A complete garment tech pack contains a technical sketch, a measurement chart with tolerances and a named base size, construction and stitching details, a fabric and trim specification, artwork with placement, labelling and packaging instructions, a colourway sheet and grading rules. Together they define the product precisely enough to cost and to cut.
The tech pack is not paperwork that follows the design. It is the document the factory actually manufactures from. Everything the pack does not state, someone in the factory will decide, and they will decide it in the way that is normal for their machinery, their usual customers and their own price assumptions. That decision may be perfectly reasonable and still not be your product.
This guide sets out what belongs in a complete pack, why an incomplete pack is the most common cause of sampling delay and unstable pricing, and what a buyer without an in-house technical team can realistically prepare on their own.
What is a tech pack and who is it actually written for?
A tech pack is the technical specification of one style. Its readers are the costing department, the pattern maker, the cutting room, the sewing line supervisor and the quality inspector. None of them were in your design meeting, several of them may not read your language fluently, and all of them need to reach the same conclusion from the same document.
That audience explains why good packs are visual, numeric and repetitive rather than descriptive. A phrase such as a relaxed but structured shoulder communicates nothing to a pattern maker. A shoulder measurement with a tolerance, a seam position marked on the sketch and a reference garment do.
It is also the document a dispute is settled against. If a bulk delivery is argued over, the question is whether the goods match the approved specification. A pack that is silent on a detail gives you no position on it.
Why does an incomplete tech pack delay sampling and destabilise price?
Sampling delay usually looks like a factory problem and usually is not. When a pack has gaps, the factory can stop and ask, which starts a question and answer cycle across time zones that runs for days per round, or it can assume, which produces a sample built to someone else's default and a second round to correct it.
Price instability has the same root. A costing is built from consumption, operation count and the components specified. If the stitch type, interlining, trim quality, labelling or packing method are not stated, the factory prices its own assumption, and when the real specification arrives the cost moves, usually upward.
There is also a comparison problem. Quotes from three factories on an incomplete pack are not comparable, because each has priced a slightly different garment. A buyer who thinks they are choosing on price is often choosing on which supplier made the lowest cost assumption.
A complete pack rarely costs more. It makes the cost visible earlier, which is a different thing and a considerably better one.
What goes into the technical sketch?
The technical sketch, sometimes called the flat or the CAD, is a proportionate line drawing of the garment from the front and the back, with no model, no styling and no shading. Additional views are added where they carry information, for example a side view for a set in pocket or an inside view for a lining.
- Front and back flats, drawn to correct relative proportion.
- Callouts pointing at every construction feature that is not self evident.
- Detail enlargements for pockets, plackets, cuffs, vents, collars and closures.
- Interior views where linings, facings or taped seams are involved.
- Seam and topstitch positions clearly indicated, including where stitching is decorative.
Mood images and reference photographs are useful alongside the sketch and are not a substitute for it. A reference garment is more useful still, and if you send one, state which aspects are to be copied and which are not.
What makes a measurement chart usable by a factory?
The measurement chart is the part of the pack that most often causes argument, because it is the part that quality inspection is measured against. Three things make it usable.
First, a named base size. The chart should state which size the pattern is developed in and graded from, rather than leaving the factory to infer it. Second, a defined measuring method for each point. Chest measured how far below the armhole, length measured from high point shoulder or from centre back, sleeve measured along which line. Two people measuring the same garment differently will disagree about a garment that is perfectly correct. Third, a tolerance against every point.
Tolerances are not a loophole, they are an acknowledgement that fabric and sewing have variation. Woven garments typically carry tighter tolerances than knitted ones, and points that affect fit carry tighter tolerances than points that do not. State them explicitly rather than relying on a factory default, and keep them realistic for the fabric, because a tolerance the cloth cannot hold will simply be broken.
The chart should also carry the full graded size run rather than the base size alone, with the grade rules that produce it. That is a topic in its own right and it is where a good pack and an adequate one usually separate.
How should fabric, trims and construction be specified?
Fabric is specified by composition, construction, weight, width and finish, plus any performance requirement that matters. A reference swatch or a named quality is more reliable than a description alone. If an article is approved, name it, and state whether an equivalent is acceptable and who decides.
Trims and components need the same treatment. Every zip, button, thread, elastic, drawcord, interlining, tape and label should be listed with a size, a type, a colour reference and a position. The bill of materials is where quiet cost differences live: two garments with the same fabric and different interlinings are not the same garment and will not hang the same way.
Construction detail covers assembly. Seam types and allowances, stitch types and stitches per unit length, edge finishes, hem depths, bar tacks and reinforcement points, fusing and pressing. For knitwear this extends to gauge, stitch structure, trim construction and linking.
- Fabric: composition, construction, weight, width, finish, shrinkage expectation.
- Trims: type, size, colour reference, supplier or equivalent, quantity per garment.
- Construction: seam and stitch types, allowances, hem depths, reinforcement, pressing.
- Care and content details, agreed against the requirements of your destination market.
What do artwork, labelling and packaging pages need to include?
Prints and embroidery need artwork in a usable file format, at the correct size, with colour references and an exact placement measured from fixed points rather than described in words. State the application technique, and state whether placement repeats identically across every size or is adjusted through the run.
Labelling is where compliance and commercial requirements meet. The pack should specify the main label, size label, care and content label, any origin marking, and the position, attachment method and orientation of each. Fibre content and care information need to meet the requirements of the market the goods are sold in, which is a question for your own compliance advisor rather than for the factory.
Packaging instructions close the pack: folding method, polybag specification, hangtag and ticket application, carton assortment, dimensions and marking. These pages look trivial and cause a surprising share of last minute problems, because they are usually written after the goods are already being made.
What can a buyer without a technical team realistically prepare?
Most growing brands do not have a pattern maker or a garment technologist, and they do not need one to start. What they can prepare is the commercial half of the pack, which is the half only they can supply.
- A clear front and back sketch, even a hand drawing, with the features you care about called out.
- A reference garment, with a written note on what to copy and what to change.
- Your target price, target quantity and the market the product is for.
- The fabric direction you want, described by handle, weight and use rather than by mill name.
- Your colour references, ideally as physical standards rather than screen colours.
- Your labelling, packaging and compliance requirements.
- Your intended size range and the market whose sizing system it follows.
What normally needs technical help is the measurement chart with tolerances, the grading, the seam and stitch specification and the bill of materials in factory usable form. Some factories will develop these from a reference garment, and the quality of that work varies widely. This is one of the practical reasons buyers use a local team: our merchandisers build the missing technical pages from the buyer's commercial brief before the pack goes out for quotation, so the quotes that come back describe the same garment.
The principle to hold onto is simple. Never let the first sample be the first time a specification is written down. Whatever you cannot specify in advance, specify at first sample approval, in writing, before bulk.
How should the pack be version controlled through sampling?
A tech pack is a living document, and most of the damage done by tech packs happens after the first version. A factory working from version two while the buyer comments on version four produces a sample that satisfies nobody.
Keep it disciplined. Every pack carries a version number and a date. Every comment on a sample is written into the pack rather than living in an email thread. Changes are highlighted so the factory can see what moved. One person on each side owns the document, and verbal agreements reached on a call are written up the same day.
At pre production approval the pack is frozen and the approved sample is sealed, with one held by the factory and one by the buyer or their representative. Quality inspection then has something concrete to measure against, and any later change becomes a formal amendment with its own cost and time implication.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I get a quotation without a tech pack?
You can get an indicative number, but treat it as a range rather than a price. Without a specification the factory is pricing its own assumptions, and quotes from different suppliers will not be comparable. The figure usually moves once the real specification appears.
Do I need CAD drawings or is a hand sketch enough?
A clear hand sketch with proper callouts and correct proportions is workable for a first development round. CAD flats are easier to read and easier to revise, so most brands move to them as the range grows. The clarity of the callouts matters more than the drawing tool.
What is a base size and why does it matter?
The base size is the size the pattern is developed in and graded up and down from. It should be the size you expect to sell most of, because it carries the truest fit. Stating it removes ambiguity about which measurements the pattern maker works to.
How detailed should tolerances be?
Every measurement point should carry one, set realistically for the fabric and tighter on points that affect fit. Knitted fabrics generally need wider tolerances than wovens. A tolerance that the cloth cannot physically hold will be ignored in production, so it is worth setting them with someone who knows the material.
Who owns the tech pack and the patterns?
Ownership should be stated in your agreement rather than assumed. Buyers who paid for development normally expect to own the specification and the patterns, but this is a matter of contract. Settle it before development starts rather than when you want to move production.
How many sampling rounds should I expect?
With a complete pack, two to three rounds to a sealed pre production sample is a common pattern for a straightforward style. Complex construction, new fabric development or a print approval will add rounds. Gaps in the pack are the factor most likely to add unnecessary ones.
Should the tech pack include grading rules?
Yes, or at least a full graded measurement chart covering the whole size run. Leaving grading to the factory means accepting whatever increments their usual customers use, which may not suit your market. Grading is worth treating as a commercial decision rather than a technical afterthought.