Color Science

Color defined by CIE

The International Commission on Illumination or (CIE) uses numeric values to define a color. I wasn’t crazy about the CIE web site and instead suggest good old Wikipedia for a more in depth education. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIE_1931_color_space

a. Lightness (L*) A value for how light or dark the color. Lower values indicate darker color and white has a Lightness of 100.
b. Chroma (C*) A value for brightness or saturation. Low Chroma values would be white, gray or black shades.
c. Hue (H*) A value for the Shade or Cast of the color. Cast of a color like red, green, blue, yellow, violet, etc

1. A Spectrophotometer is the equipment that will “read” a color and provide the numeric values for Lightness, Chroma and Hue.
2. Establish the numeric values for your color standard.
3. Now, Read the values for the lastest sample and compare it to the values for the standard.
4. The submit is accepted or rejected based on the variance allowed from your customer. In 2005, the Walmart tolerance was less that DE 1.1 (CMC 2:1).

There’s much more information about color. Actually you can get a 4 year degree in Color Science and probably a Masters and Doctorate.

All for now,

Sincerely,
The Underwear Maven
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Weaving Loom

Weaving Loom

Come into the loud weaving room. Sorry about the cotton fly and no you can’t use the pressured air to “blow” the fiber off your clothes.

1. Here’s our large creel of yarn.
2. Picture a hair comb and this will be the “Reed”and the individual teeth on the comb will be the looms “heddles”.
3. Each “Heddle” has an opening or eye and each thread of yarn on the warp creel will be threaded into a “Heedle”.
4. Now, assign each thread as an even or odd number.
5. Even yarns move forward and odd yarns move back called “Shedding”.
6. A separate yarn is shot through the opening made by the movement of the even and odd warp threads which is called “Picking”.
7. Next, the odd yarns will move forward and the even yarns will move back called “Beating Up”.
8. And on and on and this is weaving.

The method used to send the filling yarn across is how Looms are usually classified. One of the oldest way is with a “Shuttle” and there are still a lot of these in use today. However, most factories use Air or Water as the means for “Weft Insertion.”

That’s all for the basics of weaving which will reference again during our Elastic manufacturing process.

Sincerely,

The Underwear Maven
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Warp Beams and Slashing

Warp Beams and Slashing

Now, I think it’s time to dive into woven manufacturing. I’m going to stay with boxer type fabrics made with cotton or cotton polyester blends.

If you’ve made those pot holders with the loops of scrap fabric placed on a red frame, you’ve got weaving 101 down.

1. We’ve got to get those warp yarns organized and this is done by creeling them.
2. Let’s do a little math. Let’s weave a = 133x72 / 40x40 - 57" - there are
133 warp yarns in one inch and the total fabric width is 59 inches so we’ll need 3481 strands of 40/1’s cotton for the width of our fabric.
3. 3481 individual cones of yarn are released and rolled onto one huge spool called a Creel.
4. A wet starchy size (think potato like the kind used to make Krispy Kreme donuts - it's true and I live in Winston Salem NC - home of Krispy Kreme) is applied to the yarn as it unrolls and passes through the bath. This is called Slashing and it makes the yarn stronger so it won’t break when the filling yarn is passed between threads.

5. A little note: ask the person giving you the tour of the yarn spinning factory if the yarn is for knits or wovens and then ask to see where the wax would be applied. If yarn is made for knitting, a wax is normally applied and you can see the Wax “candle” as the yarn glides over it. If the yarn is destined for wovens, no wax is applied since the starchy size needed to make the yarn super strong.

6. We’ve got our Warp Beam so Let’s move on to the Weaving room. Put your ear plugs in cause it is LOUD in here.

Sincerely,
The Underwear Maven
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Woven Boxer Consumption leading up to Cost Calculator

Woven Boxer Consumption leading up to Cost Calculator

The Underwear Maven’s earlier post on Jan. 15 2009 with a link to a spread sheet called Knit Tee Shirt Cost Calculator ( http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pTuOkx70Cy57Bh6t_qVS-fA ) is not great for woven boxers. Knit fabric consumption is based on Weight called Block Weight and the cost for Wovens is based on yards.

So let’s try these rules for mens Woven Boxers:
1. Assume a size assortment of 1221 which means 1 size small, 2 size medium, 2 size large and 1 size XL.
2. Woven fabric Width of 57 inches cuttable
3. Will consume on average .70-.75 yards of fabric for each boxer.
4. Will consume on average 1 yard of elastic for each boxer.
5. Will take 3 minutes to sew one boxer.

Yes, this is a very broad stroke but you got to start somewhere. I know fabric consumption will change based on waist band treatment like exposed waistband, covered waistband, inside exposed waistband, or matching prints based on repeats, or 4 panel pattern verses 5 panel "bubble back" pattern and on and on. It’s a start!

Sincerely, The Underwear Maven

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Wovens and prices for Boxer Fabrics

Wovens and prices for Boxer Fabrics

Let’s jump into the world of wovens. Most of my experience is with knits but woven boxers play a big portion of the underwear line for both men and women. Yes, the thong wearing woman that’s in the know would never sleep in a thong so she wears her partners woven boxers or ladies boy shorts.

I thought about how to introduce this topic and I think walking through fabric prices is as good as any. Here’s some fabric prices from my 2005 days. I haven’t checked recently but volume is king when it comes to wovens and China’s the place to be if the Chinese want to participate.

1. 100% cotton Poplin- solid and print 133x72/ 40x40 (56-57")
China $1.05-1.15/yd India $1.18-1.23/yd
2. 100% cotton poplin- solid and print 144x80/50x50 (56-57")
China $1.28-1.40/yd India $1.23-1.28/yd
3. 100% cotton poplin- solid and print 92-78/ 40x40 (56-57")
China $1.06-1.13/yd India $.96-1.01/yd
4. 100% cotton poplin- yarn dye 144x80/50x50 (56-57")
China $1.43/yd India $1.46/yd
5. 100% cotton poplin- yarn dye suggest 110x70/40x40 (56-57")
China $1.03/yd India $1.34/yd

Wovens are referenced by Thread Count and Yarn Count and normally not fabric weight. Take the first fabric listed, it’s a 133x72 / 40x40 (56-57”) This means that in one inch of fabric there are 133 strings of yarn in the vertical direction or Warp and 72 strands of yarn in the horizontal direction or the Fill. The thickness of the yarn in the Warp is 40/1’s and the thickness or count of the cotton yarn in the Fill is also 40/1’s. The fabric width is 56-57 inches and this is considered the “cutable” width so the actual fabric will be a little wider.

OK, we’re ready to roll on!

Sincerely,
The Underwear Maven
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Global Trends from Textiles Intelligence

Global Trends from Textiles Intelligence

Textiles Intelligence is a great resource for global trends and education on textiles and apparel. The printed paper copy of Textiles Outlook International was my “bible” during my days as Global Sourcing Services Director in the early and mid nineties. I talked to the editor, Robin Anson, a couple of times and he was wealth of knowledge and wisdom. I noticed they’ve gone digital. There’s some good free information on the site but the subscription is still high for my business. But check it out!
http://www.textilesintelligence.com/tilproducts/

Sincerely,

The Underwear Maven
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Cotton Count Nomenclature

Cotton Count Nomenclature

1. Spun yarns or Stable yarns are normally referenced using the Cotton Count System. This is an indirect system so the lower the number, the fatter the yarn. http://www.textileglossary.com/terms/cotton-count.html
2. It’s assumed that the yarn is just one thread unless there’s a / followed by another number like 2. So, 30’s yarn or 30/1’s would both note one strand of yarn that has a cotton count of 30. 30/2’s would note 2 strands of 30/1’s are twisted together.
3. And then there are combed or carded yarns. These are processed in the spinning production. All stable yarns go through the carding process but not all go through the combing process. The combing process is like taking a comb through the yarn “sliver” and removing the short fibers.
4. It used to be assumed that rotor yarns or Open End spun yarns would not use combed cotton because you would not gain any of the long fiber benefits because the OE process does away with them. Combed Open End Yarns would be an Oxymoron. Don’t know if that changed but I do recall some marketers sending a portion of the yarn through the combing process so they could make this claim. At that time, the consumer was smart enough to feel the fabric and note no benefit so it did not stay around very long.
5. Yarn is sold by the kilo but both produced and consumed by the meter. So finer yarn counts cost more which is a problem for my “toss the garment on the scale” cost calculator. Over time, you figure out how to adjust for this.

6. The “Mother” of the best cotton compiled information is Cotton OutLook. But it’s too expensive for my business so I hunt around on line for free stuff. But, if you need the data for everything cotton in the world, here’s the link. http://www.cotton-net.com/cotlook/cotton_outlook.php

I'm wide open to special requests for topics. Just let me know!
Sincerely,

The Underwear Maven
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Corporate Tax Programs or Games

Corporate Tax Programs or Games

With Obama’s recent announcement to stop tax breaks for companies that move their production and services off shore, I thought it would be appropriate to mention a few of the programs he may be referring to.

In my corporate days, we went through many different tax programs or games. It was accepted and considered “not smart” to ignore them. The mantra that started the annual tax meetings was “A dollar is a dollar is a dollar”.
1. PR Tax Add back: This was the best one because you get to keep the low/no taxed profit in the USA as long as you met the rules for production in Puerto Rico.
2. FSI. Foreign Source Income: With this little beauty, you “sell” your cut parts or components at a marked up profit to your sewing contractor or yourself under another legal entity. You get credit for exporting and selling USA products.
3. And then there were CFC’s or Controlled Foreign Corporation. Basically you aren’t required to pay tax on some of the profit if you leave it outside of the US. On the surface that seems to be a reasonable and straight forward procedure. In reality, it can be anything but simple. You weave a web of foreign corporations and profit splits and Comparable Uncontrolled Prices or CUP to figure out how to make that portion of the untaxed profits grand and move it around in your other countries.
4. And you can work a lot of these programs at the same time with the same physical goods and services.

5. And most of the time, the title or ownership of the physical product would transfer to the mother US Corporation at the continental shelf. I always liked that because it seemed so creative.

all for now!

sincerely,

The Underwear Maven
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