Tangible E-Textile Interactive Interface for Digital Patternmaking

A common method of generating a garment pattern is by draping fabric on a 3D form. Many apparel designers prefer this tangible process rather than the more abstract process of drafting patterns in 2D using CAD software, but the visualization benefits of 3D rendering remain important to product development. Currently, draped patterns must be manually digitized to transfer the shape to the CAD environment, a cumbersome process. Here, we explore augmenting the fabric used to drape patterns with e-textile components, such that pinning the fabric to the form directly digitizes the pattern shape. The e-textile interface uses a keypad matrix approach with rows and columns on opposite sides of the fabric. Passing a metallic pin through a row/column intersection creates a circuit connection that a microcontroller reads and maps to a 2D spatial layout on the screen. The proof-of-concept device developed here is a first step toward an automatic digitizing system that allows designers to preserve manual skills and processes while integrating more efficiently with digital systems.