Pattern grading gone wrong
February 4th, 2009
I feel like I’ve been taken to the cleaners by a used car mechanic, only it was a pattern grader. The fit for the original sample size is great, it’s as the pattern gets bigger that it has problems. Mainly in the sleeve length. Everything else seems to be graded ok, but by the time the pattern gets up to a size 6x, the sleeves are almost 5 inches short.
This guy has since gone out of business, and thank goodness I only tried him out with one pattern. But it’s still a waste of money and time. It might have been a waste of money and time anyways because of course I want to change the pattern. Just call me never satisfied.
So why didn’t I notice the grading issue sooner? Mainly because we only produced two small sizes for the first production run. At that point, the original size was a good fit and the sleeve issue on the one size up was, I guess, imperceptible. Now I want to produce another run w/ the larger sizes too and just happened to make a sample in my daughter’s size. It was as if the sleeves had shrunk, and I was shocked. I’m happy we didn’t have them made, especially considering I pretty much just assumed the grading was right on.
This really drove home for me how important it is to double-check everything and also how important it is to gain enough knowledge to know what you are double-checking. If anyone knows any tricks for verifying that a pattern has been graded correctly, can you share??
Entry Filed under: Product Development, Production
8 Comments Add your own
1. Esther | February 4th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
I recommend sewing up the smallest and largest sizes to double check the grade and fit. This is especially important in the early stages of line development. I wrote a blog entry on this topic today.
http://designloft.blogspot.com/2009/02/who-creates-grade-rules.html
2. Amy Herkert | February 4th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Hi,
I was wondering if I can ask you how you sell old merchandise? Is it way out of line to ask another manufacturer out there that is larger if they could include my merchandise with theirs in their warehouse sale….of course they would get a percentage? How do you get rid of your old merchandise?
3. Pink Kiwi | February 5th, 2009 at 10:20 am
I just found your blog and I must say I’m super excited to have found someone that I can relate to in this way. I am starting up a line for little girls and I just took a break from my busy day to read your blog and it put me at ease to know its not just me going through these things. Thanks for writing! I’ll be looking forward to reading more!
http://www.pinkkiwiboutique.blogspot.com
4. Ellen | February 5th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Before you every go into production especially on any new pattern you should do a size run in order to catch any issues with grading
5. Raj Thandhi | February 27th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Hi Amy,
I am certainly not the expert here but I just sold off a lot of stock at a retail tradeshow as dicsounted last season products. I find that people are always looking for a deal at shows so I can unload some old stuff.
Take Care,
Raj
6. Kathleen | April 17th, 2009 at 9:37 am
You know, there’s tons and tons of grading articles on my site. I did a whole series on kid’s grading, see the archives.
If I’d been visiting your site as often as I should, your question would have been useful for me to frame this entry I wrote on Grading for height when you know nothing about grading.
7. Felicity Vindahl | May 20th, 2009 at 2:24 am
I asume you can take measurements, or have the measurements of the pattern efter grading. In that case you can easily compare it to standardized measuring charts. even if the sleeves aren’t going all the way to wrist, you can still get a sense of wether it follows the general growth.
Hope you don’t run into this issue again.
8. Caroline Moore | October 2nd, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Is anyone willing to share their children’s pattern grade rules? I’m struggling to work them out. Would really appreciate any help!
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