Waistcoat Reflection

Through creating my waistcoat I have developed and improved both my knowledge and skills of pattern making. I have learnt how to develop a pattern from an early stage and focused on the reasons for the trial of patterns and how to create my own design from a basic block used for a variety of different garments.
Overall I think my movement from the block to my toile was succesful and I'm happy with the outcome.
Although I feel the outcome ws succesful, I would have liked to have created a further toile to readjust the neck line, as it does not fit as close to the body as I had designed. By creating this second toile I could have adjusted darts, and possibly added material where needed, to get my desired fit.

If I was to have created a final garment from my pattern, I would have made these improvements:

• A fastening inside of the wrap for more security.
• Interfacing around the bust line to give it more support and strength.
• Develop the darts on the waist, to give a better fit.
• I would choose a polyester material to hold the shape of the garment as it is hard to crease and also cost effective.

Block to Toile - Construction

T.D.3.1 Make and adapt simlple flat patterns for unstructured clothing and other products
T.D.3.4 Make simple calico models.
T.M.3.5  Use fabrication and manipulation techniques (e.g. darts)
T.M.3.6 Use knowledge of fabric constructiongrain, strain and loads in designing and making.
T.M.3.10 Make edge finishes


Block - Foundation pattern cut to a standard size.
          - Enable the designer to render something flat into something three-dimensional.
          - Constructured using measurements taken from a size chart or live model.
          - Do not show any style lines or seams.
Toile  - The made up pattern to check proportions and shape.
Pattern Adaption - Altering the block to fit your design.
Seam Allowance - 1.5cm (or appropriate value) added to pattern for the seam.
Dart Manipulation - Darts control excess fabric to create shape on a garment.
                            - Stitched together end to end, or to a zero point (pivotal point)
                            - Can be turned into pleats gathers or style lines
Seam Finishes - The raw edge of a seam allowance ususally needs treating to stop it from fraying.
        - Overlock - Cheapest and easiest. Three or four-thread coverstitch machine.
        - French Seams - Seam and seam finish in one. More time consuming, more expensive.


1. Draw round chosen block straight onto chosen material. At this stage only half the waistcoat will need to be constructed. A cheap and easy material to work with is Calico.
(Make sure to mark all points, including darts to make it easier to sew accurately.)

2. Sew together the block to create a very basic shaped toile.

3. Shape your toild to the design you have created. You can cut/add/shape material in any way you wish. The state of the material is irrelevent as long as you have created the shape and structure you desire.

4. Draw round the block again, using pencil, but this time onto pattern paper.

5. Unpick your manipulated toile including the darts. Lay on top of pattern paper matching up the waistline, bustline and dart points.

6. Draw round your manipulated toile over the outline of the block you have previously drawn. Rub out basic block lines.  

7. Add seam allowance around your final toile pattern and label. Make sure to add in the centre back grainline to make it easier and accurate when cutting out your material.

8. For the back of your toile, fold a piece of calico in half and line the grainline on the fold. Pin down and cut around the pattern.

9. To mark in the waistline, bustline and dart points without marking the material, you must use 'tailors tack'.  

10. Remove the paper pattern, making sure to not remove the tailors tack.

11. Repeat the same method for the front pattern piece and repeat again so you have two front pieces.

12. Sew in darts using your tailors tak as a guide.

13. Pin and tack the front pattern pieces to the back pattern piece, right  sides together, making sure to align the waistline and bustline with the marked points.

14. Sew down along the 1.5cm seam line. Make sure to reinforce each edge of the stitch by reverse stitching.

15. Here is your basic toile. Fit it to the mannequin or body you have designed it for and make any adjusments needed. You can make as many alterations and as many toiles as you need until you have the desired final fit.

 

Mass Production

T.K.3.5 - Understand the principal of making in quantity.
T.K.3.6 - Understand input, process and output in mechanical, electrical and electronic textiles equipment including CAD/CAM.

Patterns, Layers and cutting
There are many different methods and machines that can be used in Mass production and the main factors that decide this are the type of garment and the type of material.

CAD is also used for working with individual customers, who are being designed for specifically. Their measurements are saved on the computer and if the customer gains or loses weight, the measurements can be altered with speed and precision.

One major advantage of mass production using CAD is that a lay plan can be developed easily to get the most out of the material, making it very efficient.

Straight blade - Used to cut up to 50 layers of material at once and can cut most materials.

Dye Cutters - Use massive pressure and is mainly used on knitted fabrics.

Assembly

Single needle machines - used for joining and lock stitching.

Overlock - 3 needles used for edging. 

Garments can be assembled by a skilled worker in less than 3 minutes. The process is made quicker by overlocking the pieces together and using a cover seam.

Batch System - 20 - 1000 garments can be made each day.

An advantage of having one worker on a garment from start to finish is they are able to continually quality control their garment.

Control Systems - Quality Controlled
 - One garment out of each box is checked.
 - A quality contrl sheet is checked against the garment
 - Checked against original specification

Fabric - Colour/tone
           - checked over a light box for marks/stains

Random sample checks for surface decoration such as embroidery.

Control Systems - Information Systems

The same machine can hold 100 to 6000 designs, so can be used for many different products.

Each worker has their own barcode so that may any problems occur, it can be traced back to the individual workers at each stage.

Globalisation

There has been alot of bad publicity recently regarding the working conditions of factories. This has put pressure on brands to change the working conditions.

CAD/CAM

T.D.3.7 - Use CAD/CAM to enhance fabrics (e.g. sublimation printing)

CAD can be used in many ways when designing not only the garment itself, but then also the surface decoration and patterns.
A popular way, used in both schools and industry is to design a pattern on the computer, using programmes such as speedstep, and to then sublimation print onto your material.
This is a cost effective and fun way to create patterened materials in schools, by using technology to create an individual pattern that they can put their own creativity into, and then be printed onto a cheap and mass bought material.

Jacket designed on Speedstep from basic garment shapes availiable on ProSketch.

The designed can then be opened on ProPaint, to decide on colours and patterns.

Using Speedstep would attract a different range of students that possibly find drawing and designing from scratch an uninjoyable and difficult task. They are able to be creative, without the pressue of having their drawing skills assesed.

A scarf created from the template of a collar.