The Making of a Resourceful Gilet

So the idea to cover the body with slices of nature evolved slowly from Jools imagination, and came about into reality via a series of unplanned encounters at our tennis club to start with...

Then a collaboration and meeting of minds developed gradually through shaping some tops, and in 2013 sketches of the gilet, the top and final layer of the SueMe range started appearing.
Two other jacket layers were also engineered to fit under the gilet and allow movement as well style when off the mountain dirt tracks...

By Christmas 2013 all wool outer jacket layers were in place, Jools concept of the Russian doll was coming to life.
Then the journey to source the materials in small quantities started... and lasted till 2015

We identified wool from a manufacturer I had worked with before, we discovered technical sportswear recycled fleece from research within Jools sportswear contacts, and finally we ordered sample lengths to create the range, after sampling first protos with industry offcuts and swatchcards.

Colour scheme based on a nature story and city story developed, mainly from the Scottish hills and weaving villages, the city mainly London with all its green spots to enjoy.

The industry swatch cards were rescued from landfill in 2008 when the local London clothing manufacturing was out priced by bigger volume productions abroad. This triggered the desire to start a circular economy Creative Studio 4 offering creative design sessions to youths who struggled with schooling as a way to grow confidence and get back into education: they came along to pick up fabrics from closing down companies, and the surplus was donated to local community groups in Haringey.

It was quite Efficient to continue circulating and upcycling resources to be repurposed for the good of nature via SueMe concept. A rolling micro economy which, when the studio closed in 2017, was moved to SueMe creative space for life to continue merging into something new and different.

In 2018 Jools picked up where we left off when I went travelling to Hanoi to tutor pattern cutting and design, and due to specific making requirements and choosing new lining from reporposed sources, we slowly cut the gilets to order: the wool lengths we used were Echoic factory offcuts so we needed time to match the checks and this required to be done by hand in an artisanal manner, one by one.

And so they were... created, for several generations to wear... with a special serie number for each of them...

The shapes were altered by draping and creating lines straight on the person for better fit
The sketches evolved and we finally came back to the two pocket denim cross style with a twist softening the lines and updating the collar.

The whole creative process of making the gilets was slow and progressive testing shapes in various fabrics including fleece in order to create a happy marriage between cloth otherwise not mixed together for a hybrid versatile piece which can travel from day to night, as Tiff mentioned when shaping the next page of the gilet story with the UAL Masters interdisciplinary students leading the Collaborative Unit where their creative input help companies  forge a new way forward.

From country wedding to casual city night out...a versatile outer skin piece to act as a visible signature for the brand values... to become known. Here we are in 2020... evolving with the resourceful gilet...

The Bigger Picture

Treelove

So Lenzing would pulp to make super green super SueMe underwear are part of a very sophisticate closed loop water system and tree planting programme

Softer than skin 50 years of Modal Celebrations

Sustainable SueMe Team at UAL Collaborative Unit 

Collab

to research to positive values of using Modal 

Sewng seeds

for a high performance life lasting highly Nature Friendly fibre 

Love Fibes...

Finally sharing my love for loops and circular movements under one virtual roof, inspired by life fibres, out of bounds circular motions, and collaborations, Fibelove

Yesterday Heba concluded her third session for her jumpsuit:
Session 1- SueMe Studio, first draft pattern
Session 2- Tottex Studio, first toile on first time industrial machine
Session 3- Tottex Studio: front placket, cuff pattern drafts, new jacket design pattern tracing

For healthy fibes check a beloved trove Healthy fibes

Spec-ulation And Spec-ifications

sew very interestingly there are many different types of characters involved in creating a garment from the very beginning to the end, starting with a vision, the flow-y realm of imagination, the technicalities of placing these ideas into real form and shapes, the final visionary imaginative minds to place these onto a story board to convince the buyers to invest in these creations...

Here is an examples how word roots can link all these processes,

specification (n.)

1610s, "act of investing with some quality," from Medieval Latin specificationem (nominative specificatio), noun of action from past participle stem of Late Latin specificare "mention particularly," from Latin specificus, (see specific). With Latin -ficus"making, doing," from combining form of facere "to make, do." Meaning "technical particular" is attested from 1833; short form spec first attested 1956.

speculation (n.)

late 14c., "intelligent contemplation, consideration; act of looking," from Old French speculacion "close observation, rapt attention," and directly from Late Latin speculationem (nominative speculatio) "contemplation, observation," noun of action from Latin speculatus, past participle of speculari "observe," from specere "to look at, view" (from PIE root *spek- "to observe").

Source

the parameters of specification speculations in making a garment are limited to 5 parameters, sorry guies no pretty elaborate story here...

- a word starting with spec - can mean a precise set of information - spectacles will make your eyesight clearer- or an endless set of imagined scenarios.... speculation will allow you to imagine scenarios in order to bet financially in a positive or negative way...

Specification sheets are like spectacles, they do not mix with speculation, the only outcome is clarity... not options created by imagination.

Tricky but manageable...To use the word speculation regarding specification sheets is a clever way to disguise one’s own doubts and uncertainties of the technical process which involves a given number of parameters, not a multitude of possible parameters as the word speculation suggests...

1- the pattern measurements

2- the cloth with shrinkage implementation considered into the pattern

3- the sewing with seam allowances notification and respect

4- the final  pressing and steaming which might affect the whole process at the end when all is concluded

5- the technician measuring the garment who might measure slightly differently than the factory or master pattern cutter yet all three will come to an understanding of an allowance of plus or minus one centimetre

6 - human error... which can happen at any level of that chain...

Sew today...

We’re in the clear designing cutting and making under one roof, Lui’s Tottex roof, a wonderful heaven to get your own brand started or your existing one customised with prints or embroidery... thank you ... totally locally created and made...

Picknweight

Another successful concept