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The Development of an Automatic Pattern-Making System for Made-to-

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Article  in  Fibers and Polymers · February 2014

DOI: 10.1007/s12221-014-0422-6

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Fibers and Polymers 2014, Vol.15, No.2, 422-425 DOI: 10.1007/s12221-014-0422-6

The Development of an Automatic Pattern-Making System for

Made-to-Measure Clothing
Hyun Sook Han, Ji Young Kim1, Sung Min Kim2, Ho Sun Lim, and Chang Kyu Park*
i-Fashion Technology Center, UBITA, Department of Organic and Nano System Engineering, Konkuk University,
Seoul 143-152, Korea
1
i-omni. Co. Ltd, Seoul 137-070, Korea
2
Department of Polymer and Fiber System Engineering, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 500-757, Korea
(Received February 16, 2012; Revised July 12, 2013; Accepted July 23, 2013)

Abstract: This study developed a system that automatically created individually customized patterns by combining the two
methods of “automatic drafting by pattern formulae” and “grading”. The system reads four kinds of information: body
measurements; basic size pattern; grading values of the pattern’s points; and an alteration rule. Using the files, the system
automatically generated a grading pattern first, and then modified it according to the alteration rule to make individually
customized patterns. The clothing produced from the customized pattern fit the subject better than the clothing produced from
the grading method.
Keywords: 2D pattern making, Made-to-Measure clothing, Pattern grading, Customized clothing, Clothing pattern system

Introduction it is necessary to predict the clothing pattern shape made by

Customers’ demand for better fitting clothing is increasing
in today’s clothing market, and apparel companies are
increasingly interested in providing customized clothing as a
new and unique way to market their clothes. However,
modern apparel manufacturing systems that provide individual
customization face increased manufacturing costs, and
ultimately, the price of products increases as well. This
limits companies’ ability to practice widespread individual
clothes customization. One reason for the increased cost of
individual customization is that such patterns must be
created one by one, manually, by skilled manpower, which
requires much time and effort. Accordingly, if more efficient
and automated methods for making individually customized
patterns are developed, it may help the provision of individual
customization to clothes.
The automatic generation of clothing patterns can be
achieved in two main ways. One is the “automatic draft
pattern by formula” method, which generates patterns
automatically from programmed formulae. The other is the
“grading” method, which grades an existing basic pattern
used commonly in ready-made clothes according to specific
rules [1,2]. Automatic drafting by pattern formulae can be
done with an independent program [3], and with scripts of a
general-purpose CAD program [4,5].
The “automatic drafting by pattern formula” method is
useful in its ability to produce a clothing pattern that exactly
reflects the wearer’s body shape and size, but this entails a
lot of work to develop pattern-drafting formulae and apply
them to various sizes for numerous styles. In order to develop
pattern-drafting formulae reflecting the wearer’s exact size,
*Corresponding author: cezar@konkuk.ac.kr
the formulae when the size is input. Furthermore, advanced
knowledge and experience in pattern making are necessary
in order to maintain aesthetic proportions while reflecting
body shape. The “grading” method does not require pattern-
drafting formulae based on size, requiring the pattern’s form
and the grading rules to adjust the pattern’s size. Thus, it can
produce clothing patterns relatively easily. However, this
method can increase or decrease the size of a pattern but
cannot change the various forms of the basic pattern, so it
has a limitation in reflecting various body shapes. Elizabeth
Bye et al. [6] has researched these problems.
By combining the two methods of “automatic draft pattern
by formula” and “grading”, this study developed a method
for automatically creating individually customized patterns,
and a system to apply the method. The outcomes of this
study are expected to enhance efficiency in drafting individually
customized patterns, and to contribute to the realization of
individual customization of apparel products.
Principles of the Automatic MTM Apparel
Pattern-Making System
The made-to-measure (MTM) apparel pattern-making system
developed in this study generated a “grading pattern” first,
and next modified it to an “individually customized pattern”
by applying an alteration rule. To automatically generate the
individually customized clothing patterns, the system needs
four kinds of information: body measurements; basic size
pattern (XY coordinate values of the basic pattern’s points,
and lines representing the pattern’s shape); grading values of
the pattern’s points; and an alteration rule. These are shown
in Figure 1. The four kinds of information are written in
separate files: a body measurement file, a basic pattern shape

422
423 Fibers and Polymers 2014, Vol.15, No.2
Figure 1. Information needed for the automatic pattern-making
system for customized clothing.
Figure 2. Flow chart of the automatic pattern-making system for
customized clothing.
file, a grading value file, and an alteration rule file, respectively.
The system reads the files, combines them, and generates
individual clothing patterns.
Figure 2 shows how the system works. First, the apparel
style is selected. Second, the customer’s body measurements
are put into the system. Then, the user clicks the “generate”
button, and the system reads the basic pattern shape files and
grading value file of the particular style and generates a
Hyun Sook Han et al.
Figure 3. Body measurement input dialog and the automatically
generated grading pattern.
“grading pattern” according to the customer’s body mea-
surements. Last, the system modifies the “grading pattern” to
an individually customized pattern by applying the alteration
rule. Figure 3 shows the user interface from the developed
MTM apparel pattern system for customized clothing making.
The advantage of the MTM apparel pattern-making
system over the “drafting by pattern formula” is that it keeps
the silhouette of the pattern similar to that of the basic
pattern, since it modifies the grading pattern, which has the
same shape as the basic pattern. Moreover, predicting the
pattern shape variation after the alteration is easier than
predicting it after the pattern is drafted by pattern formulae.
Automatic Grading Pattern Generation
Before the individually customized clothing pattern can be
generated, the grading pattern must be prepared. Only body
measurements must be input. For example, a bust girth of
98 cm will generate the grading pattern of size 100, a one-
step graded pattern from the basic pattern of size 95.
The system generates grading patterns automatically by
deciding how many steps are required in order to grade the
pattern to an individual’s body measurements. Figure 3
shows the body measurement input information dialog and
the automatically generated grading pattern.
Basic Size Pattern and Grading Value in the File-Making
Program
To generate automatically graded patterns from the basic
size pattern, two files are needed: the basic size pattern file,
and the grading value file. Current commercial apparel CAD
systems make it possible to set the grading value and to save
it in the CAD’s own file format. However, they do not
support exporting it as a common file format, so other
software cannot read the grade value.
Automatic Pattern-Making System for Made-to-Measure Clothing
Figure 4. Basic size pattern and grading values in the file-making
program.
However, most apparel CAD programs support exporting
the shape (point and line) information as a DXF file format,
a common graphic file format. Therefore, this study developed
a system that extracted and saved grade value from the DXF
pattern file format.
The system interface is shown in Figure 4. It shows the
points and lines of the basic size pattern and a size pattern
that is one step larger.
The system’s process works in the following manner:
1. A basic size pattern, and a size pattern that is one grade
larger, are loaded.
2. Corner points and curve points of the pattern are
automatically identified, and the numbering is done
automatically.
3. The user modifies the pattern points by addition or
deletion.
4. One click of the “Save” button automatically generates
the “basic pattern shape file” and “grade value file.”
The “basic pattern shape file” includes the information
needed for industrial pattern generation, such as repeat,
symmetry, mirror, and notch points.
Individually Customized Patterns Generation
from the Alteration Rule
A limitation of the grading pattern is that it is tailored to fit
a person with average body measurements, not, for example,
taller, thinner, shorter, or larger-than-average people. In the
grading system, the length of lower cloth is determined by
waist girth, so pants made from the grading system are too
short for a taller-than-average person. Therefore, this study
developed a system that applied pattern alteration rules and
automatically modified the grading pattern.
Using a baseball uniform as an example, Figure 5
Fibers and Polymers 2014, Vol.15, No.2 424
Figure 5. A part of the alteration rule of a baseball jersey.
Figure 6. Before and after applying the alteration rule; (Left)
grading pattern and (Right) individually customized patterns for a
person with a larger-than-average waist.
illustrates a part of the alteration rule that modified the
grading pattern of a baseball jersey. In the first row, a
customer’s waist girth is represented by “Waist”, and the
grading size nearest to a customer’s chest measurement by
“O_Bust.” Then, in the next row, “d”, the move amount of
pattern’s point is defined and input. The next row represents
the patterns to be altered, with the move amount in X and Y
coordinates in order, and the pattern’s points to be adjusted
from the grading size. The alteration rule is written in a
computer file by pattern experts, and the system reads the
file and applies it to the pattern. Figure 6 shows the grading
pattern (left view) and individually altered pattern (right
view) of a person whose waist girth is bigger than his or her
bust girth. The pattern generated in this system can be saved
as a DXF file format, and can also be printed by the pattern
plotter.
System Application
In order to test how well the system works, it is necessary
 425 Fibers and Polymers 2014, Vol.15, No.2 Hyun Sook Han et al.

Table 1. Comparison between clothing produced from a grading pattern and clothing produced from a customized pattern (unit: cm)
Upper clothing Lower clothing
Bust girth Back length Waist girth Slacks length Hip girth
Body dimension 95 - 94 112 99
Clothing produced from customized pattern 112.2 89.8 94.2 112.3 112.1
Clothing produced from grading pattern 112.2 85.6 95.4 108.1 113.0

Bust girth and waist girth were proper in both patterns, but
back length and slacks length were better in the clothes
produced using the customized pattern.

Conclusion

This study developed a system that automatically created

Figure 7. Comparison between clothing produced from a grading
pattern and clothing produced from a customized pattern; (a)
clothing of grading pattern and (b) clothing of customized pattern.
individually customized patterns by combining the two
methods of “automatic drafting by pattern formulae” and
“grading”. Next, this study applied different methods to test
the system.
The system reads four kinds of information: body
measurements; basic size pattern (XY coordinates of a basic
pattern’s point, and lines); grading values of the pattern’s
points; and an alteration rule. Using the files, the system
automatically generated a grading pattern first, and then
modified it according to the alteration rule to make individually
customized patterns. The clothing produced from the
customized pattern fit the subject better than the clothing
produced from the grading method.
This study’s findings are expected to enhance efficiency of
individually customized pattern production. They will also
contribute to the production of better-fitting clothes through
more apparel companies using individual customization
services, which will increase customer satisfaction.
Acknowledgement

to use it to produce customized clothing. A person, who has
a taller and thinner body size compared to that of average
young adult, was selected as the subject. By applying the
developed system using the subject’s body dimensions, a set
of customized baseball shirt and pants were made. For
purposes of comparison, clothes were made using the
grading method as well. As illustrated in Figure 7, both the
customized shirt and pants made by the system fit the
subject’s body better than those made using the grading
method. The length of shirt and pants made by general
grading pattern, which was done by the girths, was too short
for the subject because the subject’s bust girth and waist
girth were relative small compared to his height. However,
the length of clothing made by customized pattern was
appropriate because the length was enlarged according to the
subject’s height after grading the length. We also compared
the two patterns by measuring them, as shown in Table 1.
This paper resulted from the Konkuk University research
support program.
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3. H. J. Park and Y. J. Nam, J. Korean Soc. Cloth. Text., 25,
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4. J.-M. Lu, M. J. Wang, C.-W. Chen, and J.-H. Wu, Expert
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