Hwaryoung suggested that I practice sewing to gain experience for my proposed project. I was asked to sew and stuff two objects of different materials.
After experimenting with two different materials, I decided to try my hand at the sewing machine. Brian Smith was gracious enough to not only teach me how to use the machine, but to also let me borrow his over the short break.
Here is my first fleece pillow:
 |
| pinning |
 |
| stitching |
 |
| stuffing |
I made a total of 8 pillows; 7 different materials. I decided to ask my fellow students to touch and rank the pillows: best to worst.
It was suggested to me that I do not give the students more information on how to rank them. This way, it is more of an intuitive decision and they subconsciously consider physical texture, look, and feel.
Students often hugged, petted, and rubbed their cheeks against the pillows. They mainly focused on the texture, but some considered visuals in their ranking.
"I'd sleep with this"
"I wouldn't put my head on this"
Informal Test Results:
A: 4 4 4 1 1 5 2 4 5 5 5 2 1 = 43
B: 7 7 7 7 5 2 6 7 1 8 1 7 4 = 69
C: 3 6 1 2 7 7 7 3 7 2 3 1 3 = 52
D: 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 6 7 8 8 8 = 101
E: 2 1 3 3 2 6 1 1 2 3 2 4 5 = 35
F: 1 2 2 6 6 1 5 2 8 1 4 3 2 = 42
G: 5 3 6 4 3 4 4 6 4 6 6 5 7 = 63
H: 6 5 5 5 4 3 3 5 3 4 7 6 6 = 62
Overall Ranking:
1: E
2: F
3: A
4: C
5: H
6: G
7: B
8: D
Comments about pillows:
A
- soft
- nice density of texture
- feels like bath mat
B
- rough
- animal resemblance (dog)
- base of texture too stiff
C
- soft
- animal resemblance (dog)
- pillows or plushies with same material
D
- animal resemblance
- creepy
- interesting
- not comforting
E
- very soft
- appealing pattern
- unappealing pattern
F
- very soft
- holds cool temperature well
- interesting texture
G
- fleece
- soft
- cute pattern
H
- fleece
- soft
- cute pattern
