I was playing with the idea in my head of trying to build a CNC clothing cutter for patterns.. of course it would be more work than a small machine since it needs a large swing.
I'm not sure about what cutting head you could use though - perhaps the typical rotary cutter for cloth? (The same type of rotary blade you can use to cut by hand).
I don't know what they use in the industry. Probably some might use laser cut too.
-nt20