An analysis of a girls spring time dress

I found some time to analyze a dress from another manufacturer. I do this from time to time to see some of the innovative engineering that others have built into their infant clothing. (Infant clothing requires a lot of engineering, btw). This is the best way to learn how to put things together. This dress is a department store dress from Baby Togs. It would retail for about $20. There are some things that make this a department-store quality dress, with some interesting observations. The dress is a three piece set, made from a cotton/poly gingham. The dress is very cute and a good value. BTW, this dress was made in China.


Good Quality Points
1. The fabric is not a regular gingham. It is more like a dobby fabric. It is a better quality check fabric than I usually see. The content is 55% cotton 45% poly.

2. Embroidery. Anytime embroidery is added to a dress, the cost goes up, especially if made in the USA. This style has embroidered daisies only on the front bodice and embroidered flowers on the pockets. There is a minimum charge to run both pieces. They get bonus points for the amount on the dress.

3. The flower on the dress is not tacked on with a tacker. Instead the flower center is actually embroidered through to the hat band. This ensures the flower does not fall off!


4. The diaper cover is rather ordinary, but it has wider elastic at the waist - 1/2". Normally, budget clothing will have 1/4". The elastic is fully encased for a smooth finish and is not stitched through. They also probably saved money by doing a 4-piece diaper. This allows the cutter to move the pieces around to save money on fabric. Of course, it adds additional labor - but so far that is not an issue in China. In China, fabric is more expensive then labor.

Some interesting observations
1. The first thing I noticed about this dress was the skirt gather ratio - it is rather skimpy. Looking closer, you can tell the skirt is actually A-line. Even more amazing, they were able to put a straight grain band on the skirt. This kind of application would frustrate most people. The skirt hem could easily stretch out of shape, and yet I could only find minor stretching on one side seam. I did find evidence of basting, perhaps that helped. Personally, I would have cut the skirt straight and use the width of the fabric. The a-line skirt sweep is about 45". If you are using a 45" fabric, then there would be no difference in making the skirt straight. Plus it would have been easier to sew.


2. I have only seen one way of gathering skirts in China. This is because most Chinese manufacturers do not have shirring arms on their overlock machines. As incredible as this may seem, it is true. (And believe me, I have tried to show them this labor saving device, but labor is very cheap in China and they are not motivated to change). Instead of gathering and attaching the skirt in one operation, it is done in 3-4 steps. They will use a straight stitch machine with a gathering foot to create the gathers. Then they will baste the skirt to the bodice, and finally overedge the seam. This dress also has topstitching along the waist seam (a fourth step). It is hard to see in this picture, but here it is. You can see two rows of straight stitching. Another problem with this method is the gathers do not look neat and even. From the face side, it looks fine, but the inside is another story.


3. The final interesting point is where the manufacturer attempted to save fabric. The front bodice is fully lined, but the back is only partial. I am not sure this would have saved any fabric. Chances are the fabric saved was actually tossed out.

This was a fun dress to inspect. I don't quite understand some of the things they did, but despite that, it still turned out cute. It is right on for a department store dress and hits the right price point.

2019 notes - I lost some of the original pictures of this blog post, but the notes are still interesting!

Sew What? Sewing a VW Convertible Bug Top Cover

This VW Convertible Bug looks better than the one I made!

I am sure many of you who sew have had this exact reaction to a sewing request. In this case, one woman named her company Sew What? Inc. Megan Duckett started a business sewing draperies. Her employment sewing for a theater company is how she decided on a company name. The complete story can be found at U.S. News and World Report, July 31, 2006 edition.

I am always impressed by women who start sewing related businesses. Megan even ran her company out of her garage for a time. What an inspiration! For more info about Megan, check out her website Sew What Inc.

My blog entry is not really about Megan's company, but about those Sew What?! moments. For Megan, she was asked to sew a lining into a coffin for a theatrical production. I have had many Sew What?! moments, but one stands out. I was asked to sew a vinyl car top cover for a convertible VW Bug.

Yes, I took this job. I knew I wouldn't make any money from the project, but it was the challenge that grabbed me. This was during college and I thought I could sew anything (I still think that, provided I have the right equipment). During college, a friend of mine bought a convertible bug. It had no cover. He welded a frame together and then asked me to sew a top together. I had an average home sewing machine and a lot of ambition.

With a budget of $60, I purchased some black vinyl, extra large snaps, and some clear vinyl (for a rear window). The only equipment purchase I made was some teflon coated needles in size 18 and a snap kit. This fabric was very thick. I have to say my initial pattern actually looked very good. The execution is where I had trouble.

This is one of those instances where a walking-foot machine would have come in handy. Instead, I sewed this thing together with my Singer 503A. For all of those Ebay sellers out there that claim this machine can sew through 4 layers of vinyl, well they are half right. It will do it, but it may not look very good. This is a tuff little machine and I really pushed it to the max sewing this together. The seams were overlapped on top of each other like a lapped seam, but the material slid and stretched as it went along. In any event, I finally finished it.

The top was attached to the car with the snaps. The snap kits available in the fabric stores are not really designed to go through heavy-weight vinyl or to be glued onto a car surface, but somehow we got them attached. Despite our efforts, this car was not really safe to drive with a home-made car top. I could just see it fly off at 25MPH. My friend ended up using the car top for rainy days while it was parked. He also bought a real vehicle that was safe to drive.

Fashion Challenged Wal-Mart

Evidently Wal-mart's sales of it's women's clothes is down. This according to a recent Business Week article. It's no surprise really. I almost never buy clothing at Wal-Mart. There are a couple of reasons. One, the fitting rooms are too close to the registers. They are small, dirty, and cramped. If I feel I should try something on before buying it, I won't buy it. The last few pieces I bought I should have tried on - the mediums were really sized as a large. Oh well, at least it was only $5 wasted and a lesson learned.

In the book Nickled and Dimed on Not Getting by in America, author Barbara Ehrenreich worked covertly for Wal-mart. As a sales associate in the women's department, she spent most of her time putting away returns from the fitting rooms, store returns, and cleaning. She never spent any time assisting customers or pushing sales. According to her anecdotal evidence, 80-90% of the clothing taken to the fitting room is rejected. This points to fitting issues.

The next reason I don't buy clothing at Wal-mart is the clothing looks cheap. Some of the styles were cute, but the finishing details were lacking or the colors were too garish. One outfit had simple, exposed serged hems instead of a rolled or blind hem. This screams cheap. I also know this won't hold up in the wash.

Girls dresses also scream cheap. Their isn't enough fabric in the gathered skirts to look like a skirt. Ribbon and flower trims are wrinkled. Same issue with the garish colors. To be fair, the basic children's clothing is fine. You can get a great value on Carter's brand clothing. But skip the Rose Cottage label.

At one company, I helped create private label merchandise for the Rose Cottage Brand. It is true that Wal-Mart has greatly improved its quality program. But they are still missing the boat. In order to get the product to hit their price point, you have to reduce gather ratio's, remove linings, reduce trimmings. When you are done with the dress, it looks incredibly cheap. For a couple dollars more, you could get a dress that looks like a real dress at another store.

So the secret for Wal-Mart's success is to take a cue from Target. Create affordable merchandise with improved quality, the right colors, the right fit, and be mistaken for a more expensive piece. Oh, and move the clothing department away from the main drag of the store. Do I really want my neighbors to know I buy my underwear at Wal-mart?

Project Runway - A fantasy design world

Season 3 has started and I have to admit that I like to watch the show. It reminds me so much of my design school experience. In design school you are frequently given similar challenges to design something to fit a certain customer or target market. The work rooms feel familiar too, even some of the personalities.

There are a few things that continue to bug me about the show. The designer this show tries to discover is what I call a fantasy designer. There is a certain segment of the fashion business where a designer works with wealthy customers to create an evening dress or expensive sportswear. Their clientele consists of actors or other celebrities. That particular segment is so small that the continual portrayal as an ideal is an insult to the rest of us in the fashion business. Project Runway completely ignores many product categories, including children.

I am talking about designers that work in the trenches - mass market apparel. Creating something as cheaply as possible while maintaining a certain quality level. Worrying about profit margins and overseas manufacturing. This is the real world. This is the world where most designers work. Working for a large apparel business is gritty, real work. The hours are just as long and as stressful.

Another type of designer is an enterepeneur who has started their own business and sells to ordinary people. This kind of designer is more grounded and realistic about their customer and their product. They have a look that is interesting and sells. They are smart and understand business and fashion. It takes a lot of strength and will power to start a business from the ground-up.

I have to give credit to Jay (Season 1 winner) and Chloe (Season 2). Neither of them went the celebrity designer route you would expect. Jay took his time to figure the business end out before launching his line. Chloe expanded her own existing business. This is so smart.

I wish the show would give challenges to the competitors that are more realistic. One real-world challenge I faced was to design a children's fluffy dress - labor and materials - for under $5. Such a dress would retail for about $15.99 at a big box retailer. Now that is a challenge!

So yes, I would love to see them attempt other product categories. The fashion industry is so diverse. What about an outfit for a 50+ year old woman? Baby boomers are becoming one of the larger customer profiles. How about a maternity outfit? A new print for a scarf, tie, or umbrella? A children's look? I really, really want to see these designers try something other than a silk charmeuse evening gown.

I will probably keep watching this season. I am hooked, I admit it. I just hope the show doesn't spin out of control and become more ridiculous with time.

How to create a care, content and sizing tag for clothing

Roland Russwurm [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]*

Deciding what information to include on a hang tag or a garment's care and content tag can be frustrating. There are certain legal requirements for care and content tags of items sold in the United States and that can be found at the Federal Trade Commission website.

Let's start with the care/content tags. Let's assume that you have complied with all of the legal requirements. What else should go on your care and content tag? The answer is as little as possible. The tag has a finite amount of space, and it must be legible. But there is some critical information that will help the consumer pick just the right size.

Sizing information is one of those things that should be on the tag. For children's clothing it helps to put not only the size but also the weight. It would be nice to also include the height, but I rarely see this done in the US. I have seen the sizing information arranged different ways. For example, it could read like this: 0-3M (7-12lb).

This additional bit of information is very important to consumers. Even though we use a size system that designates an age, children come in all shapes in sizes at each stage of life. Ever hear of a newborn weighing 9lb? A newborn weighing 9lb at birth will weigh 12-15lb at about 3mo, and quickly move into 6mo clothing. Including the weight on a tag helps take out the guess work for the consumer. And don't forget every children's company breaks their sizing down differently. A 3mo outfit from one company will not be the same size as a 3mo outfit from another.

If there isn't room on a care/content tag for additional information, then it is helpful to include it on a hangtag. BabyGap has sizing information available on a card that is the size of a business card and it can be stuck in a wallet. What a great service for the customer! Not to mention, it probably helps reduce returns.

Most moms know the height and weight of their baby. They are given this information when they visit their pediatrician. The doctor will compare the baby's height and weight with a growth chart to make sure the baby is growing properly

If you have an online store, a size chart that includes basic height and weight information will greatly help your customers.

*Photo Credit