Apparel Designing Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The looseness is known as ease.

Ease is the extra amount added to body measurements when drafting a pattern, so that the garment allows the wearer to breathe, sit, bend and move comfortably. A bodice, for example, is given a few centimetres of ease over the bust measurement.

Gathers, tucks and pleats are ways of controlling fullness: gathers draw fabric up on a thread, tucks are stitched folds, and pleats are pressed or stitched folds. They are design and shaping devices, not the small comfort allowance the stem describes.

Answer: A

Vertical lines should be preferred by a short and obese person.

Vertical lines lead the eye up and down the body, creating an illusion of greater height and slimness. They therefore help a person who is short and stout to look taller and thinner.

A thin person or a tall person would look even thinner or taller in vertical lines and is better served by horizontal lines, which add width and reduce apparent height. A tall and obese person needs to reduce apparent size without adding height, so vertical lines alone are not the advice for that figure either.

Answer: C

'Raglan' is a type of sleeve.

A raglan sleeve extends in one piece up to the neckline, with a diagonal seam running from the underarm to the collar bone, instead of being set into an armhole at the shoulder. It allows free arm movement and is common in sweatshirts and sportswear.

A placket is the finished opening of a garment, for example at a shirt front or cuff. Pockets and collars come in their own types (patch, welt and so on; Peter Pan, shawl and so on), and raglan is not among them.

Answer: D

A seam that encloses a previously stitched seam is a French seam.

A French seam is sewn twice: first with the wrong sides together, the allowance trimmed, then folded and stitched again with the right sides together, so the first seam and its raw edges are enclosed inside the second. It is used for sheer and fraying fabrics.

A lapped seam lays one edge over the other and stitches through both, a fused seam is bonded with heat or adhesive, and a rolled seam rolls the edges into a narrow finish. None of them encloses an earlier seam.

Answer: A

Of the four, only proportion is a principle of design.

The principles of design are the rules for arranging elements: proportion, balance, rhythm, emphasis and harmony. Proportion is the relation of the sizes of the parts to each other and to the whole, as in the placing of a yoke or waistline on a garment.

Line, texture and colour are elements of design, the raw materials that the principles organise, along with shape or form and space.

Answer: B

In drafting, the French curve is used to draw the armhole.

A French curve is a template with curves of changing radius. It is used to draw smooth curved lines in a pattern, such as the armhole, the neckline and the crotch curve, which cannot be drawn with a straight ruler.

Darts and the grainline are straight lines drawn with a ruler. A hemline is mostly straight or a gentle curve usually measured with a hem gauge or a long hip curve, not the tight changing curve the French curve is designed for.

Answer: C

The upper part of the needle that fits into the needle bar is the shank.

The shank is the thick upper end of a sewing machine needle, flattened on one side in domestic needles, which is clamped into the needle bar. Below it the needle narrows into the blade, which carries the long groove guiding the thread down to the eye and point.

The shoulder is the tapered section between the shank and the blade, the groove is the channel along the blade, and the blade is the long slender body of the needle, so none of them sits within the needle bar.

Answer: C

The direction in which fashions are moving is called a trend.

A fashion trend shows the general direction of change in styles, colours or fabrics over a season or several seasons, and designers and retailers forecast trends to plan their collections.

A fad is a short-lived fashion that is adopted quickly by a small group and soon disappears, and a craze is a similar burst of popularity. A classic is a style that stays acceptable for a long time, such as a trench coat. None of these describes the direction of movement itself.

Answer: D

A seam that encloses a previously stitched seam is a French seam.

The fabric is first stitched with wrong sides together, the allowance is trimmed, and then the fabric is folded right sides together and stitched again so that the first seam and its raw edges are enclosed inside the second. The result is a neat 'seam within a seam', used for sheer fabrics.

A lapped seam overlaps one piece on another and stitches through both. A fused seam is joined by heat-bonding, not stitching, and a rolled seam rolls the edge into a narrow hem. ('Beam' in the stem stands for seam.)

Answer: A

Pret-a-porter is the term for ready to wear clothes.

The French phrase means 'ready to wear'. It refers to garments made in standard sizes and sold finished, in contrast to haute couture, which is made to measure for individual clients.

High fashion clothes are the haute couture end of the market, the opposite of pret-a-porter. Portable bags and mix and match clothes are guesses from the word 'porter' and from coordinated separates, not what the term means.