Fabric mechanical and physical properties relevant to clothing manufacture — Part 3: Shape Formation in Tailoring

Abstract

Shape formation during tailoring is concerned with the manipulation of essentially two-dimensional fabrics into the complex three-dimensional shapes required to accommodate the human form. The tailoring production techniques commonly employed to form the smooth, well-rounded curvatures which provide the “full” three-dimensional character so necessary for garment fit, comfort and appearance, include: (i) fabric underfeeding/overfeeding during seaming to provide fullness in the structure and/or curvature in the direction of the seam; (ii) seaming and subsequent flat pressing to join identical curved lengths of two fabric panels in order to obtain curvature perpendicular to the plan of the two panels, e.g. the seam which joins the two major panels on the back of a man's suit coat; (iii) the straight seaming of equal lengths of fabric from the same garment panel to induce complex curvature, e.g. darts on the front of a suit coat; (iv) the incorporation of multi-layer composite structures to reinforce and stabilise garment shaping; (v) the setting of sections of garments using templates with three-dimensional curvatures. © 1989, MCB UP Limited