SoftMatters

Most contemporary woven textiles are produced in a rectangular format, and cut-and-sew, also called cut-and-assemble, is the most common method to transform them into 3D form, despite generating significant amounts of cut waste, disrupting the integrity of the fabric and dividing textile and form making into separate epistemes. This practice-based research carried out by a textile designer develops cut- and seamless hand weaving methods as alternatives to the cut-and-assemble method. It proposes new perspectives on weaving and looms by demonstrating potentials for form making that lie in the modifiable structural and material setup of the woven textile itself. It critically revisits binary and disjunctive framings of textiles, e.g. conventional distinctions between warp and weft and categorisations of textile typologies that emphasise differences instead of potentials for hybridisations and argues that such conceptual divisions could thwart the exploration of such textile-inherent potentials. The research further questions the position of textile design as a discipline that provides a semi-finished product for other disciplines.

On a practical level, it develops a set of weaving methods as alternatives to the principal operations performed in cut-and-assemble, as well as loom modifications allowing for the utilisation of these methods. Fabric shaping through cutting, as well as hemming and assembly through sewing (or related post-loom assembly techniques) are translated into cut- and seamless methods permitting the weaving of textiles with non-rectangular outlines and secured edge finishings, their seamless assembly into three-dimensional forms, and the creation of hybrid textile structures that seamlessly join weaves and knits. These methods and tool modifications are demonstrated through a range of practical experiments, which have further generated conception and visualisation methods that hybridise existing approaches from textile and form design. The analysis of these experiments discusses the potentials and limitations of these conception and production methods, and reflects on a future automation. It further describes new expressive possibilities they offer for designers, and discusses potentials for hybridisations between textile and form making more generally.

Read the thesis

• Drews, J.A., 2025, No Cuts No Seams: Textile-inherent potentials for designing and weaving seamless garments & other three-dimensional artefacts, PhD thesis, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs – PSL. (forthcoming).

Related publications

• Drews, J.A., 2024, ‘L’enjeu des finitions dans le projet de tissage zéro-chute No Cuts No Seams, In:  Castres, A., Cousin, C., et Duroselle, C. (eds), Rubans, galons, franges, coutures, lisières: Finitions textiles, Les Indes Savantes, AFET.
• Rosato, L., Drews, J.-A., Tour, A.; Bassereau, J.-F., Mosse, A., 2023, Seamlessness and Monomateriality in Sustainable Garment Design. A Knit/Woven Trouser Prototype, DIID, disegno industriale industrial design, n°80, pp.120-131.
• Drews, J., McQuillan, H.,and Mosse, A., 2023,  Methods for Designing Woven Textile-forms: Examples from a pedagogical textile design workshop, In: Heinzel, T., Dumitrescu, D., Tomico,  O., Robertson, S. (eds.), Proceedings of Textile Intersections Conference 2023, 20 – 23 September, London, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/TI-2023/113.
• Drews, J.A., 2019, The Gap and How to Bridge It: attempts at reconciling weaving and garment making, master thesis, Paris: Ecole nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs.