In this article, we will show you how seamless panties are made in combination with knitting and a minimum stitching process. Sharing these steps based on my visit to a panty manufacturing unit.
What are the good things with a seamless garment?
From the perspective of production processes and production lead time for the getting underwear items manufactured, the seamless manufacturing process has certain benefits. In the seamless panty making, fabric cutting is eliminated and reduces stitching operations from the process is eliminated. Further, the wastage of resources (fabrics) has been reduced.Seamless Underwear (Panty) Manufacturing Process
The production process of making seamless panty include
- Product designing and knitting pattern making using a Software
- Knitting of the pantyhose
- Dyeing of pantyhose
- Quality checking after the dyeing process
- Label Printing
- Cutting and stitching process
- Shorting and packing
1. Product Designing and making the knitting pattern
The first step of making seamless underwear (Panty) is developing the design of the product in a system. In this step, a designer makes the patterns for the products to be knitted in an automatic circular knitting machine.
2. Knitting of pantyhose
Pantyhoses are knitted in a high-speed circular knitting machine. A machine attendant can control 5-6 circular knitting machines. The product design is fed to the knitting machine and it knits the shape items automatically. In knitting the pantyhose, two panties are knitted together in one tube. While knitting the hose following things are also considered -- Cut mark – this cut mark help in separating two panties when cutting using an overlock machine.
- Printing mark (a place where to print the label)
- Made two layers for the waistband
- Knitting is done for different sizes of panties as per order volume. The size of the tube can be changed by adjusting the machine gauge.
3. Dyeing of knitted tubes
The knitting pantyhoses are done using white yarns. Knitted pantyhoses are then dyed in a dyeing machine to get the desired shade of panties.4. Quality Checking
After dyeing of pantyhoses, all panties are checked manually for knitting defects, and dyeing defects. Checking and removal of defective pantyhoses are done to avoid further processing on a defecting pantyhose. Pantyhoses are then sorted size-wise. For quality checking an under the light table is used.5. Label printing
Labeling of each panty with the brand name, item size, washing, and care instruction & fiber content is necessary. The factory I visited for making seamless panty manufacturing used a pad printing machine for label printing on the back inside of each panty. When printing, the printer follows the mark for print placement. Pad printing process is very faster. No need for drying and curing process after printing when the pad printing method is used. Check this video for the pad printing process.6. Cutting and sewing crotch area by overlock machine
After printing, pantyhoses are fed to a sewing workstation. Two panties are separated from the panel by cutting using an overlock machine. The next process is joining the panty crotch area by using an overlock machine. In seamless panties, there is only two stitching operation - joining crotch and leg opening overlock.7. Checking and packing of panties in combos
After stitching panties, pieces are checked once more, and tagging is done. 3-5 pieces packing is done following different color combos (same size but different colored panties are packed together). Panties are ready for final shipment inspection.The seamless panties can be made from knitting to packing of panties on the same day.
The machinery required for manufacturing seamless panties
- Circular knitting machine
- Dyeing machine
- Printing machine
- Overlocks sewing machine