Material Sourcing

MADE Apparel Services Podcast

Heather Zager discusses the second topic in her four-part series called Concept to Customer in this episode. In the first episode she introduced us to design concepting and today she talks about material sourcing. She explains the foundation of fabrics and how they are made, differentiating between natural and man-made fibers as well as how fibers are turned into yarn. Everything from roll size to fabric weight is addressed in this episode to aid in swatch searching.

Natural fibers are either cellulose-based, which comes from a plant, or protein-based, which comes from an animal. Man-made fibers are constructed by humans and they are comprised of two types: manufactured and synthetic. Heather breaks these categories down with examples of which fibers comprise the fabrics we’re used to. She details how they are turned from fibers into yarn, either non-woven, woven, or knit. Each type creates different attributes in the resulting fabric that work best for different types of apparel.

Understanding fabric packaging is the next important piece of material sourcing, so Heather explores rolls, fabric width, fabric length, and weight. Understanding how fabric is measured, what the grain line is, and how it’s weighted will allow for easier swatch selection according to what type of garment will ultimately be made. Heather’s four-part series on the basics of design imparts a foundational understanding of exactly what is required for product development in manufacturing.

About Heather Zager | MADE Apparel Services Founder and Owner

Heather Zager found her calling when she signed up for a beginning pattern making course and realized she had a passion for technical design. She subsequently enrolled in the Apparel Design and Development program at Seattle Central College and graduated two years later with her Associate of Applied Science Degree.

After graduation, she began working with Meta assisting in developing and designing augmented and virtual reality wearable tech gear. In 2020, MADE Apparel Services was born with the idea of helping makers, inventors and designers bring their own sewn product ideas to manufacture. Since then, she has worked with various businesses such as Santa’s Tailor, Feathered Friends, Wolfpack Gear and Classic Accessories, helping them achieve their goals in design, development, pattern making, sewn construction and manufacture.

Today, Heather continues to grow her knowledge and share her experiences with others to bring their visions to reality.

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Resources discussed in this episode:

• Spinning wheel
• Thread Science article
• Types of Weave and Types of Knit
• Textile & Fabric Weight and Conversions

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Contact Heather Zager | MADE Apparel Services:

• Website: MADEApparelServices.com
• Facebook: MADEApparelServices
• Instagram: MADEApparelServices
• Linkedin: MADEApparelServices
  
  

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Transcript

Heather Zager: Hello everyone, and welcome to today's podcast. My name is Heather Zager. I am the host of this podcast series and founder of Made Apparel Services. Hi Heather here from Made Apparel Services. Welcome back to my channel. In this episode, which is the second part of a four-part series called Concept to Customer, I am going to talk about sourcing materials for your project. But before you start, just a quick background on why I created this series. Over the last couple of years, when working with my clients, I noticed a consistency in their misunderstanding of four issues or areas of product development in manufacture. Those were Design Concepting, Material Sourcing, Size and Fit, and Types of Manufacturers. This information was creating a lot of confusion and in some cases blocking their progress. But once I explain things in more simplified terms and as smaller steps in relation to a bigger picture, things got much clearer and a lot simpler. So if you're feeling a bit overwhelmed and don't know where to start, I think this series will help you gain some perspective.

Heather Zager: If you are a new designer, sourcing materials can feel overwhelming. However, I've found it's because new designers tend to think a little bit too far into the future as though they are about to go into manufacture, so they're trying to find the perfect material in hundreds of yards from a reputable mill. However, at this early stage, your idea needs development, which means all aspects of the design creation, patterning, sample sewing, and material selection must be explored together. So if one needs to change, the others can quickly follow.

Heather Zager: What we're going to work towards is sourcing swatches and small quantities like five yards. Not only will you get materials faster for testing, but you can easily redirect to another material if you find the one you've chosen is lacking in some way. Small scale or large, though, you should still understand some fundamentals of fabrics to make selection easier. And when you are ready to source larger quantities or work with a supplier, you are much better prepared with the lingo of the industry.

Heather Zager: I am going to first explain the foundation of fabrics and how they are made. So fibers, yarns, and weaves. Then I'm going to talk about fabric packaging, roll size, weights and widths. Once you have the basics, these rows and rows of fabrics you see in-store or page after page if you're online will become a lot less overwhelming. Let's start with fibers. Fibers are the smallest visible part of a fabric, and are best imagined as a single hair-like strand. We call this a staple. While fibers are the foundation of all fabric, there are actually only two types: natural and man-made. Natural fibers are either cellulose-based, which means it comes from a plant, and an example of that is cotton, or protein-based, which comes from an animal. And an example of that is wool. Man-made fibers are just that, they're man-made.

Heather Zager: Man-made fibers also come in two types: manufactured and synthetic. Manufactured man-made fibers use a natural base such as cellulose, protein, or even a mineral such as a glass as its foundation, but it then goes through additional steps to turn it into a fiber. It is essentially a blend of a natural base and then some human ingenuity. Some examples you might be familiar with are modals, lyocels, bamboo, and everyone knows rayon. Another way to think of how a manufactured man-made fiber is created is with an example. If you imagine wheat and you grind it and turn it into flour, that's somewhat of a natural process. But if you then take that flour and turn it into a pancake, then you've manufactured it. It's man-made at this point, but it is using a natural base. And this is what a manufactured man-made fiber is. The other type of man-made fiber is synthetic, which means they're purely...