COSTING - PATTERN LAYOUTS

Inside the life of a coster:

As the singular coster of the company, I independently costed every single garment being designed, regardless if it continued into production or was dropped...the more math the better, right?! 

I quickly learned how to make fabric markers using the Gerber-Accumark program to ensure proper fabric yardage was allotted for each garment, including its size grade and waste. For garments with print placements, I would lay the full sized patterns out on the table and constantly review their yields to make sure the fit changes were still in a positive constraint. When I determined the yield and gathered all the costing essentials (fabric price per yard, surcharges, trim prices, article information, lead times, production labor prices and so on..), I would then be able to proceed in calculating the wholesale/retail cost to ensure that the margin was the best it could be. I would then meet with the VP of Sales and Nanette to review the margins and assign linesheet prices.