Step by step to making an E-textiles product.

Circuit around the back of the scarf;
1. Download the pattern piece pdf.

SCARF-KITRONIK
2. Cut out the fabric following the pattern piece.

3. Taylor tack through the pattern piece and fabric. (This will be your marks where the LED’S will be placed.)

 

4. Gently pull the paper pattern piece away from the fabric. (Through the taylor tacks)
5.Place LED’S through the fabric. (tack marks) Once through the fabric, bend out the legs according the circuit plan.

 

6. Thread up a sewing machine with conductive thread within the bobbin underneath and standard thread through the needle. (on top)
7. Stitch (Straight stitch) line from where the battery will be placed (positive side) to the main (first) LED, leaving thread over at the beginning to hand stitch to the battery.

 

8. Then stitch from the negative side of the battery to the popper furthest away. (using straight stitch)
Ensure thread is left over at the beginning of the circuit and at the end, in order to hand stitch the battery and poppers to the fabric.
9. Hand stitch the poppers and battery onto the scarf using the thread left over into the correct place. (See plan on pattern piece.) Test to ensure the main circuit works, by pressing the poppers together. (The single light should light up.)

 

10. Mark out with taylor chalk the stitch lines to follow to join the remaining LEDS to the circuit.
11. The stitch (on a sewing machine, using straight stitch) across each positive and negative sides to join up the parallel lights, with conductive thread.
Ensure that all the positive sides join together and all the negative sides join together. (A positive cannot join with a negative or the circuit will not work.)
12. Test to ensure the circuit works correctly with the additional LEDS attached by joining the poppers together.
(All lights should light up)
13. Cut off all loose threads around the circuit.

 

Circuit at the end of the scarf;
14. Place the pattern piece onto the bottom end of the scarf and taylor tack through the paper to mark out where each LED and tilt switch will be placed.
15. Gently remove the pattern piece from the fabric.
16. Then using taylor chalk, mark out the circuit following the diagram on the pattern piece.

 

17. Push through the LEDS where they’ve been marked out and bend open the legs on the other side.
Ensure that the positive legs face the outer edge of the fabric and the negative sides points to the inside of the fabric – (mark out for clarity.)

 

18. Using a sewing machine (Conductive thread underneath) stitch from the positive battery point for 2cm and then leave a small gap for the switch to be stitched in. Continue to stitch after the gap.
Ensure thread is left at the beginning to attach to the battery.
19. Using a sewing machine (straight) stitch from the negative side of the battery through to where the tilt switches will be placed.
Ensure thread left at the beginning to attach to the battery.

 

20. Using a sewing machine (straight) stitch across the negative sides of the LEDS across to the off cuts of conductive threads.
21. Then change the sewing machine settings to a zig zag stitch and with random motion, stitch the loose threads to the fabric.

 

22. Hand stitch in the battery using the thread left (purposefully) at the beginning.
23. Using conductive thread, thread through beads, with a nut hanging at the end of the thread.
The nut will touch the chunk of conductive thread and activate the circuit to light up the LEDS.

 

24. Hand stitch on the hanging tilt switch (with beads and nuts) into the places marked out with taylor tacks.
25. Cut off any loose threads.

 

Embellishments;

26. Rip the shear fabric into long strips.

27. Pin on strips across the length of the fabric and then straight stitch (using a sewing machine) across the top of the strip.

 

Ensure you leave a 1cm gap in between strips. Also ensure that you remove the pins as sewing and that the LED’s can still be seen.

28. After all the strips are secured, clump various different materials together (to fill the gaps) such as yarns and pin down.

29. Then using a needle and thread, hand stitch the clumps of yarns into place using basic tacks.

 

31. Cut off all loose threads.

Lining; 

32.  Pin the backing fabric onto the scarf upside down, so that when folded through, the backing material and embellished material are facing the correct way.

 

33. Using a non conductive material (such as Bondaweb) secure over the conductive track lines, ensuring the positives and negatives can not touch when worn.

34. Using a sewing machine (straight stitch) around the outside of the scarf, leaving one end open at the end to pull the scarf the correct way around. Also, when stitching, ensure a small gap is left open at the battery (end of the scarf) to ensure a switch and a non conductive fastening can be attached.

35. Hand stitch in the switch using conductive thread. Which will complete the circuit at the bottom of the scarf. 

36. Using a sewing machine (straight stitch) across the bottom to finish the scarf.

37. Cut off any loose threads.

Video on how to make a tilt switch below;

 

Food Technology – The affects of heating food.

What happens when you heat food?

The first task we did was, placing a tray full of a variety of foods under the grill to see how different foods reacted when heated up. Each food reacted differently, as seen on the photos underneath. The point of this test, was to understand the difference of what a chemical and physical change was, as well as to understand what happens to the food.

• We also tested other foods, to see what affects heating them has, such as heating a flour water mix, which turned into a gloopy style sauce.
• Heated sugar, which showed the process of caramelisation.
• Boiling potatoes, which showed the outer layers of the potato are cooked and the middle was raw. ( When placed underneath a microscope, the raw potato – the starch looked like small bubbles. Whereas the cooked potato, the starch looked like mush – no definition.)
• Heating meat, showed that the meat shrinks due to the evaporation of water from the molecules and coagulates.

We also tested to see what the affect was when eggs were heated in different ways;

1. The first test, we stood the beaker with the egg and milk mixture into a beaker of water, heated and then stirred continuously.  – This made the mixture slightly lumpy but still in a liquid form.
2. The second mixture, we stood on the hob without stirring until it began to boil. – This made the mixture cook on the bottom and turn very lumpy.
3. The third mixture, we placed into a beaker of water and then placed that beaker into a pan of water and heated, while staring continuously. – This made the mixture turn into a custard like sauce.

These tests showed the reactions food can have when heat is applied and the changes the food goes through.

Food Technology – Fats and raising agents.

Sensory Analysis tests;

• In industry they use sensory analysis tests to check flavour and taste, texture, appearance, small/aroma and sound. They mainly test for these factors, to compete with competitors and ensure the taste meets the design specification, monitor quality control, detect differences between products and profile characteristics.

Within the session, we completed 2 different sensory analysis tests, one with crips and one with pasta sauces.

The Pasta sauce test, we tasted 3 different kinds, to see which one tasted the most ‘tomatoey.’ We each ranked them in the order in which we believed was the best to worst. The sauces were all placed in the same plain pan, with mixed numbers, so that we couldn’t pick a preference based on anything but the taste. The results, showed that we all believed that the Loyds grossman pasta sauce tasted the most ‘tomatoey’ and the homemade sauce the worst. Which did surprise us all. 

The second test we did was with crisps, which were again placed in simple plain bowls and given random numbers to prevent anyone from making a decision on anything other than flavour. We had to test from 3 different bowls and pick the odd one out. We all chose the odd one out correctly, which was the reduced salt option, as it looked different and tasted slightly different.

Star profiles;

Star profiles is another tool, which would be used within schools, to help identify when a product needs improvements or changes to be made to your desired profile. We did this, by first rating (according to points that would be used on a specification) what we thought an apple pie should be like out of 5. Then we tasted an apple pie and re-evaluated the points, again marking them out of 5 to see what points could necessarily be changed for the better.

Fats in food – facts learnt;

• Animal fats – butter,suet,lard and dripping.
• Vegetable fats – Olive,sunflower, grape seed oils and avocado.
• Macro nutrients – Fats, carbohydrates and proteins. (measured in g)
• Micro nutrients – Vitamins and nutrients. (fraction of a g)
• Fats are made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.
• Hydrogen – oxygen (2:1)
• Non polar
• Don’t dissolve in water.
• Fat doesn’t dissolve when digested.
• The body can turn too much sugar into fat.
• Glycerol x1 – Fatty  acids x3 to each fat molecule.

We tested fats, within pastry in order to see how the fats affect the taste and texture. I was given the fat of lard, in order to see what happened and then we all tasted each others to see the effects. The results showed that butter tasted the nicest and gave the best texture.

The second recipe we tested was scones, and how different recipes can affect the rise that they have, for example the recipe I was given is the standard recipe for scones, however the method in which I prepared the scones was slightly different, such as I had to use the ‘chaffing’ technique which is similar to slightly kneading the dough. This ultimately gave the best rise of all the recipes, but not necessarily the best texture or taste.

The Design and Technology association summer school – Leicester.

Introduction at the start of the day by Diana Chaulerton who is the lead inspector for Ofsted (D&T) opened the light on what Ousted inspectors are looking for when observing in schools. The four main points they seem to focus on is;

1. Effectiveness
2. Quality
3. Personal Development
4. Safe guarding

Within these categories, comes the focal points of effective lesson planning, verbal and written feedback, meeting pupils needs, scrutiny of pupils work, PROGRESS, knowledge of english and maths skills, that pupils are aware of various different pathways, needs of a variety of students are met and that the feedback given leads to good progress.

The talk given by Diana, was helpful to understand what schools and inspectors would be looking into when you become a fully qualified teacher.

The first session I chose to attend was the OCR GCSE (9-1) in Design and Technology, which is just one of the possible exam boards used within secondary schools. Some of the main points picked up during the session, are listed below;

• Iterative Design – process of explore/create/evaluate. (Story of progression)
• Follow 8 topic areas within GCSE.
• No design within the exam
• Core content – Contents every student needs to know.
• In-depth contents – Extended in depth knowledge for the students.
• OCR GCSE model – 50% depth (explore,create and evaluate) which is 40hrs total and worth 100 marks. 50% in-depth learning – core principles (exam) which is 2hrs and worth 100 marks.
• Exam structure – Section A (55 marks) – ‘core’, product analysis and maths skills.
• Exam structure  – Section B (45 marks) – ‘in-depth’, situational context and material categories.

The second course I chose to attend was called –  ‘ Being a D&T teacher is like playing a game of monopoly, would you agree? Practical ideas for inspiring creativity in KS3 and KS4.’

This class was very helpful in showing different ways and techniques in which we can inspire creativity within the classroom. Some of the ways Jenny Dhami did this was;

• Heath Robinsons contraptions (Images)
• Changing the intended user to animals or other objects. (design a speaker or headphone for a kangaroo)
• Dice with different images that could be used as a starting point.
• Brainbox inventions (board game)
• Pick a letter which could relate to a different sound, pictures etc.. which could help stimulate ideas.
• Asking existing designer makers to come in and talk/ workshops with students.

These are just a few of the ways in which she used on us as a class to inspire creativity, which we could transfer into our own lessons.

Overall the day was great as a way to gain insight into what we are to expect from the career we are going into, course changes and ideas which we can use within our future lessons.

Introduction into a variety of different machinery for Resistant Materials.

The first machine we were introduced to, was the Pillar Drill, which can drill a variety of holes in different sizes, depending on the size of the drill bit attached at the time. A pillar drill is mainly only used for wood, metal and acrylic. The main equipment used during the process of using a pillar drill is, a toggle clamp (for metal and acrylic) or a vice (for wood) to secure the material in place.

The second machine introduced was the fret saw, which can cut wood and acrylic. The blade moves up and down and is thin, which helps to produce curved lines very well. However the blade can also easily snap, which is something to consider when using with children.

The band saw, is a large machine which can cut wood and acrylic in straight lines mainly, but is a high health and safety risk and therefore children would not use this machinery in lessons. Mainly only used by the teacher or technicians.

Disc Sander is also an equipment introduced, which files down wood to give a smooth and even finish. However, one important fact to remember is that the wood is to never leave the bench, this is mainly for health and safety reasons for the child.

Strip heater, is a machine used for bending acrylic. It does this, by heating a certain strip of the acrylic, which can then be bent by hand and place into a vice to set. It only heats on the point where the heat comes through.

Metal guillotine and metal folding machine, which do as exactly as stated. The metal guillotine, works by pressing the blade down using your foot. The metal folding machine, works by placing the sheet metal into the machine and lift the leaver, which bends the metal up. ( pictures describe the process better.)

Glue, although not a machine or equipment, is still a process which will be used commonly within the classroom, especially for wood and acrylic. The most common glue used and most successful is PVA  and liquid solvent cement. (Liquid solvent cement used on acrylic – picture below.)

Printing using Heat transfer technique and Thermogramatic paint.

During the course we had an introduction to using the heat press to print onto fabric, in many different ways. Such as;

• Using fabric crayons, which allows you to draw and colour any shape required on paper and then transferred over to the fabric. This is done by placing the crayoned colours upside down onto the fabric and then the heat press closed for 1 minute. Synthetic fabrics work best for showing the colours with this decorative technique. This enables the pattern to transfer onto the fabric. (As shown within the pictures below.)

• Sublimation photo’s, which is where a photo can be printed out through a specific printer using inks that can transfer when heat is applied. The paper it is printed on, is sublimation paper, which is also a specific paper which helps transfer the inks onto the fabric. 
• Transfer paper, is also another way in which colour can be transferred to fabric using heat. The transfer papers can come in a variety of colours and can be cut into any shape and arranged to create any pattern. Also, objects which won’t transfer can be placed underneath transfer paper, which will rested the ink in certain areas to create an imager or pattern. (As seen in the pictures below.)

Thermogramatic Paint;

Thermogramatic paint, is a paint which is applied to fabric which changes when heat is applied. The process to create the smart decorative technique is as follows;

1. Paint a the area required with printing ink. (which has already been mixed with binder.)
2. Then using the thermogramatic ink, mix with a small amount of binder and paint on top of the printing ink.
3. Then leave to dry.
4. Once dry, the ink will need to be activated by ironing. This will then react when applied to heat.

 

Technical/ working drawing & Speedstep Programme.

Technical/ working Drawings;

When teaching children to draw technical drawings for their projects in schools, starting with rough sketches first to develop ideas is a good starting base to develop from. Then developing these drawings into technical/ working drawing would be the next step, in which to further develop some of their first initial ideas. The last stage would be their final drawings (or photo) which would show the final image of their idea complete.

Giving students stencils to use would be beneficial to those who struggle to draw garments free handed. Many students also find it easier to draw a garment on top of a figure. If the students, however draw garments on a figure by hand, the 7 head rule is a good guideline for them to follow.

While on the course, we had a few drawing tasks that were completed during the days sessions, such as drawing Sarah’s top with the time limit of 1 minute. The second task, drawing the top without looking at the paper and finally the third task drawing the top left handed. These tasks would all work well as a starter during lessons, to get the children warmed up in drawing.

Speedstep Programme; 

The speedstep programme allows you to draw a garment using CAD on the sketch part of the programme and transfer the image onto paint, in order to add colour and pattern.

Important tools to remember when using the Sketch part of the programme;

• Polyline tool – Draws a continuous line.
• Straight line tool.
• Segment is a curve- curves the continuous line.
• Pen width- Alters the thickness of the line.
• Join knots tool – Ensures the lines line up.

The paint pad on speedstep, is very similar to the basic paint pad usually found on PC’s.

Fibres and Fabrics.

Fibres;

There are two main different types of fibres to acknowledge, synthetic and natural. Synthetic, is man made yarns, such as polyester, acyclic and nylon are some examples. Natural yarns, are naturally sourced from animals or plants. Some examples are cotton, wool and silk. Each fibre would be made or spun into a yarn to be used for fabric construction.

Weave;

For the introduction into weave, we used a basic loom which could be easily used throughout schools. A few key words that are valuable to the knowledge of weave, such as; Warp- which is the yarn which goes downwards on the loom. Weft- which travels across the warp to construct a fabric. Shuttle – Is the device used to carry the weft thread through the warp. Reed – is the device used the beat down the weft yarns.

The basic step by step to follow to use this loom is;

1.  Choose a thinnish style yarn for the warp, and hook them through each gap within the loom, wrapping round the nails at the top to secure in place.
2. Then using a basic style shuttle, wrap the weft yarn around it.
3. For plain weave, the basic principle is to lift one warp thread up and the next one down, repeating for the width of the warp. Once at the other side, repeat backwards.
4. Then using a comb (as a reed) push the yarn down. Repeat this after every row to build up the material.
5. If in a classroom environment, possible to attach the woven material made to constructed fabric.

Knitting; 

We had a brief introduction into hand knitting and knitting with needles, which could both be easily taught and used in schools.

The basic instructions we followed the hand knitting was;

1. Wrap the yarn between your fingers and then back again starting and finishing at your thumb.
2. Then lift the lower yarn above the upper yarn.
3. Repeat this process and gradually the material will build up, ensure not to wrap the yarn too tight around your fingers as it makes it difficult to move.

Knitting needles is a very similar process to hand knitting, by pulling the lower yarn over the top.

Felting;

The process for felting was very simple and quite quick to do.

How to do;

1. Start by layering up the brushed wool, by laying the bottom layer straight down and then the next layer across the top sideways.
2. Repeat to build up the layers.
3. Then place the wool into a synthetic material.
4. Pour water over the top of the synthetic material and spread it over.
5. Roll the material up and and roll repeatedly.
6. The friction from rolling will cause the material to matt together and form a felted piece of fabric.
7. Roll for around 10-15 minutes.
8. Leave to dry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Food Technology – Gluten/starch and Yeast – Bread.

In order to understand how gluten and starch work within dough, we did a small experiment to see which flour would make the bread rise the best when baked.

We tested, strong white, strong wholemeal and strong plain flour.

The small test required us to;

• Weigh out 30g flour. ( I was given strong wholemeal to test)
• Add water
• Make note of the weight. (Mine weighed 51g)
• Need for 5 minutes.
• Submerge into water – see the starch coming out (water turns white, which is the starch)
• Keep rinsing the dough until most of the starch has gone. (Should look slightly like chewing gum)
• Then weigh to see how much gluten is left. ( Mine weighed 25g)
• Bake to see which is the best for making bread. ( The best will have the largest rise.)

After the experiment it was clear that the strong white flour is the best for having a good rise in bread. This is because the strong white flour traps water inside the dough which evaporates and expands when heated. Whereas the strong wholemeal flour (the one i tested) the grains disrupt the gluten causing less of a rise. (As seen within the photo. – Left side before baking and the right after)

We also did a quick test of yeast and how different treatments can affect the way yeast works. For example we did a balloon test and treated yeast differently in each tube and placed a balloon on top. The test tube which the balloon blows up enough to stand up is the one which the yeast has best reacted and would ultimately react similarly within bread.

We tested;

1. Yeast – with nothing else added.
2. Yeast + cold water +salt
3. Yeast +cold water + sugar
4. Yeast +cold water
5. Yeast + Water and placed in the fridge.
6. Yeast + Boiling water.

We left them for around an hour to see what the results would be. You could see clearly that the test tube filled with yeast, water and sugar reacted the best because the yeast had something to feed from to rise. (Pictures demonstrate the experiment clearly.)

 

Food Technology – Salt & Bread.

Our fist food technology lesson, was looking more closely to bread and what is within the ingredients, and how certain ingredients can change the rise, shape and taste of the bread in particular. The first thing we looked at was salt, and how this could affect the bread and the various tastes of salt available on the market at the minute.

We taste tried several salts and I ranked them from 1 (best) to 6 (worst)

• Maldon Salt – 1
• Table Salt – 4
• Sea salt – 2
• Rock salt – 3
• Lo salt (potassium chloride) – 5
• Cerebos Salt (Iodised table salt)- 6

The main thing we all learnt from this is that various different salts do not taste the same and is definitely something to consider when planning on using salt within a recipe.

After tasting the salts, we were given the task of making simple bread rolls each of us with a different amount of salt to add, to see which would produce the nicest tasting and rise of bread.

Traditionally 1.5- 2% of salt is added to the dough in relation to the flour for the best taste and rise. However I was given 0.5% salt to use within mine to see what difference it would make.

Instructions of how we made the small loafs;

• Add flour (50/50), salt, oil, yeast and water into a bowl.
• Need for 10 minutes.
• Place into a bowl and cover with cling film.
• Place into an over (just below 100c) with the door open for around 10 minutes. – to rise.
• Cut the bread into 8 – shape if desired.
• Second prove in the oven covered in cling film for 10 minutes.
• Remove cling film and turn up the oven to 220c and bake for another 10 minutes.

After all the rolls were baked and cut into small pieces, we all tried a piece starting with the bread using the most salt to no salt at all, this is what we found;

• 2.5% salt – slightly salty taste but has a springy texture.
• 1-2% salt – more springy texture and a nicer flavour.
• 0% salt- Bland and tasted like cardboard, it was also slightly dough like.

This found that 1-2% of salt did give the best structure and taste for the bread rolls.