Garment accessories and enhancements

Accessories

Products or materials, except the main fabric used in clothes, are referred to as clothing accessories. In addition to the main fabric, many additional items are used to make clothes. Accessories include sewing thread, pin, zipper, velcro, sticker, shoulder pad, liners, interlinings, etc. Accessories are of two kinds, visible accessories and invisible accessories. Some of the pieces are used for practical purposes and some for decorative purposes.

Accessories Types: 

Visible accessories: 

Apparent accessories can be seen from the outside of clothes, e.g. Clip, Sewing Thread, Zipper, Velcro, etc. Invisible accessories: not visible from the outside of clothing, e.g. Interlining.

Sewing Thread

Almost all of the garments created have one component in common; the sewing thread. While the sewing thread is typically a relatively small percentage of the cost of fabric, it has an extremely significant impact on the quality and performance of the finished product. The development of the sewing thread is a complex and extensive subject.

Types of sewing thread For practical purposes, sewing threads for the clothing industry can be classified into three broad groups: cotton, synthetic thread, and core thread.

Thread size 

There are many thread size classification schemes, but the most commonly used form is' Tex.' This is based on the gram weight of 1000 m of yarn, so that the fine thread would have a low' Tex' number and a thick thread would have a high' Tex' number. Thread producers using other schemes will provide similar values for Tex.

Button

For fashion and clothing design, a button is a tiny plastic or metal disk or knob-shaped item, normally round, usually attached to a clothing item for order to obtain an opening or for decoration. Functional buttons operate by sliding the button through a fabric or thread loop, or by dragging the button through a reinforced gap called a buttonhole. Buttons might be made from a wide variety of materials, including organic materials such as antler, bone, horn, ivory, shell, plant ivory, and wood; or synthetics such as celluloid, glass, metal, bakelite, and plastic.

Rivets

The rivets aren't used to open or close the opening parts of the clothing. They are used for the following purposes: widely used for decorative and reinforcement (support) purposes of Denim or Jeans clothing. It has two parts and allows a suitable tool to be connected to the clothing.

Hook and Loop Fastener (Velcro)

This object consists of two woven polyamide tapes, one of which is lined with very fine hooks and the other with very fine loops. When pressed together, they tightly adhere to each other. The fastener is also used in place of buttons or zippers. The Swiss inventor invented this device and gave it the trade name ' Velcro.' This word comes from two French words,' Velour,' and' Crochet.' It is used in a limited number of garments, e.g. shoes, belts, sportswear, children's clothing, medical textiles, etc. Velcro is available on the market in roll shape with the most common width of 5/8 to 3/4 inch.

Zipper

The zipper (British English: zip or zip fastener) is a popular product for temporarily joining two edges of cloth.  It is used in clothes (e.g. jackets and jeans), luggage and other bags, athletic goods, camping gear (e.g. tents and sleeping bags) and other items of everyday use. This is one of the devices used to open and close some of the special parts of a dress. It is also sometimes used for decorative purposes. This is an essential component in the manufacture of trousers and jackets.

Labels

A label is an attachment to an item of clothing on which information of a garment is published or printed. No garment can be sold without a label attached to it. In particular, in the case of the export of a trademark on a garment, it is necessary. Of example, the size of the fabric, the trademark, the country of origin, the type of raw materials, etc. are written on the label. 

There are mainly three types of labels:

Main label: 

Main label includes the brand name or trade name of the retailer registered by the purchaser, e.g. Levi's, Polo, Adidas, Distance, Lewis Philippe, etc. 

Size Label: 

It shows the size of the fabric, i.e. S, M, L, XL, XXL, or the length of the collar of shirt 15, 16, 17, 18, etc.

Care label: 

It includes guidance on the care of clothing by some internationally recognized labels. This demonstrates the washing, drying, dry-cleaning and ironing conditions of clothes.

All other labels are referred to as sub-labels.

Motif

The unique element that is attached outside of the clothes for the ornamental purpose called the motif. Company name, trademark or other symbols may be written on the motive.

Linings

The linings are usually functional components of clothing. They are used to keep the shape of the garment hanging and comforting by allowing it to slide over the other garment. Linings are available as knitted and woven fabrics made of polyester, polyamide, acetate or viscose for use where decoration and warm handle are required. Linings are coupled to the main garment by sewing and normal sewing machines are used for this purpose. Linings are widely used in jackets, coats, overcoats, pockets, pocket flaps, children's clothing, etc. Generally, cheap fabrics are used as lining materials.

Interlinings

Interlinings are used to support, strengthen and monitor the form of certain areas of clothing, such as collars, cuffs, waistbands, facets and coat lappets. They may be sewn into a fabric or fused together. Now-a-day sewing interlinings are seldom used and the use of fusible interlining is widespread. Interlinings is available in a wide range of weights and constructions to suit the base fabric of the garment. These can be either woven or nonwoven goods. Woven interlinings are most generally of plain weave construction, while non-woven interlinings are made directly from textile fibers and are assembled by means of a mixture of mechanical, chemical, thermal or solvent materials. Sewn interlinings are created by stitching several folds of fabrics tightly together, then by sewing them again with the main garment, while the fusible interlinings have thermoplastic coatings on them and are applied to the garment by means of heat and pressure. Fusible interlinings give a better result than sewn interlinings.

Shoulder Pad

The shoulder pad is a standard item in tailored garments for both women and men. Linings are used on the top and bottom of the shoulder pad. As a result, the appearance becomes more attractive, comfortable and lasts for a long time. Shoulder pads are used for functional purposes and sometimes for decorative purposes.

Snap Fastener

A snap fastener (also called snap, popper, and push-stud) is a pair of interlocking disks typically used instead of buttons to fasten clothing. A circular lip under one disk fits into the groove on the top of the other, holding it tight until a certain amount of force is applied. Snaps can be added to the fabric by hammering (using a special punch and die set), folding or sewing. There are different snap pins for folding snap fasteners. In 1885, the German inventor Heribert Bauer invented Snap fasteners as the "Federknopf-Verschluss," a novelty fastener for men's pants. These first models featured an S-shaped spring on the top disk instead of a groove.

Hook and Eye

Hook-And-Eye closure is a clothing fastener composed of two sections, each of which is sewn to their respective pieces of cloth, one with a small blunt hook and one with a small loop (also identified as "eye" or "eyelet") protruding. The hook is slotted into the loop to fasten the jacket. Hook-and-eye closures are usually used in groups to provide sufficient strength to withstand the forces involved in normal wear. For this reason, hooks and eyes are usually available in the form of a hook-and-eye tape consisting of two tapes, one with hooks and the other with eyelets so that the two tapes can be zipped side by side. The parts of the hook-and-eye tape are sewn into either side of the fabric closure to create the garment. Hook-and-eye closures are typically used in a corset.

Frog (Fastening)

The normal aim of frogs is to close the garment while decorating it at the same time. Such frogs are typically used in garments that appear oriental in nature. Tops with a mandarin necklace often use frogs on the shoulder and on the front to hold the two parts of the front closed. Frogs are usually meant to be a feature of the design that "stands out." Many sewers make their own because the materials are cheap and the results are customizable. The use of a larger or smaller cord or cloth tubes may result in larger and smaller frogs. Also, self-manufacturing can be used to make frogs that are the same color as clothing, but frogs are typically selected to be the same color as clothing. Frogs are made by looping and interlocking the rope or the fabric tube to the desired design, then securing the places where the ropes touch by hand-sewing. The frog is then stitched onto the fabric, normally by hand. When a fabric tube is used, the fabric is cut to the point of bias.

Interfacing

Interfacing is a fiber used on the hidden or "wrong" side of the fabric to make the garment region more rigid. Interfacing can be used to stack or connect the body to the fabric, such as the interfacing used in shirt collars. Strengthen a certain region of the cloth, e.g. where the buttonholes are sewn. Hold fabrics out of shape, particularly knit fabrics.

Interfaces come in a variety of weights and hardness to suit different purposes. Generally, the lower weight of the fabric is the heavier weight and the interface used. Most modern interfaces have heat-activated adhesives on one side. These are connected to a piece of clothing using heat and mild pressure, such as hand iron. This kind of interface is also called a "fusible" interface. Non-fusible devices do not have adhesives and must be sewn by hand or computer.

Bias Tape

Bias tape or bias binding is a narrow strip of cloth, which is cut to a bias (UK cross-grain). The fiber strip, which is at 45 degrees to the length of the strip, makes it stretcher, as well as more flexible and more drape able, compared to the strip which is cut on grain. Most strips can be separated into a long "tape." The width of the tape ranges from about 1/2 "to about 3" depending on the application. Bias tape is used to render tubing, binding lines, finishing raw edges, etc. It is also used on the edges of quilts, placemats, and bibs, along the sides of the armhole and neckline instead of the front, and as a simple brace or tie for casual bags or clothing.

Cord

In sewing, a rope is a trimming created by weaving two or more strands of yarn together. A cord is used in a number of textile techniques, including dressmaking, upholstery, and couching.

Lace

Lace is an openwork fabric, formed with open holes in the work, created by a machine or by hand. Holes may be produced by removing threads or cloth from a previously woven fabric, but more often open spaces are created as part of the lace fabric. Lace-making is an old hobby. Real lace was not produced until the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. A true lace is produced when the thread is looped, twisted or woven to other threads independently of the backrest. Initially, linen, silk, gold and silver threads were used. Today, lace is often made of cotton thread. Fabricated lace can be made of synthetic fiber.

Ribbon

The ribbon is a thin band of flexible material, usually fabric but also plastic or sometimes metal, used mainly for binding and bonding. Cloth ribbons, which most commonly contain silk, are often used in conjunction with clothes, but are also used for various practical, ornamental and symbolic purposes; cultures around the world use this device in their hair, around the body, or even as ornamentation on livestock, houses, and other places.