>>32I sew a lot, including clothes, largely for personal use, or simple projects for folks I know.
The idea of making more 'tech' style garments has long been intriguing to me, but I lament the fact that it seems the bulk of online discussion of this material is attacking it from the perspective of the wealthy consumer, not for the aspiring seamstress.
Maybe I've just not been looking in the right places, or maybe I should change around and make the right place.
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Some musings:
It seems that for the most part, 'techware' consists of a few elements.
-material
-basic construction
-added usefulness
-fashion
the last we often don't mention, but its fairly clear, especially from the images in this thread, that part of this is that folks are wanting a cyberpunk looking outfit thats not strictly cosplay, but well put together, comfortable, and useful, while also being very strongly /cyb/.
Second, the materials are clearly important, lots of athletic clothes use fairly specialized synthetic fabrics that are light, high stretch, absorptive, et cetera. This sort of fabric can be difficult for novices to sew with, just because of the challenge associated with measuring, sewing, and sizing a stretchy fabric, versus other more conventional and simple materials.
Obtaining these as a mere human must be possible, but I've yet to do a good hunt beyond my local fabric store, which while full of nice weaves and knits, is lacking in some areas.
I am not personally very familiar with what differentiates fancy techware stuff from normal clothes, frankly it seems the basics of assembling clothes are fairly well established, and I am not sure there is much room for improvement in how to sew a seam shut, unless you're going to weave a garment as a single peice. Improvements in thread choice, sure, but that is hardly new.
(I have never deconstructed or looked carefully at the assembly of a fancy 'techware' garment, so this may be taken with a grain of salt as its based on speculation almost totally. Also, if there are differences, it may just be a part of the fact that high end clothes are often somewhat not like general consumer garments, and differences on a 400 euro coat may be more due to the fact that its 400 euro than that its ''techware'').
Also as far as ease of movement, most sensible clothes aren't really restrictive, and probably the clothing worn by most people for comfort is, basically as good as it gets. My shirt sleeve can rotate 360 degrees easily, but my arm cannot, so really it doesnt matter. This might be more of an issue with bags, thick coats et cetera, but generally, it probably is not a problem in most clothes (formal wear is obviously often an exception, but I think we all know we're not discussing high heels and tight skirts).
Added usefulness is a generic sort of thing I threw in to try to cover lots of things, pockets, storage space, infrared patterns faraday cages and whatever else you want to use in your stuff.
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This seems like an interesting thing to explore, and I personally will be making some clothes soon, just because I need them. I'd like to explore ''techware'' ideas, if possible.
Am curious what lain thinks of my characterizations, of if she has any advice, direction, or other aid.
