A sample is the garment your bulk order will be judged against. Before a baby clothing brand approves bulk production, the garment industry uses up to six sample types, each checking one thing:
- Development sample proves the design can be made
- Fit sample checks the measurements
- Size set checks every size in the run
- Pre-production sample locks fabric, print and trims
- Top-of-production sample checks the first bulk pieces
- Shipment sample checks the finished goods before they leave
After a first sample, some corrections are normal and expected. Others are faults in the manufacturer, not in the sample. This guide covers what a sample is for, the types you will meet, which changes to ask for, and which faults mean you stop working with that factory.
What is a sample actually for?
A sample turns your design into a physical object that both sides can measure, handle and photograph. Until it exists, the discussion is about a reference image and a set of numbers on a size chart. Once it exists, every later decision refers back to it. The bulk fabric is compared to its fabric. The bulk measurements are compared to its measurements. The bulk print is compared to its print.
That is why the factory keeps the approved sample as the reference for the run, and for any repeat run later, and why a second approved piece should stay with you. If a bulk carton arrives and something looks wrong, the approved sample settles it. Without one, you are comparing memory against memory.
In newborn wear the sample carries more weight than it does in adult wear because the garment is small and the tolerances are tight. A 0 to 3 month bodysuit measures roughly 24 centimetres across the chest when laid flat, and a true newborn size runs smaller still. A one centimetre error on that measurement is four percent of the garment or more, enough to change how the snaps sit at the crotch and whether the envelope neck passes over the head without a struggle. The same centimetre on an adult T-shirt is under two percent and nobody notices. The sample is where that centimetre gets found.
What types of sample does the industry use?
Six types exist. A new brand will usually meet two or three of them, but knowing all six tells you what your manufacturer means when they use the names.
- Development sample, also called a proto. The first attempt at the design. It proves the garment can be made as drawn and is often stitched in whatever fabric is on the floor, not your final fabric.
- Fit sample. Made in the correct fabric and checked against your measurements and size chart. It exists to correct fit, not appearance.
- Size set. One piece of every size in your run, made to confirm that the measurements scale correctly from newborn to the largest size and that the print sits in the right place on each.
- Pre-production sample, usually shortened to PP sample. The one that matters most. It is made in the approved fabric, with the approved trims and the approved label, exactly as bulk will be made. Your sign-off on the PP sample is what releases bulk production.
- Top-of-production sample, or TOP sample. Pulled from the first pieces off the bulk line and compared against the PP sample to confirm bulk has started correctly.
- Shipment sample. A finished, packed piece taken from the completed order before dispatch, so you see what the carton holds before it leaves.
Print is the one element that often differs on a sample. Setting up a screen print for a single piece costs almost as much as setting it up for bulk, so most factories sample the print placement with a digital transfer or a paper mock-up, or approve the artwork position on the pattern and leave the actual print to bulk. Ask which of these your manufacturer does before the sample arrives, so you know what the sample can and cannot show you.
Which corrections are normal after a first sample?
A first sample that needs nothing changed is rare. A first sample that needs three or four changes is normal, and every one of them is the sample doing its job. They usually arrive in this order:
- Fit and measurement. A neck opening that needs a centimetre more stretch, a sleeve that runs long, a crotch length on a bodysuit that pulls when the snaps close.
- Print placement and scale. Artwork drawn on a screen and approved at full size almost always lands too large on a chest that is under 25 centimetres wide. The pattern master scales it down and moves it up or down until it reads correctly on a newborn body, whether the sample carries a transfer print or only the marked position.
- Colour matching. The dyed fabric or the print ink sits a shade away from your reference and the factory redoes the match.
- Trim swaps. A smaller snap, a different label construction, a thread colour that matches better.
What these have in common is that you could not have specified them until you held the garment. Nobody knows the exact print scale for a newborn chest from a screen. Nobody knows how an envelope neck will stretch from a drawing. These corrections are not a sign of a weak manufacturer. They are the reason the sample stage exists.
What is a genuine manufacturer fault?
A fault is a departure from something that was already agreed in writing before the sample was made. The clearest example is fabric: the sample arrives in a fabric that is not the swatch you approved. That is not a correction to request. It is a factory that did not follow its own process, because the swatch approval is the first thing locked in any private label order.
The other faults follow the same test:
- Measurements outside the tolerance written on the size chart you supplied
- A print that is not the approved artwork, with colours substituted or elements dropped
- Trims that are not the agreed trims: a different snap, a different label, a different tape
- A sample built before any fabric was approved, then presented as if it had been
The line between a correction and a fault is simple. A correction is something the sample revealed. A fault is something the factory already knew and did not do. The first is normal in every sampling round in the industry. The second is information about the factory, not about the garment.
When do you ask for changes, and when do you stop working with that manufacturer?
Ask for changes whenever the sample departs from what you could not have known in advance, and expect the factory to make them without argument. One genuine fault is a conversation: you point to the approved swatch or the size chart, the factory acknowledges it, and the next sample fixes it. A repeat of the same fault after that round is a pattern, and a pattern is the point to stop.
Three other signals mean the same thing:
- Pressure to skip the PP sample. A factory that pushes you to go to bulk on a development sample is asking you to approve a garment that does not yet exist in your fabric.
- No written approval. A factory that will not confirm sample approval in writing, even as a dated message with a photo, is keeping the reference vague so that bulk cannot be held against it.
- Fabric changes between samples. A factory whose second sample arrives in a fabric different from the first, without telling you, has shown you what will happen with the bulk fabric.
None of these is about stitching quality. All of them are about whether the factory treats the approved sample as binding, and that is the only thing that protects you once bulk starts.
What does your sign-off protect you from?
Your sign-off turns the sample into the physical reference for the order. Once it is given, the bulk order has to match the approved sample in fabric, measurements, trims and label, and the approved artwork in print, and a bulk piece that does not match can be held against it. That protects you from the two ways a bulk order drifts: fabric substitution, and measurement creep when a cutting master works from an old pattern instead of the corrected one.
It protects the factory as well. After sign-off, a change you ask for is a new sample at cost, not a free correction, so the sign-off is where both sides stop moving.
A sign-off should record:
- The date, the style name and the size
- The fabric approved, with its swatch reference
- The artwork version
- The trims list
- Photographs of the approved sample
Keep a copy. When the bulk carton arrives, pull pieces from it and put them on the same table as your approved sample. That comparison, not the invoice or the photos, is how you know the order was made correctly. Sampling itself is a paid stage in most factories, and how that cost works is covered in what actually happens from your designs to your first carton.
Cotton Basket samples every private label style before bulk, and the full order sequence for brand owners is on our private label manufacturing page.
For more plain-language guides on how baby garment manufacturing works, follow the Cotton Basket WhatsApp channel.
