Many houses need to learn the difference between CUT AND SEW KNITS, where the knitted fabric is essentially treated like a woven, sans the fit elements (i.e. darts), and FULL FASHIONED KNITS, where individual pieces are produced by mathematical calculation, and linked together. Skilled patternmaking is necessary to both methods, but the former is ruled more by price point–– ala´ the difference between a skirt from Club Monaco, and one from St. John; body type has nothing to do with either.

I feel the rise of the junior sportswear sector is the culprit. I’ve developed fabrics and sweaters for years, and it’s in cut and sew knits where the degraded skill set for patternmaking has become the norm, aside of the garment–-you can mess up jeans and tops equally–-leading to the acceptance of cheap stores who sell “seconds” (yeah, I said it) as discounted “quality”.

Many companies attempt to save money by not hiring skilled patternmakers for cut and sew knits, allowing the woven patternmakers do it. Woven designers will tell me, it’s easier because I don’t need to do darts or princess lines. In other words––it’s easier to not know what you’re doing, because the stretch will make up for it––skill degradation at its best! And the fabric isn’t knitted well to begin with, but that’s another issue.

At the end of the day, price point still rules––from poorly spun yarn, the cheap knitting of the fabric (circular knit tops biasing on you, no matter what your size), to shape-less patterns, drafted without regard to percentage of stretch of the badly knit fabric (”just draft it a little smaller than the standard”), to the distortion of the seams by bad sewing. If the price point is low enough, then folks buy it–they’re not gonna wear it that long anyway. It’s sad.

I know all to well the blank stares from college teachers, but in their defence this is still a relatively new area of fashion … lycra in general use really only occured in the eighties. That means the industry spent the first 20 years working out what lycra was and it hasn’t really filtered out to the public yet … I’m sure corsetry was a guarded secret in the early days back in history as well! Fashion teachers are usually people retired from the the industry early and start teaching at 45 years old … meaning that’d be around now. There are some forward thinking people but they are rare and, hopefully, treasured!

Thanks for a great site!

She was horrified that I had draped the top. “I’ve never heard of knits being draped” she said.

Obviously, it didn’t work out with her.

I belive that draping is a perfectly good place to start when you are developing a totally new shape for a new market and are looking for good fit–even in a knit. Infact, the more sophisticated the shape, the better draping works…for example dresses with gathering etc.

Any thoughts form other readers?

The best and biggest sliver knitter in the states is Monterey Mills, Janesville, Wisconsin. Sliver knitting was invented in Wisconsin, hence, three of the remaining six domestic sliver knitters reside in the state. They were recently acquired by the country’s oldest sliver knitter, Roller Fabrics (Milwaukee, WI). Their phone number is 888-276-5537.

Dave, thanks for the info on Glenoit. I’m not familiar with them myself, but I’m going to hazard that Tex-Tenn is … in Tennessee? And they make … Textiles? If not, I’ll find out when I google. My understanding of faux furs (i.e., what my brain translated what I learned) was “pile fabric with knit backing;” that is, “base knitted, fur added.” (Very old faux fur info, undoubtedly due for updating.) Not to be confused with a plush fabric, woven with an extra warp and cut. For all I know, soon they’ll be able to grow furred skin in petrie dishs to shape (like the human skin growth experiments), and we’ll have real fur that never lived on an animal some day.

Kathleen, thanks again. I did post the information, and I posted it here: http://www.bigfatblog.com/forums/topic.php?id=311#post-3282

I trust it meets with your approval.

On a personal level, I’d appreciate it if you’d mention I do not “hate” fat people. If it matters to your audience, I am a formerly morbidly obese person -from childhood. About 20 years ago, I lost 150lbs, so it is definitely not a situation where I don’t understand or have the arrogance of a naturally skinny person. If anyone cares to know my dieting tips (they usually do) I can say that the adoption of a low fat vegetarian diet is nice for staying trim.

This is a really, really good point, and one that has drawn me into the study of fabric. The interesting thing I’ve found is that one hallmark of quality fabric seems to be excellent natural elasticity. Meaning, growing with you without bagging out. This is why, hands down, my favorite fabric to use for my super-tight fitted bellydance tops is old kimonos. Oh my god is that stuff elastic; even stuff that’s 30 years old! Whenever I see silk like that in stores it’s EXPENSIVE. I think the effect of fabric choice on fit-ability is underappreciated….and that Lycra is a way to make cheap fabric behave more like expensive fabric. (but I bet it won’t be performing nearly as well in 30 years. Ah, poor, unstable lycra.)