Waste is a big problem in the textile industry; one area of waste is cut off selvedges from the weaving industry. This degree work in textile design questions the need and motivation to produce fully new textiles, choosing instead to use waste material in order to create sustainable design. The work aims to apply waste selvedges in a textile design context by using it in handweaving, as both warp and weft. This project also explores food waste as dyestuff, dyeing selvedge waste with it, achieving a large variety of colours. Using selvedge waste in both warp and weft, along with dyeing using food waste, brought many possibilities in both technique and aestethics, as well as expanding the sustainable perspective in textile design by challenging the use of waste from textile and food production. The result is three handwoven examples with varying expressions, created to bring inspiration for others to use waste selvedges as a material.

This paper describes a practice- based research project in which physical and emotional comfort and discomfort is experienced by the human body. A variety of different Comfort Zones are presented. All of them deal with the relationship between filling material and cover, in which knitted structures and materials play a central role in order to create comfort. The elasticity of the knit is challenged when creating volume and emphasizes the idea that comfort is elastic in material/physical way, as well as well in emotions. The use of filling materials gives a new dimension, sensitivity and offers new opportunities. This form exploration discusses the potential of knit to serve as a cover and decorative element, but most importantly the possibility of a textile to create its own filling. By rolling up a knitted tube, volume is built up layer by layer; a torus appears and captures a void in the center of the form, required by the tube, the fundament. Hints of discomfort are given and emphasized by either surface/structure, volume or garments on the body.

How can a textile designer work in an exploratory way to find methods and taking advantage as much of a fabrics surfaces as possible?   This work explores a combination of techniques as laser cutting and transfer printing, how they can be developed and combined to influence each other. The aim of this project is to explore the combined techniques of laser cutting and transfer printing, with a focus on designing adjustable printed textiles.   Through a method in practical working, exploration was carried out in techniques like laser cutting and transfer print, as well as the combined visual expression of several patterns with cut-outs and modularity.   The result of this project is three pieces each representing adjustment in different combinations; One adjustable repeat, modularity, and modularity with cutouts. All three except one consist of two repeated patterns on each side of the fabric. They present examples of how a textile can be changed, the relation between construction and surface print. They all show that a printed textile could be more than just a static surface.   By taking the method of printing two patterns and use laser cutting gives a value for both sides of the fabric and shows how to produce printed textiles with modularity. Additional material or more prints and colors could be investigated further.

Microplastics have been found in all aquatic environments and once they entered they cannot be removed. This has put new focus on the sources of microplastics where the textile industry has gained large attention. Much consideration has been given to the production of fleece fabric and the use of polyester but this report aims to explore the whole design- and production process and mapping those activities which has a large impact on microplastic release. Together with participants from five (5) Swedish Outdoor Brands and seven (7) field experts has this report mapped possible challenges and solutions. Main findings are 20 different challenging areas with 19 suggested solutions on how to prevent microplastic pollution. The result is the first in its kind doing a comprehensive study of the whole textile design- and production process and provides a broad foundation for further research. As there still is a considerable lack of knowledge about many of the issues that were brought up, both within the design- and production processes, has a shared responsibility among companies, organizations, universities and private persons been raised. Through common platforms are inspiration and awareness spread and this report aims to contribute to the gap in the current knowledge.

This degree work is a project that started out from weaving, which became the founding technique for how a modular textile took its shape, woven together as interlaced parts. Modularity was taken into this work in order to avoid a flat result and give the woven textile playful attributes and multiple functions. By using bold colours and layers in weaving, an investigation of the interactive and playful side of this textile technique was done. The method was based on workshops where geometrical forms were systematically woven into a repetitive pattern according to the plain weave binding. The result were three voluminous textiles with a given hierarchy of colours and material as they were placed at different levels. Practically, it is a textile that can be fitted to different spaces by being either diminished or built out, in order to be interactive. The quantity of elements within the textiles became the essence and the quality in the project and the advantage is that it is a textile that can be made from waste.

This degree work places itself within the field of textile design, with an artistic approach. The motive with this work is to introduce Kente cloth as a textile expression to be developed as a contemporary textile technique. The aim is to explore ways of reinterpreting the West African weaving technique of Kente cloth in combination with the use of recycled toys in order to create contemporary artistic textile designs. The design method consisted of workshops that focused on the deconstruction of the technique and the categorisation of toys. Experimental sketches on the handloom and jacquard machine were produced. The outcome of this design work is a collection of three handwoven artistic textile designs. Toys’’R’’Cloth engages the viewer to produce more sustainable designs by using recycled toys as material reuse. This work and its design method have the potential to be developed further and applied onto other textile techniques.

Teddy bears have become a universal symbol of our childhood, but we tend to forget them when we grow up. The toy industry is a growing empire where manufacturers constantly compete for consumers' attention. This results in growing waste from the toy industry and a need to find solutions to how to deal with it. This research explores repurposing possibilities of discarded stuffed animals based on their colour, form, texture, and print to create sculptural textile objects through deconstruction, patchwork, and sculpting techniques. This research was conducted by performing a series of design experiments exploring discarded stuffed animals through deconstruction and time-limited sketching. This allowed various sculptural objects to be constructed mainly by crazy pathworking and casting with different plaster materials or teddy bear filling. The outcome is a collection of 7 textile objects with a suggestive function, but the material it is constructed in challenges it. They extend from recognisable vase forms to forms that almost are unrecognisable. These objects place themselves in the field of not only textile design but also functional art. This research contributes to the field of textile design by suggesting a new usage for an atypical material, discarded stuffed animals. Furthermore, the collection Teddy Vessels [also known as our former best friends] proves that discarded stuffed animals still have a place in our lives even though we have forgotten them.

This degree work places itself in the field of textile design, surface patterns and conceptual design. The aim of the work is to use the human body as a tool for designing conceptual surface patterns onto textiles. The methods of designing were done through practical workshops. Examples of workshops is shadow workshop, motif workshop and pattern workshop. For each workshop appropriate rules was decided based on analizis of preveous workshops. The outcome could be presented as two types of results; firstly, a design method for generating surface patterns, and secondly, heat transfer printed textiles that prove the validity of the method. The work proposes an alternative approach for inspiration to designing surface patterns.

The project Kera-Plast aims to re-loop humans and nature by questioning the current systems and ethics through materiality. Human hair, currently considered as waste, functions as the base for the material exploration fabricated through thermo-compression molding. The flexible, short and opaque keratin-fibers get glued together with heat, pressure and water, acting as a plasticizer during the compression molding process. The results are stiff and remind on plastic due to shine and translucency. Aesthetics and function of the resulting material are controlled and designed by traditional textile techniques as knitting, weaving and non-woven processes. The material samples display the potential of Kera-Plast in the categories of 3D surface structures, patterns, shapeability and the influence of light. The findings also provide information about the parameters for designing with keratin fibers through the thermo-compression process. It can be concluded that despite all ethical and cultural factors, Kera-Plast and its fabrication method has the potential to add a sustainable, functional and aesthetical value to the design field and our future material consumption.

This work places itself in the field of woven textile design and the lenticular effect in a spatial context. The lenticular effect refers to a ribbed surface structure which changes appearance depending on from which angle it is viewed. The aim is to combine woven pleats with colours and patterns to create a lenticular effect. Bindings, patterns and colours have been investigated in both handweaving and jacquard weaving. Three suggestions for a woven, pleated, shifting textile have been developed. The three tracks are a colour shift and gradient with a surface structure, a pattern shift taking place across all sides of a pleat and a jacquard pattern hidden between the pleats. By creating a textile which shifts as it is viewed from different angles and distances, the motive is to encourage movement around the woven piece, broaden the possible uses of woven textiles and invite the viewer to take a closer look at the woven structure.