What is a tech pack?

The pages a factory sews from, written so the style can be cut and finished without guesswork.

A tech pack is a small stack of pages, not a single drawing. Each sheet answers a different question for the factory.

A tech pack is the set of pages a factory uses to sew a garment the same way every time. In clothing and fashion it sits between the design and the cutting table, and it is often mixed up with two other things. A sketch shows the idea. A 3D sample lets you approve look and fit before anyone buys fabric. The tech pack is what the workroom follows after you say yes.

There is no official template that every factory demands. What matters is simpler. Someone who has never met you, and may not share a language with you, should be able to cut, sew and finish the style without inventing the missing parts.

What a fashion tech pack includes

Most factory-ready packs cover the same ground, even when the sheet names differ.

Lead sheet. Style name, season, size, date, and a clear picture of the garment, so anyone opening the file knows which style they have.
Technical flats. Clean front and back drawings, not a fashion illustration. These are the reference for shape, proportion and where each detail sits.
Construction. How the garment is built: seams, facings, linings, closures, and the notes a machinist actually needs.
Seams and stitches. Which seam type and stitch to use, and where.
Specification, or points of measure. A measurement chart for the base size, taken from agreed points on the body and the garment.
Bill of materials (BOM). Every fabric, interlining, thread, button, zip and label, with placements and quantities.
Labels and trims. Where care, brand and size labels sit, and how they are attached.
Colourways. Each colour combination, including trims that change with the body fabric.
Grade rules. How the base size steps up and down the size run, written as a base measurement plus a step, so the factory can grade without guessing.
Revision log. What changed, and when, so an older file does not quietly override a newer one.

When I write a factory tech pack, these are the sheets I send.

The usual contents of a clothing tech pack, drawn as separate pages. A factory reads them together as one instruction.

How it differs from a sketch or a 3D sample

A sketch is the intention. It is rarely enough to sew from. Sleeve pitch, seam allowance, facing depth and finishing are easy to read two ways from one loose drawing. I have seen two workrooms follow the same sketch and return two different garments.

A 3D sample is how you see the garment before it exists in cloth. You can check proportion, hem, drape and the small decisions that are expensive to discover in a first toile. It does not replace the written instructions a factory needs to repeat the style.

The tech pack is that instruction. Give two factories the same pack and you should get the same garment.

Sketch, 3D sample, tech pack. Each one does a different job. None of them is only a prettier version of the others.

What a factory looks for

A factory reads a pack looking for the questions they would otherwise have to send back. What is the base size? Where is each measurement taken? What is the fabric? How is the collar or cuff built? What changes in each colourway?

If one of those is missing, the usual result is a question, a delay, or a sample that comes back almost right. Three weeks later is a long time to learn that “buttons” meant six of one colour on the centre front, not four of another colour on the cuff.

A complete pack also names what it is not asking for. If grade rules are included and a full graded pattern set is not, that should be obvious on the page.

Where measurements live

The specification sheet is where most misunderstandings start. A list of numbers without a diagram of where each point is taken will be measured two ways. “Bust” taken at the armhole is not the same as “bust” taken at the fullest part. A diagram without the numbers cannot be checked. The flat, the points and the base-size chart belong together.

Points of measure should be visible on the garment, not only listed in a table. That is how a factory knows where “bust” or “centre back” was taken.

Common gaps

Flats that look like illustrations, so a factory cannot read a seam or a topstitch line.
A measurement chart with no diagram of where each point is taken.
A BOM that lists “buttons” but not size, colour, or which colourway they belong to.
Construction notes written as preferences, such as “nice and clean”, instead of methods.
No revision date, so an earlier file stays in circulation.
Asking a factory to invent grade rules from a single sample, with no base measurement and no step.

If you are just starting a label

You do not need every possible page for a first conversation with a factory. You do need enough that a pattern maker or factory can quote and sew without filling in the design themselves.

If you already have a sketch, the next useful step is often to see the garment in 3D, then lock the decisions into a pack the factory can keep.

If you want that sequence on one style, a 3D sample or the sample plus a factory tech pack, start with a brief.

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