Ok, well it's been a while since I last posted, but I'm back on track here and even have things to talk about!
So, I worked with two seamstresses from about the beginning of March until the end of April. Not very long, I know, but it seemed like years. Time dragged and prototypes were sewn incorrectly (which I have learned, quite rightly, was all my fault - no proper pattern, obviously poor communication on my part - I have
Kathleen Fasanella and her book
The Entrepreneur's Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing to thank for that!). And all this time dragging (obviously, I have a problem with thinking that things should happen rather quickly, even though I myself am not that great at getting things done in a timely manner) started to sour in my mind the idea of having anything manufactured at all. Well, not anything, mind you - fabric does not fall into this category. But I was thinking "Crikey! If this is what it's like it's going to drive me bananas and why would I want to do that? " etc, etc.
This was before I began reading Kathleen's book - or at least I hadn't gotten to the part where she lays out things like, yeah, IT TAKES TIME. And then there are the prototypes and the tweaking and the new prototypes and the more tweaking and on it goes. Thus, I have given it more thought and recognized the merits of actually taking an idea, working with it and seeing it through to completion, which, in this case means not only having a finished product in hand, but taking it to market and seeing if it sells.
Other things I have learned from this book: less is more, know your limitations, don't buy materials before you actually have orders (doh!), listen to everyone who could possibly be telling you something useful, keep your ego in check (check!) and, damn it,
you can do it! I can't recommend this book enough, so get out there and buy it before you start your handbag, handkerchief or undergarment business, ok? Save yourself some time and forehead slapping.
And then I had a dawn-breaks-over-marble-head moment - um, just yesterday evening to be precise - which went something like this: how about you look in
the yellow pages for an actual sewing contractor
company? I mean, what do you have to lose? Five minutes? So, I did that, starting locally - found a couple - moved on out to the state - found more - then got giddy and Googled the whole damn country.
Found a whole bunch of them then! Within minutes, I was filling out RFQs and sending email and even making a phone call to leave a message. I have thus far heard back from the recipient of that message and am now awaiting an estimate. I have received an email response from another company and hope to hear from the others by tomorrow. With the exception of a place in India, of course. I mean, time appears to be on another plane altogether in that country. Which is fine, but it does take some getting used to. Oh, right, the India company was not in the US Google search, but rather was one I had contacted a couple months ago. Then it took a while for them to get back to me. And then, I wasn't sure I wanted to manufacture overseas and then, well, I changed my mind, so emailed them with my specs and now I'm waiting...
In the meantime, I will be identifying more sewing contractor companies to contact, working on more textile designs, and researching trade shows. Anyone out there have trade show recommendations for bringing stuff like hand/shoulder bags to market?
The strike-offs I was all excited about in my previous post turned out ok. Yeah, just ok. But I learned a few things. Digital printing on unbleached canvas looks faded from the get-go and canvas is just such a dead fabric! It has no hand and is rather uninspiring. It is incredibly affordable, though. *sigh* The second set of strike offs were done on oyster linen and heavy cotton sateen and they turned out much better. I love linen, always have. Yesterday I submitted 4 new designs to be struck-off on a cotton/linen blend. Soon I will be listing my fabrics for sale on my etsy shop. When that happens, I'll post the URL.
Tomorrow I will be visiting a silk screen company not far from here. It's owned by a guy who started out painting silk scarves about 30 years ago and now owns this shop that occupies over 20,000 square feet! I'm looking forward to that visit for several reasons: have never seen such a large silk screen operation, certainly not one that specializes in screen printing
yardage, I have lots of questions, and I hope to work with this company to produce a line of home furnishings and bedding. But, that will come at a later date. I have shoulder bags to manufacture!