WHOLEGARMENT vs Fully Fashioned vs Cut-and-Sew Knitting

Three ways to make a knitted garment

A knitted sweater or cardigan can be made in more than one way, and the choice changes the yarn that is used, the waste that is left, the seams that the wearer feels, the programme that has to be written, and how long it takes to get from a design to a shippable size set. This article is written for knitwear developers, merchandisers and students. It compares three commercial weft-knitting routes:

• cut-and-sew knitting, in which shaped panels are cut from a length of knitted fabric and then sewn;
• fully fashioned knitting, in which each panel is shaped on the machine and then joined, usually by linking or cup seaming;
• complete-garment, or seamless, knitting, in which the body and sleeves are knitted and joined on the machine, with little or no later sewing.

The third route is sold under more than one name. SHIMA SEIKI uses WHOLEGARMENT as the registered name for knitwear produced in one piece, three-dimensionally, on its WHOLEGARMENT flat knitting machines. Stoll markets a comparable idea as knit and wear: knit, shape and connect pieces on one machine, in a single process, to produce a garment that is almost ready to wear. This article uses each company’s own term for its own technology, and “complete-garment” or “seamless V-bed knitting” when the point applies to both.

A different family of “seamless” machines also exists. In a 2008 chapter in Advances in Apparel Production, Jess Power notes that circular seamless machinery, with Santoni as a major supplier, has been used especially for underwear and intimate apparel, and that some circular garments may still have a small number of seams, for example at the gusset or shoulder. That circular route is not the same as WHOLEGARMENT or Stoll knit and wear, which are flat-bed, or V-bed, technologies. It is mentioned here only so that the word “seamless” is not treated as a single method.

How fibre becomes yarn and then fabric or garment is the wider subject of Textile Manufacturing Technology: Fibre to Garment. Protective and technical knitted structures are covered separately in Knitted Protective Fabric and Garments: Materials and Tests. This article stays with how a fashion or sports knitted garment is built.

The figure is a schematic drawn for this article. It compares cut-and-sew, fully fashioned, and seamless V-bed knitting (WHOLEGARMENT and Stoll knit and wear) in method, waste, seams, making-up and typical use. It invents no percentages, prices or lead times.

Cut-and-sew knitting

Power’s account of the method is still the clearest starting point. Continuous lengths of knitted fabric are produced, taken off the machine, laid flat, and cut to shape from templates. The cut panels are then joined on an overlocker. Traditionally, ribs, welts and cuffs have often been attached later, as part of making-up. The fabric itself may have been knitted on a circular machine or on a flat-bed machine.

A later variant, which Power says some experts call stitch-shape-cut and which industry often calls knitting to width, knits the body panel to the finished width and may widen a sleeve from the cuff to the underarm. The armhole, sleeve head and shoulder may still be cut afterwards. The important point for a developer is that some cutting remains, and the cut edge still has to be secured.

Because the edge has been cut, it must be bound. Power states that a three-thread overlocker is most commonly used, so that the seam is extensible and the raw edge is covered. That seam is bulkier than a linked join. The method’s advantages, in the same account, are quick production times and easy style changes. Those are qualitative strengths, not a claim that cut-and-sew is always the cheapest route for every yarn or every quantity.

A three-thread overlock sewing machine, the type of stitch Power describes as the usual join for cut knitted edges, because it is extensible and covers the raw edge. Photograph by Barbetorte, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Resized to 800 pixels wide.

How a cut-and-sew knitted garment is made

A typical production flow, following Power’s description of the method, looks like this:

1. Knit a continuous length of fabric, or a tube, on a circular or a flat-bed machine.
2. Take the fabric off the machine, relax or steam it if the quality requires it, and lay it out.
3. Cut the body, sleeves and any other parts from templates. In a knitting-to-width or stitch-shape-cut variant, the panel may already be close to the finished width, but the armhole, sleeve head or shoulder may still be cut.
4. Join the cut edges on a three-thread overlocker, so that the seam can stretch and the raw edge is covered.
5. Attach ribs, welts, cuffs or a neck finish if they were knitted separately, then press, inspect and pack the garment.

The exact order of hems, ribs and trims varies by style, but the characteristic steps are fabric first, cutting, then overlocking.

Typical garments: jersey T-shirts and cut knits

Cut-and-sew is the usual route for jersey T-shirts, many sweatshirts, and fashion knitwear that is cut from a roll or from a tubular fabric in the same way that a woven garment is cut from a lay. A body-size circular-knit tube can become a T-shirt body with no side seam; the sleeves, neck finish and any shoulder tape are still cut and sewn on. The method can follow almost any paper pattern that a sewing line can assemble. It is also the route that leaves offcuts.

A self-made diagram of a simple T-shirt made from tubular, body-size circular-knit fabric, with separate sleeves, a neck finish and a reinforcing tape at the shoulder and neck.

Fully fashioned panels and linking

Fully fashioned garments are knitted as shaped panels. Shaping is done during knitting by changing the number of active needles: narrowing moves stitches inward and reduces the knitting width, for example at an armhole; widening brings extra needles into work when the panel must grow. Power describes this as the repositioning of wales during the knitting sequence. The panel comes off the machine already close to the finished outline, usually with a secure knitted selvedge rather than a raw cut edge.

The traditional way to join those panels is linking. Power describes it as a skilled, time-consuming process: individual knitted loops from each of the two panels are slid onto metal points, each point holding one loop from each panel, and a chain stitch then secures them. When a course is joined to a course — a horizontal join, such as a shoulder or a collar — the join can lie flat to the body with no visible seam inside the garment. When selvedges are linked to form a vertical seam (often called waling in the industry), a seam is visible, but Power describes it as relatively flat compared with an overlocked seam.

A linking machine (Kettelmaschine) in a knitwear factory in Mühlhausen, photographed on 4 December 1971. Knit loops are placed on the ring of points around the circular bed, which is how fully fashioned panels are joined loop to loop. Photograph: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-K1204-0010 / Ludwig, Jürgen / CC-BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE. Converted and saved at 800 pixels wide.

A faster, less skilled alternative for fully fashioned selvedges is cup seaming. The fabric edges are fed into two metal cups, and a chain-stitch seam is formed. Power states that this small seam is two to four wales, depending on the gauge, and that the result is not of the same precision as a linked seam. Cup seaming is not suitable for insecure edges, so many garments combine linked shoulders or collars with cup-seamed side seams.

Fully fashioned knitting was historically associated with higher-quality yarns, because shaping on the machine saves material compared with cutting the same shape from a rectangular panel, where Power notes that a high degree of waste is produced. Modern electronic flat-bed machines have made the same shaping method available more widely, and they can combine it with colour and stitch patterning. A fully fashioned look can also be mixed with cut edges: Power records the high-street practice of fashioning the armhole but cutting and overlocking the shoulder. A merchandiser who is buying “fully fashioned” should therefore ask which edges are actually linked, which are cup seamed, and which are still cut.

How a fully fashioned garment is made

A typical production flow is:

1. Programme the shaped panels — typically a front, a back and sleeves — including the narrowing and widening sequence and any integral welts or ribs.
2. Knit each panel on a computerised V-bed machine so that the outline is formed on the needles, usually with a secure knitted selvedge.
3. Join the panels. Shoulders and collars are often linked, loop to loop, on a linking machine. Side seams may be linked (waled) or cup seamed.
4. Complete any remaining making-up, such as buttons, buttonholes or a light trim, then press, inspect and pack the garment.

The balance between linking and cup seaming is a quality and cost decision, not a fixed rule. What matters on a specification is which join is used at which seam.

Typical garments: classic fully fashioned knitwear

Fully fashioned knitting is the classic route for shaped sweaters, cardigans and similar knitwear that should look and feel like a constructed knitted garment rather than a cut piece of fabric. The method suits styles whose outline can be narrowed and widened cleanly, and whose making-up can use a linker or a cup seamer. It is less suitable as a default for every T-shirt or for styles that need many small, unstable cut pieces.

WHOLEGARMENT and Stoll knit-and-wear

SHIMA SEIKI’s official description of WHOLEGARMENT is that, in contrast to a garment made from front and back panels and sleeves that are sewn together afterwards, the knitwear is produced in one entire piece, three-dimensionally, directly on the knitting machine. The company says this requires no expensive, time-consuming post-production labour, but it adds an important footnote: some designs may require partial stitching. That caveat should be read into any claim of a completely seam-free garment.

The same official account is specific about comfort and shape. Dimensional shaping is used to create clean shoulder lines and a garment that conforms better to the body. Seams no longer interrupt the fabric from front to back. Necklines and collars can be knitted in. There are no seams under the arms, which the company contrasts with the bulky discomfort of typical sewn knitwear. The overall claim is a seam-free “second skin” fit, together with the use of only the material required to produce a single garment.

Stoll describes knit and wear in similar process terms: several operations are combined into one process; the machine knits, shapes and connects the pieces; the result is a seamless knitted garment with a high degree of comfort, almost ready to wear; complex further processing steps are omitted. Stoll also states that fully fashion patterns can be produced on the same family of machines. Its CMS 703 ki knit and wear page says the machine can produce both fully fashion and finished articles. A factory does not always have to choose a dedicated seamless machine or a dedicated panel machine; some equipment is intended to do both. What it cannot do is remove the need for a sound knitting programme.

Complete-garment knitting is not a way to copy every sewn style without change. Integral necks, underarm joins and 3-D shaping have to be designed as knitting, not as seams to be added later. Some constructions that are easy in cut-and-sew — a sharply tailored set-in sleeve with a separately cut facing, or a heavily overlocked sports-style panel — may need to be rethought, simplified, or, as SHIMA SEIKI notes, finished with partial stitching.

How a seamless V-bed garment is made

A typical production flow, in the terms used by SHIMA SEIKI and Stoll, looks like this:

1. Design the garment as a three-dimensional knitted piece, not as a set of panels to be sewn later, and write the knitting programme. On SHIMA SEIKI equipment this is done in the SDS-ONE APEX series; on Stoll equipment, in CREATE PLUS with M1plus.
2. Evaluate the style as a virtual sample if the design system supports it, then correct the programme before committing yarn on the machine.
3. Knit the body and sleeves as one piece, with the joins and the three-dimensional shaping formed on the V-bed machine.
4. Carry out only the remaining making-up. SHIMA SEIKI notes that some designs may require partial stitching; Stoll describes the result as almost ready to wear.
5. Press, inspect and pack the garment.

The machine time and the programming come first. The sewing room, if it is needed at all, comes last and should be limited to what the particular design still requires.

Typical garments: seamless sweaters and dresses

WHOLEGARMENT and Stoll knit and wear are used for knitwear that is designed as one three-dimensional piece. Practical examples include seamless sweaters and knitted dresses in which the body, sleeves and, where the programme allows it, the neck are formed on the machine rather than cut and sewn from panels. The method is a poor match for a style that is really a cut-and-sew block, or for a garment that still needs extensive stitching. Circular seamless knitting, which Power associates especially with underwear and intimate apparel, remains a different family of machine and should not be specified as if it were a V-bed complete garment.

A quick comparison

The table restates the contrasts already drawn from Power, SHIMA SEIKI and Stoll. It is qualitative: it adds no prices, waste percentages or lead times.

Point	Cut-and-sew	Fully fashioned	Seamless V-bed
How it is made	Fabric is knitted as a length or a tube, then cut from templates and sewn.	Each panel is shaped on the machine by narrowing and widening, then joined.	Body and sleeves are knitted and joined on the machine as one three-dimensional piece.
Typical garments	Jersey T-shirts, sweatshirts, and fashion knits cut from a roll or tube.	Classic shaped sweaters, cardigans and similar panel knitwear.	Sweaters and knitted dresses designed as complete garments (WHOLEGARMENT or Stoll knit and wear).
Yarn and waste	Shape is cut from a larger cloth, so offcuts remain unless they are reused.	Material is saved compared with cutting the same shape from a rectangle; only a very small amount of cutting, often in the neck, in the traditional method.	Only the yarn required for that garment is knitted; some designs may still need partial stitching.
Seams and making-up	Cut edges are usually joined on a three-thread overlocker; ribs and cuffs may be attached later.	Panels are linked loop-to-loop or cup seamed; a cup seam is two to four wales, depending on the gauge.	Little or no later sewing; the official accounts still allow partial stitching or an almost-ready-to-wear finish.
Design limits	Almost any cuttable outline; mixed fabrics are easy; the shape is not engineered in the knit.	Outline must be shaped on the needle bed; integral welts and fashioning marks are possible.	3-D shaping and knitted-in necks are possible; a sewn block may need to be rethought.
Programming	Fabric programming, then a cutting and sewing line.	Computerised V-bed programme for each shaped panel.	3-D programme (SDS-ONE APEX or CREATE PLUS); virtual sampling can be used before knitting.
When to choose it	When fabric production and easy style changes matter more than integral shaping.	When a classic knitwear shape needs a secure selvedge and a flat joined seam.	When comfort, an uninterrupted surface, or on-demand complete-garment knitting is the point.

Yarn use and waste

The three methods do not use yarn in the same way, even when the finished sweater looks similar on a hanger.

In cut-and-sew, yarn is first knitted into a rectangle or a tube, and the garment shape is then cut out. Everything outside the templates becomes cutting waste, unless a mill has a reliable route to reuse those offcuts. Power contrasts this with fully fashioned knitting, which saves significantly on raw materials compared with cutting the shape from a panel “where a high degree of waste is produced,” and which historically required no cutting, or only a very small amount in the neck. This article does not attach a percentage to that waste, because no verified figure was confirmed for it here.

In complete-garment knitting, SHIMA SEIKI states that WHOLEGARMENT knitwear is produced in one entire piece, consuming only the amount of yarn required for that item. That is the company’s description of the method: the machine is not knitting a larger cloth from which a shape will later be cut. It is not a claim that there is never any leftover yarn on cones, or that every style leaves the machine with nothing to sew. The official footnote about partial stitching still applies.

Yarn quality and count still have to match the gauge, the transfers, and the structure. Cut-and-sew circular jersey can often use yarns that are specified for fabric knitting rather than for frequent transferring and 3-D joining. Fully fashioned and complete-garment programmes, by contrast, depend on clean transfers and consistent yarn. Those are reasons to trial the actual yarn on the actual machine, not reasons to invent a list of “suitable” counts.

Comfort and fit

Seams are the most immediate difference the wearer feels. A three-thread overlocked join, as Power describes it, is chosen because it is extensible and because it binds a cut edge; it is not a flat, loop-to-loop join. A linked horizontal seam can lie flat, with no visible seam inside the garment. A complete-garment underarm, if it is truly knitted as one piece, has no seam there at all, which is the comfort point both SHIMA SEIKI and Stoll emphasise.

Fit is not only about seams. Fully fashioned and complete-garment knitting can shape the outline and, in the 3-D case, the volume of the garment while it is still on the needles, including knitted-in darts and necks in the WHOLEGARMENT description. Cut-and-sew fit comes from the pattern, the stretch of the fabric, and the sewing allowance. A well-cut jersey can fit very well; it just gets there by a different route. The developer’s job is to choose the method that matches the silhouette, not to assume that “seamless” automatically means a better pattern.

Design limits

Cut-and-sew is the most open method for outline and for mixed materials. Almost any shape that can be cut and sewn can be made, including sharply curved style lines, applied pockets, and combinations of different fabrics. Pattern, print and stripe matching follow ordinary garment rules. The limits are waste, seam bulk, and the fact that the shape is not engineered in the knitted structure.

Fully fashioned knitting can carry integral welts, fashioning marks as a visible design feature, and fairly complex stitch and colour patterns on a modern electronic V-bed machine. The outline is constrained by what can be narrowed and widened cleanly, and by the width of the needle bed. Making-up still has to join the panels, so a style that needs many small, unstable pieces may be a poor candidate.

Complete-garment knitting can produce shapes and uninterrupted patterns that would be awkward to sew, and it can knit necks, shoulders and underarms as part of the piece. The limits are programming skill, machine capability, and the official admission that some designs still need partial stitching. A development team should not promise a fully seam-free garment, or a perfect copy of a cut-and-sew block, without a knitted trial.

Machines and programming

A computerised V-bed (flat) knitting machine used in sweater production. The same family of machine can knit fully fashioned shaped panels and, on suitable models, complete garments. Photograph by Asivechowdhury, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized to 800 pixels wide.

An illustrative diagram of a computerised V-bed knitting machine of the type used for SHIMA SEIKI WHOLEGARMENT production, showing the yarn creel, yarn carriers, carriage, needle beds, take-down and control panel. Self-made diagram for this article; it is not a photograph or a screenshot.

Cut-and-sew fabric may come from a circular knitting machine or from a flat-bed machine knitting unshaped, or only partly shaped, pieces. The later work sits in the cutting room and the sewing line. Programming, where it is needed, is fabric programming rather than whole-garment programming.

Fully fashioned and complete-garment work both depend on a computerised V-bed machine and on a programme that tells the machine when to knit, transfer, narrow, widen and, in the seamless case, join. SHIMA SEIKI’s SDS-ONE APEX series is the company’s 3-D design and programming system for this work. In general terms, the official description is that the series combines knitting-machine programming and pattern CAD with textile design and simulation; that accurate knit programming from shaping to WHOLEGARMENT is possible; and that virtual samples can be created from scanned or digital yarn data. SHIMA SEIKI states that those virtual samples are realistic enough to replace actual sampling that would otherwise take significant time, cost and material, and that they can be used in planning and demand forecasting. A merchandiser should treat that as the supplier’s intended workflow, then decide how many physical samples a particular buyer still requires. The usual sample ladder, from proto to shipment, is described in Types of Merchandising Sample: Proto to Shipment.

An illustrative diagram of the SDS-ONE APEX3 workflow: design, knit paint and pattern, simulation (virtual sample), knit data and the knitting machine. The steps follow SHIMA SEIKI’s official description of the SDS-ONE APEX series. Self-made diagram for this article; it is not a photograph or a screenshot.

Stoll’s current programming system is CREATE PLUS, offered with M1plus. The official description, again in general terms, is that it combines pattern programming with integrated shape development and grading, a realistic fabric view, and the ability to work with digital or scanned yarns. Existing M1plus programmes can be converted or edited. Stoll states that the system is intended to reduce time to market by making pattern, size and change work faster. This article does not repeat the company’s percentage figures for those time savings, and it does not invent alternative ones.

Both systems belong in the same family of computer-integrated textile work discussed in Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) in Textiles: design data should reach the machine without being redrawn by hand at every step. None of this software removes the need for a technician who understands transfers, takedown, yarn carriers and garment shaping.

Cost and lead time, in qualitative terms

No verified, current prices, minutes-per-garment or standard lead times were confirmed for this article, so none are invented here. The trade-offs can still be stated in the terms the sources use.

Cut-and-sew can knit fabric relatively quickly, especially on a circular machine, and Power records quick production times and easy style changes as advantages. The later costs sit in cutting waste, marker efficiency, overlocking and any separate attachment of ribs and trims. A late style change can often be a new pattern on the same fabric quality, which is why the method remains attractive for fashion programmes that move quickly. How a merchandiser then places and follows a fabric or garment order is covered in Garments Merchandising: Role, Skills and Fabric Orders.

Fully fashioned knitting spends more machine time on each shaped panel, and it needs linking or cup seaming afterwards. Linking, in Power’s description, is expensive, time-consuming and skilled; cup seaming is faster and less skilled, at a cost in precision. Yarn can be saved because the panel is not cut from a larger rectangle. That saving matters more when the yarn itself is expensive, which is why the method was historically tied to luxury fibres, not because the machine time is free.

Complete-garment knitting moves time from the sewing room to the knitting machine and the programmer. SHIMA SEIKI presents shorter post-processing, shorter lead time, on-demand knitting, and virtual samples as the planning advantages, and it argues that inventory can be held down by knitting to demand rather than cutting from stock fabric. Stoll presents a garment that is almost ready to wear, with complex further processing omitted. Those are official qualitative claims. They hold only if the programme is right first time, the yarn knits cleanly, and the customer accepts a knitted construction rather than a sewn copy of an existing block. A difficult first development can consume the time that the method is meant to save.

When to choose which

Choose cut-and-sew when the product is a fabric first and a garment second: jersey T-shirts and sweatshirts, styles that change outline often, mixed fabrics, or any programme that needs a conventional cutting and sewing line. It is the default when waste can be tolerated, seams are acceptable, and speed of fabric production matters more than integral shaping.

Choose fully fashioned knitting when the product is a classic or mid-to-high knitwear shape — a sweater, cardigan or similar — that benefits from a shaped outline, a secure selvedge and a flat linked or cup-seamed join, and when some making-up skill is available. It is also the practical middle point when a factory already has V-bed machines and linkers but is not ready to programme complete garments, or when a style needs fashioned panels that will still be assembled by hand for collar or pocket work.

Choose WHOLEGARMENT or Stoll knit and wear when the selling point is comfort, an uninterrupted surface, or a 3-D shape that would be hard to sew; when cutting waste must be avoided; or when the business case is on-demand or small-lot knitting supported by virtual sampling. Confirm, on a trial, whether the particular design still needs partial stitching. If the same machine can also knit fully fashioned panels, as Stoll states for its knit and wear family, a factory can keep both options without treating them as mutually exclusive.

In every case, the buyer’s sample and compliance requirements still apply. A method that looks efficient on the machine is not a finished order until the agreed sample is approved and the garment can be reproduced in size.

Frequently asked questions

Is WHOLEGARMENT the same thing as Stoll knit and wear?

They are competing complete-garment approaches on computerised V-bed machines, and both aim to knit and join a garment with little later sewing. WHOLEGARMENT is SHIMA SEIKI’s registered term for products made on its named WHOLEGARMENT machines. Knit and wear is Stoll’s term. A specification should use the name that matches the machine that will actually knit the order.

Does “seamless” mean there is never any sewing?

No. SHIMA SEIKI states that some WHOLEGARMENT designs may require partial stitching. Stoll describes knit and wear garments as almost ready to wear. Circular seamless garments, as Power notes, may still have a small number of seams. The accurate question is how much making-up remains, and where.

Is fully fashioned always lower-waste than cut-and-sew?

Power describes a significant raw-material saving compared with cutting a shape from a panel that produces a high degree of waste, and only a very small amount of cutting, often in the neck, in the traditional method. This article does not give a percentage. A style that is fashioned at the armhole but cut and overlocked at the shoulder will not have the same waste, or the same seam, as a fully linked garment.

Can virtual sampling replace every physical sample?

SHIMA SEIKI presents high-resolution virtual samples on the SDS-ONE APEX series as realistic enough to replace actual sampling in the design-evaluation stage, and as a tool for planning and demand forecasting. Many buyers still require physical protos, fits and shipment samples. The merchandising-sample article sets out that ladder. Virtual sampling is a way to reduce wasted development knits; it is not, by itself, a substitute for a contractually agreed sample.

What garments are typical of each method?

Cut-and-sew is the everyday route for jersey T-shirts, sweatshirts and fashion knits cut from a roll or a tube. Fully fashioned knitting is the classic route for shaped sweaters, cardigans and similar panel garments joined by linking or cup seaming. WHOLEGARMENT and Stoll knit and wear are used for sweaters and knitted dresses designed as one three-dimensional piece. Circular seamless knitting is a different family, used especially for underwear and intimate apparel.