Garment Making Techniques for Beginners

Tushar Soliwal
IE Supervisor at Pratibha Syntex Ltd.
Pithampur, Indore
Email: [email protected]

Introduction:
Garment manufacturing or garment making techniques are one of the important and a beautiful art or technique for a fashion technologist or as a garment designer. The conversion of raw material into the finished of fabric and then conversion of finished fabric into fashionable goods like clothing, garments or apparel is the main focus of garment manufacturers, by considering and following the principals of garmenting. In this article we will delve into the world of garment making, here I exploring the both the basics and advanced techniques of garment making.

Basics of Garment Making Techniques:
So let’s discuss about the basic garment making techniques, We all know about some techniques like pattern making, layout designing, then converting the layout into fabric panels, then sewing of fabric panels into garment, finishing of garment with respect to seams, serging, dart, tucks, pleats, hemming, attaching trims and accessories and final finishing of the garment. Therefore, this main sequence of activity we follow, as these activities are most basic and important. Let’s discuss briefly.

1. Pattern Designing and Planning:
Creating a pattern and making a pattern is a general need a basic and a good system that satisfies the need of human body figure. Our body figure of decided into 8 head human figure. That means total length of eight heads is proportional to total length of our body. So manufacturing garments is starts with pattern making process. Pattern making comes under drafting. In this we create various patterns including all parts of the garment, for all the sizes of the garment. Here patterns works as a blue prints which provide cutting guidelines to the cutting master. So ultimately the final fabric a precise fit and design to the wearer.

2. Layout and Cutting of Fabric Layers:
Cutting process is second most important process for garmenting. Which add value into the fabric pieces and cutting quality. Ones the patterns are made then those pattern pieces or marker is placed on the layer of the fabric(s). After layering the fabrics accurate cutting is crucial to ensure matching of pieces with proper alignment. Which ultimately provide better sewability to the fabric.

3. Sewing of Fabric:
Needle penetration is a only one process in garment stitching which add value into the garment. So sewing is a core process of garment making. Sewing prevent from fraying which include stitching of garment with various stitches and seam which hold the fabric pieces together, and provide beautiful aesthetic look to the garment. Which ensures the flow, drape, gathering, and end application of the product. Stitcher or sewing operator should operate the machine with high efficiency and through some fundamental skills like controlling the speed of the machine, proper threading, and managing the thread tension, proper feeding and handling of the material while stitching.

4. Seams and Finishes like Darts, Pleats, and Tucks:
As I mentioned finishing of the garment through seams and various stitches add value into the garment. The durability, dimensional stability and sewability of the garment is dependents upon the type of seam, type of stiches, SPI, thread tension, thread type, thread count and also type of fabric. Some finishing techniques like serging or zigzagging prevent raw edges from unraveling and finish the raw edges of the fabric. Also the creating and finishing of dart, pleats and tucks provide shape, volume, drape, texture, and proper fit to the garment.

5. Edge Finishes and Hemming:
We can finish the raw edges of fabric through serging, binding, hemming, and overlocking, these techniques provides polished look to garments. These techniques are most commonly used in garment finishing to provide final and finished aesthetic look to the garment.

6. Closures and Fasteners:
In garmenting there are different accessories are used to provide attractive and fashionable look  to the garments. The closures and fasteners in garmenting are the basic components that are used to secure and close clothing items. Closures and fasteners include buttons, velcro, zippers, hooks, snaps and other. Attachment of these items ensures the functional and aesthetically of the clothing design, providing ease of wear and enhancing the overall appearance of garments. Different types of closures and fasteners offer various levels of style, security, flexibility, and options for verity of clothing.

Advanced Garment Making Techniques:
After understanding the basic garment making techniques let’s dive into advanced garment making techniques. In today’s world customer demands and the satisfaction of end consumer are the considered as the primary factors, for the garment manufacturer. In today’s capitating world of fashion every garment manufacturers need a advance and superior technique to deliver the goods to the customer at shortest lead time.

1. Draping Technique:
Draping is the most advanced techniques for garment making used by various fashion designers to create their products. It involves manipulation of fabric or piece of fabric into a dress, which form to create a three-dimensional prototype of the garment. Draping is a most simplest and time saving technique as compared to the drafting process. The fashion designers can do different experiments and projects with respect to garment shapes, layout, manipulating of silhouettes before finalizing patterns. Instead of drafting process of garment designers termed towards draping technique.

2. Embroidery and Applique Work:
We all aware about embroidery work, there are different types of embroidery and embroidery techniques are famous in fashion world. The embroidery is a decorative art of design and motifs by the use of embroidering material like threads, needles, paints, colors. Similarly, applique involves attaching colorful fabric pieces onto a base of fabric, to create the piece of fabric with intricate embellishments. These techniques allow you for creative thinking and add value for your art of design technique.

3. Smocking, Shirring and Quilting:
Smocking is a simple technique of decorative sewing which involves the gathering fabric to form different varieties decorative patterns, which gives beautiful textured patterns similarly the shirring is a technique of sewing of multiple thread rows on the fabric. This technique also gathered the fabric and gives different textures surface to the fabric. The quilting is a different technique of sewing as compared to other two p techniques it is a technique of stitching of multiple fabric layers together to form a single texture and warmth fabric. We can take example of blankets. These all techniques add beauty into the garment, aesthetic styles, verity in pattern styles and fashionable look to the wearer.

4. Leather Work or Leather Stitching:
When we manufacture the garments by the use of leather material, we required special tools and techniques for garmenting. The technique required special machinery, equipment’s, and methods for stitching. Leather fabric required special care while cutting and stitching, leather fabric is hard to cut and sew so special tools and techniques are required for the garment manufacturing through leather fabrics.

5. Knitting:
Knitting is older technology of garmenting, but it considered as a best technique for garmenting. In knitting process, the interlacement of yarns is take places and they form verity of loops at the time of fabric manufacturing stage. We can adopt this same technique directly to manufacture the garments and garment parts. Today’s knitted and hosiery garments are becoming a part of human life as they are more comfortable, easy to handle and have different range of applications as compared to woven fabrics.

Conclusion:
The garment manufacturing is a process that involves various basic techniques to transform raw materials into stylish finished cloths. Garmenting process starting from pattern design to fabric cutting, sewing, and adding finishing touches, these all steps have a crucial role in creating garments, that provide comfort and look appealing. Additionally, in advanced techniques like draping, embroidery, smocking, and leather stitching add uniqueness and creativity to the garments. So by mastering in these techniques, garment manufacturers can satisfy customer needs and demands, at the end they deliver high-quality products.

References:

1. https://www.icf.edu.in/blog/pattern-making-course/, accessed on 10 August 2023.
2. Advanced Garment Construction Guide, October 2020, Publisher: Woodhead publishing India in Textiles Pvt Ltd, ISBN: 978-81-936446-4-5
3. Apparel Manufacturing Technology by T. Karthik, P. Ganesan, and D. Gopalakrishnan
4. https://www.idi.co.in/garment-construction-techniques/accessed on 12 August 2023.

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Founder & Editor of Textile Learner. He is a Textile Consultant, Blogger & Entrepreneur. He is working as a textile consultant in several local and international companies. He is also a contributor of Wikipedia.

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