Principles And Factors Of Flat Knitted Garment Design

Knitwear is a section of clothes and has own characteristic different from woven clothes. It is comfort and feels free to wear. Sweater is one of the most widely used knitwear. The principles and design elements of sweater were investigated in this research. The design of sweaters begins from the fabric design because the clothing parts are knitted directly by open width knit machine. This is primary difference of sweater with other knitwear and woven clothes.The studies dealt with in this paper are composed with three parts as follows:This study started from fabric design and analysis of knitting yarn, color and pattern. The situation of yarns in fabric was simulated to illustrate the basis and theory of garment's size and model. According to analysis, the experiment was carried to compare the appearances and performances of the different sample fabrics used for sweaters. This research work provided the foundations and key factors of the fabric design for sweater.Next to the fabric design, principle and method of sweater design were investigated. This research focused on clothing silhouette design, which included the clothing silhouette, the influences of fabric design on sweater silhouette. Perfect style can only be achieved on both perfect fabric design and clothing design.In the last part of this paper, examples of sweater design and analysis of these designs are given for the validation of above study results. The methods to transfer the design to finished knitwear and the key points of design and production were given on the basis of sample analysis.The paper gives out the following conclusion according to the research results: (1) The flat knitwear design begins from its fabric design. During knitting process, designers may include the design themes and creative idea into fabric design, such as color variations, pattern design and material combinations and so on.(2) Because of the loop's distortion, rib work of the fabric enlarged in vertical direction and shortened in horizontal direction. But horizontal double face structure shows the opposition trends. Therefore, during garment design stage, designer should consider the different kind of the loop's distortion in order to avoid uneven appeared on garment.(3) Designer may apply the distortion of knitted framework to fit the body figures of different persons without use darts, gathers, overfeeds and other technical methods as other ordinary garment design.(4) When applying different structures in sweaters, designers must take the difference and change the needle count or knit processes into consideration in order to obtain the garments that looked nice and fitted well.This research is carried on the basis of lots of design practice. The results given in this paper can be applied directly into knitwear design and production. This research work can provide useful references for fashion design, structure design, measurement design and process design.