The other evening, I got a head start cooking dinner making some shrimp tempura sushi rolls while my husband finished up his work. When he joined me in the kitchen, asked what he could do. He is a good cook and there were still things to be done for the meal, but I found it difficult to hand off a part of the prep. Why? I was only sort of following a recipe. I had made this meal before and used a combination of recipes for different parts, leaving out some things, adding others, and making up the steps as I went.
Cooking without a recipe is not a problem if I am the only one who will make the dish. It can be fun and creative to make something up as I go or make it again from memory. However, it is impossible to turn the task over to anyone else without any clear recipe or instructions.
Making clothing is just like making a meal in this way. If you don’t have a tech pack (a recipe), then you are the only one who will ever be able to make the garment. You won’t be able to hand it off to anyone else. You can describe the process you use, or show a picture of the finished product, but there is a lot of missing information on how to get from start to finish. It will be hard to step away from the making as you will be pulled in often to answer questions. The end result may also look quite a bit different than how it looks when you make it.
You can keep the recipe and instructions (tech pack) all in your head if it is just you, but if you ever plan to hire someone else (a sewer or factory) to make the product for you or if you don’t make the product for a while and need a refresher on how it is made, then you’ll be glad everything is written down. I have never heard anyone say they regret having a tech pack for their product, but I’ve heard many times that they regret not having one sooner.
P.S. The sushi turned out great, but I will definitely be writing down a real recipe.