Why Is Textile Work Not Taught To Engineers?

At a recent Electromagnetic Field conference in the UK, costume specialist Amy Jeskins argues—per Hackaday—that pattern cutting deserves a place in engineering education. Her talk traces pattern making from traditional hand techniques to modern CAD design, highlighting how these skills involve genuine precision and problem-solving. Yet textile work has been overlooked, she suggests, because it's historically coded as women's work and thus excluded from 'real' engineering. Some hackerspaces are already bridging that divide with dedicated textile rooms, showing that recognizing textile engineering could reshape the discipline itself.

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