Hello, and welcome to today's Design and Technology lesson.

My name's Mrs. Fletcher, and I'm here to help you with your learning today.

Today's lesson is called Fabric Fasteners, and it's part of the 2D shapes to 3D products stationery storage unit.

Today's lesson is all about the different types of fasteners you can use on a fabric product.

We'll be looking at how they're made and looking at the benefits and downsides of using each one in different ways.

So, let's have a look at what we'll be learning about today.

The outcome of today's lesson is I can understand how different fasteners work.

We'll be looking at three different types of fasteners in detail.

And we're going to look at how they're made, and how they work, and talk about the benefits and negatives of each one so that we can make good choices when we come to choose a fastener for our products.

There are some key words that we need to look at before we start our lesson.

These words will come up in today's lesson, so we need to make sure that we know what they mean.

Let's have a look at them together.

So the first word is the word fastener.

Can you say that after me? "Fastener." Well done.

And a fastener is a device that holds things together.

In this case, we're talking about fasteners that hold fabric together.

The second word is the word hook and loop.

Can you say that after me? "Hook and loop." Well done.

Now, hook and loop is a type of fastener that's a material that sticks together when you press it.

The third word is the word button.

Can you repeat that? "Button." Well done.

The button is another type of fastener, which is a small object that joins fabrics by passing through a hole.

The fourth word we need is zip.

Can you repeat that after me? "Zip." Well done.

And a zip is another type of fastener, which is a mechanism that joins or separates fabric.

And the word interlock.

Can you repeat that, "Interlock"? Is the way a zip works, and that means to fit together tightly.

So we're going to be looking at those three types of fasteners in detail in this lesson.

The lesson's going to be split into three parts.

So first of all, we're going to look in detail at the button fastener, then we'll look in detail at the hook and loop fastener, and then finally, we'll look in detail at the zip fastener.

So let's get started with the button fasteners.

Sewing is a method of joining fabric together, and once it's joined by sewing, it stays joined.

Sometimes, we want to join fabric pieces just for a short time.

We call that temporarily.

So we want to join it for a certain amount of time, but then unjoin it to use again later.

If you think of the example of a coat, in order to wear a coat, the fabric pieces of the coat need to be joined at the front in order for you to wear it and stay warm, but it needs to be unjoined again in order to take off the coat later on.

Fasteners are a way of doing that.

We can join and unjoin fabric together again and again.

Fasteners are used in lots of different types of products that we use every day, things like you can see here: shoes, bags, clothing.

Can you think which type of fastener is being used, though, on each of those examples? Pause the video and have a think.

Welcome back.

What did you think? What about the shoe? What type of fastener can you see being used there? Well done if you said that that is a hook and loop fastener.

What about the lunch bag there in the middle? Well done if you said it was a zip, it has zipped all the way around there.

And then finally on the piece of clothing, what type of fastener is being used there? It's a button; well done if you got those right.

Quick check, then.

What is a fastener used for? Is it A, for measuring fabrics; is it B, for joining fabrics forever; or is it C, for joining fabrics for a short time? Pause the video, have a think.

Welcome back, what did you think? Well done if you said it was for joining fabrics, but just for a short time on items that we want to unjoin again for some reason.

Now, let's get to those buttons.

So the buttons are a cheap, simple fastener that have been around for hundreds of years.

Today, they're usually made out of plastic, but they can be made out of all kinds of materials.

Things like wood, metal, shell, glass, even some animal bones or tartar shells are used to make.

have been used to make buttons in the past.

The most common shape we see for a button is usually a circular disc shape, and you can see one here attached to this cardigan.

And those types of buttons need to be attached by thread.

So they need to be sewn into place.

They also need a buttonhole, and that's a hole on the opposite piece of fabric in which they can pass through.

So the button is passed through the hole on that opposite piece of fabric, which is known as the buttonhole.

Plastic snap button fasteners are another type of button, but they work in a slightly different way.

They don't require any sewing to apply them on to fabric, but they are pressed into place using a special tool.

They can be much easier to use and easier to apply.

So you can see the snap button there.

It's like sometimes known as a popper and you can see the tool that's used to press them into place, and once they're pressed into place, they stay in that position.

Quick check, then.

What is this called here that you can see in this image? Is it a button, is it a buttonhole, or is it a circular disc? Pause the video and have a think.

Welcome back, what did you think? Well done if you said that is the buttonhole.

Exactly, that's the hole that the button needs to pass through in order to secure the two pieces of fabric.

For your task then for this first part of the lesson, I want you to look at a selection of different button fasteners.

They come in all types of shape, and sizes, and colours, but they usually all work in the similar way, so I want you to have a look at some products that you've got in front of you that use a button fastener.

I want you to think, first of all, about the positives.

So, what are buttons good for? What would they be good to use on? What type of product? Who might benefit from using them? What are the good points of using them? What do they do well? And then I want you to have a think about the negatives.

So this is: What problems might you have with a button? What could go wrong with using a button fastener? And what could make them not work as we intend them to? So there, we're looking at the positives and the negatives of a button fastener by having a go at them on the products in front of you.

I want you to record your ideas on the worksheet or on a piece of paper with headings for positive and negative.

Pause the video while you do that task and come back when you're finished.

Okay, welcome back.

So hopefully, you've had a good explore of all those products in front of you that have button fasteners, and I wonder what you thought about the positives and negatives.

So you might have said something, like, "The positives of using a button fastener is that they are inexpensive." That means they're cheap to buy, they're easy to fit because they require just a couple of stitches to put them in place, and you can get them in lots and lots of different colours and styles.

But if we're thinking about the negatives of a button fastener, you might have said something like, "They could come loose." If those threads come loose, you might lose the button.

They can leave gaps.

So the gaps between the fasteners mean that there's a gap in fabric, in the clothing fabric if it's on a clothing item.

And they can be a bit fiddly, a bit hard to fasten, especially if they're quite small buttons, which could be difficult for a very young or very old person to use.

Well done if you came up with some of those ideas.

So, let's move on to the second part of the lesson now.

So this is where we're going to look some more detail at hook and loop fasteners.

The hook and loop fastener was invented in 1941 by a Swiss engineer called George de Mestral.

And he got the idea when he noticed the way that some seeds would attach onto his dog's fur when he took his dog for a walk using very tiny that they had on the ends of the spikes.

So you can see here in the image, a closeup of the very tiny hooks that you can see on the end of the spikes, and those especially made on the plant to help the seeds hook onto something and carry them far away.

And that's where we got the idea for this type of fastener.

The hook and loop fastener is made of two pieces of fabric that stick together when you press them, but they can be pulled apart quite easily.

Here, you can see on one side, we have what's known as the loops, and they are soft fuzzy fibres.

On the opposite side, we have the hooks, and these are made of a hard plastic material, and they need to work together to hook onto the hard hooks, hook onto that fuzzy fibres on the other side.

So you need both sides of a hook and loop fastener in order to make it work.

Quick check, then.

Which part of the hook and loop fastener is made from hard plastic? Is it the hooks, is it the loops, or is it the backing? Pause the video and have a think.

Welcome back.

What did you think? Which part of the hook and loop fastener is made from hard plastic? It is the hooks, well done.

So those are the parts that hook onto that fuzzy fibre on the opposite side.

Hook and loop fasteners are used on lots of different products, too.

You see these are all over the place.

Things like clothes and shoes, backpacks and costumes.

They're very quick, and easy, and safe to use by all ages, and they can be adjusted really easily.

They open and close really easily to adjust.

Which of these then, quick check, is a hook and loop fastener.

Is it A, B, or C? Which one is showing us that hook and loop fastener? Pause the video and have a good look.

Welcome back.

Well done if you said it was B.

That is showing us the hook and loop fastener, of course.

A is showing us a button and C is showing us a zip.

So, your task then for this part of the lesson is to have a go at looking at some products that have hook and loop fasteners this time.

So you're gonna have a good go at opening and closing all those different hook and loop fasteners you've got in front of you.

And I want you to do the same as we did with the button fastener.

I want you to first think about the positives.

So what is the hook and loop good for? What does it do well? And then I want you to think about the negatives.

So the problems with the hook and loop fastener.

What could go wrong with it? Why wouldn't it work or who wouldn't it work for? Record your ideas in the same way as you did in the first part of the lesson, either in the table or on a piece of paper with two headings.

Pause the video while you complete the task and come back when you're finished.

Welcome back, how did you get on? What did you think about the hook and loop fastener? Well, if you're thinking about the positives, you might have said something like, "It's very quick to stick and unstick.

It leaves no gaps like the button did, so we have a solid fasten all the way from one end to the other end.

It can be very strong, sticks in place.

It's easy to use, it's safe to use, and it can be adjusted really easily." If you're thinking about the negatives of using a hook and loop fastener, you may have said something like, "It can lose its stickiness." So you may have come across some of those hook and loop fasteners that didn't seem to attach as well as some of the others, and that's because they can lose that stickiness.

Those hook and loops can become a bit weak and not hold onto each other as tightly as time goes by and as they're used up more often.

It is more work to attach to the fabric.

So if you were going to be putting a hook and loop fastener onto a piece of fabric, you have to sew all the way along that piece of fastener in order to attach it.

Unlike the button where we only have to do a couple of stitches to attach it.

They are quite noisy as well, so you might have noticed when you are opening and closing the hook and loop fastener that it makes quite a loud noise.

And then another problem might be that they all look the same.

So apart from changing the colour, there's not real merely much variation in a hook and loop fastener.

They all look quite similar.

Unlike buttons where you can get lots of different styles, and designs, and materials, these all look quite similar.

So, well done if you manage to pick up on any of those positives and negatives of a hook and loop fastener.

So let's move on, finally, to the last part of our lesson where we look in more detail at the zip fasteners.

A zip fastener is a series of interlocking teeth.

So there's that key word, interlocking.

And interlocking means they fit together perfectly in spaces.

And they're brought together and pulled apart by a slider.

So you can see here in this image, we've got the interlocking teeth that are fitting together like that.

We've got the tab, which you hold onto, to pull the slider forwards and backwards or up and down, and that locks those teeth together or unlocks those teeth.

So that's how the zip works.

It's those interlocking teeth are attached and pulled apart by that slider.

They're usually made from metal or plastic and they are held in place by fabric strips, and those fabric strips on either side are what we use to sew it onto a piece of fabric.

Quick check, then.

How do the teeth of the zip join? Is it by interlocking, is it by passing through a hole, or is it by hooking on? Which one is the way the zip works? Pause the video and have a think.

Welcome back.

What did you think? Well done if you said they interlock.

So we're thinking about those teeth that interlock together.

That's exactly how a zip works.

Well done.

Each side of the zip fastener needs to be sewn into place, one on each piece of fabric that you're going to join.

Now, they usually also have a stopper, which is a metal or plastic part that stops the zip, the slider from coming off the zip completely.

So it just stops at the bottom.

And the two pieces of zip are still in place, but they're not interlocked.

So that's how we see them in some products.

But in other products, like on a coat, for example, we do want both sides of the zip and the fabric that it's attached to to come completely apart.

So on a coat, we want them to come apart so we can take the coat off.

When a zip comes apart completely like that, it must be clicked into place first before you can use the slider to interlock those teeth, and that part can be quite tricky.

Zip fasteners are also used on a wide variety of products that we see every day.

You can see zips around you every day: on clothing, on bags, on things like wetsuits, and many, many other places as well.

When the zip is closed and the teeth are interlocked, the fabric pieces are joined.

When the zip is open, the teeth move apart, and that's when each of the fabric pieces can be separated.

So that's that temporary join that we talked about before.

It's not for a long time.

Quick check before we move on, though, then.

Which part of the zip is the part that moves? Is it the stopper, is it the teeth, or is it the slider? Pause the video and have a think.

Welcome back.

What did you think? Well done if you said it was the slider.

So that is the part that you hold on and move up and down.

Well done.

So for your final task, then, you're going to do the same as we've done with the button and hook and loop fasteners.

We're going to have a look at a selection of products that have zip fasteners on them.

And you might have a range of products of different sizes and colours of zip fasteners.

So while you're investigating them and having a go at using them, I want you to be thinking first about the positives.

So, what are the zips good for? What do they do well? Why do you think they are a good fastener, as in some products? And then the negatives.

So thinking about what problems might you have using a zip? What could go wrong with a zip, and when or by whom would it not work very well for? Record your ideas again, just like you did in this previous two tasks, either in the table or on a piece of paper, and pause the video and come back when you've had a good investigate of those zip fasteners.

Okay, welcome back, so how did you get on? What did you think is the zip fasteners compared to the button and hook and loop fasteners? So if you are thinking about the positives, you might have said something, like, "They're very strong." So once they're joined, they're very difficult to pull apart.

You can easily pull them apart with a slider, but they're a good strong join if you're not using the slider.

They're quick to use, so it's quick to zip up and down.

They look very neat and tidy on a product, and they come in different colours and materials.

So you can get them in plastic, metal, and different colour fabrics on the back as well to match the product.

If you're thinking about the negatives of a zip fastener, they can be tricky to start, particularly when you are younger or if you have problems with your fingers.

If you're an older person, they can be quite tricky to start.

If you're using zips on something like a coat, they can get stuck.

So if you've ever got stuck inside your coat, you'll know that zipped can get stuck sometimes.

If those teeth get bent out of place, it can mean that the zip can get stuck in that position.

They can break in the same way.

They can't really be adjusted.

So once they're zipped up, that that's the position they need to stay in.

You can catch your fingers in them.

So if you've ever caught your finger in a zip, you'll know that it can pinch the skin of your fingers, and that can hurt sometimes.

And they are quite difficult to attach to fabric.

So just like the hook and loop fastener, you need to sew all the way along the edge of a zip fastener to attach it to the piece of fabric.

So it's quite a lot of work to attach to a product.

Well done if you came up with any of those positive or negatives of a zip fastener.

We are at the end of the lesson now.

We've learned lots of information about those three different types of fasteners that we might use in a fabric product.

We've learned that hook and loop is a system that attaches two fabrics together, and we saw that it had one fuzzy side and one hooked side that hooks onto that fuzzy side.

They need to work together by being pressed together.

We've learned that buttons are fasteners that join two pieces of fabric by sliding through a buttonhole.

And we've learned that a zip fastener is a series of interlocking teeth that are brought together and pulled apart by that slider that moves up and down.

So three very different fasteners that work in different ways, but can all be used as a way of temporarily joining fabric.

So that means it can be taken apart again.

Thank you for joining me for this lesson, I've had fun learning about these fasteners, and hopefully we'll get to do work together on another lesson where we might see these fasteners in action.

See you again soon.