Tailoring CAD software replaces the part of the job that has always taken the longest and
gone wrong most often: drafting the pattern. Instead of drawing a fresh paper draft for
every customer, you type her measurements once and the software generates the complete
pattern - every panel, dart, notch, seam allowance and grain line already in place.
That single change fixes three problems at once. The ease that an experienced cutting master
carries in his head becomes a setting in the pattern, so a second person cuts the same
garment the same way. A repeat customer is re-cut from her stored measurement sheet rather
than a new draft, so the second blouse fits like the first. And the finished pattern prints
or cuts full scale, so nothing is lost between the paper and the fabric.
Pattern making software is one part of it
Drafting is where the work starts, not where it ends. A pattern making software module holds
the blocks for each garment - blouse, churidar, kurti, gents shirt, trouser, coat - and
grades them across a full size run in a single step. For a boutique that is a faster
order. For a uniform or production unit it is the difference between redrawing eleven
sizes by hand and pressing one button.
Once the pattern exists, it has to reach the cloth. That is the second half of the system,
and there are four ways to do it: print it full scale on a wide-format printer, draw and
mark it with a plotter, project it straight onto the fabric, or cut it directly with a
laser. Which one suits you depends on volume, fabric and floor space rather than budget
alone.
Why Indian tailors move away from manual cutting
Manual cutting is not slow because tailors are slow. It is slow because the same draft is
redrawn for every order, because the pattern master is a single point of failure, and
because fabric is wasted between pieces that were never nested properly. A shop cutting
one garment at a time with shears loses eight to twelve per cent of its cloth to the gaps
in between - and on most garments the fabric costs more than the labour.
Fashion Dot has been building this technology for Indian tailoring since 2003, and it is
used by more than 11,000 tailors across the country. The software runs in Tamil, Hindi,
Telugu, Kannada and English, every machine is installed and trained on-site, and the
pattern library ships with more than 1,000 ready garments for Indian, western and fusion
wear.