Blouses, Pyjamas, Shirts

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31042, 23 April 1966, Page 14

Blouses, Pyjamas, Shirts

Press'* by A. J. PETRE) pERHAPS few x Christchurch people realise it, but each week in Christchurch thousands of shirts are made for sale all over New Zealand. There is a very good chance that the welldressed man you meet in Auckland is wearing a shirt made at the Christchurch factory of Lichfield (N.Z.) Ltd.

The Lichfield company started In Christchurch in 1917, when a business partnership between two men, Mr H. C. Govan and Mr R. H. Aston, was set up. The business started in a small workroom in Lichfield street with a staff of only six women working with some second-hand sewing machines. It was only six months before larger premises at the corner of Tuam and Madras streets, were needed, and after the war the firm began importing goods from Britain, and also making shirts from imported cotton cloth. In 1922, a private limited-liabil-ity company was formed, and by about 1927 the firm had stopped importing made-up goods and started to concentrate on making shirts. An arrangement was made with an Australian firm to purchase cotton cloth in bulk. The Australian company was a licensee of one of the biggest United States shirt-mak-ing firms, and consequently much valuable information on plant and methods became available to the New Zealand company. Three Factories Today, Lichfield has three factories in the Christchurch area. The main one is in Tuam street, opposite the Christchurch City Council parking lot. A five-storey brick building, it contains all the main factory areas and the headquarters of the company The managing directors of the firm are Messrs L. H. GOvan, J. G. Aston, and R. H. Aston. In addition to the main

factor}-, there are factories at Lyttelton and Kaiapoi, these being, in the main, stitching plants where materials cut out in the main factory are finally assembled into garments.

The Christchurch city factory employs about 400, and the Kaiapoi and Lyttelton branches, between them, about 100. Lichfield concentrates on shirts, pyjamas and women’s blouses. This summer about 45 styles of women’s blouses are being made, and there are more than 100 ranges of shirt styles. White shirts, of course, comprise a large part of production, but there is a very wide range of patterned shirts and sports shirts.

Lichfield has about 900 accounts throughout New Zealand, and shirts from Christchurch are regularly sent to all parts of the country. Some Lichfield goods have been exported to Hong Kong. From outside the Tuam street building, the passer-by gets little hint of activity within. In the main sewing room women at dozens of machines sew the parts that go to make a blouse, or the 27 separate parts that go to make a collar-attached shirt. Button Machine In one small area machines churn out thousands of white shirt buttons each day. The small circular blanks for the buttons are imported, but all the rest is done in the factory, where machines mill the pattern on the top of the button, drill the holes for the thread, and finally polish the edges in a large, rotating drum. In another large area shirts coming through from the factory are ironed, checked, marked for size and style and packed. The system of “ironing” shirts would delight many a housewife: each shirt is pulled over a torso-shaped form, out of which high-pres-sure steam hisses, ballooning the shirt into shape and ironing it neatly. Nearby, nimble • fingered girls fold the garments neatly, while others put them in polythene packs. The garments start in the cutting room, but before this happens the patterns for each garment, scaled down several times are carefully arranged on a scaling machine. This permits the layout of patterns on the colth to be arranged so there is the absolute minimum of cloth wastage. A machine photographs the

scaled lay-out, and the photographs quickly show if the most economical use is being made of the cloth.

Manufacturing starts in the cutting room where the “laying up” is done. Miles of cloth are spread, many layers deep, on the 80ft-long laying up tables. The patterns are carefully marked, on the top of the layer, and then the garment parts are cut out, dozens at a time, with electric machines capable of cutting about 700 thicknesses of material at once. Fused Collars When the cutting operations are finished, the various parts of the garment are tied in bundles according to size for distribution to other parts of the factory.- The allimportant shirt collar, in particular, requires skilled workmanship, and after stitching, the three parts of the collar top are fused into one in a special machine. The tail of the shirt is hemmed, and gussets which take the strain off the seam inserted at the sides. A special machine attaches the yoke, and the centrepleat and button-stay piece are attached to the front. Buttons and buttonholes are attached—a buttonhole is completed by special machine in about three seconds. The shirt fronts are stitched to the respective shirt backs, the collar is attached to each shirt, and sleeves are put on. Cuffs are fitted, and the final finishing and packing is carried out. Throughout manufacture the garments are inspected for faults, and any with flaws are rejected. There is another department in the company headquarters that is of great interest—the work-study department. This could be described as the department that keeps the costs down. The various processes that go into the making of a garment, and the length of time each takes, are reviewed by the work-study department, which can recommend improvements in the system. The company keeps abreast of overseas trends by maintaining a close liaison with British and American firms.

The pictures show shirt sections being cut from many layers of cloth on the laying-up table by the operator using an electric cutter and a finished shirt being “ironed.”