How to Create a Tech Pack for Dress

A tech pack, also known as a specification sheet, is a vital tool for designers to communicate their designs effectively to manufacturers. It serves as a blueprint that outlines every technical detail required for production, helping to ensure accuracy and consistency. A well-prepared Tech Pack reduces miscommunication, minimizes errors, and streamlines the sampling process.

It includes elements such as flat sketches, construction details, fabric and trim specifications, measurements, and a costing sheet—everything a manufacturer needs to bring your design to life. In this blog post, we’ll walk you through the step-by-step process of creating a dress tech pack. But not just that, you can also download this tech pack as a template for FREE at the end and customize it as your own. So, let’s dive in!

Size and units of measurement

To start developing a tech pack, we will set up the size and units of measurement. Our dress will be available in small, medium and large sizes and we will set up centimeters as the units of measurement. In our experience, centimeters work better for smaller products, sometimes even the millimeters are used.

Sketches and construction details

Every tech pack starts with the technical sketches. They illustrate your idea to the factory. Technical sketches are different from fashion illustrations. They need to be proportional and show every design detail at different angles.

Technical sketches are done in black and white using graphic design tools. For this tutorial, we will repurpose this template on Repsketch.

You can change the color and other design details, as well as preview how your dress will look in real life. Sign up for the Repsketch newsletter to get notified as soon as this feature goes live!

We will include multiple views. The front view:

The back view:

A Bill of Materials

A Bill of Materials (or BOM table) is a complete list of materials required to produce a specific product. Its main purpose is to help companies estimate material costs to plan purchases and reduce waste.

Our Bill of Materials for dress includes frame fabric, fusing, labels and packaging materials.

Measurements

A spec sheet or a measurement table is part of a tech pack where a designer communicates technical guidelines and requirements to the manufacturer on how to construct the product.

A Measurement Table consists of technical sketches with callouts and corresponding measurements.

A tech pack for dress will include the following measurements:

• Chest 1" below armhole;
• Front body length from HPS to bottom edge;
• Waist circumference;
• Hip circumference;
• Armhole;
• Neckline depth;
• Shoulder width;
• Sleeve - width, length and opening;
• Waistband - length and width;
• Total length of garment;
• Circumference - chest, waist, hip and hemline

Costing Sheet

Costing Sheets assist brands with keeping track of expenses and planning future orders. A typical Costing Sheet consists of all materials that go into a BOM table with the corresponding prices.

For this tutorial, we include costs of materials and packaging. In addition, you can add shipping expenses and expected profit to it.

Share with the manufacturer

Once you have your tech pack ready, you can generate a PDF doc in one click and share the factory-ready tech pack with your manufacturer.

The sample-making process begins once you share the tech pack with your manufacturer and sign the manufacturing agreement. The tech pack may be updated several times during this procedure until you are pleased with the final product. It's critical to maintain each tech pack version on hand and compare them as needed.

On Techpacker, the system will highlight any modifications, making them more visible and accessible to the manufacturer.