I find myself wanting to share my design process and not feel constrained by a particular format. In a video, too much exposition and I’m boring the viewer, in portfolio presentation, “less is more, get to the point Luke!” But here, on my own little cozy corner of the internet, I can share all I’d like and people can’t say boo.
This is my first up-cycling project this big I’ve seen to fruition, with more to follow. For me, the final design of an up cycled piece should pay homage to the original purpose of whatever is being up cycled. For these coverall bottoms I do it by trying to incorperate as many signs of life as I can. Unlike the designer pieces by Prada or Balenciaga all the wear, and fading on this tote was made through a person going out and living life. I personally value that quite a but.
rant: for some reason I feel compelled to use as much of the original details in the new as possible. Personally, when a up cycled garment doesn’t reference its previous function or form I feel its missing something, I like the idea of a narrative. like this isn’t; a “new item” its simply a new form. The materials are the same but the function has changed
Step 0: “Raw” Materials
These are Carhartt coverall bottoms, they’re a “by product” of the *cropped jacket trend*. After reaching out to a seller on Etsy I was informed that these are thrown away, and that made me both sad and a little ticked off. So this is my first project after deciding to do something about it. My thinking is, If I can create a few patterns and cool enough projects utilizing these coverall bottoms, then that will help keep more out of landfills.
Step one: disassembly
This part has taken me quite a bit of practice with my seam ripper. With a movie on, it can take a couple hours per-bottom, and then you’ve got to remove the button snaps. But honestly the material is well worth it in my opinion.
I use my Swiss army knife to remove the snaps. A Christmas gifts from my parents around 2009. A little battered but still going strong.
Step two: Sketching
Once I’ve gotten an idea of what I’m working with, next we’re on to the ideation phase, just exploring what a tote could look like. A helpful thing to help guide this process can be to decide who it’s for, and why they’re using it. In this case its for me, and I want to use it as an everyday tote,
I can show some of my sketching and my sketching exploration, using an industrial design style sketch page to show how I got to my final design
Once I’ve got my sketch, it’s time to make a pattern. Because the material I’m working with is limited, I’ve got to get creative. In my final design I tried to squeeze as much utility from the material and while keeping original signs of wear like distressing and sun fading, while still making it look like a “cool tote” in my opinion
Step three: pattern making
Lets draft the pattern
This process involved making 3d prototypes out of USPS (free) material. From there we made a prototype from some old cargo pants (had to make it slightly smaller due to material constraints)
finally modeled it in 3d as a final “double check” while also learning some new software.
Optional Step: Mending
I used sashiko mending on the heel bite of these coveralls and included that piece in the final design. I really would like to include this into the final post somehow tying it into a fun detail, slow fashion type thing.
Step 4: making it
time for the moment of truth, if I did the previous steps right this should be relatively easy, and if not, chaos, confusion, and possibly abandonment of project altogether.
Step 5: Using it:
I would like to display how I’m really using this in my everyday life and maybe include some fun in progress shots
