Construction of a Garment

Construction of a Garment

Construction of a garment is a beautiful art, which requires skill, practice and inborn interest. One has to slowly go through the steps of garment construction and review it often to sew comfortable and well fitted garments.

 Steps to be Followed in Garment Construction

The major steps involved in garment construction are (General)

            Check if all the patterns are cut

            Fold the patterns and keep them safely

            Open the patterns only while sewing

            Match the notches, before sewing

            Check if the curved lines are stay stitched

            Collect all the necessary accessories before starting to sew

                         Eg. Linning material for collars.

                         Fasteners

                         Decorative laces, appliqu�s

            Check the colour of the machine thread. If the fabric has more than two colours, try to get the dominating colour threads

            Fill the bobbins with suitable colour threads

            Oil the machine and run it over waste cloth

            Check the smoothness of the machine

            Clean the machine thoroughly especially the bobbin holder and feed back

Steps Involved in Construction of an Upper Garment (A bodice Pattern)

            In case the pattern has darts, finish it first (Figure 11.1).

            Join the shoulders to neck line

            Join the side seams

            Finish the placket opening

            Finish the neck line

            Join the under arm seams of the sleeves

            Check front and back sleeve patterns and attach the sleeve to the bodice pattern

            Finish the hem lines

            Attach fasteners

            Press neatly

Steps Involved in Construction of a Lower Garment (Skirt Pattern)

          Complete the darts

          Finish the plackets

          Join the side seams

          Attach the waist band

          Fix fasteners

          Press neatly

          Finish the front opening placket

          Attach yoke to the back (Figure 11.2)

Construction of a shirt

Part of the shirt

            Front pattern

            Back pattern

            Yoke pattern

            Collar Band pattern

            Main Collar pattern

            Pocket pattern

1. Attaching Yoke to the Back

            Mark centre notches to the back piece of shirt and center notches to the yoke pattern.

            Placing yokes one at front and back, of back shirt pattern.

            Make �'stitch from the edge.

            Then turn the yoke and give a top stitch

            Join the shoulder seams of front and yoke.

            Attach collar to the necklines as given in figure 11.3

2. Shirt collar

            This collar has two parts (i) the collar band and (ii) the main collar.

            Draft the pattern with stand collar combined

            Shirt collars are usually finished with an interfacing.

            The interfacing should be preshrunk and its corners at the outer edge clipped to avoid bulk when the collar is turned.

            Tack interfacing to the wrong side of under collar section and stitch upper and under collars together, right sides facing.

            Trim and grade seam allowances, cut off corners and turn the collar to the right side.

            Top stitch around the outside edges of collar �' from edge.

Insert the collar between inner and outer band sections matching centre front and centre back markings and stitch on the seam line.

            Tack the inner band to the neckline of the shirt and stitch.

            Fold seam allowance of the upper band and tack to the seam line. Then top stitch around the collar band

            Finish sleeve hems

            Attach sleeves to the shirt

            Finish side seams from the sleeves to the bottom

            Finish hem line

            Complete the shirt with buttons and button holes (Figure)