My second assignment in HCDE 451 was to construct a prototype out of soft goods using a sewing machine. This assignment by far has been both challenging and fun and made me realize that I have a new hobby that I want to further develop.
For this project, we were assigned to create a simple fabric construction that met the following requirements:
Being an avid tote bag and purse user myself, I thought that the perfect thing to create would be an everyday tote bag.
When thinking of inspiration for my tote bag, I wanted the tote to be something that was cute and unique. After looking through my personal hobbies and likes, I thought of the idea to create a tote bag that looks like Nintendo’s Kirby.
Image of Nintendo’s Kirby character
I sketched out different versions of my Kirby tote, playing around with the amount of fabric used and shape of the bag. Overall, I decided to use a rectangular-shaped tote with subtle shapes that reference Kirby’s character design.
Image 1: My finalized tote bag sketch with inner zipper detail. Image 2: Playing around with different shapes of the tote bag.
Before getting into sewing, I sketched out a map of all of the pieces I need to sew before cutting out my fabric. For my pocket, I decided to go with a zippered pocket as a fastening mechanism because my ideal tote bag needed to be something that kept all my valuables and everyday things safely secured. Additionally, I chose to cut straps that were extra long and thick in order to fold and layer the fabric together to create sturdy handles for the bag.
Image of the mapped-out pieces of fabric for my bag.
I first created a “low-fidelity” iteration of my tote bag to first get used to the sewing machine as well as identify any potential areas of improvement in this version. During the creation of this version, I ran into several problems with using my friend’s sewing machine, and as a result, was unable to attach the Kirby arms that I hoped to add to the prototype. Even so, I found that this iteration gave enough subtlety to the original character design that I had intended for, and I stayed with this design for the next iteration.
Image 1: Muslin bag laid down with Kirby’s “blush” attached with fabric glue. Image 2: Holding the Muslin prototype.
With this prototype, I had identified 2 primarily problems I hoped to address: The fabric glue made the cheek blush fabric very stiff and look tacky. I needed to find a better way to attach the blush so that it could integrate with the entire fabric well. The second problem I wanted to address was that the tote bag was lacking structure and looked floppy when it was held. In the next iteration, I knew I wanted to utilize thicker fabric, and inner lining, and possibly boxed corners to add more structure to the bag.
For my higher fidelity prototype, I decided to use Canvas fabric to add more structure to the bag. Having a thicker fabric helped make the bag feel sturdy, secure, and gave it the “tote” feel by using a similar fabric that other tote bags use. To improve my initial straps, I folded, ironed, and then sewed the straps so that they had the strength of 4 layers of fabric.