Marking And Cutting Fabric

MARKING AND CUTTING FABRIC:

It is necessary to mark all details from the pattern to the cloth, which will be needed during the construction of the garment. Mark these details:

         Seam lines.

        Center front and center back lines.

         Darts

         Fold lines

          Positions for pleats or gathers or Pockets

          Buttonholes and buttons

          Any other special markings used to construct the garment

a. Transferring Pattern Marking:

The fastest and most accurate way to transfer construction details from pattern to cloth is with dressmaker's tracing paper or carbon use a tracing wheel and have the carbon mounted on a heavy cardboard to protect table surfaces. Details should be marked on the wrong side of the cloth where most construction lines are needed. Use white tracing paper wherever possible because it is safe. If carefully handled its mark lasts longer. The pigment in coloured tracing paper leaves a more permanent line. It can usually be removed by scrubbing, but ordinary washing methods and dry cleaning do not always remove it. Test a scrap of your clothes before marking the garment. Garment sections should have been cut with the right sides of the cloth together, or when cut from a single thickness, with the right side up, next to the pattern.

Certain lines, such as those for folds and some kinds of pockets and buttonholes are needed on the right side of the cloth. Make the longest machine stitch called a bast stitch along with the traced lines on the underside of the cloth. Stitch through a single layer. The basting shows the detail on the right side of the cloth.

b. Cutting Fabric:

Keep the ends and sides of the material parallel with table edges at all times so that the grain never shift. Walk around the table for cutting, instead of pulling the material. Moving the pattern and material will shift the grain and result in uneven cutting. Do not pick up the cloth from the table or slip the left hand between the cloth and the table. Hold the left hand down on the pattern close to the cutting edge and cut with long even strokes with right hand. Keep the cutting blade or shears resting on the table. Have the thumb in the round handle and the fingers in the long handle, so that shears will not slice at an angle. Cut with long, smooth strokes with the full length of the shears. Cut exactly even with the cutting edge as indicated on the pattern. Cut notches outward. Two or three notches may be cut as one wide notch. Look over the guide sheet or pattern to find out if extra pieces will be needed in finishing, such as shaped facings, bias binding, striaght bands for cuffs or strips for piped buttonholes.