Glossary
Marker
A marker is the cutting layout — every piece of every size in the order, nested together on the fabric width to waste as little cloth as possible.
The marker is made after the pattern is finished and it is where the fabric cost of a style is actually decided. A percentage point or two of efficiency across a production run is a material amount of money.
It has to account for fabric width, for grainline, for nap or one-way prints, and for shrinkage — the cloth is usually relaxed or pre-shrunk before cutting, and the marker is built for the width it will be, not the width on the roll.