Summer Sweaters

Over the summer, three industrious Textile Design students sat down and started cutting out images and gluing them to a massive sheet of foam core. They added butterflies of yarn, pearlescent beads, and arranged the images so that they interacted with each other until it became a swirling, glittering mass of soft and hot pinks, electric blues, iridescent purples and whisps of green. Together, they created one large mood board that would illustrate and inform a collection of knitwear that they would create together. These students signed up for Fashion Knit 401, a studio class that detailed the process of designing and making a sweater from scratch. And unlike previous studio classes where they were responsible for their own work only, now they were going to work and design as a team. I’m Professor Meghan Kelly, and this is the first time I’m teaching this class.

Their first task was establish a line of communication that they stuck to for the whole class. Out of options like Slack, Teams, or email, they chose straightforward group texting. The next task was to decide on the season, theme, and color story for the collection. Immediately it became clear how important the communication was going to be. At first everyone gravitated towards their own favorite colors but as they chose images, they were able to find common ground and select a color story.

The next big shift in their design thinking was when they shared their sketches and realized that they couldn’t just make what they wanted, but that each sweater had to stylistically fit with each other’s designs. These three did a beautiful job of expressing their styles and working together, taking feedback and offering suggestions. From there it was down to technical business. All three students were designing different silhouettes, so as the professor, I took a deep dive into sweater shaping for each of them, meeting each of them where they were at.

Two students, Atilla and Lola, used the Shima Seiki 10cut machine and it’s accompanying software, Apex4, to create pieces of the sweater while Nathalie decided to make her entire sweater on the Passap. Lola made use of the Brother Bulky hand flat to create sleeves of a different gauge, adding textural interest. Atilla designed and created his entire sweater using the Shima. All three students used a professional linking machine to link the sleeves to the body and to seam up the side seams.

The only hiccup came near the end of class when the students put their half finished pieces together and realized that they had all drifted away from the color story and now none of the sweaters showed a color continuity. They worked together to swap out yarns, making sure to share colors across all three sweaters.

For all of us, this summer was both a new challenge and a welcome respite from the traditional semester. I got to spend one on one time with the students to help manifest their visions. For their part, they discovered what it feels like to design in a group, when even though they might be the designer, they might not have the last say on how something looks or is done. It was a bit of a wild ride but it ended in a really interesting collection of knitwear and an experience that translates into a real world understanding of team dynamics.

Course: KNIT 401- Fashion Knit Design

Instructor: Meghan Kelly, M.S.

Term: Summer, 2024