Neck Opening Circumference

Please note: Body measurement charts for infants which include the neck circumference measurement are now available in my book The Essential Guide to Children's Clothing Sizes, available on Amazon.

Libetty left a comment on a recent blog entry and I think the answer deserves its own blog.

So I have a sizing question that you may be able to answer... What is the minimum neck opening circumference that a child needs to get a garment on over their head? I've always thought that it was 18". Is this correct???

Babies are very interesting. Most babies have the head circumference that they will have as adults. There is some growth that occurs between newborns and older babies as the bones in the skull begin to fuse and the head takes shape. Other factors that contribute to head size are genetics and weight. A newborn baby's head circumference may start as small as 14 inches but grow to about 20 inches by age 2. Proportionally, babies appear top heavy because the head looks too big in comparison to the rest of the body.

When designing clothing and patterns for babies, there are some other considerations. Babies do not dress themselves. This means someone else must be able to reach into a shirt, for example, and comfortably pull it over the head. With a dress, you have to reach down through the neck and pull a dress over the hips and ultimately over the shoulders. Some degree of space must be included to allow for ease in dressing (as quickly as possibly too!).

The recommended head opening for children's clothes is 20 inches for all infants and 21-22 inches for toddlers and up. This is a minimum measurement. Additional ease may be required depending on the fabric and/or style. This recommendation comes from my experience working with big box retailers - and they all seem to agree on this point. Over the years, I have seen that this is the measurement that is actually needed. BTW, this measurement refers to the extended neck measurement (see pictures below). There is no US government regulation that I know of - this is an industry standard. You can measure lots of product yourself to see most things follow this guideline.

Incorporating 20 inches into a neck circumference can be very difficult. The assumption is made that the neck circumference of the pattern must meet 20 inches. A neck circumference on a baby is 12-14 inches (measurement taken at the base of the neck). If your pattern has a neck circumference of 20", then your garment will probably fall off. The extra girth needed to meet the extended neck circumference can be added by the addition of a front or back placket, zipper, button placket, lapped shoulders, elastic, or stretchy neck ribbing. In other words, make the neck of the pattern where it should be and add extra length/girth somewhere else.

Here are few pictures of me measuring the extended neck circumference of a few different styles. Please note, I used a tape measure because it shows up better in the pictures. You should probably use a flat ruler instead. Plus, DH was taking the pictures off to the side, so it appears that I am not lining things up right, but I am. To measure the extended neck circumference, place one finger in the center front neck and another in the center back and stretch. Double the measurment from the ruler and you will have the extended neck circumference. If drafting a pattern, you can measure the pattern neck circumference plus any additional opening. It is best to double check a measurement after a garment is sewn up because things change.

This shirt has an elastic neck. Stretch the elastic as far as it will go without damaging it. You can see this neck measures about 22" extended.









This infant polo shirt has a front button placket. You can see this shirt stretches to 20".










This infant t-shirt only stretches to about 18". It is a bit tight IMO. Part of the problem is the stretch of the ribbing and also how it is stitched to the neckline. The topstitching prevents stretching beyond this point and could actually break if I take it any further.






To measure the neck opening of a dress, measure from the center front neck to the bottom of the skirt placket opening. The extended neck measurement needs to be larger because the waistline needs to either slip over the head or the hips easily. This measures about 26 inches.

I like Jack Handford's book Professional Pattern Grading!

You know you might be a little strange when you do a happy dance after receiving a new book in the mail on pattern grading. That was certainly me yesterday when I received Professional Pattern Grading by Jack Hanford in the mail. This book has long been on my Amazon wishlist and I finally bought it for myself.

This is the BEST book on pattern grading. If you own the Price/Zamkoff book, just stuff it in a corner and get this one instead. The explanations are very clear and complete. And yes, this is how it is done in the industry. It was so gratifying to see that what I have learned on the job, some of it on my own, IS how it is done. The other book is too complex and ignores men's and children's styles completely. Jack Handford covers all three categories very well. And it is so nice to see that children have not been ignored. He covers infant, toddlers, boys, girls, and juniors.

This book describes manual grading with a paper and pencil. Still the concepts can be applied to computerized grading. Most of my grading is done on the computer and I will be using this book as a reference.

In fact, this book is so good, that I will not be doing my last installment on my grading series (a pictoral demo). Handford demonstrates the process well enough, there is no reason for me to duplicate it. Can I say buy the book? I will probably blog more about grading in the future, so no worries there.

I will be going back over my infant pattern/body measurement charts to see how they compare with Handford's grading. I probably will be making some adjustments. I am not too far along on developing my own infant/toddler patterns, so this is a great time to go back over them.

Troubleshooting a stitching problem on a Singer Hemstitcher 72w-19

I have previously blogged about my hemstitcher and how temperamental it can be. I would blame most of its stitching problems on its "personality" and just try to deal with it. The primary problem I have experienced is skipped stitches. Skipped stitches are very bad because that extra thread can get caught around or under the piercers where they are cut. Usually, I would experience skipped stitches with either the left needle or the right needle, and occasionally both.

In the past, I would work through the most "obvious" and possible solutions to prevent skipped stitches. Most how-to guides suggest rotating the needles out ever so slightly. I would thoroughly clean, oil, and lube. I would check the threading. I would replace and reset the needles. Often, I could solve the problem enough that I would experience little thread breakage. That was until I worked on a blanket order that consisted of flannel fabric that came from H - E - double hockey-sticks L. If you heard a scream, followed by head banging 2 weeks ago, it might have been me.




The picture on the left shows the stitching along the long grain (the grain parallel to the selvedge edge, also called the warp). You can see the frequent skipped stitches. In fact it skipped so often that I was experiencing thread breaking and thread fraying every 2 inches of stitching. The picture on the right shows the stitching along the cross grain or weft. The stitching would be absolutely perfect - no skips or thread breakage.

My initial thought was there was something wrong with the fabric. It either was a blend or had too much sizing. My hemstitcher will not stitch reliably on polyester fabric blends, but a burn test confirmed it was cotton. I couldn't wash the blanket to rid it of the sizing. Some flannels do not look the greatest after washing, and usually the sizing does help with the stitching. Too much sizing is an indication that the fabric is of lesser quality, although not always. This order was a 45" x 45" blanket consisting of a panel print on the front and a coordinating print on the back. I had very little scrap left over to do any testing to see if it was indeed the fabric. Stitching on other softer flannels was easier, although I was still getting thread breakage.

It took me a while to finally figure out what the problem was. One significant clue is the stitching difference between the long and cross grains. There are distinct properties to these two grains that affect how fabric behaves and also how it behaves as it is stitched. The long grain (warp) consists of yarn that is pulled taut. The cross grain (weft) consists of yarn that interlaces with the long grain. It goes over and under the long grain yarns. If you fray out fabric, you will notice that the cross grain yarn has a wave and the long grain is straight. You can pull the cross grain yarn like a spring, but the long grain will snap. Because of this, the cross grain of a plain weave fabric has a natural, built in stretch.

While stitching, a hemstitcher inserts two needles into a pierced hole. As the needles come up, they swing out pulling the yarns of the fabric apart. The next stitch will hold the hole open. Each hole requires three stitches. The machine has to work harder along the long grain of the fabric because of the inherent nature of that grain. The machine works less hard on the cross grain because of the natural stretch built in.

Ok. So now I knew the problem, but I didn't know how to solve the problem. I have to stitch around all four sides of my blankets, so there had to be a way to adjust the machine so I could stitch and not get anymore skipped stitches. I pulled out my usual help guide in diagnosing stitching problems. The Coats & Clark pamphlet titled The Basics of Hand & Machine Sewing, published in 1995. This is a fantastic pamphlet that covers many aspects of needles, thread, proper tension, etc. I don't know if this is available anymore, as I acquired the full set of Coat & Clark pamphlets in college. The best part of this particular pamphlet is a Checklist in Case of Trouble. Every possible stitching scenario is covered.

At the top of the list for skipped stitches was Wrong size or type of needle for the fabric. But I skipped that because I assumed I had the right type and size of needle. Other solutions suggested:

Timing of machine - check
Lint - check
Threading - check
Damaged needle - check
Sewing at a steady, even pace - check
Fabric with excess finish - ? possibly
Hold fabric taut while sewing - check

Nothing seemed to make a difference. I think the excess fabric finish contributed to the problem, but was not the root cause. Stitching on other fabrics showed the problem still existed. So I finally decided to cave and try the next needle size up. It couldn't be that simple, but why not try.

In a true, head smacking moment, the machine stitched absolutely perfect on both grains. And it makes sense too. A larger size needle is stronger and can pull the yarns of the fabric apart easier. Since I have to stitch through two layers of flannel, a larger size needle is necessary. Now I have to decide what to do with 100 size 12 130x3 needles, while I wait for an order of size 14 needles.

One thing I am not sure about. I had some Singer brand size 14, 130x3's laying around loose in the table drawer, which work great. The Singer brands are known to be the best, but also the most expensive. I am ordering the Organ brand (which is what my size 12's are) in the size 14. Hopefully, there isn't too much of a quality difference.

Country of Origin labeling examples

One comment from a reader on my Designers hate care/content labeling blog made a good point. Labels can be very irritating to the end user. Rest assured, it is perfectly legal to remove labels after purchase. The size and placement of labels should concern designers because it is all related to your brand. I searched through my stash to find examples of how other designers deal with US labeling requirements. I could not find any pieces that did not comply with labeling requirements. I guess I tend to buy product that is honest in their labeling. Clothing that leave off labels or fail to place them properly says something about your company (and it isn't good IMO). All of these examples have the labels correctly placed near the back neck with the country of origin prominently displayed.

Country of origin as part of the brand label. This is also one of my rare Made in USA pieces.










A size tag/country of origin label stitched to the bottom of the brand label.









A separate size/country of origin label placed next to the brand label.










This is a typical example. The brand label is stacked on top of the care/content tag. The country of origin clearly shows below the brand tag.

Designers hate care/content labels

I was shopping a week ago or so in one of my favorite discount stores, Ross Dress for Less. As I was working my way through the blouse rack, I noticed a significant problem with most of the blouses on the rack. The blouses did not have a proper notification of country of origin (I would of counted how many were not in compliance, but DH was getting bored). According to FTC recommendations, items with a neckline must have a label stating the country of origin at or near the inside center back neck. These blouses only had a small brand label. A separate care label was attached to a side seam, with country of origin disclosed there.

I have read the FTC recommendations dozens of times and I am always surprised of the amount of non-compliance that exists in the marketplace. Some companies must be ignoring (or are ignorant) of the requirement. Further, many of the items in this store are imports. This means they had to pass custom inspections. I don't get it.

I follow the rules, and yet I have seen many designers insist they don't have to place a label at the back neck. After all, it is ugly and takes away from hanger appeal. If no one else is doing it, why should they. Children's clothing poses an additional challenge - there is only so much space in the back neck.

Here is a picture of an infant girl's dress. The label is correctly placed near the back neck. This placement requirement creates consistency across a broad range of products. Customers can know where to find basic product information. If I wanted to purchase Made in USA product, then it would be simple to find out.

It is only required that country of origin information be placed in a reasonable, accessible place (generally the back neck in items with a neck). Care information may be placed in a side seam, or elsewhere. Generally, children's items have the information combined on one tag. Think about your customers. Do you really want them to have to fish through an entire item of clothing to see where it was made and how it should be cleaned?