One question I get is how to calculate the amount of thread one is likely to use on a given style in production. Naturally, one must measure all the affected seam lines -a task I find to be beyond boring!- and indicate the sort of stitch used to form the seam. You’d think that that thread allocation per seam type would be standard in seam specification tables but it doesn’t seem to be. In the past, I’ve used a crude calculation for a 5 thread overlock to be about 1cm:25cm which includes a waste factor for chaining off and the like. I’ve been looking around for some hard rules to apply and other than the American & Efird site (which is great by the way), I haven’t found much out there on this although there’s a nifty calculation tool at Southern Textile Group but it’s only for single needle lockstitch seams. What are you all using to calculate thread usage and allocation?
This isn’t scientific at all, but I figure out how many bags I can make on one spool of thread. It’s guessy, but it’s the best I’ve been able to do.
Rumour has it that Montréal contractors get around this by using home sewers.
When the home sewers complain that they didn’t get enough thread, the contractor tells them “Well it must be you because everyone else is doing just fine with the thread we supplied.” So the home sewer has to either supply the thread herself or lose the job.
Alison,
You bring up a good point regarding home sewers.It may be our industries “dirty little secret”, but unfortunately some contractors use home sewers. Nothing against home sewers, but anyone thinking of using a contractor should ask beforehand if they utilize home sewers as part of the production process. You could run into some dire, serious problems if you use contractors that go this route. This would make a good topic for blog discussion in the forum.
can u plse tell me how to find out thread consumption(reducing thread consumption) in an apparel industry? i also want the detail notes of thread consumption also.