Specifying Dimensions When Everything Is Handmade

A specification dispute at inspection is expensive, slow and almost always avoidable.
It usually comes down to the same thing: the buyer and the supplier measured different
things, or the buyer assumed a tolerance that was never agreed.

This post explains how we measure, what variation is realistic on handwoven goods, and
how to write a specification that cannot be misread.

Why handwoven goods vary

A machine-made bag is cut from patterned material to a fixed template. A handwoven bag
is built up row by row from a natural fibre whose thickness varies along its own length.
The artisan works to a form and a measurement, but the fibre has a say.

This is not a quality problem to be engineered away. It is the property that makes the
product what it is. What it does mean is that your specification has to carry a tolerance,
and the tolerance has to be agreed before production, not argued after.

Realistic tolerances

What we hold, as a working standard:

Tighter is possible on leather components, because leather is cut. It is not possible on
the woven body, and a supplier who promises ± 2 mm on a handwoven dimension is either
going to fail or is going to reject a great deal of good production and charge you for it.

If your programme genuinely requires tighter than this — some fixture and display
applications do — say so early. The honest answer may be that handwoven is the wrong
process for your project, and we would rather tell you than take the order.

How we measure

Ambiguity in measurement method causes more disputes than actual variation. Our
convention, which you should either adopt or explicitly override:

• Width — the widest point across the front face, measured flat with
  the bag unstuffed.
• Height — base to the top of the bag body, excluding handles.
  This is the one people most often mean differently.
• Depth — the base gusset at its widest, with the bag opened out.
• Handle drop — from the top edge of the bag to the inside top of the
  handle at its highest point. Not the handle’s total length.
• Strap length — end to end including any hardware.

Note the two places where reasonable people differ: whether height includes handles, and
whether handle drop means drop or total length. Fix both in writing.

Measure a stuffed bag or a flat one?

Flat and unstuffed, unless you say otherwise. A soft-bodied straw bag measures larger
when stuffed to its intended volume — sometimes by two or three centimetres on the width.

If your specification came off a stuffed sample and production is measured flat, every
unit will read undersized and none of them will be wrong. Agree the method.

Writing a specification that works

A good line item:

Style: Medium market tote
Width: 38 cm ± 1.5 cm, measured flat across widest point, unstuffed
Height: 32 cm ± 1.5 cm, base to top of body, excluding handles
Depth: 16 cm ± 1 cm at base
Handle drop: 22 cm ± 1 cm, top edge to inside top of handle
Handle: rolled vegetable-tanned leather, 2.5 mm, natural, riveted and
stitched with internal reinforcement patch
Body: natural doum palm, undyed
Approved sample: SR-2026-0418, signed 12 May 2026

That last line does the most work of all. A signed physical reference sample beats any
written description, because it resolves everything the words did not cover — colour
depth, weave density, stiffness, finish quality.

Keep a sealed sample

When you approve a sample, we seal and retain one, and we send you an identical one to
retain. Both are labelled with the same reference and date.

If a dispute arises, the two sealed samples are compared. This turns a subjective
argument into an objective comparison and resolves nearly every dispute in an afternoon.
It costs almost nothing and we recommend it on every programme above a pilot run.

What to specify beyond dimensions

Dimensions are the easy part. The things that actually cause rejection and are most
often left unstated:

• Colour — a Pantone reference plus an accepted variation range. Natural
  fibre takes dye unevenly by nature; agree the range.
• Weave density — rows per 10 cm, if it matters to you.
• Finish of cut edges — trimmed flush, bound, or leather-trimmed.
• Interior — lined or unlined, lining material, pockets and their
  positions.
• Load rating — what weight the bag must carry without deformation. If
  you never state it, nobody tests it.
• Acceptable defect levels — what proportion of minor cosmetic variation
  you will accept per batch.

At inspection

Inspection should be measuring against an agreed document, not forming a fresh opinion.
Give your inspector the specification, the tolerance table, the measurement conventions
and access to the sealed sample. An inspector working from a photograph and a hunch will
generate findings that mean nothing.

If you want a specification template you can adapt for your own programme, ask through
the contact page and we will send you the one we use. Our
sample round
guide covers how to get to a signed sample efficiently.