Garment Manufacturing Process: A Comprehensive Overview

Starting a clothing brand? Need help with understanding the garment manufacturing process? Our team of experts will guide you from start to finish.

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So — you want to produce your own apparel and need help with the garment manufactruing process? On the surface, it might seem easy, right? Get an idea, sketch it out, put together a document, and ship it off to the clothing manufacturer. Unfortunately — this is simply not the case. While any clothing manufacturer can work from sketches and basic documents, there are many things you can do to make the apparel manufacturing process altogether smoother and simpler. The more time you spend going back and forth with your garment producer, the less time you have for sampling, corrections, and production.

What you are doing here is creating a very basic “tech pack” which is the firs step to garment manufacturing process. You will need to expand the information contained within your Excel spreadsheet and your PDF files, of course, to create a real tech pack — but with the listed information, you’re doing really well! garment manufacturing process

Garment Style Numbers

Create style numbers for your products as one of the first steps in preparing for custom garment manufacturing process. Why? When talking with other people in and out of your company, it’s much easier to say “style AZ2001” than “the full-zip half-sleeve hoodie with the red zipper trim.” There’s less room for confusion and error with simple style numbers.

On that note — keep your style numbers simple. There isn’t any reason for your first style to be “AZA-3020001-1-A” — you don’t have hundreds of thousands of styles to catalog and categorize when you’re first starting out. “AZ2001” will do just fine. Short styles are good for a few reasons: they’re easier to say and a lot easier to transcribe. process

Garment Sampling Excel Spreadsheets

The absolute best thing you can do for the garment manufacturing process is to prepare an Excel spreadsheet. This Excel spreadsheet should have various information in list format about your different garment styles. Note that your Excel spreadsheet should not have detailed information regarding your garments: save that for later. Your “description” field here should be no more than one very succinct sentence describing the garment.

Style #	Size*	Description	PDF Filename
AZ2001	XL	Three-quarter screenprinted sleeve skull logo raglan with red contrast sleeves and red trim	AZ2002_Skull-Raglan_AlphaClothing_2013-January.pdf
AZ2002	XL	Zip-up heavy hoodie with embroidered chest pocket skull logo and red hood	AZ2002_Skull-Hoodie_AlphaClothing_2013-January.pdf
AZ2003	XL	Ladies’ three-quarter screenprinted sleeve skull logo with red collar	AZ2003_Skull-Tee_AlphaClothing_2013-January.pdf

*NOTE: For sampling purposes, you can only produce one size per style. You cannot request a M, L, and XL for a single style.

Garment Sampling PDF Documents

Along with your Excel spreadsheet, you should prepare PDF (Printed Document Format) files for each style you want to sample during the garment manufacturing process. Again, each style should have its own, separate PDF file. These PDF files will contain the bulk of the information regarding your garment designs. 

Descriptive Details for Garment Manufacturing

One of the hardest and most time-consuming parts of preparing to contact clothing manufacturers is the description and the amount of detail in those descriptions. Be as detailed as possible. No detail is too small to contain in your PDF files. Here’s why:

• Your price will be more accurate. If you want an accurate garment production quote, include ALL possible details. Note that the information does not need to be finalized or absolute. Things can — and will — change over the course of the garment production process. However, for an accurate quote, you’ll want to be detailed.
• Your fashion idea may be perfect in your head — unfortunately, however, others may not share your perspective. Someone else has to reproduce your design, exactly the way you imagined it, from your documentation. If your documentation is incomplete or lacking in detail, your produced clothing will never look precisely like it does in your mind. There will always be questions and back-and-forth in the garment manufacturing process. However — if this can be minimized, it should be.
• If you don’t include details in your initial documentation, you and your clothing manufacturer will eventually need to discuss them anyway. The fewer questions and the less “back and forth” you have to do with the manufacturer, the better it is all around. For you, it is better because it will take fewer adjustments of your clothing design and garment samples to get everything right. For your apparel manufacturer, there really isn’t much money to be made in sampling — producing garments is generally far more profitable!
• Finally, the biggest reason? If you don’t have enough detail prepared and compiled for your garment manufacturing process, most simply won’t work with you.

Details to Include

• Sketches of the garment: front and back, with close-ups of unusual details
• All construction and sewing details: including measurements for each part of the garment (e.g., length and width of body, length and width of hood, sleeves, and cuffs)
• A list of fabrics, materials and trims (including suppliers if you already know your source)
• Artwork for prints, embroideries, sublimation, patterns, labels, etc.
• Any final packaging, trimming, or other finishing instructions

Examples of Detailed Garment Descriptions

Other Tips for Preparing for Garment Manufacturing Process

Back Up Your Work

Always back up your files. Use a service like Dropbox. If you lost everything on your computer’s hard drive, you might have to start over completely from scratch. This can be a huge headache for a larger business or brand — but it can absolutely destroy a smaller business or brand. Back everything up, every time!

Name Your Files Intelligently

Give your files sensible, descriptive names. “new clothing details.docx” or “2014 new designs.pdf” are not descriptive names — especially when the file gets to the manufacturer’s hands. Your garment manufacturer may have hundreds of other clients, and if everyone sent them in with such simple names — it would be really, really easy for people to get confused or files to get lost. Most professional garment manufacturers — including Stylus Apparel — have systems of organization to keep everything well-organized… but it’s in their best interest and yours if you take it a step further.

Suggested Filename Format: Style Number – Product Name – Brand Name – Version/Year

Initial Design and Planning

Creating a successful garment starts with the garment manufacturing process, where designers sketch ideas and develop patterns. But this isn't just about aesthetics; it's also about functionality and fit. Because every piece of clothing has its own purpose, designers must consider who will wear it and what materials are best suited for that purpose. This planning phase is crucial, so skipping it can lead to costly mistakes later.

Material Selection and Preparation

Once the design is finalized, material selection becomes the next important step in the garment manufacturing process. Choosing the right fabric depends on factors like comfort, durability, and cost. However, sourcing sustainable materials is becoming increasingly important for eco-conscious brands. So, manufacturers often balance quality with environmental impact during this stage. Proper preparation ensures that the fabric is ready for cutting and sewing.

Production and Quality Control

After materials are prepared, the actual production begins. Workers use advanced machinery or handcraft techniques to assemble garments according to the pattern. Because human error can occur, strict quality control measures are put in place to catch any defects early. As a result, customers receive products that meet their expectations. This final stage wraps up the garment manufacturing process by ensuring everything runs smoothly.