Technology News 

Dilly Bags in Year 8 Fast Fashion 

This semester Fast Fashion students at the Cranbourne Campus are trialling an updated unit of work requiring them to design a traditionally inspired carry bag to replace the many current plastic options available to consumers. They have been working through the design process from identification of considerations and constraints within a design brief, through to investigation, production and evaluation of their product.

Design Brief

Plastic bags are gradually being banned all over the world because of the many environmental problems they cause. 

You are a textiles designer and producer and have been approached by a client to investigate a range of eco-friendlier bags, inspired by the traditional ‘Dilly bags’ of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, to be made and sold in Australia as an initiative to promote this rich cultural heritage whilst at the same time, reducing the use of plastic. You are to investigate traditional ‘Dilly Bags’ as well as the background to the use of plastic bags and their impact on the environment. Using this information, you are then to propose your traditionally inspired and eco-friendly designs for your client to choose from. You will make your bag from eco-friendly unbleached cotton calico to a simple design sample bag which has an Aboriginal-inspired design. You will evaluate how successful your bag is in solving your client’s needs and reflect on what you have learnt in this unit. 

Traditional Dilly Bag                                                                                       Contemporary Dilly Bag

Class and student design ideas

From here students will select a traditional design and simplify it to produce a template for applying their design to fabric using permanent fabric spray paints. These are some of the ideas at work.

Ms Annette Marschner

Year 9 Fast Fashion Teacher

Cranbourne Campus