The consumer wants to buy a quality product at reasonable prices that fulfills his all the requirements. But sometimes unsuitable garments are purchased due to ignorance of the consumer.
The consumer can select desirable clothes at reasonable rate only if he considers all few aspects judiciously before buying them. Therefore, following points should be kept in mind while purchasing ready-made garments:
Quality of fabric
Following points should be kept in mind while selecting the quality of fabric: (i) Fibre of cloth.
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(ii) The quality of its weave. Clothes with tight weave are better and those with loose weave are tending to shrink easily.
(iii) Method to wash and maintain the cloth if some special method or material is to be used?
(iv) Type of cloth used in lace, piping, and lining of the garment. It should match the main cloth, otherwise, it will cause inconvenience in washing and ironing. Lining should not be affected by sweat and shrinkage.
(v) It is important to look for the weave in hosiery and knitted ready-made garments.
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(vi) Drape of a cloth is an important aspect in its selection. If ready-made gent’s garments do not have good drape, then it would not have good crease also. Lahanga, skirt, sarees, etc. look more attractive if these have good fall.
Colour
(i) The colour used in the cloth of the garment should be fast.
(ii) If more than one piece is used in a dress, it must be ensured that colour of all of them is fast. Other decorative accessories like laces, piping, etc. should also be of fast colours. If, the colour of one item bleeds, the garment will no longer be fit for use.
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(iii) Suitability of colours should be ensured before buying the ready-made garments.
(iv) The shade of colour should be checked in the natural light.
(v) Ensure the colour of required dress before purchasing.
Workmanship
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The beauty and durability of the cloth depends on the efficient workmanship.
What to look for in Workmanship?
Design
Placket and Fasteners
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Cutting Hemming
Design: If the dress is of one colour then design is not a problem because various pieces can be used in any part of the dress. But if the cloth has design or pattern, then care should be taken in cutting and stitching of various pieces. In the readymade garments one should look for: (i) the print am uniform.
(ii) Stripes and checks are stitched at proper angles.
(iii) In fuzzy cloth one must ensure that the piles are in the same direction. If they are not in the same direction, they would have different shades in light Cutting. The cloth will fit well if the cutting is proper.
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(i) Length of all pieces should be along the selvedge and width should be along the weft. This would give good face to the garment and would be comfortable to wear. If the length of the cloth is cut widthwise the garment would be uncomfortable and will not last long. We come to know of this defect only after use.
(ii) Sometimes, if the main grain of cloth is not proper, the cloth becomes off grain. If the cloth is cut without rectifying, it will not give proper fitting and will hang unevenly.
Seam
The seam should be durable. Stitches should be small, equal, and straight.
The thread used in stitching should be of fast colour and almost matching to the colour of the cloth.
Seam joining two pieces should be durable and there should be enough margins in the seams for alterations. Both ends of seam should have proper finishing, otherwise, there will be reveling. This is often done with the help of pekoe or interlocking. Flat seams are preferable in children’s dresses as these are durable and don’t irritate the skin.
The seams of lining of the garment should also be checked carefully. Each portion of lining should be stitched with the seam.
Hemming
Hemming is done on various ends of the dress like at the ends of sleeves, around the neckline and at the flair of the dress. (ii) Stitches of hemming should be at short intervals and equal in size.
(iii) The ends of hemming should be properly locked to avoid opening of seams.
(iv) The thread used for hemming should be of fast colour and matching the fabric because a part of hemming is visible on the front side.
(v) The folding for hemming should have some margin left for alterations plackets and fasteners. Provision of some opening is made for putting the dress on and off, where button with holes, zip, eyehook are used.
1. The strip on which buttons are appended is called placket. While buying a garment, ensure that the placket is straight, buttons or hooks are at equal distance and in working order. The placket should be large enough for easier change of dress.
2. Stitches of holes should not be loose. The opening of holes should be properly interlocked to avoid tearing off the cloth at the ends of the holes. The button does not fit well in such loose holes and looks odd.
3. Buttons should be appended firmly. The thread used should not be visible from front surface. Ensure that the buttons used are not defaced in washing or buttons may not be taken off the garment. Sometimes buttons used in ready-made garments are of different type. If one button is lost, it is difficult to find a matching one. For this, the manufacturers append one or two extra buttons.
4. Zip is also commonly used nowadays. Before buying clothes, ensure that the zip is in proper working order.
The durability and colour of buttons, hooks and zip should be in accordance to the dress.
Trimming and decorations: To make the design of -a dress more appealing, laces, frills, piling’s, etc. are used. Embroidery and patch work is also done. Ensure that the trimming and decoration are:
1. of fast colours.
2. Similar to the fabric of the dress. Sometimes on a cotton dress, nylon lace is used which create problem in ironing.
3. The frills or gathers should be easy to wash and dry. It should be stitched to the cloth firmly.
4. If some accessory used is likely to get spoiled in washing, it should be easily replaceable.
5. Trimming and decoration may enhance the appeal of the dress, yet excessive use of decoration can be irritable to the onlooker.
Fashion
Ensure that the dress you are purchasing should be of the latest fashion. Information about the latest fashion is available in fashion magazines. The style of dress should match your lifestyle. Fashion should not be followed blindly. The length, design and decoration of the dress should be suitable to your body figure.
Size
It is essential to know the size of the garment before purchasing it. Ready-made garments have different sizes, for example gents’ shirts have chest size-40″, 42″, 46″. Gents’ pants have waist size. Some garments are of free size like socks, etc. Some companies have sized their garments like XXL, (Extra Large), XL (Extra Large), L (Large), M (Medium), and S (Small). In order to purchase a dress of right size, it is important to have a trial of it so that, if needed, it can be altered to different size.
Comfort
It is difficult to judge the fitting of a dress from its appearance. Often to save the fabric, either the dress itself or a part of it is made widthwise. Such dresses are not very comfortable to wear, for example, a shirt or its sleeve made widthwise, if fewer margins are given
to save the fabric. Such garments wear out from seams in no time. Therefore, ready-made dresses should be purchased after trial.
The comfort of the dress should be ensured in standing, sitting, walking, etc. during trial. There should not be any stiffness and looseness. The decorative pieces should not be of pinching type.
Cost
The cost of the dress should be according to our paying capacity. We should look for only those clothes that are within our reach. This saves time and energy of both the seller and the buyer. If some better and durable dress is available by paying some more money, it should be preferred. It will pay for its value in the long run.
By keeping above facts in mind, we can select nice and durable clothes.
