Fabric Terminology and Grain

• Fabric refers to a cloth used in making garments
• Firmly woven cotton is a good fabric choice for beginners due to its ease of handling during sewing and pressing

Fabric Terminology

• Selvage refers to the two finished lengthwise edges of the fabric, usually stiffer than the rest
• Grain refers to the directions of the yarns in a fabric

Kinds of Grain

• Lengthwise grain, also known as warp, runs in the same direction as the selvages and is the strongest direction of the fabric
• Crosswise grain, also known as weft or woof, runs across the fabric from one selvage to the other
• Bias grain runs diagonally across the fabric and for any direction other than lengthwise or crosswise grain

Kinds of Bias Grain:

• True bias is created by folding the fabric at a 45° angle
• Garment bias takes any angle between true bias and lengthwise or crosswise grain

Width of Fabrics

• Single width fabrics are 36 inches wide
• Double width fabrics are 45 inches wide
• Triple width fabrics are 60 inches wide

Methods in Fabric Preparation

• Straightening fabric ends involves cutting along one yarn from selvage to selvage
• Preshrinking fabric involves shrinking fabric by washing or dry cleaning
• "Off grain" fabric needs Straightening of Fabric Grain
• Pressing fabric involves pressing to remove wrinkles

Laying out the pattern

• Laying out the pattern involves the placement/arrangement of pattern pieces on the fabric before cutting

Methods in Laying Out

• The right side of fabric has a soft and fuzzy texture
• Fabric should be folded with the right side in

Folding the Fabric

• For stripes, plaids, and prints, fabric should be folded with the right side out, to make it easier to match the fabric design

Kinds of Fold

• Lengthwise centerfold is folded lengthwise with the selvages together
• Crosswise centerfold is folded crosswise with the raw edges together
• Off-center lengthwise fold is folded but with selvages meeting at the center
• Off-center crosswise fold is folded with the raw edges meeting at the center

Fabric Manipulation

• An important principle in fabric manipulation is to remember “cloth stretches.”

Steps Preliminary to Cutting

• Prepare the fabric
• Check the pattern for size and alter if necessary
• Lay all pattern pieces on the fabric
• Pin the pattern to the fabric
• Mark all the necessary pattern location to the cloth
• Cut the cloth
• Transfer all markings to the other cloth

Placket

• Placket is an opening in clothes that allows easy removal.
• Plackets are used at waistlines, necklines, wrists, and other snug fitting parts of clothing

Characteristics of a Placket

• Should be strong
• Easy to fasten quickly
• Long enough for convenience in dressing
• Fastening should hold securely
• There should be no gaping edges
• Should be inconspicuous
• No placket should be bulky, puckered, or stretched

Kinds of Plackets

• Face opening placket/slashed opening (with facing) is used on sleeves and the neckline, either at the front or at the back neck openings
• Bound buttonhole placket is used at the back neck openings, is similar to 1½ of bound buttonhole and makes a more conspicuous opening
• Continuous bound placket (with seam) is often used on cotton dresses, gathered skirts, pajamas, trousers, and sleeve openings
• Continuous bound placket w/o seam
• Non-zippers are fastens with buttons, snaps, and hook and eyes
• Tailored placket, also called bound-and-faced placket, is used on the sleeves opening on sport shirts
• Hemmed seam placket
• Slot zipper placket
• Single lap type covers the fastener completely

Buttonholes

• Buttonholes are a hole or loop for a button, used with a button as a fastener on a garment
• Buttonholes can be used on all types of overlapping edges like collars, cuffs, center fronts and backs, pockets, and waistbands
• Buttonholes are very strong fasteners and capable of withstanding much pulling and strain

Rule in placket positioning

• In girls clothing the right side of placket overlaps the left and in boys clothing the left side of the placket overlaps the right side

Types of Buttonholes

• Machine-Stitched Buttonhole is stitched with a zigzag machine stitch after the garment is completed
• Hand Worked Buttonhole is made with a buttonhole stitch and used primarily on fabrics that are too lightweight
• Bound Buttonholes is finished with strips of fabric and made in the garment before the facing is attached

Buttonhole Placement

• Horizontal buttonholes begin 1/8 inch beyond the button
• Vertical buttonholes begin 1/8 inch above the button marking

Buttonhole Length

• Buttonhole length is determined by the size of the button
• Length is calculated by diameter plus thickness of the button
• Buttonholes are made on the right side of the fabric and choose a marking method that will not leave a permanent line on the outside of the garment

Buttonholes Markings (Lines)

• Center lines must meet when the garment is fastened
• Short lines indicate ends of each buttonhole
• Long lines indicate length of each buttonhole

Seam and Seam Finishes

• Seams are a line of stitching used to hold two layers of fabric together

Characteristics of seams

• It is flat
• It is uniform in width
• It has no tangles or broken thread
• There is no looping of thread

Types of Common Seams

• Plain/flat seam has one row of stitching seen at the garments
• Flat felled is a type of overlapped seam and is a flat finished seam with two rows of stitching
• Lapped seam has one edge turned under one row by stitching
• French seam is a seam within a seam

Seam Finishes

• Seam finishes involve sewing or trimming seam edges to prevent ravelling or fraying

Types of Seam Finishes

• Machine zigzag finish is a fast and easy method for finishing fabrics that ravel
• Pinked finish is achieved with the use of pinking shears
• Hand overcast finish is very time-consuming
• Hemmed finish is achieved by clean-stitch or edge turned under and stitch finish
• Bound finish is suitable for medium weight to heavy weight fabrics
• Overlock/serge finish is achieved with the use of overlock or serger sewing machine
• Double stitched finish is like a plain seam, but a second plain seam is sewn between the first and the raw edges of the seam allowance