CUTTING THE FABRIC

The use of the term cutting can present a difficulty. It is often used in the sense of ‘ cutting room” , an
area that normally includes the activities of marker planning, spreading and preparation for sewing , as
well as being used to refer to the actual cutting out of garment parts from the lay.

The objective of cutting

The objective of cutting is to separate fabric parts as replicas of the pattern pieces in the marker plan. In
achieving this objective, certain requirements must be fulfilled:

Precision of cut

Garments cannot be assembled satisfactorily , and they may not fit the body correctly , if they have not
been cut accurately to the pattern shape. The ease with wich accuracy is achieved depends on the
method of the cutting employed and in some cases on the marker planning and marker making , as
described earlier. In manual cutting using a knife, accuracy of cut, given good line definition, depends on
appropriate, well maintained cutting knives and on the skill and motivation of the cutter.

Clean edges

The raw edges of the fabric should not show fraying or snagging. Such defects come from an imperfectly
sharpened knife.

Support of the lay

The cutting system must provide the means not only to support the fabric but also to allow the blade to
penetrate the lowest ply of a spread and sever all the fibres.

Consistent cutting

The cutting system should not be limited in the height of plies it will cut, because of progressive
deterioration in cutting quality, thought there may be mechanical or humans reasons, such as toppling or
leaning, for the height of lay being limited.

Methods of cutting
The methods of cutting that the industry uses can be classified as:

Cutting by Hand Shears

Hand shears are normally used only when cutting single or double plies. The lower blade of the shears
passes under the plies , but the subsequent distortion of the fabric is only temporary and accurate
cutting to the line can be achivied with practice. Left- handed shears are available since the cutting line
will not be seen easily if right handed shears are use by a left-handed person . This method is flexible
enough to accommodate any fabric contruction and pattern shape. The obvious disadvantage of the
method lies in the time it consumes and the consequent high labour cost per garment, but it is
appropriate for made-to-measure garments.

Cutting By Machine
- Straight Knife

- Round knife

- Band knife

- Die cutting

- Laser knife

- Water jet cutting

PREPARATION OF CUT WORK FOR THE SEWING ROOM

Some preparatory activities are contemporaneous with cutting , for example notching and drill
marking to assist the sewing operation. The mos important preparatory activities are bundling,
controlling shade separation, indicating the right side of the fabrics, and work tikecting
(numbering)

Bundling
Many sewing rooms use the bundling system, whereby small batches of garment move from one
workstation to another in a controlled way. Batches may all be the same size (ten units, aone
dozen, two dozen,etc.) , or they may vary depending on the ay the fabric has been spread. The
task of work preparation is to split the lay into smaller batches in a controlled way.

In order to prepare the cut work, it is necessary for operators to be able to identify each stack.
This is the function of the marker , if used , as the style number , the size and the part
identification will be part of the plot .

Many western companies use teamwork system that eliminate the bundle. In the cases, teams
work directly from stacks. The task of work preparation then is ensure that teams receive all the
stacks of cut work needed to make up the garments. Another unit production system involves
the use of overhead rails, often powered. Stacks of cut work are fed to a loading station and an
operator loads the relevant parts to a specially designed hanger.

Shade separation control

Variation in colour within dyelots are quite common, and cutting rooms generally maintain
checks that the fabric cut is within the tolerance levels set by the customer. Nevertheless, within
the batch of fabric cut , there are likely to be shade. Some cutting rooms shade –separate by
inserting tissue paper between every piece.

This is, easy to do with the unit production system , but the bundle system is not a good way of
retaining this level of order . althought maintaining the stack sequence is possible , many
companies have found that the risk are too high. With quality outerwear garments , it is quite
common to give every garment piece a pressure-sensitive adhesive ticket with a ply number.
This technique is called ticketing equipment.
Indication of the right side of fabrics
Some fabrics have an obvious difference between the front and the back. Right side
identification may use soabar tickets, whereby the ply number is always positioned on the fabric
face. Alternatively, an adhesive label is placed on the face of the top ply of a stack , and the
machinist than places the stack with the top ply uppermost

Work ticketing
Wherever bundles are used, they are accompanied by work tickets. Tickets provide basic
information about the work : the style number, the size of the garment, the number of garment,
the colour of the garment in the bundle, and the date issued. In addition, the operations are
often incorporated in the ticket, generally for payment purposes, assisting the control of work,
and facilitating quality control.

Work tickets are generallty created on site once the outcomeof spreading/cutting is known.
Computerrised management information system have well- established routines to print the
required tickets , which are the linked up with the bundle work.