What cut and sew actually means
Cut and sew is garment manufacturing from cloth. A pattern is drafted, fabric is cut to that pattern, and the pieces are sewn into a finished garment. Nothing is bought ready-made and decorated afterwards.
The distinction matters commercially, because the two other ways of getting clothing made are not the same thing at all. Blank-and-print means buying an existing garment from a wholesaler and putting your artwork on it: fast, cheap, and the garment is not yours — the same blank is available to everyone else. Private label sits in between, taking a manufacturer's existing base garment and applying your branding, sometimes with modest changes to colour or trims.
Cut and sew is the only one of the three where the garment itself is yours. The block, the fit, the fabric weight, the hood construction, the pocket dimensions, the rib composition — all of it is specified rather than selected from a catalogue.
That control is the reason to do it, and the reason it takes longer.
The process, start to finish
Eight stages, in the order you meet them.
1. Design and development
What you arrive with is rarely a finished specification, and it does not need to be. A sketch, a moodboard, a reference photo, or a garment you already own and want changed is enough to start. This stage turns that into something a factory can build from.
2. Pattern making
A pattern is the set of shapes that, sewn together, make the garment. It is drafted to your fit intentions — how dropped the shoulder sits, how much room through the body, how long the sleeve runs before the cuff. Get this wrong and every sample afterwards inherits the mistake.
3. Fabric sourcing
Weight, composition, construction and finish. A 400 GSM brushed-back fleece behaves nothing like a 250 GSM loopback, and the difference shows in drape, warmth, shrinkage and how print sits on the surface. Our streetwear fabric guide covers the fabrics we actually run, and the fabric types glossary covers the wider vocabulary.
4. Cutting
The pattern is laid out into a marker — the arrangement that gets the most garments out of the least cloth — then cut in stacked layers. Consistency here is what stops size Larges arriving in three slightly different sizes.
5. Stitching
Assembly. Which seam type, which machine, which thread. Coverstitched hems and flatlocked seams are decisions, not defaults, and they are visible in the finished garment.
6. Finishing
Trims and labels: neck labels, care labels, hang tags, drawcords and their tips, zips, eyelets. The parts customers notice last and remember longest.
7. Quality control
Four stages: fabric inspection before cutting, in-process checks while the line runs, post-production inspection of finished garments, and a pre-shipment review of the packed order. Every piece is checked.
8. Packaging
Folded, bagged, labelled and boxed to your specification, ready to go straight to a customer or into your own fulfilment.
What we make
Cut-and-sew production covers hoodies, t-shirts, tracksuits, sweatshirts, sweatpants, shorts, puffer jackets, bomber jackets, varsity jackets, activewear and caps and headwear.
Decoration runs under the same production relationship rather than being sent elsewhere: screen printing, DTF, embroidery, chenille, puff print and silicone badges.
Minimums, and what drives them
Production starts from around 50 pieces per style, depending on the garment, the fabric and the decoration. That is a starting point rather than a universal number — a garment needing a custom-dyed fabric carries a different minimum from one running in a stock colour, because the mill sets its own floor.
Many larger factories and marketplace suppliers require 300 to 500 or more pieces per style or colourway, which is what puts cut-and-sew out of reach for most new brands. How MOQ works explains why the floor exists and how 50 pieces splits across a size curve.
You do not need a tech pack
A tech pack is the specification document a factory builds from — flat sketches, a measurement chart, construction notes, fabric specification, trims and decoration placement. It is genuinely useful, and most brands starting out do not have one.
We draft it. Send what you have and the technical work happens here. What a factory actually needs to quote sets out the minimum.
Sampling before bulk
No bulk run starts before a sample is approved. A physical garment arrives, you check fit, fabric and finish in your hands, and changes are made before the quantity multiplies the mistake. Samples take two to three weeks; bulk runs three to eight weeks after approval, plus freight.
Who this is for
Independent and emerging brands, streetwear labels, artists producing merchandise, and founders placing a first production run. If you want a garment that is recognisably yours rather than a printed blank, cut and sew is the route — and it is the only route.
If you need 20 pieces tomorrow, it is not. Print-on-demand or blank-and-print will serve you better, and we will say so.
