Fabric Preparation, Cutting and Pattern Making
Scope
Fabric relaxation, spreading, marker making, cutting and pattern terminology.
Core rules
- Preparation: inspect, relax 24 h, pre-shrink if needed, straighten grain and align selvedges.
- Spreading: tensionless, correct ply count, nap one way, plaid and stripe matching, no stretched plies.
- Marker: grainline parallel to warp, efficient nesting, notches and drill holes, minimum gap for the blade.
- Cutting: straight knife for bulk, band knife for precision, die for small parts; keep the blade sharp and the table stable. Cutting height depends on fabric and knife; too high causes layer shift.
- Pattern: seam allowance, grainline, notches, darts, facings and grading. Cut order planning balances colours, sizes and fabric utilisation.
Worked example
A marker is 10.0 m long and 1.50 m wide; pattern area is 12.75 m squared. Reasoning: marker area = 15.0 m squared; efficiency = 12.75 / 15.0 x 100 = 85%. If the fabric has 2% shrinkage allowance, add it before costing, not after cutting.
Traps
Placing pattern pieces off-grain; ignoring nap or one-way print; cutting too many plies with a dull blade; forgetting seam allowance; mixing sizes without the size ratio.