When looking for a CMT you need to stick to the CMT's core specialty. Taking this opportunity to familiarise yourself with the factory set up will give you an idea of how many lines they are running, what machines they have, and what capacity do they have? At the same time, you will get a feel for weather the factory staffs are happy or not, are there adequate facilities like toilets and a canteen. All this makes a difference, firstly that we don’t want to support sweat shops and happy people produce happy garments. Look at how the material, trims, cut work and patterns are stored. If the factory is a mess it is very likely that you work will be treated in the same way.
If they say they can do stretch, check out their machines, where are the safety stitches, or 4 thread over lockers. Do they have cover seam machine and can they adjust their over-locker to do a lettuce leafing finish. Ask to see what needles they are using. We all at some time have bought or known the frustration of having tiny laddering holes appear on seam lines on a knit garment because ball point needles were not used.
Same goes for a CMT that does woven, be specific. What kind of woven, are they set up for? Heavy duty garment construction or small runs. Producing huge volumes for example traffic officers’ uniforms that require being made in pure wool, as it is flame resistant meeting health and safety requirements.
This kind of production will affect a factory set up in a number of ways.
· Fusing bed press would be set up for a heavy weight fusing, high melting point adhesion for woollen fabric.
· The underfeed dog on the plain sew machines will be set quite heavy to walk the increasingly thick wool through the sewing foot.
· Needle thickness would be about an 80/12,
All this would be a serious consideration if you were to put through a run of georgette or faille blouses. The temperature setting on the fusing press may cause strike through on the garment, and if you have not supplied the fusing and expect the CMT to, you may land up with whatever stock fusing they have left over from the last production run. The end product being, a blouse that is stiff along the CF button stand with needle damage along the seams.
There are some great factories out there, and in my Master Classes I cover a supply a database of a couple of names that are good, reliable and produce great quality work that I have loved working with.
If you are wanting to find your own machinists’ phone SACTWU there should be a pool of machinists at this number 011 402 22737
This brings me to the following; there are some simple systems that can be put into place to give you the foundations of structure to produce samples and production garments consistently. All of the following I cover in detail in my Master Classes and delegates will get PDF’s of all the necessary schedules
· Style Breakdown sheet
· Cutting Order
· Standard Cost Schedule
· Pre-Production Report
· A Style File
Style Breakdown sheet: this sheet circumvents the stitching difficulties that come up with production. Each machinist, sample hand, factory or C.M.T has differing habitual sewing processes. The sample-hands need to rely on the Style Breakdown sheet that is placed with the pattern and cut work. This sheet will give a step by step description of what stitching process needs to be followed. It will detail weather a cuff has a foot stitch or edge stitch, if there is top stitching on the centre front button stand or only a counter stitching. The sample machinist will log in the time from beginning to end of sewing process. Problems often arise when an old sample is placed with the cut work. Invariably the sample takes precedence over the Style Breakdown sheet and old stitching habits creep in. This happens with existing client’s re-orders, where old samples are being followed by C.M.T’s for new orders. It is critical, in order to keep improving quality that the C.M.T needs to receive a sealed sample with the correct fuse, stitching inside and out and a Style breakdown sheet.
Cutting Order: Is a fantastic tool to track a number of things. It is engineered to protect you and hold the CMT to account. It must be accompanied with a delivery note detailing all items that go with a sample or production to complete a garment, such as:
· Fabric, Fusing, Lining and Contrast Fab and the meterage that is delivered
· Pattern size/s
· sew in label, wash care label size label and the amounts delivered
· trims haberdashery, hangars, laundry film boxes anything that must be considered to complete the garment
The cutting order is explicit in detailing what is expected and will give a clear indication of what has been ordered to what has been cut, made and delivered. If there are any reject garments or re-cut panels this too will have been recorded. The standard rating of the marker will also serve to keep the cutting room in check on the use of fabric delivered; it then a simple mathematical equation of meterage delivered minus units cut equals fabric left over.
On delivery, both cutting order and delivery note must be signed for and dated by a duly authorised representative. Having signed these documents, they serve as a legally binding document.
Standard Cost Schedule: This tool takes important information gleaned from the Style Breakdown sheet and Cutting Order such as the time it took the machinist to sew the first sample, the ratings for fabric and fusing and haberdashery. The schedule serves to cost in every conceivable item of cost and to amortise other often overlooked costs like the research and development of the garment and in some way to recoup the cost of pattern development and grading. Having done this exercise the schedule will serve to make an informed business decision as to whether or not a garment is feasible to go into production, if so how many units need to be produced to break even and at what amount will the units produce a profit. A good saleable garment’s costing schedule can then be referred to seasonally, updated and put into production year in and year out as a standard item in amongst the one-off fashion pieces.
Pre-Production Report: Having been through the process of costing schedules and deciding that a garment is feasible for production this sheet will be attached to an approved sample and will be delivered with the production Cutting order and all the other accoutrements that have been discussed for the sampling procedure. This sample is known as a Sealed Sample. When the factory uses the sealed sample for production it gives them a clear outline of accepted tolerances for their Quality Assurance.
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