Comments on: Notch maps: suit sleeve & armhole

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:23:04 +0000

The situation is unusual but tenable. If the patternmaker was awesome and the sewing pool was stable, there was high operator confidence (in the pattern/pattern maker), muscle memory and material handling experience to pick up the lack. That said, no one should go without notches because the goal is quality construction, not showing off by going without notches.

When I was younger and “knew” so much more than I do now, I drafted in ink.

By: Dara

Dara — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 04:45:49 +0000

However, I have notched my own stuff this way for home sewing patterns.

By: Dara

Dara — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 04:43:48 +0000

Kathleen, I’ve worked on factory floors before where sleeves where not notched or had 1 notch in them (and the patternmaker thought people who needed notches for shirts where stupid). They were for dress shirts (traditional women’s cut). Is this a problem with the factory or has something to do with a larger operation? They also did not notch their suit sleeves…you’re probably rolling somewhere at reading this. The patternmaker had 40 yrs. experience and was very good. My grandfather used her successfully for decades before he retired.

By: Fashion Incubator » Blog Archive » Pop Quiz: notching challenge

Fashion Incubator » Blog Archive » Pop Quiz: notching challenge — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 23:54:44 +0000

[...] keeping with the recent theme of notching maps (part 2), do you recall the bag series I’d published maybe two years ago? You can go to these [...]

By: Fashion Incubator » Notch maps: suit sleeve & armhole pt.2

Fashion Incubator » Notch maps: suit sleeve & armhole pt.2 — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:33:19 +0000

[...] this entry should have come before the first one but as is so often the case, I don’t realize it until after the [...]

By: Nora

Nora — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 03:55:36 +0000

Matthew, I’m a little confused now.
If I understand correctly, then you mean with 3 seams the front yoke, back yoke and sideseam? Does that mean your example doesn’t have a side panel, nor a 2piece sleeve like the above example? To me then, the side seam would match with the sleeve seam, so no notching necessary. That would mean you need 2 notches on the body (front and back armscye notches) and then 4 on the sleeve (the corresponding armscye notches and notches where the yoke seams are)
In my opinion you don’t need the sleeve cap notch anymore since you don’t have a shoulder seam.

But please listen to Kathleen, her experience and knowledge far surpasses mine.

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:42:16 +0000

I don’t think you’re over-thinking this Matt. I wouldn’t do it as Nora does but if that is the modis operandi of where she works and they are accustomed to it or prefer it, so be it. What matters most is that practices are consistent and predictable.

I plan to post other suggestions for armhole notching, maybe later today.

By: Matthew Pius

Matthew Pius — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 02:45:27 +0000

@Nora (or Kathleen) – I hope I understand: you say that if the shoulder seam doesn’t match the top of the sleeve cap, you’d move the sleeve notch, rather than add a notch on the body, because you’re conserving the number of notches. The goal being not to increase the number of notches unnecessarily because each notch is extra time = extra cost.
But if the reason for the above is that there is a yoke (2 shoulder seams rather than 1), wouldn’t you have to put two notches on the sleeve? Otherwise you’d have 5 points on the body (3 seams plus front and back armscye notches) but only 4 notches on the sleeve. Wouldn’t that add confusion? So if you have to add a new notch to the sleeve anyway, it’s not less time for the pattern-maker or cutter than if you leave the sleeve notches alone and add a notch on the body.
Or am I really, really, really just over-thinking this?

By: ek

ek — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 04:14:45 +0000

Thanks Quincunx.

I, too, don’t have a notcher. Yet. And, like Kathleen I want my pattern parts to match- match. I feel like every time I make a notch I have an internal dialogue about how to approach it.

Indigorchid- Yes! But since I can not decide definitively L R or center, sometimes my fronts go one way and my backs the other. They don’t match…I re-do them…(grumble, grumble)

By: Quincunx

Quincunx — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 23:28:42 +0000

ek, don’t be embarrassed, the question had been asked before, and it hadn’t been resolved then either. The more I look at the “marking & cutting” entry, the more I’m drifting away from the idea that the notch is an independent point to be straddled, instead thinking of it as an endpoint of a measurement to be defined and measured the way it is in “marking & cutting”.

That being said, I have no notcher. When I point my scissors at a mark on the fabric, I’m aiming to remove a line not cleave between two sides of a defined notched space.