Custom garment design and fabric printing system

Abstract

This patent describes an alternative form for the automatic creation of garments. The garment creation system includes mapping portions of an arbitrary image sensed by an image sensor device onto a garment and outputting a depiction of the garment. Additionally, a garment fabric printer is adapted to to print out corresponding pieces of the garment including the mapped portions. The printing can include printing out instructions for joining the pieces together on the fabric and printing such that joined pieces of fabric appear to be derived from a continuous pattern.

We claim:  
     
         1 . A garment creation system comprising: 
 a pattern generating means for generating at least one garment piece outline and a decorative finish to be imparted to said garment piece; and    a garment fabric printer in communication with said pattern generating means for printing simultaneously said garment piece outline and said decorative finish on to a surface of a bolt of fabric passing through said printer, in use.    
     
     
         2 . A garment creation system as claimed in  claim 1  wherein said garment fabric printer prints simultaneously on the surface of the bolt of fabric, a plurality of garment piece outlines, each with their associated decorative finishes.  
     
     
         3 . A garment creation system as claimed in  claim 2  wherein said garment fabric printer prints out on the surface of said bolt of fabric instructions for joining said garment pieces together.  
     
     
         4 . A garment creation system as claimed in  claim 2  wherein said pattern generating means generates the decorative finishes on each of said pieces so that an image, created by fastening said pieces together to form a garment, appears to be continuous.  
     
     
         5 . A garment creation system as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the garment fabric printer is an ink jet printer having an image printing width corresponding to a width of the bolt of fabric.  
     
     
         6 . A garment creation system as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the pattern generating means generates garment pieces of different sizes to cater for different sizes and shapes of bodies.