Written By- Namrata Jaiswal
Guided By- Ms Monika Malik
As a budding pattern maker, it was a great opportunity when my college took us to visit Zebra Fashion Pvt. Ltd., a manufacturing production house based in Rau, Indore, India. The company is mainly involved in manufacturing wearing apparels for brands like AND by Anita Dongre, Fab India and many more.
When we reached there, we started with Fabric Section, where all the fabrics are assembled, but I was desperately waiting to see and learn more about how pattern making is done at such a big level. As soon as we entered the Pattern Making section, the first thing which I saw was how they organised patterns of different sizes on different racks. everything was so fascinating..!!
Pattern maker and Pattern Cutter are two different people. The job of a Pattern Maker is to create the blue prints of a garment in the form of patterns, whereas, the job of a Pattern Cutter involves cutting the fabrics according to the blocks made by a Pattern Maker. The job of both Pattern makers and cutters are simultaneous, complex and very time consuming.
As a starting point, basic blocks are constructed by following standard measurements and by adding seam allowances. The size of seam allowance completely depends upon the type of machinery and fabric to be used. If one does not use the correct seam allowance , the fit and quality of the garments can be adversely affected, resulting in high returns and poor sales.
The first thing which I noticed was, they were cutting 50-100 pieces at one go with their Cutting machine, and that’s where I understood the concept of mass production.
The blocks were made of supreme quality papers which were thicker then what we use usually. They have blocks of every single size for every type of garment they manufacture, and organise them very appropriately.
There are many things one has to keep in mind while mass producing, which I noticed at ZEBRA Fashion Pvt. Ltd. are:
- While cutting the fabrics, one should always check the grain line and cut accordingly.
- Safety is upmost important when you are involved in machinery work .
- There was proper ventilation.
- The distribution of work and management made it very easy to understand the process of manufacturing
- Proper breaks were given to the employees.
A Pattern maker has to interact with many people to get the drafting correct. He interacts with:
- Fashion Designer- To discuss the designs of the garments to be made, so that he drafts the patterns accordingly.
- Sample Machinist- To discuss the details about the garment to be made.
- Pattern Grader- To explain him the changes in the drafts to be made in different sizes.
- Lay Planner- To discuss the arrangement and equipment’s to be used for cutting.
- Garment Technologist- To check if the garment construction is going according to the drafts or not.
- Production Assistant- To keep a track of deadlines.
The day was well spent in terms of gaining knowledge. This visit helped us in understanding the working environment of a garment industry, where we learnt a lot about mass production and its process.
Hope this blog was a knowledgeable read….!!!
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