we highly recommend to separate the pure printing from developing the Style and fir of the garment itself. That means practically you delvelop the style and fit of the garment while in parallel the print(s) are being developed on a piece of fabric.
The downside of this is that once both are finalized there is not finalized Prototype yet. It has to be made yet. Still from our experience this workflow of separating print- and garment development goes smoother then putting everything together from the start.