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Fashion design guides

Plain guides to technical flats, tech packs and the fashion design process, from first sketch to sample, production and sale.

Technical flats

What is a technical flat?What a flat sketch shows, how it differs from an illustration, and what a factory needs from one.How to draw technical flats in Adobe IllustratorThe full written method for any garment: template, pen tool, reflect, stitch lines and back view.What are CADs in fashion?What people mean by CADs, and how they differ from flats, croquis, sketches and illustrations.How to draw a T-shirt flat sketch in IllustratorA complete T-shirt technical flat in Illustrator, with a picture at every stage.Line weights and stitch lines for technical flatsWhich stroke weights to use, and how to draw topstitching, twin needle, coverstitch and bartacks.What is a flat library?The reusable set of flats designers start from, and how to build and organise your own.

Tech packs

What is a tech pack?What goes in a tech pack, page by page, with an example and the mistakes that cost you samples.How much does a tech pack cost?Published price ranges, what drives the number, and which parts you can do yourself to pay less.

The design process

The fashion design process, from concept to saleTen stages from first idea to finished garment on sale, and what each one hands to the next.Types of garment samples, and when you need each oneProto, fit, size set, sales, pre-production and top of production, and what to check on each.How to design clothes without knowing how to drawSix ways to get an idea out of your head and into a form a factory can use, no drawing needed.

Style charts

Types of sleeves: a chart with technical flatsA chart of 16 sleeve types drawn as flats, from cap and raglan to bishop, bell and balloon.Types of necklines: a chart with technical flatsA chart of 20 necklines and collars drawn as flats, with what to specify for each one.

Tools

Illustrator plugins for fashion design: what each kind doesGarment panels, PLM connectors, vector tools, stitch brushes and templates, and what to check first.

Figure proportions

What is a 5 head model in fashion drawing?What a 5 head figure is for, and how it compares with 7.5, 9 and 10 head figures.