Laying the Pattern

LAYING THE PATTERN, MARKING AND CUTTING

INTRODUCTION

Laying the pattern, marking and cutting are three important aspects for dress designing and construction. Laying the pattern deals with the aspects of placement of prepared paper pattern on the fabric to cut and sewed. Marking includes aspects like transferring the pattern lines to the fabric and cutting explains the method of piecing the fabric into patterns similar to that of the paper pattern, ready to be sew. These three concepts enhance dress making. It can be rightly called the life line of apparel designs and construction.

Laying

Laying of pattern on the fabric without crease is known as fabric laying. The prepared fabric is laid flat on the table. The paper pattern must be placed on it. The points to be considered while fabric laying are:

         Press the fabric well

         Use a large, hard, flat table for fabric laying

         Check if all the patterns have every detail

         Note the best type of layout

         Place the patterns on the right grain

         Place large pattern first, toward the edges

         Place similar patterns together

         Place the patterns close to each other to save fabric

Pattern Detail

         Name of the pattern

         Cut number

         On fold

         Grain

         Notches

         Placement of pocket, button, button holes and other accessories

         Position of pleats or other fullnesses

         Sewing lines

         Hem folds

         Position to be gathered (Figure)

Laying the Pattern

A fabric has to be prepared well (i.e) it should be pre-shrunk and ironed before the patterns are placed on it. The fabric has to be spread neatly on a clean large table. One can even use a clean floor. Remember to use a surface bigger than fabric, so that over lapping of the fabric or mismarking can be avoided.

Different Types of Layout

Layout has to follow a specific pattern, which mainly depends upon the type of garment, the pattern pieces and the width of the fabric. The different types of fabric layouts namely lengthwise centre fold, off center lengthwise fold, cross wise center fold, off centre crosswise fold, combination fold and open layout. (These aspects are explained in Chapter-11, Preparing fabric for sewing in +1 Theory). Hence in this chapter we will learn to handle different types of fabric like knits, velvet, pile and fabric with bold designed stripes, plaids and printed fabrics.