Product development is a time to test and tweak your design before mass production. Each step has a purpose to help you evaluate different aspects of the product and how it’s manufactured — from performance, to fit, to ease of care. Once the testing is done, you’ll have all the tools you need for production.
Whether you are doing a quality control check on your production or need to help a customer find the size that is right for them, having a solid understanding of the points of measurement on a spec sheet and the how-to of measuring a garment are essential.
The final section in a tech pack is for sample comments. Each sample gets its own page. When you receive a sample, write down the sample measurements as well as any changes made to the style. Keep track of what decisions were made and what the next steps for the style are.
The spec sheet is an important part of the tech pack that shows what the style measures at each POM in all the sizes offered. The chart also shows the tolerance for those measurements – meaning the amount plus or minus that the garment can differ from the spec measurement and still be considered acceptable.
The pattern card lists each pattern piece for the style along with how many of each is needed to make one garment. It is split into sections by material type. Note, this page doesn’t show all the materials needed like the BOM does. This page only shows pattern pieces that need to be cut out.
Colorways and artwork specifications are another important section of a tech pack. The colorways page shows a CAD drawing of each color combination being offered for that season. Along with the drawings, there are color chips showing the color of each material in the style – including fabrics, thread, and hardware.
The technical section of a tech pack communicates how the garment is constructed. It will always include a tech sketch which is the flat sketch from the cover page with seam, stitch, and detail callouts. Some details will have alternate views such as the sides or inside showing how those details should be constructed.
The Bill of Materials page (called the BOM) is a chart that shows all the materials that go into your design. The BOM not only lists the fabrics, but shows all the trims, closures, thread, hangtags, labels, and packaging materials – everything you need to make the style start to finish.
You’ve probably heard that you need a tech pack, but the conversation usually revolves around how you need one for your factory. While a tech pack is useful in communicating information about your design to your factory, there are many parts of a tech pack that are useful to you as the designer as well.
When deadlines are approaching or budgets get tight, it is tempting to skip over some steps to get to the production stage quicker. In the long run, though, skipping steps can really cost you. Here are five steps that are tempting to skip, but are actually critical to the success of your end product.