What “Grade,” “Tol –,” and “Tol +” Mean in a Tech Pack

When you’re looking at measurements in your Tech Pack, you’ll usually see columns labeled:

These are all about fit accuracy — they tell factories exactly how much a garment’s measurements can safely vary during production.

Grade shows how much the measurement changes between sizes.

For example:

This means each size up increases by 2 cm in chest width.

Factories use these grades to scale your base sample into other sizes (a process called grading).

Tolerance (Tol) defines the acceptable measurement variation that can happen during cutting, sewing, and finishing.

Even the best factories can’t make every garment exactly to spec — fabric stretch, pressing, and stitching all introduce tiny variations.

That’s where tolerance comes in.

For example:

This means the chest width can be as small as 49.5 cm or as large as 50.5 cm, and it’s still within acceptable limits.