Integration of Textile and Fashion Design with Overstitching

Commercial fashion designers are usually focused on developing designs using color, fabric and style lines, whereas artistic fashion designers whose primary goal is innovation are keen on developing designs by means of a peculiar manner of presentation or a new conception of fabric. The aims of this research are to analyze the potential for developing novel methods of generating material and create new fabrics that are useful for both fashion and decorative art, as well as explore the potential uses with the newly generated fabrics. Acknowledging that fabric is a crucial element for fashion, this researcher set about investigating the potential use of sewing thread for creating fabric. This study documents a personal experimentation with a new dimension whereby fabric can be generated from overstitched threads using a variety of techniques; non-woven, patterned non-woven, interweaving, knitting, and embroidering. This study demonstrates not only the possibility of approaching artistic fashion by manipulating overstitching, but also the feasibility of conducting a fashion design process in which product aesthetics is generated from yarn texture, fabric structure, and garment construction. Thus, this study contributes to developing an approach in which overstitching and fashion are merged to integrate a new dimension of creation.