Swimwear Tech Pack

Ladies swimwear is a niche area of clothing, generally using stretch fabrics, that requires specialist garment technicians, machinery and sewing attachments. Creating a swimwear tech pack, or bikini tech pack requires in depth specialist knowledge of both fabrics and garment construction, as well as sizing and grading.

In order for a swimwear factory to make your garments correctly, you will need to provide them with a professional tech pack. A Tech Pack is an important document that provides a blueprint for your design. It ensures that your chosen swimsuit factory knows exactly what you want, and that your final production is made exactly as you intend it to be. A professional tech pack is essential for your swimwear designs, especially if you are aiming to have your collection made outside of the UK. One essential tip for anyone manufacturing swimwear abroad is to always provide a professional tech pack.

We are swimwear and bikini experts based in London. We can create professional tech packs for you, and provide a whole range of specialist swimwear services, including pattern cutting, sampling, and small production runs with no MOQ. The first page of your swimwear tech pack would normally consist of a detailed front and back view in the form of a technical flat drawing. Sometimes for sampling, this is all you need for the factory.

Different swimwear fabrics have different degrees of stretch. Some stretch in one direction, while others stretch both ways. This means that, unlike with woven garments, you cannot always use the same patterns or measurements for two different fabrics. This is a very important factor for a small brand on a limited budget, as you may have to create completely new patterns and grades for the same design in different fabrics. Careful fabric selection and fabric sourcing is therefore crucial in order to avoid considerable extra expense in sampling, patterns, and grading.

You would also need to create a new tech pack, although much of the information would remain the same, so once you have a template it would just be a matter of changing the measurements. We do however provide tech pack design classes to enable you to do this yourself from a template.

Spaghetti straps are used extensively in swimwear styles. Accurate measurements need to be provided for each strap in your tech pack. Elastic is also used extensively in swimwear. One of the most important parts of a swimwear tech pack is the type and measurement of the elastic trim. The choice of elastic is really important for swimwear. Swimwear elastic is generally a choice of rubber, braided, or clear. It could also be a cotton and rubber mix. The elastic needs to be narrow, and have good stretch and recovery. Width is usually either .7 cm (1/4″), or 1 cm (3/8″). The wider elastic gives a little more support. Swimwear elastic must be resistant to chlorine, salt water, UV, and sun tan oils.

For armholes, necklines, and leg openings, a clear 6mm tape such as Framilon is often used. Your tech pack would have to stipulate the type of elastic to be used, the width, finished measurement, and cut measurement. To calculate this you would first need to measure the line it was to fit. Depending on the fabric, the curve of the opening, and personal preference, you may just cut the elastic to the finished measurement of your pattern, with or without overlap. Or you may reduce by a given percentage so that the elastic is slightly stretched onto the garment to draw it closer to the body. Most high street brands do not use much stretch in their swimwear elastic, as it tends not to look good on the hanger, and can be uncomfortable for the wearer.

There is no specific formula or stretch percentage to calculate the length of elastic in swimwear. It may be just a matter of trial and error. Once you have calculated for the base size, it is easy to adjust for each additional size. Sometimes you may need to allow for different degrees of stretch depending on the curve of the opening.

Taking measurements for swimwear requires some experience as it can be a little tricky. This is due to the stretchiness of the fabric. Measurements must be taken with the fabric held firmly but not stretched. When creating a size spec it is normal to measure in centimetres, and to provide half girth measurements, rather than full girth.

As ladies swimwear has a comparatively limited range of design types, it is possible to develop a few generic tech pack templates for the most common types of style. Styles may include the one piece swimsuit, bikini, thong, bandeau, burkini, monokini, halter neck, or underwired bra. It is important to ensure that you fully understand how the tech pack template is constructed before using it for your own designs. Many beginners make the mistake of using a template without having even a basic understanding of the terms, fabrics, construction, or measurements used.

If your swimwear is lined, then this needs to be accounted for in the tech pack. The lining would normally be made in a similar but lighter and cheaper fabric.

We at The London Pattern Cutter make tech packs for all types of garments. While swimwear tech packs follow the same basic formula as regular ones, there are very specific details that relate to swimwear garments that do not relate to other clothing types. We have several specialist swimwear tech pack designers in our team – located in London, Nottingham, and Colchester. We offer a swimwear tech pack design service for anyone wishing to manufacture either in the UK or abroad. Although it can be cheaper to manufacture abroad, it is normally advisable to do the sample development and tech pack in the UK.

Prices for swimwear tech packs are pretty much the same as tech pack prices for general fashion apparel. Prices can range from £100 to £500. Very complicated technical styles could cost more. Some simple styles such as bikini briefs may be in the lower price range. Or similar styles that use a generic template may also be cheaper.

We don’t generally recommend you try to make your own tech pack, unless you know exactly what you are doing. An exception may be if you have a number of very similar styles, where you are able to follow a specific professional template. You may find a number of unexpected problems with a DIY approach. If you do choose the DIY route, then you will need to use Adobe Illustrator, or a similar program to create your tech pack. We can provide swimwear tech pack design classes and workshops if you would like to learn how to make your own under supervision.