At Fire Sign, we stock a wide variety of blank garments in popular brands like American Apparel, LA Apparel, Hanes, Gildan, Next Level, and Bella + Canvas. But even with all of these options, it’s not at all uncommon for a client to contact us looking for a garment that the market doesn’t offer yet.
In this situation, we have to decide if the project warrants that we create the garment from scratch. This is commonly referred to as “cut and sew.” It’s not a simple process. It takes time and a healthy budget, but for serious brands and designers, it’s a worthy challenge that has led us to create some really incredible things.
The process goes like this:
Design Concept and Specification:
- You provide a design concept, reference, or detailed specifications for the garment they want to create. Experienced clients will provide even more detailed information called a “tech pack.” This includes information about the style, fit, fabric preferences, colors, and any specific features or embellishments.
Pattern Making:
- From there we create patterns for your garment. Patterns are templates that outline the shapes and dimensions for each element of your garment, like the front, back, sleeves, etc.
Fabric Sourcing:
- You can provide the fabric you want, or work with us to choose the exact fabric you want.
Sample Creation:
- Finally, we make a prototype of the custom garment. On average this will cost roughly $125, which we credit to your purchase order once you decide the quantity you want to produce.
- Once in hand, you get to evaluate the design, fit, and overall appearance of the garment before moving on to mass production. You take it home, wear it a few times, wash it a few times, and confirm the overall consumer experience is what you imagined.
Sample Review and Revisions:
- By the time we have reached this step in the process, you, the designer have invested about one month into the project. Now you get to provide feedback to us. We make adjustments and revisions to the design, patterns, or fit as needed.
Grading:
- Once the sample is approved, we create size grading. Grading involves adapting the pattern to different sizes, guaranteeing a consistent fit and feel across a range of sizes.
Production Preparation:
- At Fire Sign, we do not enforce minimums for a standard t-shirt order. But for a cut-and-sew project, the minimum order quantity is 100.
- We source the materials, including fabric, trims, labels, and packaging, and then we get to work.
Cutting and Sewing:
- The sewing begins.
Quality Control:
- Garments are inspected for defects, fit accuracy, and overall quality.
Packaging and Shipping:
- Once the production is done, your garments are folded, packaged, warehoused, and prepared for shipping to the client (or your stockists).
All in all, a cut-and-sew project requires roughly 2 1/2 to 4 months. I know there’s a 6-week difference on this estimate, which seems like a large variance. This time will be shorter or longer depending on revisions, availability of fabrics, intricacies of design, etc.
The “cut and sew” process allows our clients complete control over their design. It’s an ideal choice for custom apparel lines and specialized products, and it’s truly the next step for designers looking to elevate their involvement in fashion.
Sound too complicated for now? All good, we can still embroider or screen-print any blank garments you like.