Garment Construction
Garment Construction
Seams & Stitches
An understanding of how various stitches and seams work in constructing garments is essential. Apparel manufacturing uses about 30 stitch types and about 300 types of seams. A tremendous number of stitch and seam combinations thus are available for garment assembly.
T-Shirt Construction
Cutting T-shirts involves two separate processes:
- Cutting the fabric for bodies and sleeves
- Rewinding and bias cutting of fabric strips to be used for necklines (and, in some cases, sleeve bands)
Cut parts and trim are delivered to the sewing room with bundles of sleeves and bodies marked for matching during the assembly process. The major assembly steps are bottom hemming, shoulder closing, neck trim insertion, off-line sleeve assembly, sleeve insertion, and shoulder taping.
Jean Construction
Jeans require more pieces and assembly steps than do T-shirts. Cutting of the fabric is different, as denim is an open-width woven (rather than a tubular knit), and the fabric normally must be spread and laid in one direction only. The cut parts must be shade-matched and properly labeled. Assembly requires several off-line steps before the parts are joined into a pair of jeans.
Dress Shirt Construction
Dress shirts are complicated garments that use not only the base fabric for shirt construction but also auxiliary components, such as interlining and buttons. In order to manufacture a superior dress shirt with little variation, many of the construction processes are automated.
Markers, Spreading, & Cutting
Pattern Engineering
Apparel manufacturers create patterns in several ways. The starting point is often pattern drafting, in which body measurements are taken from a fit model or body form. The designer uses these measurements to create “slopers,” which are a set of basic patterns used in the development of styled garments. Other common terms for slopers are “basic blocks,” “master patterns,” and “foundation patterns.”
Marker Making
In apparel manufacturing, a marker is a special kind of stencil that illustrates how pattern pieces of one or more garments should be cut from several layers of fabric. The person who arranges the marker is the marker planner. It is the marker planner’s job to arrange the pattern pieces efficiently, wasting as little of the fabric as possible. The percentage of fabric cut into pieces is called the pattern yield (material utilization). When the yield is high, the arrangement of pieces is described as a “tight marker.”
Cutting Methods
Apparel manufacturers share the builder’s appreciation for cutting with precision. Before workers make the first incision into layers of fabric, they must ensure that the fabric is properly arranged, in a process called “spreading.” After spreading, the pattern map is placed on top of the stack, and the markers are cut. Various types of cutters are used.
Garment Components
Thread
Thread is essential for the construction of almost every manufactured garment. Thread is made from either natural materials, such as cotton, flax, wool, and silk, or from synthetic materials made by chemical processes, including polyester, nylon, rayon, and acrylic. Threads differ in their characteristics. Some threads are preshrunk to prevent puckering when the garment is laundered, while other threads shrink as the garment shrinks. Some threads consist of only one fiber, while others are combinations of fibers and/or types of yarn. For example, core-spun yarns have outer short-staple fibers twisted around high-tensile-strength centers, such as fiberglass, polyester, or nylon. Another useful characteristic of thread is stretch.
Closures, Zippers, & Buttons
Most garments require some type of system to hold garment panels together. To close and fasten most garments, one edge of the garment opening laps over the other. On women’s garments, the right side laps over the left; on men’s, the left side laps over the right. To fasten these closures, manufacturers use zippers, buttons, buckles, snaps, rivets, and hook-and-eye or hook-and-loop devices.
Findings & Trim
If the term “shell” describes a garment’s outer fabric layer, “trim” encompasses everything else. Trim includes “findings,” which are structural components such as fasteners, threads, pockets, shoulder pads, and waistbands. Trim also includes “trimmings,” which are decorative components, such as ribbons, bindings, and lace.
Shaping Materials
Shaping materials are layers of fabric used inside the garment shell that maintain the form of the garment by adding stability, strength, smoothness, and support in key areas.
