With 3D printing showing promise across many industries, San Francisco-based startup Electroloom has developed what it claims to be the world’s first 3D fabric printer.

Co-founders Aaron Rowley and Marcus Foley, both former design engineers at Boston Scientific, and Joseph White, a former software engineer at Amazon’s research and development arm, Lab126, say the “electrospinning” process they have developed was inspired by the techniques used in labs to generate organic tissue.

Electroloom’s prototype 3D printer uses electrospinning to turn liquid into a seamless fabric and enables people with a smattering of computer-aided design ability to design and manufacture clothes from scratch – straight from their desktop.

The company raised $82,300 (£56,559) through a Kickstarter campaign last year and in February 2016 received a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research grant funded by the National Science Foundation.

Electroloom ceased operating in August 2016.