In textile
industry, thread is one of the essential trims for garment sewing or
assembling. As sewing thread is one of the most important trims, calculating
the consumption of sewing thread also important task for a garments
merchandiser which we already discussed in article “How to calculate sewing thread consumption and costing”.
Sewing
thread required for assembling garments parts or seam sewing, label attachment,
buttonholing, over locking etc. It’s important to know the consumption of
thread, how much thread used to stitch in a garments product. To calculate
sewing thread consumption, we have to consider few factors to find out final
consumption for a garment product.
Thread
requirement will varies based on product categories and those affect in result
of thread consumption per garments product. In garments industry, there is lots
of different type of product and different number of components to be sewn
together and has different seam length. Different types of fabric used to seam
a garments and different types of sewing machine used depend on product type
and categories. In this case, our first and main factor is to find out a
product and how many different threads used to seam a product. In a short way we
say that, product with less no. of components and shorter seam length require
less thread.
Find the
below technical factors those determine actual thread requirement;
- Fabric thickness and seam
- Stitch class
- Stitch per inch (SPI)
- Thread tension
- Count of thread
- Type of machine
- System of production
Fabric thickness and seam
As sewing
thread consumption depends on fabric thickness, if thickness of seam increases
then thread consumption per stitch increases. Here, seam thickness varies on
no. of fabric layers to be sewn together and thickness of fabric sheet.
Stitch Class
Sewing
thread consumption will increase or decrease, it’s totally depends on stitch
class. For single stitching, different stitch classed need different no of
thread. If no. of threads in a stitch increase, then thread consumption will
increase accordingly. If no. of threads in a stitch less, then thread
consumption will come lower. Suppose, a 4 thread over lock machine require more
thread than 3 thread over lock machine to sew same length of seam.
Stitch per inch (SPI)
No. of SPI
(Stitch per inch) may vary based on product category, seam to seam, fabric
quality and thickness. Sewing thread consumption will increase when stitch
density increases. Buyer will provide SPI details in product technical pack. If
SPI density increases than thread consumption will increase for a garments
product.
Tension of thread
Thread
tension is one of the most important factors for calculating sewing thread
consumption. It’s also played a role for consuming thread. If thread tension is
higher than consumption will come less. So, before calculating the thread consumption
for a garments product, we should focus on thread tension.
Count of thread
Another most
important factor of sewing thread consumption is thread count. It’s one of the factors
that affects to determine thread consumption. If thread count or thicker is
higher than thread consumption will be higher.
Types of machine
Type of
machine and stitch class both are interlinked to each other in garments
industry. Machine is one of the important factors to calculate sewing thread
consumption for a garments product. Consumption varies machine to machine in
term of length of thread tails at the start and end of the seams. A five thread
over lock machine consumes more thread compare to three thread over lock
machine or single thread over lock machine. So before start to calculate sewing
thread consumption we must keep in mind machine type used to seam a product in
bulk production.
System of production
Production system or layout is one of the
important factors for bulk sewing thread consumption. This process included or
considered here as what wastage percentage to be added in calculating the final
consumption for a product. If production layout, consider by higher no. of
machines than wastage will increase automatically. Keep in mind, in bulk
production sewing cones are distributed among many numbers of machines. So, we
have to consider all thinks before finalized the thread consumption for an
order.
