- Today we're gonna talk about grading.
No chalk, no chalkboard.
Once a designer has finished making the pattern, off it goes to the process of grading, plotting, and marking.
Grading is expanding the size range.
Plotting is printing out a pattern.
And marking is something all sewers use when laying out their pattern onto fabrics.
Ever have a garment that was too small?
Today we'll teach you how to grade it, and enlarge it, rather than just adding to the sides.
And even though we're not using a chalkboard, I promise you an A.
Today, on Fit 2 Stitch.
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Sewing, Buena Park, Fullerton, Garden Grove, and Irvine, California, Richland Sewing Center, Dallas, Texas, and the Metroplex, Cynthia's Fine Fabrics, and Mike Gunther Industries.
- I get asked so many times, "This garment's too small, "can I just add to the sides "and make it a little bit bigger?"
No!
You cannot (chuckling).
I'll tell you why.
The whole show, the whole purpose of the show today, is to show you why you just can't add to the side seams.
It should be just a little simple answer.
But if I make it simple you all won't listen.
So we're gonna make it, and really help you understand the process.
I'm gonna bring Laura on, so that we can understand, and my friend Laura knows how to grade.
And so actually, grading is extremely exciting, because it's evolved so much.
- Yes it has.
- Over the years.
- Thank goodness (laughing).
- Tell us what you're doing here.
- So this is the most basic form of grading, where we take our pattern and we slash and spread at important locations.
So at the neckline, the shoulder, the armhole.
- Yeah, I was gonna say, how do you decide those locations?
- Well, we don't get bigger in one direction, right?
We don't just get bigger at the sizes, or our neck gets a tiny bit bigger, the shoulder might get a little bit bigger, the waist might get a little bit bigger.
So it's important to size in all those different areas.
- I see, so that's how you decide.
There's one line in the neckline, - Right.
- and then one through the shoulder.
So how do you decide where to put these lines?
- Those are the three key areas, so neckline, shoulder, armhole.
- I got it.
- And then also right here we have one going across the armhole, and then down here near the waist as well.
- And then, how do we decide how much we're grading it up?
- Well, it's gonna depend on your grade rule and how much you need to grade up.
So I think for the size we did today, we went from a medium to a large, and that required a three inch increase in circumference.
- So that's actually predetermined by the designer.
- Yeah, by the, yeah, yeah.
- Three inches.
Or even if you decide it's this tight and you need it to go this tight.
You don't even need to have a designer, you could just decide.
- Exactly.
Decide what your grade needs to be.
- So we had it there, that's where we started.
And you also graded length, but we don't-- - A little bit, yes, a tiny bit of length.
- have to.
- Yup.
- So to walk us through that now, you've got your grade rules?
- So I put my lines in here, and the just to help keep track of all these pieces, I've numbered every piece, so what when they-- - Oh that's smart!
- Cut apart.
- That's the tip of the day!
- Then you've got a puzzle to solve, and that takes much more time.
- No kidding!
- So we've got everything numbered so we know what order they go in.
And I've cut everything apart.
I've established some straight lines and made use of an L square, and a clear transparent ruler.
- Oh, I see.
So that you keep-- - You keep these lines perpendicular to your center line.
And then some of these individual lines here, you can see it's exactly an eighth of an inch apart here.
Over here it's a 16th, quarter, and so forth.
So these tools are very important.
- So this is really important, because this is the logic of how it's done.
- Exactly.
- But we're gonna get rid of you, 'cause you're outdated.
- Okay, all right, okay, I'm outdated.
- You're completely outdated.
But I'm gonna bring Jeanie on for a minute, because what I want you to see, is really what this problem looks like.
The problem is, the garment's too small, and just doesn't have enough circumference around.
And I know what you all are thinking: this is a perfect example of when the garment's too small.
It might physically close, it might physically go around, but it's not gonna be able to add sleeves, it's not gonna be comfortable.
You can just see there's, a woven blouse just requires more ease than this.
I don't know how else to say it.
So again, because so many of you say to me, "Well, can't I just add to the sides, "or you bring extra seam allowance."
No, not when it's to the point where she's gonna need several inches more, and really it would be the next size.
That's when you're really gonna wanna decide, okay, it's time to grade.
And so we're gonna, we want you to understand how you involve the neckline, the armhole, the shoulder.
You cut all those.
You divide by the number of inches you wanna add.
You spread all of them equally.
You're all good to go.
This is what the problem looks like.
Thank you Jeanie.
All right, so now what we're gonna do is, because Laura gave us the basics as to how we grade.
We want to show you how it's changed for the industry sake.
Because remember, this is just not an efficient way to do that.
I'm gonna bring Sharon on.
Because if every designer out there had to take and cut all these lines, and do each piece individually, which they had to do at some point, it would be a really complex thing to do.
So Sharon is gonna show us how technology moved along in the years, and how it really became easier.
'Cause you use to hand grade?
- Yes.
- And you actually worked for a company hand grading.
- Yes I did.
- A few years ago.
- Oh, try 1976 (laughing).
- Okay, we won't even do the math on that one.
A few years ago.
So what is this?
- This is a Dario Grad-O-Meter.
- Grad-O-Meter.
- Uh-huh.
- It almost sounds like somebody just made up a funny name for it, Grad-O-Meter.
- It says it right there.
- And what does this do?
- You clamp the pattern in here, and you move it to the increments that you need it to move to in order to make the pattern bigger or smaller, in X and Y - Oh my gosh, show me that.
- increments.
- Do you use these?
I mean, what do you do?
This is cool.
- Okay, you start at zero.
- [Peggy] Because that's the original pattern.
- Yes.
- Okay.
- And you mark the line where you want to start, where you want it to stay stationary.
- [Peggy] So you're using center front as that example?
- [Sharon] Yes.
- [Peggy] Okay.
- So then we go to-- - And this is how they really did it?
- M-hmm.
- Each piece was done like this?
- Exactly.
- Oh my gosh, okay, sorry.
- Each one, each size.
- Each one, each size?
- Yeah, each size.
You grow more, you go.
The more you go up, you have the...
I kinda kept it in my head how much more to go up, you know?
- Because there was a rule, a grade rule, that the designer would give you?
- Yes.
- Okay, wow.
What a... (laughing) - So we gotta - Lotta work!
- [Sharon] do this neckline and eighth of an inch up, and an eighth of an inch out.
So we mark the neckline here, after we do that.
Then we move out the shoulder 3/8th of an inch, which is a-- - So this is actually grading.
You can see where it's just changing it.
- [Sharon] We drop it down, so we keep the neckline parallel.
- [Peggy] I can't see from this, that this is a big improvement.
- And then we drop the arm hole a quarter, and we-- - And you kept this in your head, or you had little charts that you followed when you did it?
- I had it in my head as I went up.
Then we go down to half an inch.
And then we come back to zero.
And there we have it.
- [Peggy] That is really cool.
- Size large.
And there your lines are.
- And there's your grade right there.
And you know what we did, is we took the exact same pattern piece and had her grade, and had you grade, one by hand and one by... And we compared these and they actually came out to be the same.
- Exactly.
- It's just it took you a minute, and it took her three days (laughing), (Sharon laughing) do to the different pieces.
That's incredible.
Anything else that's just to it?
Now how come you still have these machines?
- I used to do it at home, like moonlight?
- Oh.
- And do it on the side, because there were a lot of companies that were real small, and they didn't want to go to the computerized grading.
- [Peggy] Got it.
- So.
- Perfect.
And we look forward to seeing you again.
- Okay.
- Thank you for being here.
- Thank you.
- Today we're taking a field trip.
The technology of grading has changed so much over the years that my friend Gary has been a big part of that.
Let's join him at the studio to learn more.
(printer humming) So here we are, Mr. Gary.
We'll call him Sir Gary.
- Sir Gary.
- Because what Gary has done, and what I really want to drive home to so many of you out there, is the evolution of the ready-to-wear industry, and how much it's changed.
And how clothing, if you really observe, clothing has gone way down in cost, fabrics have gone way down in cost, and the whole reason they have, part of the reason they have, is because the technology has so changed.
So Gary goes back to... - '72.
- '72?
Where everything was done by hand.
- Everything was done by hand.
- No plotters?
- No plotters.
- No PCs.
- [Gary] No PCs.
- So all of this was done by hand.
And we fast forward 40 years.
How long you been doing this?
- 45.
- 45 years (chuckling).
And just talk about what the changes have been.
- Well, I was already in the industry when everything was done manually, it was very labor intensive.
- So all those costs add up.
They have to come out into the final garment.
- Exactly.
So with the advent of computer systems, it made the job less labor intensive, and also cheapened the final product.
- Sure, sure.
- Which wasn't much labor involved.
- Wow, it's incredible to me.
Because when I was in college, I graduated college in 1980, they didn't even teach how to do this by computer.
- No PCs (chuckling)?
- That's 'cause didn't exist.
- 'Cause it didn't exist.
- So I can't blame my education, I can only say that there was nothing to learn, because it didn't even exist.
It's change so much more.
Do you think it'll change that much more again?
- It could.
But you said it wasn't available when you were in college.
It's available in most every college now, especially the major universities.
- Sure.
But the scary thing is they don't really even teach it by hand anymore.
- [Gary] No.
- They only teach to do the click, click, click.
- The only other system.
- That's kinda scary.
- It is a little bit scary, 'cause there was so much talent and craft in the doing stuff by hand.
It could never go back that direction-- - The attention to detail that they had to have in order to do that all consistently.
- Exactly.
- We are now going to show you the way grading is done today.
So, you don't have to remember the numbers, you don't have to do the math, you don't have to do the ruling and the cutting, you don't have to do any of that.
We have come to Sharon, and Sharon's gonna show us primo (chuckling), the best way to do grading.
You can't necessarily do this at home, 'cause this equipment is not cheap.
- Right.
- But we do want you to know about it, because it's really important.
Sharon, how many years you've been doin' this?
- 41 years.
- 41 years.
I know for me, she's been...
I've known her for at least 20, which is amazing.
And where did you learn?
You got your degree.
- In college, Applied Arts and Science, and I was in the Design Program and I decided I wanted to do grading instead of designing or making patterns, so.
- So how did you even know you were gonna be in that program?
Like, what even interested you into that program?
- Growing up I used to watch my mother sew, and then I worked at a company that she worked at sewing gun cases, putting zippers in gun cases when I was, I was just out of high school.
- Oh my gosh!
- So I decided that this is the route I wanted to go.
- And it brought you to this.
Show us what you do.
- Okay.
This is a pattern here, okay, a front.
- So this is how it's brought to you from the designer.
- Exactly.
- Okay.
- And this is sample size that they use, which is a size medium.
- 'Cause generally we grade down and up, we do kinda the mid-sizes.
We're gonna learn a little bit more about that later.
- Right.
I'm taping the pattern down so that it doesn't move.
That's important when I go around it with the cursor.
- Sure.
So this is basically like a big computer?
This board?
- Yes, yes.
- And you're somewhat maybe, like, scanning it in?
It's called digitizing.
- Exactly.
- Okay.
- So if it shifts it's bad news?
- Exactly.
- Okay.
It's really important that it says.
- The tape holds it down firmly so that it doesn't move while I take the cursor, which is this little thing, and I put the information in on this board here.
We're gonna, this I'll name a B Jacket.
(mouse dinging) - So that's the alphabet over there, and she's actually got it to where she can just spell out the name of the style, so the computer knows what's going on.
- Then I'll assign it a rule table that I have already computed into the computer over there, that I'm gonna send the pattern to.
And I give it a size medium.
And this piece is a left front.
- [Peggy] So anything the designer wants marked on that pattern piece for the cutter, has gotta be on this pattern piece.
- [Sharon] And I input it right here.
- Got it.
What are the points?
- These points are drill holes, I'm putting into the pattern.
- For pockets?
- Yes.
- Okay.
- And I'm putting in the lettering part where as the information about this particular piece will print off when it's plotted off of the other computer.
- So this is step one.
So if you just leave off something that's necessary, you can still add it in.
You don't have to re-digitize the whole piece?
- Exactly.
- Okay.
So the software is really made to be flexible and easier?
- Yes.
- Gosh.
- You can make corrections.
- Do you miss that hand grading?
- Uh, no (laughing).
- Is there any part-- - No I don't.
- Because the accuracy level would be so much more, it would be so much more precise with this than anything else.
- Exactly.
Exactly, 'cause you can go in or out of the line cutting.
But here it's precise line on line when you put it into the computer.
- [Peggy] So this digitizing's been around for quite a while?
I mean, they've really upgraded it, and it's... - Yes.
- [Peggy] Okay.
- Yes.
- All right.
So then from here, after you've got it all in, and you go around, and I notice your notches are here.
So everything that that pattern designer wants marked on that pattern for any reason, the designer, the cutter, the seamstress, whatever, all has to be put in at this point?
- Yes.
- Okay.
- Okay?
- All right.
- So now I put the piece in, using term points and curve points.
These are curve points.
- So what that means is when you're going around a curve, so that the computer can pick up the predetermined curves that are put into the computer.
It's important for when you're on a curve to pick up more points closer, than if you're on a straight line.
- Exactly.
- Is that fair?
- Right.
- Okay.
So any time you have a curve, you have to do that more often than if you have a straight line.
- [Sharon] Exactly.
- [Peggy] Okay.
Straight lines you can just do top and bottom and connect in between?
- Exactly.
- [Peggy] All right, cool.
- Shortest distance between.
- [Peggy] Shortest distance between two points, there you go.
- It's a straight line.
- [Peggy] But once you get a curve, - You gotta go.
- [Peggy] you gotta hit the curve.
- Yeah.
- So this is kind of artistic here?
- Kind of, kind of, yeah.
- That was a notch, bam, bam, bam, she just did that.
- Yes.
I think you have to have an artsy eye for some of this stuff.
Pattern making and digitizing and grading.
- Sure, makes sense, Applied Arts and Sciences is your degree, that would make sense.
- Exactly.
- You have to have a little of both, huh?
- Yes.
And that's the end of the piece.
- Okay.
- So now we go over to the computer.
We'll leave it here.
Here's the piece.
- There it is, yay!
That was easy (laughing).
- Now I apply the grade rules to each corner of the piece so that it moves in the increments that the customer wants.
So now we have the rules on the piece.
- Wow.
- And it shows you all of the different sizes that the grade rules... - [Peggy] Is it fair to say that would have taken a day to do that in the old way?
- Exactly.
- [Peggy] Like a day.
You just hit that button.
- A whole pattern, yeah.
And it'd depend on how many pieces.
- [Peggy] Wow.
- Yeah.
- [Peggy] 'Cause that has to be done to the front, the back, the sleeve, the collar, the... - [Sharon] Everything.
- [Peggy] Every piece.
- [Sharon] Yeah, but right here you can digitize a piece in at a time, and you can put the grade rules onto each point, and-- - [Peggy] That's amazing.
- Voila, you go it.
And we have sizes from three X small all the way up to a four XL here that you see on this front.
That's actually, that's grading, taking a sample pattern and grading it up or down from the small sizes up the largest size, or whatever the customer prefers (giggling).
- [Peggy] Amazing.
(printer buzzing) So this is what the same exact thing that Sharon digitized in?
- [Gary] This is the size pattern.
She digitized the sample size and applied the grade rules to it.
- [Peggy] But this is full scale?
- [Gary] This is full scale.
- [Peggy] This is exactly as they would use to cut it, mark it, everything.
- Exactly.
We have two plotters that we mainly use.
One of 'em does about 90 yards an hour.
So if you had 100 yards of marking to do you could do it in approximately an hour.
- 100 yards, that's a football field.
- [Gary] That's a football field, yeah.
- So it prints that much in an hour.
- In an hour.
- What did it used to though, that's current.
- Well back in the very early days when it was just pin plotters, it was like a quarter of a yard (laughing).
- So this is the best part.
- This is the best part.
- Come show me, come over here so we can see.
- This is the piece that we digitized, and we're gonna take this piece and lay it out on the digitized part to make sure that everything-- - [Peggy] And we go to find out which size this was.
- [Gary] Right.
- [Peggy] It's right there.
- [Gary] That's it.
- [Peggy] Wow look how good she did!
- She did great.
- And the markings.
And these are the drill holes that she was talking about.
- The drill.
- They're all right there.
On this pattern that we're looking at now, we're ready to cut the fabric.
It has the pocket marks.
It has all of the things that the designer wanted on here, so that the garment could actually get made quickly and efficiently.
So this is such an interesting part to me, because so many sewers want a layout, they jut want a layout, but this is like, super level layout.
Is that fair (laughing).
This is the best kind of layout possible.
So it's called marking.
How did you first get into this?
Well, my mother in law started me into it.
My husband worked nights, and I just went and helped her digitizing.
Went from digitizing to marking.
- [Peggy] So she taught you how to do all this?
- Yes.
- [Peggy] And do you like it?
- I love it.
- [Peggy] What do you like about it?
- It's like puttin' a puzzle together.
The game Tetris?
It's just like that.
- [Peggy] You must be really good at Tetris.
I'll bet you can - I am.
- ace everybody on that game.
I would not wanna go up against you when you've been doin' this all day.
This is a pants pattern that we're looking at.
And pants have to be on grain, it's really critical that they're on grain.
- Correct.
- So that, will the computer allow you to mess it up?
- It stays on a degree of grain, yes.
But I can turn that.
I can turn it to any direction.
- Oh, okay.
So you can just turn that.
But otherwise it will keep you on the grain?
- [Becky] Correct.
- And so now you have certain number of pattern pieces, and we need to know how much yardage is being used up.
So you tell the computer how wide the fabric is?
- Yes, we put in the fabric.
If they call back and they need to change it, we can automatically change it on the screen.
This right here is at 60.
If he comes back and says he needs it on 58, I just make it on 58 and move pieces around.
- [Peggy] So the program has all the widths that are gonna be out there with fabric, and you just have to know what it is you're dealing with?
- Yes.
The customer will tell us.
- So now what if I have a plaid.
What if I have something that's more complex?
Like, you can do-- - You drive me crazy.
- You can do all that?
- -Becky] Yes ma'am.
We have it here.
We have stripe lines, plaid lines.
As long as they're lines on the pieces.
- [Peggy] So Sharon digitized those in?
- Yes, Sharon digitizes 'em in.
She puts my plaid and my stripe angle on there.
So all I do - And so somebody's measured - [Becky] is measure the fabric.
- when the plaid repeats?
- [Becky] I do.
- You measure?
So you have to actually have the sample fabric in order to do the marker?
- Yes, if they want to match marker I have to have from repeat to repeat, and we take it and this is five inches by five inches, and we lay those pieces right on 'em.
- And then, obviously, when they go to lay 'em out, there as to be precision exactly as you guys have done it, so that the plaids match.
- Correct.
- Is it fair to say some designers don't care if the plaids match?
- That is true, they don't.
- Is that the ones we should stay away from?
Could you give us a list.
- Some of 'em, it just costs too much to make plaid markers, so they just don't do it.
- [Peggy] So it's just a cost decision?
- Exactly.
- [Peggy] Wow.
And they don't even give you anything to put on there, they just say lay it out the most efficient way possible and you do it?
- [Becky] Exactly.
- Wow.
How long have you been doing this?
- 27 years.
- 27 years.
I would not wanna go against you in Tetris, that's for sure.
So for just a sample pattern, let's just say pants, this is.
How long would it actually take you to go through and lay this out, with this software?
- Well I'm doing five sizes.
So this would probably take me, probably about 15-20 minutes.
- So each size has to be laid out separately.
- Yes.
- So once she grades them, you have to take the different sizes and lay out... That makes sense.
You're laying out each size.
- Yes.
- [Peggy] Okay.
- And then we save it, and then we have a mark sheet.
Put it all on a mark sheet.
It gives 'em the minis of what their markers look like.
- [Peggy] So you have to be able to-- - And-- - [Peggy] Okay sorry go ahead.
- And the yardages.
- And exactly how many yardages to come out.
That is wonderful Becky.
Thank you so much today for just showing us what you know about this.
Because I think every home sewer would definitely want this in their repertoire.
It would be so much easier.
- It is easy, it is easy.
- [Peggy] Very nice, thank you.
- You're very welcome.
- So what we did is we learned how to grade, we took that blouse that was too small for Jeanie, and we graded it up a size, or actually, we used the number of inches that Jeanie needed, and we measured some of her favorite blouses.
So we knew what we had, we knew what we needed, and that was the difference in our grade.
And you can see now it closes.
It didn't even close before.
And so the first thing we always have to do with every garment, is make sure that circumference is correct.
So when we're grading, what we have to recognize, is grading is not fitting.
They're two completely separate processes, and I hear them being confused often, as I talk and communicate with sewers.
So that grading process just gets that circumference right.
Then we can go in and we can fix all the issues we have here, we'll take care of all that a little bit later.
But again, grading is not fitting.
What, you gotta promise me you won't do, is you won't just add at the side seams.
You can't do that.
No more adding at the side seams.
You gotta take the time.
Just make a few cuts, grade it up.
Laura said it best when she said, because we don't just get bigger in one place.
It really is more to up and down, and everywhere around.
But fitting is different.
Grading is one thing, getting it to the right size.
And then once we do that, we'll take and we'll move forward with a fitting, and we'll get rid of the gaps.
But grading does take care of circumference.
And that was the issue we were having with the blouse; the circumference was just too small.
And not comfortable.
So we had what was wrong, we had what she liked, and now we can marry the two and get to the point where she wants to be.
So fitting is the best part of this whole entire process.
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