Garment construction

Sarwat Halima
Saima Habib
Sadia Amin

What I do is restricted by the cloth and the
human body.
My job is to make that cloth give expression to
the body.’
(Vivienne Westwood)
April 1941 is an English fashion designer and
businesswoman, largely responsible for
bringing modern punk and new wave fashions
into the mainstream.

 Garment making is a technical accomplishment
that requires knowledge of fabrics, principles of
clothing construction and skills involved in it.
 This depends on the ability to select the correct
fabric, color, design and accessories to suit an
individual occasion.
 A garment that is made will be attractive if it
fits well and proper attention is paid to its finer
details.
 It is necessary to know the techniques of sewing
for producing attractive garments with good fit.

 Perhaps the most obvious function of dress is
to provide warmth and protection.
 Other basic functions of dress include
identifying the wearer and making the
wearer appear more attractive.
 Clothes that are deemed handsome in one
period are declared downright ugly in the
next and even uniforms—the simplest and
most easily identified costume—are subject
to change.

 One of the earliest theories which formed
the hypotheses of wearing clothes was the
modesty/shame theory.
 This theory is also known as the fig leaf
theory which is based on the story in the
Bible. Genesis states that Adam and Eve
realize that their state of being naked
when they consume a fruit from the
knowledge tree. And in shame they both
stitched clothes out of fig leaves, hence the
name fig leaf theory.

 Arguments said that clothing was merely
because of protection of one's body from the
threats in the environment.
 Clothing was discovered eons ago. A
discovery of a 500-year old male on a glacier
on the Austrian-Italian border revealed such.
The body was clad in a fur cap, a leather
cape, a loincloth, and leather shoes.
These clothes were possibly there to
provide protection against the harsh winds.

 Other arguments stated
that clothing was
created to create
sexual attraction or to
display beauty of one's
body.
 It is discovered that
people began
decorating themselves
much before they
started clothing. Early
age signs of decoration
included painting and
tattoos and even
jewelry.

 Recent scholars now state that clothing
represents one's identity and communicates
nonverbally.
 Clothing in some societies is as functional as
language. It represents a person's age,
gender, marital status, ethnicity, social status
and occupation.

 It is not certain when
people first started
wearing clothes
however,
anthropologists give
estimates that range
between 100,000 to
500,000 years ago.
The first clothes were
made from natural
elements: animal skin
and furs, grasses and
leaves, and bones and
shells.

 Clothing was often
draped or tied
however, simple
needles made out
of animal bone
provide evidence
of sewn leather
and fur garments
from at least
30,000 years ago.

 Before sewing
machines, nearly all
clothing was local and
hand-sewn, there
were tailors and
seamstresses in most
towns that could
make individual items
of clothing for
customers. After the
sewing machine was
invented, the ready-
made clothing
industry took off.

 Before the invention
of the sewing
machine, most
sewing was done by
individuals in their
homes, however,
many people
offered services as
tailors or
seamstresses in
small shops where
wages were very
low.

 Thomas Hood's ballad The
Song of the Shirt, published
in 1843, depicts the
hardships of the English
seamstress:
 With fingers weary and worn,
With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat in unwomanly
rags,
Plying her needle and thread
Stitch! Stitch! Stitch!
In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
And still with a voice of
dolorous pitch
She sang ‘The Song of
the Shirt!’

 The first possible patent
connected to mechanical
sewing was a 1755 British
patent issued to German,
Charles Weisenthal.
 Charles Weisenthal took
out a patent for a needle
to be used for mechanical
sewing. Unfortunately,
what sort of mechanical
sewing we do not know
for a description of the
machine was not
properly mentioned in the
patent.

 The English inventor
and cabinet maker,
Thomas Saint was issued
the first patent for a
complete machine for
sewing in 1790.
 The patent describes an
awl that punched a hole
in leather and passed a
needle through the
hole. Later
reproduction of Saint's
invention based on his
patent drawings did not
work.

 The first functional sewing
machine was invented by the
French tailor, Barthelemy
Thimonnier, in 1830.
 Thimonnier's machine used
only one thread and a hooked
needle that made the same
chain stitch used with
embroidery.
 The inventor was almost
killed by an enraged group of
French tailors who burnt
down his garment factory
because they feared
unemployment as a result of
his new invention.

 In 1834,Walter Hunt
America's first (somewhat)
successful sewing
machine.
 He later lost interest in
patenting because he
believed his invention
would cause
unemployment.
 (Hunt's machine could only
sew straight steams.) Hunt
never patented and in
1846, the first American
patent was issued to Elias
Howe for "a process that
used thread from two
different sources.“

 Sewing machines did
not go into mass
production until the
1850's, when Isaac
Singer built the first
commercially
successful machine.
Singer built the first
sewing machine
where the needle
moved up and down
rather than the side-
to-side and the
needle was powered
by a foot treadle.

 About 1831, George Opdyke
began the small-scale
manufacture of ready-made
clothing, which he stocked
and sold largely through a
store in New Orleans.
 Opdyke was one of the first
American merchants to do
so.
 But it was not until after the
power-driven sewing machine
was invented, that factory
production of clothes on a
large scale occurred. Since
then the clothing industry
has grown.

 During the industrial revolution, both men's and
women's dress becomes more complex during
this era due to the invention of the Sewing
Machine, and the popular dissemination of
pattern books and systems for garment cutting.
 Men's clothing, while outwardly simple, begins to
acquire the internal padding, interfacings and
complex structure that makes modern men's
suits fall so smoothly even over an object as
lumpy and mobile as the human form.
 while women's dress continues to balloon out
with ruffles, decorations and petticoats.

 Elias Howe, the inventor
of the first mass
produced, practical
sewing machine, originally
demonstrated its utility to
a group of prospective
investors by holding a
sewing race between
himself and his machine,
and ten professional hand
stitchers.
 He easily won, and the
economic situation of
stitchers (mostly female)
declined as a consequence
of the adoption of the
invention.

 Industrialists would invest in the machines,
hire the stitchers cheaply, and then take the
profits for themselves that their increased
output produced.
 With profits so high, soon competition
between manufacturers of clothes got fierce,
and so producers tried to "improve" their
product by adding more sewing decoration,
such as ruffles, pleats, and top stitching, to
lure customers.

 The end result was that fashionable Women's
dress became incredibly over decorated in
the 19th Century.
 Another result of this was that poor people's
clothing got better, and the rags of earlier
eras were replaced by cheaply made mass
manufactured work clothes. The middle
classes were able to afford more than clean
simple clothes, and began to actively indulge
in fashion for its own sake.

 There are 2 types of garments.
1. One is Woven garments.
2. Another is Knitted garments.
 Woven fabrics are made in hand looms, power looms and
mill made. Making woven fabrics is simple. But yarn
counts, reed & picks (warp & weft), width should be
considered with more care. The fabric quality is made
differently by various methods of finishing and treating.
 Knit fabrics are made in different kinds of knitting
machines. According to the structure of fabrics, they are
called by different names. The mainly used fabrics are
Jersey, Pique, Interlock, Rib, French Rib, Flat back rib,
Loop knit, Fleece, Polar fleece and Jacquards. The knit
garments can be made in solid dyed or all over printed or
yarn striped or jacquard fabrics.

 Garment construction can be divided into
different specialized areas. At the top of the
manufacturing chain are
 Haute couture and
 The tailoring crafts,
which involve working with individual
customers.
 At the lower ends of the manufacturing
chain are
 Industrially produced garments.

 The term Haute couture
is French. Haute means
"high“ or "elegant.“
 Couture literally means
"sewing," but has come
to indicate the business
of designing, creating,
and selling custom-
made, high
fashion women's
clothes.
 It refers to the
creation of exclusive
custom-fitted clothing.

 A haute couture
garment is often
made for a client,
tailored specifically
for the wearer’s
measurements and
body stance.
 Haute couture
garments are also
described as having
no price tag - in
other words, budget
is not relevant.

 this reveals with
one person
individual dress
making by a tailor.

 Ready-to-wear or
Industrially produced
garments is the term
for factory made
clothing, sold in
finished condition, in
standardized sizes, as
distinct from made to
measure or bespoke
clothing tailored to a
particular person's
frame.

 Besides a sewing machine in good condition,
well selected sewing equipment are essential
for making garments of good quality and
appearance.
 SEWING TOOLS
 CUTTING TOOLS
 MEASURING TOOLS
 MARKING TOOLS
 PRESSING TOOLS
 MISCELLANEOUS TOOLS

 Hand Sewing Needles
 Sewing Machine Needles
 Sewing thread
 Pins
 Thimbles
 Embroidery Frame
 Embroidery Threads
 Bobbin

 Bent-Handle Shears
 Scissors
 Pinking Shears
 Button Hole Scissors
 Electric Scissors

 Measuring Tape
 Rulers
 Yardstick or meter scale
 L Square
 Skirt Marker

 Tracing Wheel
 Tracing Paper
 Tailors Chalk

 Iron
 Steam Iron
 Ironing Board
 Sleeve Board
 Press cloth

 Awl
 Seam Ripper
 Loop Turner
 Dress Form
 Paper
 Three-Way Mirror
 Orange-stick
 Cutting board or table

 Five basic factors present in every fitting
decides whether a garment fits well or not.
These five are interrelated.
 Ease
 Line
 Grain
 Set
 Balance

 The garment, which seems to be right size is
neither too loose not too tight.
 Ease is also the difference between the
actual body measurements and the garment
measurements.
 This amount varies with the fashion, type of
garment and personal taste. A garment
constructed with optimum ease would be the
right size.

 Lines should be smooth without folds and
neat. There should be smoothly graded
curves in back and front. Armhole should be
oval, but not pointed or round in shape.
 The curve lines should not be too low which
will hinder the movements of the hand.
 The lines obtained by darts, pleats and yokes
are with in the garment and they should be
graceful and smooth.

 The placement of warp and weft yarns form
grain. Heavier threads tend to drape well on
the figure with graceful folds, when gathers,
pleats and ruffles occur on the straight grain.
 If the grain line is not corrected, wrinkles or
sagging occur. Some times the grain line is
off, when the material is not cut carefully.

 A well-fitted garment has a smooth set
without any wrinkles.
 A smoothness of "set" or freedom from
wrinkles is required for a good-looking fit.
 Graceful folds created by gathers or un
pressed pleats or draped features are style
lines not to be confused with wrinkles, those
slanting triangles straining from some curve
or bulge of the body

 The garment should look balanced from left
to right and front to back.
 The skirt should hang so that it extends the
same distance from the center to the right
and left sides.
 The necklines should fit neck snugly at all
points. If the shoulder seam stands away
from shoulder at neck point and fits tightly
at armhole point, the garment will look out
of balance.

1. When the garments are
carelessly cut and if
stitching is not done
properly then the
garment will have poor
fitting.
2. If the basic patterns are
not of the right size or if
they are not altered
according to the body
measurement then poor
fitting occurs.
3. Poor posture might be
the reason for
differences in the
bodice blocks.

1. The human body has
numerous curves of
which the basic ones are
bust, end of shoulder,
shoulder blade, elbow,
abdomen, side and hip.
The garment should be
cut and stitched
accurately to fit on the
curves of the body.
2. The straight material
should be folded into
darts are cut into seam
to allow enough ease
over the curves.

 The garment should be
tacked and tried on.
 The openings are pinned
together accurately,
properly and securely. The
basting line that marks
centre front, and back
helps in giving a good
fitting.
 The garment should be
worn right side out to
check the fitting on the
body. The garment is
thoroughly inspected and
carefully analyzed for
fitting.

 It should be
comfortable while
walking or working.
 If any alterations are to
be made on the
garment then Mark the
correct line with tailors
chalk and tack the
corrected seam line or
dart line from the
inside of the garment.
 The paper patterns
should also be altered
on the basis of changes
made in the garment.

 Until a satisfactory
fitting is achieved,
repining and alterations
for fitting is done.
 In the second round of
checking the fitting,
concentration must be
on the sleeves and arms
cycle, Necklines,
waistlines should be
curved to fit
comfortably and
naturally.

 The patterns which are
altered for good fitting
should be preserved.
 A dress should look nice
from the back as it is
from the front.
 The back should be
more carefully fitted
since there is a strain. A
dress with a back too
wide, too narrow or too
short can be
uncomfortable and it is
unbecoming.

 Human beings start to wear clothes for many
reasons i.e modesty, protection,
identification & wearer appear more
attractive.
 Garment construction is very old. People
wear leaves, fur and animals skin as clothes.
 Initially people used to sew cloths from their
hands which is very time consuming n
difficult job but after the invention of sewing
machine the whole scenario has been
changed n garment has been start
constructed on mass level.

 Five basic factors present in every fitting
decides whether a garment fits well or not.
These five are interrelated. These are Ease,
Line, Grain, Set, Balance.
 A good fitted garment always gives pleaser to
the wearer and gives good name to the brand
or tailor. The most important factor of
garment construction is “ it should be
comfortable”

?
 THANK YOU NOW SAIMA HABBIB WILL
CONTINOU………………………

Garment construction

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