Start with the garment, not the factory
A decorated blank is a finished garment you buy from a mill and print or embroider. Cut and sew builds the garment itself: you decide the proportions, the fabric, the color and how every seam is finished, and a factory makes it to that brief. Most brands that move into custom production do it for one reason above the others: fit. A tee or hoodie with exactly the shoulder drop, length and rib you want is hard to find on a distributor's shelf.
The trade is time, cash and commitment. Fabric is dyed in batches, so custom colors come with minimums. Patterns have to be drafted and graded across sizes. Samples go back and forth until the fit is right. None of this is difficult once you know the sequence, and that sequence is what this section of the Library covers.
The order to read these guides
- Decide whether you need it. Blanks vs cut and sew sets out what custom production gives you, what it costs in time and minimums, and the middle paths (premium blanks, relabeling, garment dyeing) that get many brands most of the way.
- Write the garment down. How to make a tech pack walks through flats, the bill of materials, the measurement spec with grading and tolerances, construction, colorways, decoration and labels, with a checklist to copy.
- Choose the cloth. The fabric guide explains jersey, rib, interlock, piqué, fleece and French terry, fabric weight in GSM, fiber blends, shrinkage and how each fabric takes a print or embroidery.
- Make it, check it, fix it. Sampling and fit rounds covers proto, fit, size set, pre-production and top-of-production samples, how a fit session runs and how to approve a sample in writing.
- Plan quantities and dates. MOQs and timelines explains why minimums exist, how colors and sizes multiply them, and what stretches a production calendar.
- Finish it like a retail product. Private label finishing covers neck labels, woven labels, hang tags, polybags and what a US garment label has to show.
Words you will hear in the first conversation
- FPP and CMT. Full package production means the factory sources fabric and trims and delivers finished goods. CMT (cut, make, trim) means you supply the materials and the factory does the cutting and sewing.
- Tech pack. The document a factory quotes, samples and produces from.
- POM and grading. Points of measure on the spec sheet, and the rules that scale the base size up and down the size range.
- Proto, fit, PP and TOP. The sample stages, from the first rough version to the first pieces off the production line.
- MOQ. The minimum order quantity, usually per style and per color.
- Lab dip. A small swatch dyed to your color reference so you can approve the shade before bulk fabric is dyed.
What to have ready before your first quote
- A reference garment you like the fit of, or a sketch with the measurements you want
- The fabric you have in mind, with a target weight in GSM
- Colors, as Pantone textile references if you have them
- The size range and a rough quantity per color
- Decoration and its placement, if any
- How the garment should be labeled and packed
- The date you need finished goods in hand
If you are still deciding what to sell at all, start with how to start a clothing brand and come back here when one style has earned a custom version.