Mixing fabrics or prints within the same garment is a fun way to add a unique twist, interesting texture, or creative design detail to your style. But, beyond patchworking a beautiful design, mixing fabrics in a way that is efficient in production and holds up to consumer use, takes some technical planning to get right.
You want to keep a high level of quality for your brand and want to feel in control of doing so. There are things you can do as the brand owner to stay in control of product quality even if you aren’t technical, can’t open your production files, or don’t know how to sew.
When doing anything for the first time – including starting a fashion brand, it is inevitable that mistakes can be made. But, many mistakes can be avoided. These are the four most common mistakes I’ve seen new brands make and what you can learn from those mistakes in order to avoid them in your business.
The thing about design is that it is subjective. So, how do you know which designs to produce and when the development process is complete? Today’s post is all about how to know when you’ve perfected the design and fit of your garment. (Hint: it has almost nothing to do with the garment itself.)
The goal with development is to arrive at a pattern that fits well on as many people in the target market as possible, but even the best-fitting pattern can’t fit everyone perfectly. Because of this, it is worth considering how your designs might be altered so you can design with ease of alterations in mind.
With Illustrator being so widely used and accessible and traditional patternmaking software being so cost prohibitive, you might wonder if you can just make patterns in Illustrator. The short answer is, yes, you can. However, depending on your goals and how you will be using the patterns in your business, you might not want to.
The feast turned out great all around and we’re still enjoying the leftovers, but all the debate, guesswork, and phoning a friend about the family recipes got me thinking about how not having a tech pack results in similar commotion for similar reasons.
Whatever prompted you to start this business and however eager you are to get your design ideas out into the world, you need a realistic timeline for developing your collection so you can plan your launch. Getting a first collection ready to launch may take longer than you think.
In general, I think that when people think of quality production, they think of quality sewing. While this is certainly true, it is what’s upstream of the sewing – like the pattern – that has the most control over the quality of the finished garment.
Throughout product development and production, you’re going to be communicating with many different people. Clothing is very physical and visual, so having reference samples to look at during these conversations will keep everyone on the same page. So, what exactly can you use reference samples for?