Abstract: Sheet material is moved along its length from a supply to a take-up spool and the material is inspected as it is moved. A garment pattern image is projected on and is moved with the material. The operator determines where the material is to be cut either from the length accumulated on the take-up spool or from the image projected on the material, and if a flaw in the material is detected, the operator determines if the flaw should be removed by identifying the pattern part in the garment from the image projected on the material where the flaw will appear. If the flaw is to be removed, the operator cuts the flaw out and splices the cut ends of material together at splice marks in the image projected on the material. The spools loaded with sheet material with this procedure are loaded in a creel, and the ends of the sheets of material from the spools in the creel are aligned in a vertically stacked arrangement and moved to a cutting apparatus where the garment pattern is cut in the stacked sheets of material.

Abstract: A system for manufacturing curved shirt plackets with buttonholes includes the steps of moving curved placket blanks in sequence from the top of a bundle to a positioning station, positioning the plackets for feeding to a buttonhole sewing machine, intermittently feeding the plackets to a buttonhole sewing machine and turning the plackets as necessary to align the lengths of the buttonholes across the length of the curved placket blanks, and transferring the plackets to a cutting station where they are cut in half and stacked in bundles of buttonhole halves and button halves.