Make a Hoodie: Fabric, Fit and Decoration Before You Order

Alan Xiao Founder, Sourcing Pioneer

· Updated October 24, 2026 · 11 min read

To make a hoodie you settle three things before a factory can quote: the fabric weight, the fit block, and how the logo goes on. Each one moves the price, and each one is hard to change once cloth is cut. This guide covers those three, then the sample, the minimum and the five faults that show up on a first run.

The Short Answer

Pick the fabric in grams per square metre. A light summer hoodie sits near the bottom of the range and a heavy one near the upper end.

Pick the fit by measurements, not by letter; a size letter means different numbers in different factories.

Pick the decoration by how long it must last. Print fades, embroidery does not; andthe price follows the method.

Then ask for a sample before a bulk order; the sample is where a cheap hoodie shows itself.

Fabric: The Number That Sets Everything

Fleece and French terry are sold by weight, in grams per square metre. The number decides warmth, drape and price.

A light loopback sits around the lower end; andit feels like a summer layer. A heavy brushed fleece sits high and feels like outerwear.

Two hoodies can look the same in a photo and feel completely different. Becauseone is thin and the other is dense.

Blend is the next line. Cotton feels better and shrinks more. Polyester holds colour and dries fast; anda blend sits between the two.

Ask for the shrinkage figure after one wash at the temperature on the care label. A hoodie that drops a size in the wash is a return, not a defect.

The care label is also a legal item in many markets. In the US the fibre content and the care instructions follow published rules. Anda factory that prints its own wording is guessing.

Fit: Write Measurements, Not Letters

A fit block is a set of measurements for a size run. Two factories can both make a medium and produce different garments.

So the sheet carries numbers: chest, body length, sleeve, shoulder, cuff opening and hem. Each one gets a tolerance; andone centimetre is a common working figure.

Three shapes cover most of the market; a regular block sits close to the body. An oversized block drops the shoulder and widens the chest; a boxy block keeps the width and shortens the length.

Ask for the grading rule as well. A small, medium and large are not scaled by a fixed number. Anda factory that guesses will produce a large that fits like a medium.

The hood itself is part of the fit. A two-panel hood sits flat and a three-panel hood stands up. Andthe second costs more to cut and sew.

The trim follows: drawcord type, eyelet finish, cuff rib height and hem rib height. Small parts, visible in the hand; andeach one has a price.

Decoration: Four Methods, Four Outcomes

How the logo goes on decides how the hoodie ages; four methods cover almost every order.

Screen printing is the cheapest at volume because the setup is paid once. It needs one screen per colour. Soa five-colour logo carries five setup charges.

Direct to garment has no setup and no colour limit; andit costs more per unit. On dark polyester it also fades faster than most buyers expect.

Embroidery is the only method that survives the whole life of the garment. Fine lettering needs a heavier stitch count; andthin fleece puckers under a dense design.

Ask for a strike-off or a sew-out before production. A printed sample on the actual fabric answers questions that a colour chart cannot.

The Sample: What It Proves

A sample costs money and saves more. It is the only point where a fault costs a phone call, not a season.

Most factories make the sample by hand, in a sample room, with fabric from a short roll. That is not the production line; andthe difference matters.

Four things to check on the sample; the weight in the hand. The measurements against the sheet; the print or embroidery against the artwork. The trim and the label.

Wash it once. That single cycle tells you more about shrinkage and print life than any specification document.

Keep the sample, signed and dated; it is the reference for the bulk order. Andit is the only object both sides can point at later.

Minimums: Blanks or Cut and Sew

Two routes exist, and they carry different minimums.

A blank hoodie is bought from a stock line and decorated. Minimums are low, colour choice is limited; andyou take the fit the mill already makes.

Cut and sew means the factory makes the garment from cloth. Minimums are higher. Becausethe fabric has to be ordered and the pattern graded.

The minimum is quoted per colour and per size, not per style. A small run in four colours is four small runs; andsome factories will refuse it.

Ask which route the factory prefers before you design. A stock-line decorator and a cut-and-sew factory will give you two different answers. Andboth are honest.

What Drives the Price, in Order

Four lines move a hoodie quote, and the first one moves it most.

Fabric weight and blend come first. Heavier cloth costs more per garment and more to ship; andthe second cost surprises buyers.

Decoration comes second; a five-colour screen print carries five setups. Andembroidery carries a stitch count.

Trim comes third. A three-panel hood, metal eyelets and a heavy drawcord are small items that add up across a run.

Labour comes last; andit is smaller than most buyers assume. That is why a factory will not fight over sewing time and will fight over fabric.

A quote that comes in low is usually thinner in the first line. Ask what weight and blend it assumes.

Five Faults on a First Run

The first is shrinkage. Bulk cloth and sample cloth behave differently; anda garment that drops a size is unsellable.

The second is colour. A print on a dark poly fleece looks right on a swatch and flat on the garment.

The third is the neck. A neck that gapes after two washes comes from weak rib and a short seam. Andit is the first thing a customer notices.

The fourth is the cuff. Rib that loses recovery stays open; andthe sleeve drags.

The fifth is the label. A missing fibre content or care line is a legal gap in many markets. The rules are published, not invented.

The US fibre rules sit in the fibre content rules. The care labelling rule sits in the care labelling rule. A factory that writes its own wording is guessing at both.

Where This Fits Your Order

Fabric, fit and decoration are the three inputs a factory needs. Everything else is paperwork around them.

Put the three into the sheet that travels with the sample. Sothe bulk order and the quote describe the same garment. The sheet a factory builds from is the file that makes a reorder comparable.

Vetting the factory is a separate job. Andtelling a factory from a reseller comes before any of this.

Cloth has its own checks. Andscoring a roll before it is cut catches what a garment check cannot.

The Hood, the Cuff and the Rib

The hood is where a cheap garment shows first; it can be two panels or three. The difference is visible when the hood is down.

A two-panel hood lies flat and costs less to cut. A three-panel hood stands up on the shoulders and needs more fabric and more sewing time.

Then the lining; an unlined hood is single cloth and feels thin. A lined hood has a second layer. Whichadds weight and price and looks better when worn open.

The drawcord is the next line. Flat cord, round cord and tape all behave differently; andmetal eyelets cost more than stitched openings but survive washing.

Cuffs and hem carry the rib; the height of the rib decides how the sleeve sits. The recovery decides whether it stays that way.

Ask for the rib height in centimetres and the recovery test the factory uses. A cuff that stays open after a month is a garment a customer stops wearing.

Folding, Packing and the Sale

A hoodie that arrives creased is a hoodie a customer returns. Packing is part of the product; andit costs almost nothing to specify.

Three choices matter. Whether the garment is folded flat or hung. Whether it goes in a poly bag; and whether the bag carries a size sticker.

A poly bag protects the cloth in transit and creates waste at the other end. Some markets now penalise certain bag materials. Socheck the destination rules before you choose.

Size stickers sound trivial and save real time at a warehouse. A carton with unmarked bags needs someone to open each one.

Folding is also a quality signal. A neat fold hides a cheap fabric for a moment and a bad fold ruins a good one.

Where the Cloth and the Sewing Come From

Two clusters matter, and they do different jobs.

Knitted fleece is a fabric product. The mills around the textile markets of Zhejiang and Jiangsu supply most of it. A buyer who wants to compare weights in person goes to the fabric market.

Garment making is separate. Andit sits in clusters with a deep sewing base, where a factory sews for several brands at once.

That split has a price effect; a garment factory buys cloth and adds a margin. Soa buyer who sources the cloth directly changes the cost structure and takes on the risk of a cloth fault.

For a first order, let the factory buy the cloth. For a repeat order at volume, price it both ways once. Becausethe margin on fabric is usually visible.

A First Order, Step by Step

Six steps take a hoodie from an idea to a carton. Each one closes a question the factory would otherwise answer alone.

Fix the weight, the fit and the decoration in writing. Send the three to two factories and compare how each one reads them.

Order one sample. Ask which route it took, because a sample room and a line are not the same place.

Wash the sample once and measure it again; a garment that moved is information, not a disappointment.

Approve the sample in writing, with a photo of the label. Then book the bulk run against that reference.

Check the first carton before the rest ships; at that point a fault is still a conversation.

Sizing for the Market You Sell In

A size run built for one market rarely sells well in another, and the gap shows up in returns, not in complaints.

Asian blocks tend to run smaller in the chest and shorter in the body, even when the letter on the label is the same. A medium made for a domestic Chinese line is not a medium in the United States. A buyer who assumes otherwise orders a run that fits nobody.

The fix is to build the grading from your own market data, not from the factory pattern. Take three garments that sell well for you, measure them flat, and hand those numbers to the factory as the target.

Ask for a size set in the sample stage, not later. Three sizes cost more than one, and they answer a question that a single sample cannot.

What a Good Tech Pack Contains

A tech pack is the document a factory prices and a line follows. Six pages cover a hoodie, and none of them needs a designer.

The first page is a flat sketch with the seams marked. The second is the measurement table with tolerances per size.

The third is the bill of materials: fabric weight and blend, rib, drawcord, eyelets, thread and labels. The fourth is the decoration file, with placement and colour references.

The fifth is the label and packaging page, including the care text and the poly bag. The sixth is the sample record, with photos and the date it was approved.

A pack with those six pages travels well. A factory can quote from it, a line can follow it, and an inspector can check against it without calling anyone.

What a Bad First Run Costs

The visible cost of a failed run is the goods. The larger cost is the season you cannot sell into.

A hoodie ordered in August for a winter launch has no second chance. A reorder takes weeks, and the window closes before the replacement lands.

That timing risk is why the sample and the first carton check matter more than the unit price. A buyer who saves a little per unit and loses a season has made the expensive choice.

The quieter cost is the customer. A hoodie that shrinks once teaches a buyer to wait for a sale, and that habit outlives the garment by years.

Why the Three Decisions Come First

A factory prices what it can measure. Give it a weight, a measurement table and an artwork file and the quote is a number you can compare across suppliers. Give it a photograph and the quote is a guess dressed as an offer.

The same logic applies to changes. Before cutting, a change costs a conversation and sometimes a new sample. After cutting, it costs the cloth, the sewing time and the relationship, and the last one is the expensive part.

None of this requires design training. It requires a scale, a tape and a file that names the decoration method in plain words.

Two hours of preparation saves a week of correspondence later, and it costs nothing but attention.

The sheet is the record, and the record is what protects the second order.

That is the whole job at this stage. The garment is decided before anyone sews.

Keep the three decisions in one message. A factory that receives them together quotes once. One that receives them in pieces quotes three times, and usually remembers the last one.

Questions Buyers Ask About Making Hoodies

The Bottom Line

Making a hoodie is three decisions: how heavy the cloth is, what the measurements are. Andhow the logo goes on.

Write all three down, then order one sample and wash it. The sample is the cheapest test in the whole project.

Keep it signed. Every argument at the second order is settled by that garment. The first bulk run gets its own check before the cartons close.