Print (the textile design) and pattern (the garment sewing pattern) may start out separately in design and development, but they converge in production before they meet in the finished garment. The different ways the two can come together each have pros and cons within the final product that need to be considered and accounted for during development. Let’s look at three different approaches to printing clothing and what they each mean when it comes to patternmaking.
Print rolls of fabric
The easiest way to add prints to your garments is to make them with a printed fabric. You can purchase printed fabric from the supplier, or you can buy PFP (prepared for print) blank fabric and get it custom printed in your brand’s own exclusive artwork.
Depending on the type of print, patternmaking for use with printed rolls of fabric can range from super simple to meticulously complex. Let’s look at each.
Repeat prints
This type of print is the easiest to work with on the patternmaking side. The big question with repeat prints in regards to the pattern is whether they are one-way or multi-directional prints. Multi-direction or 2-way prints will look the same right side up or upside down which means that the pattern pieces can be cut in either direction on the roll of fabric. This allows the pattern to be nested more efficiently – using less fabric. One-way prints can only be cut facing one direction and the garment pattern needs to be marked accordingly.
Engineered prints
Borders or ombre prints fall into this category. Engineered prints are not a uniform print or color across the whole roll. They may have a border detail along one selvedge edge of the fabric and not the other. For the engineered print and garment pattern to work in harmony, the pattern needs to be placed and cut in a particular location on the fabric.
The grainline of the pattern can control the orientation of the print on the garment. The grainline type can dictate cutting on-way or 2-way. A match-stripe or alignment mark on the pattern may be needed to align the pattern against a certain motif on the printed fabric. You definitely want to know the engineered prints you are working with before starting development with your patternmaker. The placement and even shape of the pattern pieces really make a difference with engineered prints.
Placement prints
Similar to engineered prints, placement prints take some planning at the patternmaking stage. Placement prints may or may not cover the entire garment, but they are lined up in the same spot on every garment. A common use case for placement prints is team uniforms, but placement prints aren’t limited to this purpose.
Because placement prints need to look the exact same from garment to garment with no variation in placement, the best way to print rolls of fabric with this type of prints is to print the outlines of the garment marker with the print inlaid in each piece. Think of this like printing out a sheet of stickers. The sheet is blank initially, but you print the shapes and designs of the stickers you want, then cut those sticker shapes out after printing.
To accomplish this, you’ll need to work with your patternmaker to create a template (a marker of sorts) of the pattern pieces that includes a bleed area. Then your textile print designer can put the placement prints into that template. After printing, the rolls of fabric are cut one layer at a time.
Print cut garment panels
Printing fabric first and cutting after is one way to add prints to your garments, but you can also do the reverse. You can cut your garments out of blank PFP fabric and then print the cut pieces. This gives you the efficiency of bulk cutting plus the flexibility to print complex engineered or placement prints.
In the garment pattern, there doesn’t need to be any particular placement markings. Because the pattern will be cut from blank fabric, the only thing that matters for the marker layout is that the grainline is straight. (Of course, if the fabric has a nap, the grainline should be 1-way as well). The actual pattern is less complicated when printing garment panels.
It is helpful, though, to get your patternmaker’s help setting up a template for the panels that need printing so your textile print designer can lay out the artwork. If you are producing different sizes of the garment, keep in mind that you may need to have separate templates for different sizes or scale the files to get a consistent placement on all sizes.
Print finished sewn garments
A third way to add prints to your styles is at the finished garment stage. This is common for tee-shirt graphics, but can be used in all-over applications as well. This printing approach lends itself to faster turnaround times compared to other methods. The cutting and sewing are already complete, so the printing can be done closer to market or even printed on demand.
The impact of finished garment printing on patternmaking is next to nothing as long as your prints are contained within single pieces of the garment (i.e. only on the front or back). The garments are being cut and sewn of blank fabric, so there is no special patternmaking set up needed for the print in this case. The only thing I recommend checking with your patternmaker about is the size of the area you want to print across all sizes of the garment. This will help you determine the scale and placement of your prints on the finished garments.
It is possible with some printing techniques to print across seam lines of a finished garment. This does require more collaboration with your patternmaker. Seam thickness and overall garment flatness come into play. If you are considering all over printing on finished garments or prints that span multiple sewn panels, definitely get your patternmaker, printer, and textile print designer involved early in the process so they can advise the best equipment, print method, print placement, and garment pattern shapes to achieve your design.
Printing can take place during different stages of garment production. Depending on your design and the prints you want to use, there are advantages to using one approach over another. Regardless of the method you choose, you’ll want to keep your patternmaker in the loop about your printing preferences. The garment pattern will need to be set up, marked, and even sometimes drafted differently to dovetail with your prints seamlessly in production.