I've rejoined the Textile Arts Council at the DeYoung Museum, and attended the perfect presentation today, "Zero Waste Fashion Design" by Holly McQuillan. See her website here . With my new dress form, I'm ready to try new pattern making techniques, so her introduction came at the perfect time. She takes clothing design inspiration from earliest clothes: the kimono, toga, and early pants. The focus is to make clothes out of whole cloth, and not throw anything away. It is a beautiful idea, and could save as much as 80 billion square meters of fabric from landfills annually, if the fashion industry adopts some of her methods. She lectures next at schools in New York, London, and Copenhagen. I loved the way she incorporated bits of her New Zealand childhood into her descriptions, and made beautiful embroidered "markers" on the silk crepe de chine and wool garments. And I like the her mode of brainstorming: she first takes a 8 1/2"x 11" sheets of paper and cut it to visualize the 3D garment in miniature. You took can design out of whole cloth, using her online patters and referring to her new book -- here.
note: All Italics are links.
The silk template for a blouse 112cm x 80cm