When the sewing falls to others, designers must carefully supervise the sample-making and

production-run processes to guarantee quality control. Companies that specialize in sample

making will work closely with the designer to ensure that the garment is executed correctly

and according to the designer’s specific standards. For a designer who does not have a large

staff, sample-making services can greatly help with cutting, stitching, and finishing. Larger

scale runs will be done in factories, locally or overseas. In either scenario, the designer should

provide as much detailed information as possible—technical or spec sketches, cutting tick-

ets, swatches, photographs—to help avoid miscommunication.

A cutting ticket, or a cutter’s must, is record of all pertinent information that goes from the

patternmaker to the cutter and eventually the stitcher. Certain basics should appear on all

tickets, but they can also be customized to include every component that is to accompany a

given garment as it goes through the production cycle.