Collaborative Kits for Sewing Cafés

TCBL HANDBOOKS

COLLABORATIVE KITS FOR SEWING CAFÉS

Co-funded by Horizon 2020

TCBL 646133 – HANDBOOK RELEASED AS ANNEX V TO D4.4 30 June 2019

THE CHALLENGE There is a market around the art of sewing that is returning to be a fashionable activity.

Unfortunately, in Europe real knowledge of craftsmanship has for the most part been lost, and those who approach sewing have to struggle hard to reach an acceptable level of knowledge, such as being able to make their own clothes. Social enterprises, as well as knitting cafés, gather increasing numbers of people who want to work together, but in general they only try to make simple items such as Christmas decorations or small home accessories. In parallel, there are many people who would like to sew at home but who do not find sewing projects at their level.

The potential of this market can be seen in the growing diffusion of sewing cafés across Europe, which however still face the limit of offering only simple projects, thus lacking challenging and real tasks to assign to participants. The main problem for those who prepare sewing kits is that, though they may be knowledgeable in sewing, they can hardly put themselves in a beginner's shoes. Furthermore, more time is spent on packaging and promoting the product than on experimenting with groups of sewers at different skill levels.

So, it happens that when a novice buys an appealing kit that promises realization in a short time of an article or a garment, then the buyer is faced with abstruse terminology and complicated explanations that take for granted that certain steps are clear to the user. This generates frustration and the customer will hardly buy another kit from the same seller.

The challenge we address here is to design sewing kits that are well adapted to different skill levels, can best be realised in a collaborative environment such as a sewing café and can be exchanged and sold within a network of TCBL Cafés.1

1

TCBL Cafés are activities carried out by TCBL Labs, following a model for an upscaled, more professionalised sewing café network.

2

THE APPROACH To overcome these obstacles, TCBL proposes to co-design sewing kits with groups of beginners and intermediate sewers in a social sewing environment, before proposing them to the market. The different skills levels can allow for a qualitative upgrade from small items to simple garments (blouses without collars and cuffs, flared skirts, trousers with an elastic waistband), eventually moving on to propose articles of increasing difficulty.

In addition, it is very important to provide instructions that are clearly written and tested (also using video clips), to avoid user frustration over an incomplete or badly done task. This can be achieved by preparing kits that include the pre-cut fabric, step by step sewing instructions (provided with photos and videos) and everything needed to do the job (yarn, needles, zippers, buttons, ribbons, elastic-band and so on).

Finally, the kits can also be accompanied by a guide for the managers of sewing cafĂŠs, identifying difficult aspects or the type of support that may be needed in-house.

Open air collaborative sewing at the Gullo Filati TCBL Lab.

3

THE PROJECT The idea of new designs for sewing kits was proposed in the context of work with TCBL Place Labs in the Independents Business Case. A specific proposal for additional funding in order to realise and test the first prototypes was then successfully submitted by two TCBL Labs: Gullo Filati in Palermo (IT) and the Textile Centre of Excellence in Huddersfield (UK) to the COSME WORTH Partnership Project.2 This project has been organised with the following sequence of actions.

PRELIMINARY ACTIONS : • • • •

Choice of the type of garment to produce (bag, skirt, blouse, etc) Choice of two designers (one from Palermo and one from Huddersfield) to produce patterns.

Choice of fabrics and accessories.

Graphic design and packaging (Kit box prototype).

Testing the Kit Prototype at the TCoE TCBL Lab.

T ESTING PHASE • • •

2

Prototype kits made for initial testing.

TCBL Cafés held in Palermo and Huddersfield.

Evaluation and feedback as regards: ease of use, interaction and enjoyment of the experience, quality of the model as realised by the participants.

https://www.worthproject.eu/

4

Collaborative Kits for Sewing Cafés TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

Concept designs for the TCBL Kit graphics and presentation.3

FULL-SCALE SCENARIO The full-scale scenario emerging from the results of the experimentation foresees the following service model: • •

•

•

The TCBL Lab organising the TCBL Café receives the kit boxes.

The kit box with the TCBL logo can be composed according to two options: a) it contains all the materials needed to assemble the garment or b) only the pattern, the instructions and some essential accessories (needles, buttons, etc…).

The TCBL Café is organised and delivered, guidelines include: o Number of participants, 15/25 people. o Cost, from 20 to 50€ (depending on the kind of garment). o Inclusion of a designer/tutor to help the participants in the assembly of the garment.

Following the TCBL Café, the organising TCBL Lab collects participant feedback to improve the kit.

The garment designs, as well as additional ones from the network of TCBL Labs, can be uploaded to a shared on-line space – open only to managers of TCBL Cafés – with guidelines both on how to assemble the garment and how to organize the TCBL Café (n. of participants, price, etc…). TCBL Labs will then be able to choose and download the designs, paying the appropriate fees to the original designers.

3

Design by Floriana Benigni.

5

NEXT STEPS The feedback from the first tests appear to validate the business idea of TCBL Kits as a potentially disruptive business model for the T&C industry. The Business Model Canvas for the concept is shown below.

The TCBL Kit concept can be extended within Europe, driven by the TCBL network of Labs.

This idea is a win-win business prospect, based on the TCBL CafĂŠ model that is easy to replicate by any haberdashery, tailor, clothing shop, technical institute, etc. that wants to test new business channels. This can create a network between them, the designers, other textile realities and customers, helping to spread the principles of sustainability, eco-friendliness and fair trade which the TCBL Foundation aims to uphold.

6

Collaborative Kits for Sewing Cafés TCBL Handbooks Textile & Clothing Business Labs

DOCUMENT INFORMATION REVISION HISTORY This document is Annex V to TCBL Deliverable 4.4, “TCBL Business Systems – Scaling Up and Out”.

Authors: Thanos Contargyris (MIRTEC), Jesse Marsh (Prato), Michele Osella and Elisa Pautasso (LINKS), Richard Axe (TCoE) and Frédérique Thureau (IFM).

This Annex is authored by Marco Cusenza and Jesse Marsh.

REVISION Version 1 Version 2 Version 3

DATE

AUTHOR

16.07.2019 29.07.2019 09.08.2019

Jesse Marsh Jesse Marsh Jesse Marsh

ORGANISATION

DESCRIPTION

Prato Prato Prato

First draft for comments Final draft for review Final version incorporating reviewers’ comments

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This deliverable contains original unpublished work except where clearly indicated otherwise.

Acknowledgement of previously published material and of the work of others has been made through appropriate citation, quotation or both.

COPYRIGHT This work is licensed by the TCBL Consortium under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, 2015-2016. For details, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ The TCBL Consortium, consisting of: Municipality of Prato (PRATO) Italy; German Institutes for Textile and Fiber Research - Center for Management Research (DITF) Germany; LINKS Foundation (LINKS) Italy; Skillaware (SKILL) Italy; Oxford Brookes University (OBU) UK; imec (IMEC) Belgium; Tavistock Institute (TAVI) UK; Materials Industrial Research & Technology Center S.A. (MIRTEC) Greece; Waag Society (WAAG) Netherlands; Huddersfield & District Textile Training Company Ltd (TCOE) UK; eZavod (eZAVOD) Slovenia; Consorzio Arca (ARCA) Italy; Unioncamere del Veneto (UCV) Italy; Hellenic Clothing Industry Association (HCIA) Greece; Sanjotec - Centro Empresarial e Tecnológico (SANJO) Portugal; Reginnova NE (Reginnova) Romania, Centexbel (CTB) Belgium, Institut Français de la Mode (IFM) France, IAAC (FabTextiles) Spain, Cleviria (Cleviria) Italy, and Sqetch (Sqetch) Netherlands.

DISCLAIMER All information included in this document is subject to change without notice. The Members of the TCBL Consortium make no warranty of any kind with regard to this document, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The Members of the TCBL Consortium shall not be held liable for errors contained herein or direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this material.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The TCBL project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Programme for research, technology development, and innovation under Grant Agreement n. 646133.

7