2025 S4 Tech T3 W2

​Material Technologies
Term 3 Week 2

Stage 4 Technology

Lesson outline:

1. Welcome
2. Pray
3. Mark the roll
4. Announcements & Recap
​5. Summary of Material Tech
6. Activity
7. Summary

Announcements

• Reminder for Project 2 - due next Thursday 14th August 2025

• (new students who joined us last Term after Week 10 do not need to submit Project 2)

Recap

• 3D printed clothes

• Engineered textiles such as self-healing fabric and conductive paint

• Leather created from plants

• Chromosonic textiles: fabrics that change colour when they hear sound or feel heat

​Last week: Advancing Textiles Technologies

Material Technologies
Summary lesson

Fashion Cycle

Upcycling

• One way to reduce waste is upcycling. It is the activity of making new products out of old or used things or waste material. This involves taking some form of consumer goods, which may or may not need to be dismantled, but this time, instead of downcycling them into the raw materials, they are used in their current form.

Multiple Choice

Question: What does upcycling involve?

• a) Upcycling involves creatively reusing materials to create new items

• b) Throwing away old items without any reuse

• c) Using materials only for their original purpose

🧵🧶Textiles

• Textiles are materials made from fibres, thin threads or filaments.

• Textiles are any kinds of fabric or cloth made by weaving, knitting, stitching or felting.

🧵🧶Textiles

​Textiles are classified based on their component fibres. A component fibre refers to the individual fibers that make up a textile material. These fibers can be natural (sourced from animals or plants), synthetic (artificial/ made by people) or inorganic (mineral sources).

Some examples are:

🐑🌱Natural fibres: silk, wool, linen, cotton

✋Synthetic fibres: rayon, nylon, and polyesters

🪨Inorganic fibres: such as cloth of gold, glass fiber, and asbestos cloth.

Multiple Choice

Question: What are textiles?

• Textiles are the fonts used for typing.

• Textiles are only used for clothes.

• Textiles are materials made from fibres, thin threads or filaments.

Characteristics of Fabrics

​Designers have to consider several characteristics of fabric when creating clothing.

These include: type, colour, texture, durability, seasonal use and sustainability

Multiple Choice

Question: Why do designers need to think about the characteristics of fabrics?

• Designers only consider fabric colour, not its properties.

• To ensure their product meets aesthetic, functional, and comfort needs.

• Fabric characteristics are irrelevant to design decisions.

👕🎨🏭Textiles Dyeing

Dyes are used to colour fabrics. They come in different types based on where they come from, how they are made, and how they stick to fabrics. Dyes can also be classified based on chemical structure, how they are applied, and what they are used for.

👕🎨🏭Textiles Dyeing

Natural dyes – Made from plants, animals & insects, and minerals.

Synthetic dyes – Synthetic dyes are made using chemicals in labs, and some even have metal ingredients to help the colours last longer.

The issues of synthetic textiles dyeing

There are environmental and health dangers in the process of synthetic textile dyeing. Textile dyeing is responsible for 20% of global water pollution and 3% of global CO^₂ emissions. The main issue is the dumping of untreated dye waste into waterways, which disrupts photosynthesis and oxygen levels for aquatic life.

Multiple Choice

Question: Why are natural dyes better for the environment?

• Natural dyes are better for the environment because they are non-toxic.

• Natural dyes are synthetic and harmful to aquatic life.

🧥🗑️ Fashion Waste

Australia has surpassed the US as the world’s biggest consumer of textiles per capita (per person).

Australians buy an average of 56 new clothing items a year, more than the US (53), UK (33 items) and China (30).

The average value per item purchased by Australians is AUD $13, far lower than the UK ($40), USA ($24), Japan ($30) or even Brazil ($16).

♻️Recycling

Recycling involves taking some form of consumer goods, whether it is products or packaging, and ‘disassembling’ it into its component materials. From there these materials are ‘downcycled’ into raw materials that can then be made into new consumer products.

Multiple Select

Question: What two steps are involved with recycling?

• disassembling and downcycling

• cycling and rowing