Knowledge of textiles construction CMT 7-4
Achievement standard 2.23 AS 91346
Construct a textile materials product requires students to implement techniques and procedures and undertake tests to make specified products using textile materials.
Textile materials refer to a group of materials that are grouped together because they show certain common characteristics. These materials include but are not limited to: natural and synthetic fibres, yarns, knits and woven fabrics. Textile materials require particular techniques to be used to enable these materials to be measured, cut, shaped, joined, and finished when making products. Advanced techniques are required to craft special features of a high standard in a product and rely on the consistent application of accepted conventions to achieve a desired effect. Special features can be structural and/or aesthetic and include style features, such as set in sleeves, fly front, tailored collars and cuffs, welt pockets; decorative features, such as pin tucks, embroidery, shirring; and structural features, such as 3D felting, combining different fibres in felting and different materials.
Achievement objective: CMT 7-4
Students will:
- demonstrate understanding of advanced techniques used to make textile materials products.
Indicators
Students can:
- identify attributes of special features in textile products
- explain construction requirements of special features
- explain requirements to obtain a quality finish in special features
- discuss why techniques are selected to make special features and how they are influenced by the characteristics of the materials used.
Progression
At level 6, students learn about textile materials, the basic techniques commonly used to work them, and the relationship between these. At level 7, students progress to learning about advanced techniques required to construct special features in textiles product(s).
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Teacher guidance
To support students to develop understandings about the advanced techniques used to make textile material products at level 7, teachers could:
- provide opportunity for students to explore accepted conventions used when constructing products using textile materials, and discuss how these conventions guide constructing in materials in similar and diverse contexts
- provide examples of accepted conventions, including: sizing, drape, tolerance, ease, taper
- support students to understand special features and the skills associated with their construction
- guide students to understand how and why techniques are brought together to achieve special features.
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Contexts for teaching and learning
Learning about advanced techniques used to make textile materials products can be incorporated into a teaching and learning programme where students make a specified textile product to meet a brief (refer to
CMT 7-2). This objective and subsequent assessment is about demonstrating understanding and knowledge of textile construction while not necessarily making a specified product.
- To support students developing their understanding, the teaching and learning programme could incorporate a variety of activities such as:
- Manufacturing or industry visits
- Futureintech ambassadors or other specialists and guest speakers
- Case studies, sewing guide books relating to fashion and sewing techniques
- Deconstructing and experimenting with textile products and garments
- Some students have deconstructed an outfit to assist them in demonstrating the required understandings. This would need to be accompanied by a discussion of the construction techniques used and how they make the most of/or manage the different types of textile materials.
- Teacher demonstrations
- Group activities in testing and trialling a variety of advanced techniques and processes in a range of materials and methods
- Students are required to show understanding of how special features are used in the construction of textile products. Special features could include style features such as zips under flap pockets, pleating and piping, and/or decorative features such as pin tucking, embroidery and buttons, and/or structural features such as 3-D felting and nuno felting.
- Students should have at least two special features to explore in their learning experiences; they may investigate what these features look like in different existing products or in patterns, how they were made, and what determined that they had a quality finish.
- Materials could be considered on the basis of thickness, drape, nap or pile, stretch, fray, shine, pattern to be matched, beading or sequins, crush, stickiness, tendency to change structurally (for example, pilling, stretch) or a combination of these.
Other contexts for learning that could support students to demonstrate their understanding of advanced concepts in textiles include such things as: shoemaking, hat making, clothing design/making, and upholstery.
Literacy considerations
Students will need to be supported in their understanding of the assessment language of describe, explain and discuss. Note the following definitions:
- to identify is to state an idea
- to describe is a statement that gives details about the outcome or idea
- to explain is to describe in detail with reasons – often including the how and why
- to discuss requires an explanation that is comprehensive, detailed, broad, and shows evidence of some complexity in thinking. It may be a reasoned argument presenting a particular point of view, a comparison and contrast between two ideas or concepts, or it may be a detailed reasoning and relationship between several complex ideas.
Students will need to be supported in their understanding of how describe, explain, and discuss look when collecting their evidence for assessment and writing (frames and structures or templates can be used judiciously to support this). Care must be taken not to over template writing forms, which may not allow students to achieve against the criteria.
Students must be supported to develop systems to capture specific evidence of their development for assessment and moderation purposes, which may form a part of a larger portfolio of evidence.
Students will need to understand how to explain and discuss the concepts related to the objective:
- explaining how and why special features are used in textile products
- explaining how special features are constructed in a textile material
- explaining the requirements of a quality finish of special features
- explaining how the construction of special features changes when using different types of textile materials
- discussing why particular materials and construction techniques are used to create high-quality special features in textile products.
For the advanced concepts, conventions and attributes, students may need to learn particular pieces of vocabulary to explain and discuss the special features of the product, the types of techniques used, and the specialist equipment. For example, for a fly front they may need to use these terms and expressions: fly extension, placket, underlap, basting stitch length, clip through the seams, regular stitch length, zip tape, bar tack, trimming, layering of seams.
Resources to support teaching and learning
Technology Online case study material
Internet sites
Ahles, C. L., 2004, Fine Machine Sewing: Easy ways to get the look of hand finishing and embellishing, The Taunton Press, USA.
Betzina, S., 2004, More Fabric Savvy, The Taunton Press, USA.
Betzina, S., 2010, Power Sewing Toolbox 1 & 2, The Taunton Press, USA.
DVDs
- 2010 Threads Archive DVD-ROM, available from
Taunton Store
- Threads Industry Insider Techniques DVD, Vol.1 and Vol. 2, available from
Taunton Store
Assessment for qualifications
The following achievement standard(s) could assess learning outcomes from this learning objective:
- AAS91346 Construction and mechanical technologies 2.23: Demonstrate understanding of advanced concepts used to make textile products
Key messages from the standard
The standard requires students to develop and demonstrate understanding of special features and the techniques used to create them. This includes developing understanding of how the different types of textiles are taken into account when carrying out techniques to create these features.
Students will also require knowledge of textile equipment used to make/construct these special features, including marking tools, cutting-out tools (for example, rotary cutters, specialist scissors), machine attachments, and special needles.
Evidence of understanding will typically come from a variety of sources and activities. It may come from part of targeted teaching and learning or collected throughout the year as part of a whole programme.
Advanced concepts used when making textile products include knowledge of how and why techniques are brought together to achieve special features.
Special features are those that rely on the application of advanced skills. These include but are not limited to: style features, such as set in sleeve, fly front, tailored collars and cuffs, welt pockets; and/or decorative features such as pin tucking, embroidery, and shirring; and/or structural features such as 3D felting and combining different fibres in felting and different materials.
Textile materials may include but are not limited to: natural and synthetic fibres, yarns, knits and woven fabrics.
Students will need to explore the construction techniques used and how they make the most of or manage the different types of textile materials. For example, to achieve, the student could explain the attributes of special features (for example, inset pockets and fly fronts), the reasons they are constructed in a particular way, and the requirements for a quality finish. For merit, they would also be expected to explain how the different types of materials used influence the construction of these features. To be at excellence, the student would then need to discuss why particular materials and construction techniques are used to create high-quality special features in textile products.
The discussions need to cover at least two special features – refer to Explanatory note 4.
To demonstrate the understandings required for this standard, students also require knowledge of textile equipment used to make/construct these special features. This might include marking and cutting-out tools, machine attachments, and/or special needles.
It may be easier for some students to show their understanding after they have made a product. These final understandings might be informed by some initial investigations before the product is made. Not having made a product does not exclude a student from achieving this standard, but it is expected that students will require access to materials to demonstrate how special features are achieved. This might include, for example, materials used to make a product, to shape it, and to achieve particular finishes. Other materials may be required to demonstrate different techniques applied in similar and diverse textiles. Students will more than likely also need to explore a range of existing products in order to discuss the materials and techniques used, to achieve particular quality features.
- Evidence for assessment may come from a variety of sources and activities. Students will need guidance on what constitutes evidence, how they are to organise and annotate the evidence they gather, and present it (for example, as a hard copy in a portfolio, digitally, or as a combination of the two). Teachers will need to ensure that the range and depth of evidence the students provide covers the requirements of the standard.
This evidence may be collected as part of targeted teaching and learning or collected throughout the year as part of a whole programme.
Evidence can be drawn from a range of sources:
- Photographs and/or drawings including annotations describing the accepted conventions followed when constructing the product.
- Photographs or photocopies of safe practices followed during construction with annotations stating how this practice exemplifies common approaches to managing safety in school workshops.
- A written analysis of the connections between the conventions used and the tools and techniques used to follow the conventions in similar contexts (for example, other pieces of constructed textiles product) and diverse contexts (for example, garments, textile furnishings and craft pieces).
- A written explanation of the similarities and differences between the safety practices in school workshops and industry construction and textile environments.
Creating the report is an individual activity, but students may carry out the investigation either independently or with a partner or group.
Resources to support student achievement
Last updated March 15, 2024
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