Preparing for Manufacture

08/28/24 • 21 min

Host Heather Zager talks about manufacture in this final episode of her four-part series called Concept to Customer. This is the fourth of the most common areas of confusion or misunderstanding among new designers, areas that Heather wants to demystify. Having already covered design concepting, material sourcing, and size and fit, she now discusses manufacturing. She explores what manufacturing is, what types of manufacturers are available, and imparts advice and all the necessary details about getting a product to the manufacture stage.

Manufacturing is the process of putting the garments together into complete products. Mass manufacturing involves machines because machines are generally considered to be faster than humans. Heather breaks down all the things needed to have a successful mass manufacturing run, what a tech pack is, why a complete tech pack is so important, and the differences between a factory, a manufacturer, and an agency. Each of these steps can be a point of confusion which is why Heather explains them in detail here.

What is the difference between small-batch manufacture and large-scale production? Which is better in what circumstance? Heather answers these questions from experience and with a detailed explanation of how each works. She also gets into the five most common misconceptions about manufacturing that she encounters. Can manufacturers sew anything? Do you need to share confidential design information with them? Do you need to sew samples for each new design? These questions are why Heather and MADE Apparel Services are here, and why this episode is so important for designers to grow.

About Heather Zager | MADE Apparel Services Founder and Owner

Heather Zager found her calling when she signed up for a beginning pattern-making course and realized she had a passion for technical design. She subsequently enrolled in the Apparel Design and Development program at Seattle Central College and graduated two years later with her Associate of Applied Science Degree.

After graduation, she began working with Meta assisting in developing and designing augmented and virtual reality wearable tech gear. In 2020, MADE Apparel Services was born with the idea of helping makers, inventors and designers bring their own sewn product ideas to manufacture. Since then, she has worked with various businesses such as Santa’s Tailor, Feathered Friends, Wolfpack Gear and Classic Accessories, helping them achieve their goals in design, development, pattern making, sewn construction and manufacture.

Today, Heather continues to grow her knowledge and share her experiences with others to bring their visions to reality.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Blog: Why You Need a Tech Pack for Clothing Manufacture
MADE Apparel Services: How It Works

Contact Heather Zager | MADE Apparel Services:

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Transcript

Heather Zager: [00:00:00] Hello everyone, and welcome to today's podcast. My name is Heather Zager. I am the host of this podcast series and founder of Made Apparel Services.

Heather Zager: [00:00:12] Hi everyone. Heather here from Made Apparel Services. Welcome back to my channel. In this final episode of my four part series called Concept to Customer, I'm going to talk about types of manufacturers. But before I start, if you haven't listened to the other podcasts, that is okay as they aren't in any particular order. I only numbered them to distinguish them from my other podcasts that aren't in this series. Now, the topics I discuss in this series of Concept to Customer are on design concepting, material sourcing, and size and fit. Those are the other three. These, along with today's podcast, are the four most common areas of confusion or misunderstanding that I've found that new designers have when it comes to visualizing and understanding how the entire process of getting an idea to market works. To understand the types of manufacture for garments or sewn goods, we first need to understand what manufacture is. So the idea of mass manufacture is founded in the concept that machines can do better work faster than people. Technically, it is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products at a constant flow. Now, humans can certainly accomplish this wh...

About Heather Zager | MADE Apparel Services Founder and Owner

Today, Heather continues to grow her knowledge and share her experiences with others to bring their visions to reality.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Blog: Why You Need a Tech Pack for Clothing Manufacture
MADE Apparel Services: How It Works

Contact Heather Zager | MADE Apparel Services:

—

Transcript

Heather Zager: [00:00:00] Hello everyone, and welcome to today's podcast. My name is Heather Zager. I am the host of this podcast series and founder of Made Apparel Services.

Previous Episode

Size and Fit

Host Heather Zager talks about size and fit in this third of her four-part series called Concept to Customer. She explains exactly what fit and size are, technically speaking, and what they should mean to a garment and the customer wearing said garment. Historical context and a modern-day leaning towards vanity sizing are also addressed in Heather’s deep dive into how to best size and fit the garment being made for the ideal customer to wear.

Fit is how the garment fits onto the wearer and how that fit suits the activity the garment is designed for. Generally speaking fit aims for comfort but specific items fulfill different purposes wherein that might not be the top goal. A swimsuit and a ski jacket will be designed to fit very differently, for example. Size is then sizing that garment larger and smaller to accommodate different bodies while making sure the fit is the same on every shape.

Heather explains all the nuances of sizing, covering vanity sizing, historical custom-fit clothes, how sizing affects fit, and standardized sizing. She discusses why the average standardized sizes don’t necessarily fit every body and how those sizes were initially calculated. How should a designer tackle the questions of size and fit for a garment? Heather sheds light on the answer with guidance and context based on her extensive knowledge and experience in the industry.

About Heather Zager | MADE Apparel Services Founder and Owner

Today, Heather continues to grow her knowledge and share her experiences with others to bring their visions to reality.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Contact Heather Zager | MADE Apparel Services:

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Transcript

Heather Zager: [00:00:00] Hello everyone, and welcome to today's podcast. My name is Heather Zager. I am the host of this podcast series and founder of Made Apparel Services.

Heather Zager: [00:00:11] Hi, Heather here from Made Apparel Services, welcome back to my channel. In this episode, which is the third of a four-part series called Concept to Customer, I'm going to talk about size and fit. Before I start, I should mention that if you haven't listened to the other two podcasts, don't fret. These aren't in any particular order. It's just a series of podcasts that I've created to help sort through some common misconceptions that new designers tend to have, and I numbered them based only on the fact that I could narrow them into four categories. And those categories are: Design Concepting, Material Sourcing, Size and Fit and, yet to come, Types of Manufacturers. Let's start by talking about what fit is. First of all, it's relative. For an individual, it depends on their particular preferences and style and how they want to look or feel. For a clothing company, they may have their own vision of how their customer is shaped and sized, and they will fit to that vision. Vanity sizing is another relative aspect of fit. This is where the labeled size of a garment decreases, despite the garment itself not changing at all in size. In other words, a smaller size label is known to boost the self-esteem of the customer. Thus, a brand gains customer loyalty and sells more product because the customer feels better that they are buying a smaller size label.

Heather Zager: [00:01:35] If vanity sizing is still a little bit confusing to you, you can just Google it and you will g...

Next Episode

Tech Pack, Spec Sheets and Patterns (oh my!)

Host Heather Zager talks all about tech packs, spec sheets, and patterns in today’s episode. She explains the differences between each one and the function each one performs. A spec sheet is short for a specification sheet. The single difference between it and a tech pack is that a spec sheet is just one page. A tech pack - or technical package or technical specification package - is essentially an instruction manual with all the information needed to create a sewn product. A pattern is a paper pattern used for sewing a product.

Heather goes into great detail about what a tech pack could and should include. The summary of the points she discusses is:

A cover page or an overview page.
Fabrications page.
Pattern layout page by fabrication.
Bill of materials
Pattern pieces list, also known as a cutters must or a pattern parts list.
A sequence of construction, also known as the order of operations.
Several pages of annotations which are callouts:
1. Just stitch types, just the fabrications, and just colorways.
2. Possibly a close-up or a more detailed illustration.
Supplier information.
You might also include packaging information.
A space for special notes and another space for version updates.

The possible variations and trade-offs in information included in tech packs are explained by Heather and she breaks down exactly how a pattern works, when spec sheets are useful, and what other episodes of her podcast will explain certain pieces of information in greater detail. Heather’s knowledge and expertise help to make the process of designing and manufacturing sewn goods easier to understand and less daunting to attempt.

About Heather Zager | MADE Apparel Services Founder and Owner

Today, Heather continues to grow her knowledge and share her experiences with others to bring their visions to reality.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Episode 8: Concept to Customer Part 4 - Preparing for Manufacture
MADE Apparel Services: Sample Tech Pack

Contact Heather Zager | MADE Apparel Services:

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Transcript

Heather Zager: [00:00:00] Hello everyone and welcome to the Made Apparel Services Podcast. My name is Heather Zager and I will be your host for this series. I am also the founder of Made Apparel Services, which is a sewn product development company for small brands. Whether you are just starting out or a seasoned pro, I have a lot of resources to help you on your journey to manufacture. Don't forget to sign up for my newsletter and follow me on social media for other fun updates. Links to both are always in the show notes.

Heather Zager: [00:00:29] Hello and welcome back to my podcast channel. My name is Heather Zager with Made Apparel Services. And today I'm going to talk about the difference between a tech pack, a spec sheet and a pattern. And by pattern I mean a paper pattern you use for sewing a sewn product, not the pattern on your sheets or your wallpaper. First, they are all something different and it is very straightforward. But let's start with talking about a spec sheet, as this is the one that people seem to misunderstand the most and may not even be realizing it. So a spec sheet is short for specification sheet. The single key difference between this and a tech p...