On Wednesday 8th April 2020 Fabric Technologist Deborah Shulton gave a 2-hour ‘Fabric Appreciation’ N17 Creative Callings seminar. Due to the current lockdown situation Deborah gave her seminar online via Zoom. Over thirty participants were signed in to the session ready with their own questions ranging from the importance of sustainability, where to source in the UK to ordering in small quantities.
Aimed at fashion start-ups and designers Deborah gave an overview of a variety of fabrics, natural and manmade, and their various properties. She explained that by having a solid understanding of how fabrics behave will ultimately affect what they are used for when it comes to the design process. Deborah discussed cotton, wool, staple and filament fibres, knitted fabrics, wefts, dyeing and printing and more.
Deborah commented: “Running an online training session is something that I’d always planned on doing – but the current situation gave me the ideal opportunity to run one sooner rather than later! I always make my sessions as interactive as possible – with samples used to illustrate certain techniques – and I was able to incorporate these into the session with the use of some high definition close up photos that I’d taken. Using the chat feature on Zoom also enabled attendees to ask questions – although with 30 attending it was fairly challenging to keep an eye out for questions throughout – but luckily I was able to revisit them at the end of the session. There were some interesting questions regarding the impact of Covid-19 on the supply chain as well as a number of questions regarding sustainable options – something that is becoming more and more asked for as consumers become more aware and environmentally conscious and start to look for more sustainable buying options.”
Feedback from the session included:
“I learnt about different fabrics in this session.”
“Most useful information was fabric compositions and the different wefts and designs.”
“I enjoyed the part about the different kinds of weaving and the patterns/effects you can create.”
“Fab! Thank-you.”
“Thanks very much for putting this on.”
The N17 Creative Callings programme targets creatives working and living within the London postcode area of N17, the two-year programme is supported by the Mayor of London and the European Union. To find out more click here.