Pattern grading and resizing clothing products is one of the central parts of textile and apparel industries. It is the process through which commercial pattern printing became possible. The process of pattern grading utilizes different methods to achieve the same end goal. The essential designs that must exist for more than one item of a design to be produced. Apparel designs are pointless unless they are followed by pattern grading. Pattern grading allows for more than one size of the same design to be produced while maintaining the original designs, dimensions, shape, fit, balance, scale, and the stylist scale.
This allows for additional sizes of the same design being produced without losing the essence of the dress or piece of apparel. This becomes very important whether you are an independent design or home sewer, in order to create a design that can be specific to the dimensions of the size required, in a way that can be altered to size up or down. This is the process of grading clothes. To grade up would mean to alter the dress in such a way that the size increases. Similarly, grading down means to reduce a size in the design of the dress.
Pattern grading and resizing clothing products becomes particularly important when it is the matter of commercial printing of the same design. For this reason, over a hundred and fifty years ago, the safe measure of making pattern designs that could be adapted onto different sizes. This meant that there could be a clothing line that features the same item of the line, however in flexible sizes. This becomes the basis for mass production for apparel items because it allows brands to a cater to a larger market of willing buyers who can find the exact kind of dress they were looking for.
The Process of Pattern Grading
Since this has become the norm, brands that sell apparel have often decided to create a prototype of size 12, the middle size, and either grade up or down from there. For a home sewer, not only does this open up the opportunity of creating a line of fashion apparel for them, but often times your favorite pattern requires grading up or down. It is serves as a very versatile solution if the techniques of pattern grading and resizing clothing products are implemented. No design will be limited to a certain body type.
Grading is a very powerful skillset to have. It can transform dress to entirely new. Grading is a process through which is integral for tailors both at home and professionals. As powerful as it is, the process is simple enough to take place whenever the need arises. Think about what it means. For home tailors and seamstresses, never again will you have to turn out a dress because of the way the fashion trends or body figures have changed. For professionals, an inclusive clothing line can be designed which meets various sizes and trends. Grading is the process through which dress, whether single or a whole line of clothing, can be revamped to meet changing needs. First, it is important to understand what we mean by dress pattern grading. In essence, the aim of dress pattern grading is to achieve a proportional change in the size or measurement of a dress pattern.
The Techniques of Pattern Grading
The methods for pattern grading differ. It depends on the resources you want, what kind of resizing you are looking for, that is, grading up or grading down, and the skill of the person attempting to pattern grade. There are manual techniques as well as digital ones, each with differing speed of work completed and precision. The first method concern is the “cut and spread method”. It forms the basis for the other two methods that follow. In order to grade using the cut and spread method, you need a pencil, ruler, scissors, and tape. Essentially, the method involves cutting the pattern up and spreading out the pieces by a specified amount by which you will grade up. If you are grading down, you must overlap the pieces. This is easy for beginners as is no formal training, and no use for specialized tools.
The other method is known as the pattern shifting method. Through this method you basically increase the overall dimensions of the pattern. You do this by moving it across a measure distance either to the left, right, or up and down. This is done with the use of a specially designed ruler. After measuring the pattern graded up or down, you redraw the outline of the dress. This yields the same result as the cut and spread method.
The computer grading method relies on the process of dimension increasing to be done digitally. For this, there are specialized scanners and computer grading software that is needed to amend the design in order to resize. However, this serves as a slightly more sophisticated technological method. All of these methods help take apparel design to another level by adding flexibility to the variety of sizes that can be produced for each clothing product.