An industrial application from the 19th Century:

Chebyshev, in order to supplement his income as a university professor, signed a contract with a textile businessman, for a second job where the goal was to find methods of cutting military uniforms (for which there was a huge demand at that time) that would minimize fabric loss. It is not clear to what extent Chebyshev helped the profession of clothing design, because he immediately got more interested in the mathematical aspect of the theory. This led Chebyshev to write a paper which bears the title of the paper under review, and a book which seems to be very difficult to locate. Chebyshev’s paper, written in French, is reproduced in the appendix of the paper under review. In particular, Chebyshev developed the theory of what are now called "Chebyshev nets".

• From review MR2850589 of Ghys, Étienne. "Sur la coupe des vêtements. Variation autour d'un thème de Tchebychev." L’Enseignement Mathématique 57.1 (2011): 165-208.

Étienne Ghys presented his paper in 2012 with the title "When Mathematicians use Geometry to Cut Cloth". The session was recorded and is available at: https://youtu.be/1EoUBwwl8-k