Zero-Waste Patternmaking

Zero-waste patternmaking is the art of creating a pattern for the garment which uses every part of a piece of fabric - so there are no scraps left over. It's a lot harder than it sounds and requires you to design 'backwards', in that the shape of the pattern pieces takes first priority over the final appearance of the garment. You might have seen it on Project Runway once, when it was set as a challenge. I think one of the contestants ended up making a handbag and stuffing the scraps inside!

I first learned about zero-waste patternmaking while I was at uni. We had a tutor called Timo Rissanen who was working on his PhD on Fashion Creation Without Fabric Waste Creation. He is now teaching at Parsons in New York and has become known as a bit of an expert on zero waste fashion and sustainable design.

Timo had an exhibition at uni while I was there and we were fascinated by his pattern diagrams and the interesting details on the resulting garments. Timo's blog has drawn my attention to other zero-waste designers (This post is a great place to start).

Sam Formo

Jennifer Whitty

Mark Liu

Holly McQuillan - Spot the words 'war' and 'peace' in these patterns!

Tara St James - Study N.Y. I think this is who my friend Laura is interning with at the moment. Speaking of Laura, her uni collection was also zero-waste.

Laura Poole

When I was working on my Convertible Pretzel and Window Shopper bags, I had zero-waste patternmaking in mind and designed the marker (layout of the pattern pieces) so that I could fit both styles in one piece of fabric with zero waste. This was partly for sustainable reasons, but mostly to make the bags more affordable and to eliminate mess in the studio! I can't stand having little bits of fabric all over the place, I'm constantly wondering whether a piece is a rubbish or a lost pattern piece, is it too small to keep or too big to throw out, will it come in handy at one point? So much easier to eliminate the waste altogether.

The marker for the Convertible Pretzel and Window Shopper Bags

I do, however, have two confessions to make.
One, zero-waste patternmaking is pretty easy when your patterns consist entirely of different sized rectangles. I'm not even going to try and compete with people who design whole collections this way!
Two, I wasn't entirely successful. I was left with a small rectangle left over that I have been trying to figure out how to use. Luckily, an idea for a cute clutch bag popped into my head the other day and I can't wait to make a sample and show you! It won't be a zero-waste pattern, but it's small enough that it will fit in that leftover space.
The eagle-eyed among you will also notice that the Convertible Pretzel bag's flap has rounded corners - so there are some teeny tiny scraps there!