I often talk about how fabric sourcing happens at the beginning of development because the pattern and fit depend on the fabric. However, it is possible to start sourcing fabrics too soon. There are a few decisions that need to be made before it makes sense to start sourcing.
As much design goes into the inside of a garment as the outside. The biggest decision about the inside is lining. Does your garment need a lining? Perhaps. Let’s take a look at the inside surface of your garment and talk about the reasons to consider adding a lining and reasons to leave it unlined.
There is a whole spectrum of customized clothing production options between one-off custom and mass-produced bulk. Each option requires a different amount of upfront development work and production time and offers a personalized, but slightly different experience to the customer.
If you don’t know how to measure your fit, then you’ll end up confusing yourself, your factory and your customers. Precise measurements keep your fit and communication consistent and it all starts with being clear on what exactly you are measuring and why.Let’s look at when to use garment measurements versus body measurements.
Size-inclusive fit doesn’t just begin with grading more sizes of your pattern. It starts far earlier in the design stage. Size-inclusivity starts with how you think about your customer, conceptualize your designs, and consider each detail for different bodies.
Print (the textile design) and pattern (the garment sewing pattern) may start out separately in design and development, but they converge in production before they meet in the finished garment. The different ways the two can come together have pros and cons within the final product that need to be accounted for during development.
Tolerances control what variance from the spec measurement is acceptable. Writing proper tolerances is a balance between controlling product quality and having realistic expectations for a production environment. Each POM gets its own tolerance, so how do you get that balance right for each one? These are the factors to consider when writing POM tolerances.
It’s a situation I see happen far too often to brands. I hate to see it. The brand has developed a design with a full package production factory, but the factory made them and they won’t release them. So, what options does the brand have if they decide to switch factories?
You might not be ready to work with a patternmaker. For the investment in product development to be worth it, the design needs to be more than just a rough concept. It needs direction and you need clarity. Here’s how to know you’ve reached that point and are ready to work with a patternmaker.
If you use deadstock fabrics, you’re going to need to take a different approach to designing and developing new styles. Knowing your fabric is important for development, but when using deadstock, the process looks a bit different. Let’s break it down.