Content Page 5.1 Garment Ease and Fitting 1 5.1.1 Garment Ease 1 5.1.2 Garment Fitting 3 5.2 Pattern construction 7 5.2.1 Measurement and Sizing 7 5.2.2 Methods of Pattern Construction 13 5.2.3 Individual and Commercial Pattern Construction 21 Process 5.3 Garment Construction 23 5.3.1 Construction of Garment Parts 23 5.3.2 Trimmings and Fastenings 58 5.4 Industrial Technologies 69 5.4.1 Industrial Sewing Machine 69 5.4.2 Laser Technology 72 5.4.3 Automatic Data Collection System 75 5.1 Garment Ease and Fitting 5.1.1 Garment Ease Garments require adequate ease to provide and allow room for movement. Ease is the extra allowance added on the body measurement in pattern construction. Ease is different between garment measurement and body measurement. The exact dimensions of the body are without any addition room for comfort or movement. There are two types of ease: Wearing Ease and Design Ease. The measurement of a garment should consider the measurement of the wearer’s body, wearing ease and design ease. Body Wearing Design Fashion Style + + = Measurement Ease Ease or Silhouette Figure 5.1 The sizing design of a fashion garment Wearing ease Design ease Figure 5.2 Wearing ease – to show the basic ease on the dress for allowing the body to move comfortable. Design ease – extra ease to add into the dress by the designer to change the silhouette. 1 (A) Wearing Ease Wearing ease (comfort ease or fitting ease) must be required in all garments for body movement. Without wearing ease, wearers will feel uncomfortable. Garments appear tight and wrinkled and wear out more quickly from the strain on seams and fabric. The major factors that affect wearing ease are (a) body movement, (b) fabric characteristics, (c) style of the garment and (d) customer preferences. (i) Body Movement Too little ease may restrict body movement and stress fabric but too much wearing ease may affect appearance of the garment. z Example for movement: The hip shape changes shape as we walk or sit down. Therefore ‘ease' must be added to the hip measurement (girth) and in the area from hip to waist (length), especially for trousers. z Example for expansion: The rib cage must expand when we breath therefore 'ease' is added to the chest /bust measurement (girth) and in the area from bust to waist (length). (ii) Fabric Characteristic Rigid fabrics are hard and stiff. They require more wearing ease than stretch fabrics. Stretch fabrics may require less comfort allowances. Fabric Characteristic Wearing Ease Stretch Fabric: - Knitted fabric (e.g. jersey, rib) - Depend on the style of garment and fabric - Woven fabric with lycra stretchability - Negative ease to be added to skin-fitted swimwear or Tee-shirt Rigid Fabric : - Must add ease allowance for body - Woven fabric (e.g. denim, twill) movement Figure 5.3 Relationship between fabric characteristics and wearing ease 2 (iii) Style of the garment Some garment requires additional amounts of ease beyond the minimum requirement, depending on the specified style and intended use. In sportswear or maternity wear, the garments are worn for a specific purpose and 'ease' must be added to allow wearers to do certain actions such as a football uniform requires more wearing ease for running and kicking the ball in the match. (iv) Wearer Preferences The amount of ease added to a pattern will affect both the fitness and silhouette of the finished garment. (B) Design Ease Design ease is extra style fullness added to wearing ease. It is added straightly for the sake of appearance, giving a garment its “style” to attract customers. The amount of design ease in a garment depends on current fashion trends and the desired style of the garment. Oversized or undersized garments are made by adopting design ease. (C) Amount of Ease The amount of ease added to a pattern will affect both the fit and silhouette of the finished garment. The basic ease allowances are suggested in the following table and are intended for pattern construction. Type of Garment Chest/Bust Ease Allowance Shirt /Blouse 10~14 cm Jacket 16~24 cm Coat 20~28 cm Figure 5.4 Example of chest/bust ease allowance for different types of garment 5.1.2 Garment Fitting Garment Fitting is how well the garment conforms to the wearer’s body. It is influenced by fashion trends, personal preferences, the usage and the function of the garment. 3 Five elements are used to evaluate the fitness of the garment. They are grain, set, balance, line and ease. (A) Grain Garments must be cut on grain. The lengthwise grain of the fabric must run parallel to the length of the body and the crosswise grain must run perpendicular to the body. Otherwise, garments will not hang straight. The seamlines may twist. (B) Set The garment with good set will be worn smoothly on the wearer’s body without any set wrinkles. Set wrinkles are always found on the oversize or undersize garments. (C) Balance The good garment must look symmetrically balance at the front or back view. The centre lines of the garment and the body must be aligned. Unbalanced garments worn unevenly on wearers will show poor postures. (D) Line The structural lines of the good garments must follow the natural lines of wearers. Out-of-line garments will show poor postures and wearers will not feel comfortable. (E) Ease Ease refers to the amount of roominess in a garment. Garments require adequate ease to provide sufficient room for body movement and show the designed style. Lack of ease will effect the movement of wearers. 4 Tense: horizontal wrinkles = too tight Loose: vertical folds=too loose Skirts too tight Jacket too tight Sleeve too loose Jacket too loose through hips through shoulders through torso Loose: horizontal Tense: vertical Diagonal wrinkles point to body bulges folds = too long wrinkles = too short Bodice too long at Pants too short in Bodice too tight Pants too tight waist crotch across bust across abdomen Figure 5.5 Wrinkles and folds indicate fit problems A good finished garment is sewn by many good fabric pieces. Fabric pieces are interrelated closely and must be produced from a carefully-made pattern. The pattern pieces must fit together and each pattern piece must be carefully checked so that the bodice front must fit to the bodice back, the collar must fit the neckline, the sleeve must fit the armhole, etc. When the garment sample is completed, it should be checked carefully on each detailed points such as seams, darts, roll of the collar and general proportions. It should then be tested the ease distribution on a live human model for movement comfortability. 5 When judging garment fit is judged, the garment should have a smooth look, without pulls or wrinkles, no sagging or baggy areas. After the garment sample has passed all these tests, the pattern can be identified as a good pattern. 6 5.2 Pattern Construction The clothing pattern are used as a guide for cutting the fabric, which when sewn together forms a wearable garment. Clothing Product Design Sketch Clothing Pattern by Tailor-making or Mass Production Figure 5.6 The role of clothing pattern in garment making 5.2.1 Measurement and Sizing (A) Body Measurement Body measurements are important for pattern construction. The accuracy will directly affect the fitness, function and comfortable of the garment. There are two methods to obtain body measurement: Direct body measurement Three- dimensional scanner (i) Direct Measurement This is a kind of traditional manual measuring method. This method is measured the dimension of human bodies by using a measuring tape. In taking measurements, they should be taken in an order, in particular, the girth measurements should be taken from the upper one and then downward to the lower positions, and no allowance should be included. It requires a high degree of skill, rich experience and is time-consuming. 7 Figure 5.7 Body measurement positions on the female figure 8 Figure 5.8 Body measurement positions on the male figure Figure 5.9 Body measurement positions on the child figure 9 (ii) Three-dimensional Scanner The latest measuring techniques use high accuracy electronic equipments such as three-dimensional scanners and computers to store and analyse data. The body must dress the tight-fitted clothing and stand inside the scanning chamber. The laser beams will scan on the body and send the data to a computer for analysis and form a three-dimensional image. A dressing-room size scanner Yellow lines illustrate measurement points of 3D body scan Figure 5.10 Measurement taken by a three-dimensional body scanner and style selection for made-to-measure 10 Advantages Disadvantages (1) Direct - Low capital cost and low - The data will be varied Measurement tool maintenance cost. from different tailors. - The measurement can be - Less measurement points taken in anywhere and than three-dimensional anytime. scanners. - Long measurement time. (2)Three-dimensional - Short measurement time - High capital cost and Scanner - High accuracy maintenance cost. - Experienced measurers - Wearers need to dress the are not necessary. tight-fitted clothing for body measurement. - The measurement must be taken in the scanning chamber. Figure 5.11 Comparison between direct measurement and three-dimensional scanners (B) Size Chart Garment size represents a set of measurements which will suit and fit a category of people when wearing the clothes. Size codes, usually in the form of numbers or alphabets are used in the size chart to indicate garment size. Some of the size codes used in different places are as follows: 11 Ladies Men Children European United United European United United European United United Kingdom States Kingdom States Kingdom States 34 6 4 46 36 36 125cm 43” 4 36 8 6 48 38 38 135cm 48” 6 38 10 8 50 40 40 150cm 55” 8 40 12 10 52 42 42 155cm 58” 10 42 14 12 54 44 44 160cm 60” 12 44 16 14 56 46 46 46 18 16 58 48 48 Different types of garment require different sets of measurements.