles at all! But what are we to do with all the garments and textiles that have already been through the lifecycle of being produced? Are we supposed to stop producing textiles at all, which is unrealistic in itself. Are we to just leave them to create generations of landfill or do we take them and recycle them? I without a doubt believe that somehow we need to get serious about changing our centuries old industrial processes of producing textiles and making them as eco-friendly as we can. But with those textiles already having impacted our environment, I feel reproducing garments from them is the only thing to do. If I can as a designer use the second hand textiles and recycle them with zero waste into my own unique designs, I am one step closer to a more environmentally conscious designer.

I want to leave this idea with a quote I found from Annunziato (2001):

"We feel it is critical for the performance of a textile to become inherent to the content and construction of a fabric leaving no heed for the chemicals and coatings used on so many products of the past" says Mary Holt, Vice President of design for Carneige, "Being finish-free means a sounder environmental choice."

(References: Lee, M.(2009). MORAL FIBRES WHAT'S THE MOST SUSTAINABLE FABRIC? The Ecologist, 39(1), 52-53. Retrieved August 16, 2010, from Academic Research Library. (Document ID: 1677864621); Slater, K. (2003) Environmental Impact of Textiles: Production, processes and production. Cambridge: Woodhead Publishing. (E-Book Library: Access through QUT library catalogue; Ronald Bailey. (2006, October). Natural or Synthetic? Reason, 38(5), 72. Retrieved August 17, 2010, from Academic Research Library. (Document ID: 1126210251); Santisi, J.. (2010, January). Label Savvy. E : the Environmental Magazine, 21(1), 42. Retrieved August 17, 2010, from Academic Research Library. (Document ID: 1947171251); Annunziato, L. (2001). Eco-synthetic? Contract, 43(4), 30-31. Retrieved August 17, 2010, from Career and Technical Education. (Document ID: 71687749).))

The SALVOS...

So we were lucky enough to work with the Salvation Army in sourcing second hand garments to make our sustainable garments for this project.

We were able to sift through one of their main stores and pick garments to deconstruct and reconstruct into a whole new garment.

The manager of the store took us for a tour around their sorting factory where huge bins of clothes come in form all over the place and there are about 4 volunteers who sift through everything, price them

I picked out 3 long-sleeved shirts with the idea of "candy spew" colours and a richness to them.