Why Your Tech Packs Are Sabotaging Your Production
Transparency: We are affiliates with ABC Seams. This post contains affiliate links to their resources that we use and recommend.
The sleeve length is off. The pocket placement looks nothing like your sketch. The factory is asking you what a "clean finish" means. You're three weeks behind schedule, you've already paid for shipping twice, and you're starting to wonder if your manufacturer even looked at your tech pack.
Honest truth? It's probably not your factory's fault.
It's your tech pack.
I receive dozens of tech packs every season, and there is a high percentage of them that I refuse to send to factories until they have either been updated properly by the person who made the tech pack, or the client hires us to bring them up to a professional standard.
The Real Cost of Bad Tech Packs
Let's talk about what this actually costs you.
Time: Every unclear tech pack adds at least one extra round of sampling. That's a minimum of 2-4 weeks added to your timeline.
Money: A new sample run costs money. Shipping costs money. Your factory's time costs money. If you're paying for three rounds of samples because your specs weren't clear the first time, you're burning cash.
Relationships: Good manufacturers will start deprioritising your orders or turning you down entirely.
Your reputation: If your product finally makes it to market with fit issues or construction problems because you never got the specs right, that's on you. Customers don't care whose fault it was; they just know the shirt doesn't fit.
The point of having industry quality tech packs is not only to communicate the details of the design in clear, precise and cleanly laid out pages, it is also to eliminate the guess work with endless back and forth emails, which tends to confuse things more.
More times than not, when production goes sideways, it traces back to the same thing: missing or vague information on the construction page, BOM (Bill of Materials) and POM (Points of Measure).
Recently, I received a tech pack for a garment that looked like it had a zipper detail. There was no mention of this detail on the construction page, no zipper listed on the BOM or the POM. Tech packs should state everything clearly, not leaving anything up for question, no hunting or searching for clues that there, maybe could possibly be a zipper there?
When I suggested the client should request the tech pack be edited to include concise construction call outs, the tech pack designer (I am using this term loosely here after this interaction), told the client that everyone prepares their details differently and the key details will be in written notes.
Ok, then where are the notes? And, here’s a thought, why not write the key details on the CONSTRUCTION PAGE WHERE THEY BELONG?
I can’t with this. I really can’t. This is charging people for a sub standard product that’s main purpose is to COMMUNICATE. Not only is this an incorrect way to make a tech pack, but it is also grossly unethical, taking advantage of people who don’t know any better. And this is not because they don’t have a fashion background. People right out of fashion school have sent me vague tech packs just as much as people who are paying professionals for quality tech packs.
Grab the industry standard template for a faster way to start making your own tech packs.
The Tech Pack Is Your Contract
Think of your tech pack as a contract between you and your manufacturer. Except instead of legal language, you're speaking in measurements, seam types, and construction methods. And just like a contract, if it's ambiguous, you're going to end up in a dispute.
The problem is that most of the tech packs I see treat construction details like an afterthought. There's a beautiful flat sketch on page one, a bill of materials, maybe some colorways. Then you get to the construction page and it says something like "French seam" with no context, or worse, nothing at all.
Factories work with what you give them. Expect to get what you have requested.
Construction Details: Where Everything Falls Apart
Let's talk about seams, because this is where I see the most damage.
You write "overlock seam" on your tech pack. Sounds specific. What’s the problem?
There are multiple types of overlock seams. A C100-1 (0S3), or 504, overlock looks completely different from a C100-1 (0S5), or 516. One is a three-thread seam, the other is a five-thread safety stitch. They have different stretch properties, different durability, and different costs.
A well-explained design is the signature of an expert designer. ABC Seams
When you don't specify which one, your factory picks one. And generally, they will go with what is fastest or most cost effective, not necessarily what is best for your design.
Have you seen the tiktoks where high end shirts are being reviewed? Seam details and construction being picked apart to see if you are getting quality for price? When the seams are beautiful it’s the brand making quality items; when the construction is cheap, it’s the factory’s fault for cutting corners.
Truth is, it’s the tech pack’s fault.
The factory makes what you send them and approve. If you want to cut costs, expect lesser quality fabric (ie. cheaper) and simpler seams (ie.faster).
Wait, so you just wanted to have a fashion brand, now you need to be a garment technician as well?
It wouldn’t hurt, lol. But truthfully, while you don’t need to know the depths of apparel construction like a technician does, you should at the very least know what you like. Inspect your clothes, turn them inside out. What looks and feels good? What looks and feels bad? Go for the good, send a photo to your tech pack designer and make sure they include it on your construction page. Put the photo in chatgpt and ask what type of seam it is. Go deeper into your collection beyond the external validation of being the face of a brand that makes pretty things.
Here's what you actually need on your construction page:
Seam type with the stitch classification; use the ASTM standards if you want to be taken seriously. Here's a resource that breaks them down: ABC Seams
Seam allowance width
Where each seam type is used: ex. shoulders, sides, hems, etc. Don't assume the factory should just figure it out for you.
Any special techniques: ex. topstitching distance from edge, bartacks, backstitching, put it in detail.
Finish details: raw edge, clean finished, bound, etc.
If you're specifying a flat-felled seam, which direction does it press? If you want topstitching, how many rows and how far from the edge? If there's elastic, is it stitched down or encased?
Points of Measure: The Math That Makes or Breaks Fit
Now let's talk about measurements, because this is the other place where tech packs completely fall apart.
I see tech packs all the time with a basic measurement chart: chest, length, sleeve. Looks complete, what’s the problem? Then the sample comes back and nothing fits right. The shoulder seam is sitting halfway down the bicep. The waist is in the wrong place. The hem is uneven.
Why? Because the tech pack didn't explain how to measure.
A chest measurement seems straightforward until you realize there are at least three different ways to measure it. Straight across from armpit to armpit? Following the curve of the body? 5cm down from the armhole seam?
Take into consideration the measurement system the country that you want to produce in. When I receive a measurement chart in imperial and you are manufacturing in Portugal, I will request the tech packs are converted to metric before I submit them to factories for quotes.
Here's what complete POM documentation looks like:
For every measurement point, you need,
A reference point (ex. ref. A)
The measurement description (ex. sleeve length)
How to take the measurement (straight, curved, from seam to seam, etc.)
Where on the garment: ex. 2.5cm down from shoulder seam, at natural waist, etc
The tolerance (+/- 1cm. Be realistic here, it’s textiles not paper)
A diagram showing the measurement line
And this is critical: your tolerances need to make sense. A +/- 0.5cm is not realistic for an elastic waistband or a gathered sleeve. Tight tolerances cost more to achieve because they require more time and precision. Know where you actually need accuracy and where you can give some room.
One of my factory partners was telling me how one of their client’s production manager was rejecting every sample because the sleeve length was "wrong." When they dug into it, their tech pack said "full length: 55cm" with no other information. The factory was measuring from shoulder seam to cuff edge, as they should. The brand was measuring from centre back neck, over the shoulder, down to the cuff. They were measuring two completely different things.
That's not a quality control problem. That's a communication problem.
What Complete Documentation Actually Looks Like
A proper tech pack isn't sexy. It's not the fun part of design (well, depending on who you are talking to 🙂) . But it's the difference between a product that exists in your head and a product that exists in the world.
Your construction page should read like a recipe. If you handed it to a completely different factory on the other side of the world, they should be able to produce the same garment without asking you a single question.
Your points of measure should be so clear that two different people measuring the same sample get the same numbers.
That's the standard.
If you're not sure where your tech packs are falling short, look at your inbox. How many questions is your factory asking you? Every question is a gap in your documentation.
Margin for Error: The Tech Pack Is a Living Document
I know I just spent this entire post telling you how important details are, but let me be clear, there's a difference between incomplete and evolving. Your tech pack is a living document, that will shift and change as you start your prototypes and samples.
Your first tech pack is your best educated guess based on your design intent. Then you get a sample back, and you learn something. Maybe that seam allowance needs to be wider for the fabric weight you chose. Maybe that measurement tolerance was too tight for a knit construction. Maybe you realize you need to add a stay stitch somewhere you didn't anticipate.
That's the process.
You take the design which you created with desire, the tech pack which is based on math, logic and communication, then you try that first sample, where you move into the best part of fashion, look and feel.
How does it look?
What does it feel like on?
What needs to change for the garment to look better?
Feel better? Hang better? Sit better?
No technology can replace this part. No ai chat will tell you what your intuition is telling you. Your edits will be based on the feeling of that first sample which was based on your tech pack that came from the designs you’ve been dreaming of.
gahh…. I love this process.
The tech pack is a living document. It should evolve through sampling. Version 1.0 becomes 1.1, then 1.2. Each iteration gets you closer to a production-ready spec. The key is documenting those changes and keeping everyone on the same page about which version you're working from.
Where brands get into trouble is confusing "evolving" with "incomplete."
An evolving tech pack says "French seam, 1cm seam allowance" and then you realize after the first sample that you need 0,5cm for this particular fabric, so you update it. That's evolution.
An incomplete tech pack says "French seam" with no seam allowance, no indication of where it's used, and no stitch count. Then you're surprised when the factory has questions. That's not evolution, that's skipping the homework.
Your factory expects revisions. They know that seeing a concept in fabric form will reveal things you couldn't predict on paper. What they don't expect, and what can burn bridges, is getting a tech pack that's missing basic information and then acting like they should have figured it out.
So yes, your tech pack will evolve. But it needs to start from a solid foundation. Give your factory enough information to produce a first sample that's in the ballpark, then refine from there. That's how you build a collaborative relationship instead of an adversarial one.
Version control matters too. Date your tech packs. Use version numbers. When you make changes, highlight them or include a revision history. Nothing creates more chaos than a factory working from version 1.0 while you're referencing version 1.3, and nobody realises it until the samples are already in production.
Getting It Right
Bulk production is when the rubber hits the road. It’s the commitment that takes months and months. This is why we work on collections a year in advance, so we have time to work out the details.
Most designers don't learn this stuff in school. Fashion programs teach design, maybe pattern-making, but nobody's teaching you how to write a construction spec that actually works in a factory environment and then you get to test it out as part of your curriculum.
If you genuinely want to put out beautiful, well constructed products, this is fixable. You can learn seam classifications (seriously, bookmark ABC Seams). You can build better measurement diagrams. You can start documenting the details that matter.
If you need help auditing your existing tech packs or building them from scratch, you can check out my consulting services or if you want someone to work together with you and build your designs into industry standard tech packs, I offer full design and tech pack services.
But even if you never work with me, please - for the love of everything - fix your construction pages and your points of measure. Your factory will thank you. Your timeline will thank you. Your bank account will thank you.
And your samples might actually come back right the first time.
Have questions about your tech packs? Feel free to reach out to me via the contact page. I've seen it all, and I promise I don’t judge. My role is to educate and support, so you have a standing chance in the industry.