What affects the appearance of a garment, affects the demand of the garment. And when it comes to stripes and checks, managing the quality on the basis of appearance becomes much more critical.
Mitering is basically the alignment of the design, stripes or checks on the garment seams. So when your shirt is worn, the stripes on the left front panel should flow uninterrupted across the placket to the right front panel.
Do you believe this is just a clever stripes/checks placement, or is there more to it? Well, Mitering is an art in itself and takes a lot of efforts. It is very crucial from quality point of view. Mitering on seams improve the overall garment appearance, and hence is a desired specification by buyers.
This article tells about the various techniques used in mitering in the spreading of fabric and is only a point of view of the author. There might be various other techniques followed in the apparel industry today.
Mitering techniques
There are many Mitering techniques in play which help us achieve the correct appearance for the garment.
Laser guides
This technique uses laser lights fixed on the spreading table as a guide for spreading. The stripes/checks are then matched with the projected laser lights on the spreading table.
Advantagess
- Makes Mitering easier to achieve, especially for fabrics with larger widths and for lays with longer lengths
- Since it doesn’t require any re-cutting, mitering can be achieved in a single step
Disadvantages
- If the fabric being spread is either of lower GSM, poor construction or high lustre, the laser beam gets scattered
- Block cutting of individual pieces gives the best possible mitering due to its precision
- It also has the benefit of minimum possible fabric wastage
Disadvantages
- This technique requires skilled labour
- Sometimes pining is needed to keep the blocks in place causing workstation safety concerns
- In case of stitching variations, any alteration is not possible
- This is a lengthy process which requires a lot of time and leads to a lot of fabric wastage
Block cutting- individual pieces
In this technique, one side or one panel of the garment is cut, and for the other panel a maximum possible sized block is cut from the main lay. The first panel is stitched and placed on this block cut. Which is then cut as per the stitched piece?
Advantages
- No additional infrastructure is required here
- It is very useful for garments like shirts where mitering can be done after placket making
- Block cutting of individual pieces gives the best possible mitering due to its precision
- It also has the benefit of minimum possible fabric wastage
Disadvantages
- Block cutting of individual pieces requires highly skilled labour and a lot of time
Pinning table
This technique uses a gear or a hydraulic operated pining table to achieve Mitering. The plies being laid are fixed on the table with the help of the pins.
Advantages
- It is easier to match the stripes/ checks width wise in this method. This makes it an efficient alternative for fabrics with larger widths
- Since it doesn’t require any re-cutting, mitering can be achieved in a single step
- Very useful for mitering in flimsy and slippery fabrics
Disadvantages
- Using pinning table is not very useful for longer lay lengths
- It also adds the concern of pin marks on the fabric and poses safety risk on the workstation
Block cutting – Relaying
For this technique, blocks are cut from the primary layer depending on the repeat cycle of the stripes or checks. These cut blocks are then re-laid placing the marker and then cut it.
Advantages
- This technique is beneficial for smaller widths of fabric
- It doesn’t require any special infrastructure and an average amount of plies can also be cut together
Face to face spreading
Face to face spreading is done with half folded length, i.e. the lay is laid on a fold across the width. The marker is made for only half the garment, and when the fold opens the complete garment piece is available, with Mitering.
Advantages
- It doesn’t need any additional infrastructure like pinning tables, etc.
- It is useful for fabrics with large widths
- Takes good care of left and right variation (cutting and stitching)
Disadvantages
- It is a lengthy process and marker efficiency is considerably reduced by it, as the usable width decreases
- This technique of spreading causes high amount of fabric wastages
Now when you know the techniques, and their pros and cons, select the mitering technique best suited in your company and to your product. Implement it to ensure your garment appearance is at par with your customer requirements. So, the next time you have the order audit you don’t have to worry about checks and stripes.
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