Have you ever experienced walking by a pretty girl with a perfect figure, but somehow her rear end just looks flat and you don’t know why? Well, if you had a profession like mine, then you would know the problem is the back yoke panel. When the back yoke panels of a pair of pants aren’t cut into a contour shape which is reasonable for the three dimensional human body, such a cut of pants will push all your skin to the side and flatten your butt.
Every time I am shopping with my friends or even shopping by myself, I make sure to try on every single garment to make sure it fits properly. Sometimes you can try on a two-hundred-dollar dress that looked great on the hanger; but after you try it on it looks like a cheap fifty-dollar dress. It’s all about the cut and fit. A dress with proper cut and fit can make a very simple, plain dress look like a million dollars.
Sewing and working on garments is what I have loved to do ever since my childhood. When working on anyone’s project, I don’t define their price, I only think about how I can make this garment fit great on a person. I think about how I can make this garment feel comfortable yet look fantastic on the hanger to attract a customer to buy it. Every garment I work on is like my baby: I give one hundred percent of love to each one and when I do, it makes each piece come to life. If I see someone on the street wearing the garment I created, and it fits well on that person, it is a wonderful return for me.
I love sewing; in fact I think I was born with it. Ever since I was six years old and I saw my grandmother make a jacket, it helped me bring back memories of my last life. I was able to make something by seeing it made once. Or sometimes, if I saw a garment I liked at the store by examining the details, I would be able to figure out how to make it. When I discovered sewing, I gave up my play time with my brother and sister. I treated sewing like playing, and every time I finished making a doll, handbag or hair band, it made me so happy. If I gave these to someone to make them happy, it gave me even more joy.
I was able to major in Sewing and Fashion Design in high school. I started learning more advanced and professional skills. There was Technique class, Pattern Making class, Draping class, Embroidery class and Sewing class. I had a chance to bring my sewing skills to another level, not only sewing by hand but I started learning to use a sewing machine to make garments. We had seventy students per one teacher in a class, and it was very difficult for my instructor to teach us all at one time. Ninety-five percent of my classmates didn’t know any sewing. For those people who knew a little of sewing, it was only the basics like sewing buttons, and that’s about it. When my teacher found out that my sewing skills were more advanced and that I could pick up whatever she was teaching right away without her having to explain twice, she decided to make me a leader. She would quickly show me how to sew something, so when she started teaching I could go around helping other students if they were behind. I was glad to help my classmates and would sometimes even stay after school to help them. When I started to see my classmates’ progress I knew, all the time I had spent on them was worth it.
Two years later after I had moved to the United States, I attended a local fashion design school in Pittsburgh. The school was way too easy for me; I didn’t learn anything new besides what I had learned in high school. They would assign a project for four weeks, and I would finish it in four days. The teachers didn’t know what to do with me, so sometimes they would send me to the department store nearby to look around at the fashions. Because I had too much free time, I asked the principal to help me find a part-time job working in a bridal shop. I would wait on the bride and help her try on all kinds of wedding gowns, explaining how each dress should properly fit and how the bustle of each dress should drape at her back. If she decided which dress to order, I would gladly call my boss, Susan. I wasn’t happy just because I helped sell a dress, but because I saw how happy the bride was to find her dream wedding gown for an important day of her life.
After I graduated from fashion school, I decided to open up a custom dress making shop by myself. Besides custom-made wedding party dresses, sometimes customers would bring in their regular clothes for alterations. If they lost weight, they would ask me to help them take in the side seam, but sometimes if they lost too much weight the whole garment basically needed to be taken apart and reconstructed. I would suggest to them that they buy a new garment, especially if the garment was inexpensive, since it was not worth it to pay so much money to have it fixed. Or, if they brought me new pants to shorten that were made of 100% cotton fabric, I would suggest that the customer take them home and wash them to pre-shrink the length first. Sometimes I only needed to shorten the length by a half inch, after pre-shrinking the length. They didn’t need to spend un-necessary money and have it end up becoming too short after washing them.
I had one old lady customer Mary who would come to the hair salon next door every Saturday to have her hair done. Every time she would bring one thing to fix, or if she was going to a party, she would ask me to make her a dress. Mary lived by herself, her children had all moved out, and I think she was lonely and didn’t have many friends to talk to since when she came into my store she would tell me all her stories about her children or things that happened in the supermarket. Even though sometimes I had too much sewing that needed to be worked on, I would still stand at the front counter and listen to her talking because I didn’t want her to feel sad. When I said I was closing my store and going to work in New York City, she cried and asked me if I leave who would fix or make her clothes and that she would not have the opportunity to have someone to talk to anymore. I was sad when I heard it, but I was young, and I didn’t want to lose an opportunity to finally work in the fashion industry.
After working in New York City as a Technical Designer for women’s sportswear for about ten years, I switched to work for a children’s wear company. I have worked as the manager in charge of the technical department for six years now, and I have eight people who work under me. Even though now I don’t have time to sew anymore, I am still able to have a job that lets me apply my sewing knowledge and skill to my work.
As a manager, I need to make sure all the garments are properly fit before production, all the size grading must be accurate before they are factory cut. My technical designers must make sure that the shoulder slope is not be too square or too sloppy; the sleeve cap height in not too tall so it gives the arms a comfortable lift, the shirt front neck width is narrower than the back neck width so when the customer wears the shirt, it will not fall to the back. Also, they must make sure the back yoke of the pants must be cut in a contour shape so the waistband doesn’t stand away from the body, make sure front and back rises at the inseam area to give enough depth so they won’t be uncomfortable when wearing them, and skirt panels are cut into lamp shapes so the front doesn’t look flat with all the fullness pushed to the side. On top of this, we need to assist our designers to achieve the design they have in their minds. This is not just being able to understand their sketches, but also requires knowing their personalities and tastes.
It is very difficult to hire a good technical designer today. Many young girls don’t know how to “sew” or “sew well” and that makes it very hard for them to do their jobs well, even though they are graduates from F.I.T., one of the most famous fashion schools in the world. But a lot of them have never sewed before attending the school, and only made a few garments in their class projects. When they come to work for me in the first few months, I need to train them how to run a fitting and explain to them why we need to fix or correct a certain area. For example, if we are fitting a woven shirt, we will need to put it on the form and look at it to see how the overall shirt looks? Then, we will start correcting it from the top down.
First, if the collar is standing up, and it doesn’t wrap around the neck nicely, we will address this. We need to reduce the neck width, to be more close to the neck, and then adjust the neckband shape from a straight to a contour shape, but not too much. Too much curve will make the collar roll edge too small, which makes it uncomfortable. Once the neckband shape is fixed, we adjust the collar length. Each side of the collar edge at the center front needs to end 1/8” away from the center front, so after the neckband is buttoned up, both edges of the collar will nicely kiss each other without overlapping. An overlapping collar will make the collar point uneven. The collar point spread is also a very important. Male styles need to be more spread open and less pointy. Female styles vary depending on the design; sometimes it’s a round collar and sometimes it’s very long and pointy.
Next, we will
check the shoulder slope across the shoulder width, across the front width and
across the back width. The human body tends to slouch, so we need to have less
shoulder slope and make it wider across the back width to allow room for
body movement. But the front of the body doesn’t need to have all the extra
room, so we will need to eliminate all the extra fabric by increasing shoulder
slope and making it narrower across the front width to give the shirt a clean
look.
Then we look at the armhole
and sleeve cap area. The armhole position under the arm area cannot be
too low or too high. When it is too low, it is difficult to wear a jacket on top of it because
when lifting the arm too much, it will create tension and could cause the
seam to tear. But if the armhole is too high, it will constrict the
arm making it difficult to get enough blood circulation. The sleeve cap
height will depend on the design. Most male styles are drop shoulder
style, which means the sleeve cap height doesn’t need to be so tall.
Basically, it looks square. This is because males are
typically more active. Females like to wear a more fitted shirt with a
narrower shoulder width. In this case, we would need to increase the sleeve cap
height to give a more tailored look.
After adjusting all these
major points, we focus on design details and shapes like darts or
tucks position, art work position and pocket position.
All my knowledge of sewing allows me to
know if someone put their passion and heart into their work. If a garment looks
dead on a hanger, I know whoever sewed that garment did not put much care into
it. In that case, I wouldn’t even want to try it on, since it has no life. I
don’t want the garments I create to end up like that; I want them all to feel
wanted when a customer is looking at them or trying them on.
Although I don’t have much time to sew for myself anymore, from time to time I still use my skills to fix clothes for my children or my friends. Sometimes I make Halloween costumes for my children or sew a doll for my kindergarten-aged son. I am lucky to be able to have my hobby as my full-time job. I realize that it is not just “sewing” that makes me happy, it is also the opportunity to improve the quality of life by bringing happiness to others. I hope everyone who wears my garments can feel my heart and the love I have put into each piece.
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