Apparatus for bite cutting made to order garments

An apparatus for bite cutting pattern pieces for made to order garments from limp sheet material, said apparatus comprising:

• a computer-aided design system for continuously receiving data representing a plurality of made to order garments and for continuously generating a marker in response to the data as the data representing the plurality of garments is received, said marker providing a set of machine readable marker instructions which defines contours of individual pattern pieces of the plurality of made to order garments, arranges the individual pattern pieces relative to one another as they are to be cut from one or more bites of the sheet material to optimize usage to the sheet material, and provides a specific length value for each bite of sheet material;
• a carriage assembly for movably supporting a cutting tool over a stationary work surface on which the sheet of material is spread, said carriage assembly including a coupling mechanism for releasably coupling the sheet material to the carriage for movement therewith and relative to the table to advance successive bites of the sheet material onto the work surface;
• a vacuum source in fluid communication with the work surface to hold the sheet material against the work surface;
• and
• a controller for converting the marker instructions into command signals to direct the carriage assembly to advance successive bites of the sheet material onto the work surface in accordance with said specific length values associated with each bite and to direct the movement of the carriage assembly and the cutting tool to cut the individual pattern pieces from the sheet material according to the marker instructions.