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By Kathleen Fasanella on May 15, 2013 at 5:39 pm
Lamentably, this bears iteration (albeit paraphrased a bit):
… every time you pay an invoice for pattern services, you should get the electronic file for it. If you’re having manual patterns made, request that the provider drop a tracing in the mail.* If you don’t get the file or the tracing, you don’t contract for more work until you get what you want. It doesn’t matter if you can’t sew or don’t have a CAD system, you save these as an insurance policy. If it all goes south, you’ll only have to worry about having your last pattern made because you have all the others.
It is important to have this expectation built in from day one because the relationship is just lovely in the beginning. A real honeymoon. Service providers who can do the most damage are the ones who slowly gain your confidence. If you limit your exposure by expecting pattern delivery after invoice payment from the beginning, you’ll be able to manage a mess if it comes to that. So what messes are these?
Red flag: Not being billed for pattern work.
If you’re working with a provider who is doing everything from patterns to production, examine your invoices carefully. If you’re not billed for pattern work, you do not own those patterns and won’t get copies of them. This means the provider has you over a barrel and you will find it very expensive to move to another provider should need be. Unfortunately, needing to move to another service is more common than not because holding the customer hostage is a common problem associated with package services.
Continue reading "Always get your patterns. Always. No exceptions" »
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By Kathleen Fasanella on May 9, 2013 at 5:07 pm
Keeping in mind that quality means adherence to a standard, you can create work instructions for your people to follow. These are most effective if they are simple and directed to a particular job. Work instructions are also useful as a reminder if you create them for processes you don’t do often. As an example, you could sew step by step samples of one of the zipper tutorials you don’t know well and store the set for future use. Even I make work instructions to remind myself of the steps involved in techniques I don’t do often.
Today I’ll show you samples of a work instruction that is similar to one I made while at a customer’s plant. The customer was frustrated because their stitchers were not sewing boning strips to specification. In this case, the boning is sewn before the top and bottom of the corset is sewn so the boning needed to be 1/16th from the top and bottom seam line. The specification (ideal) was to center the pre-cut boning strip so it laid 1/16th short of the seam line at both top and bottom which allowed for the piece to be turned smoothly once those seams had been sewn. A work instruction was needed because boning strips were sewn crossing the seam line on one end and falling too short of it on the other and there seemed to be a lot of confusion as to where the boning was supposed to be. Below is a sample showing perfect execution (black bias tape is substituted for boning):
Continue reading "Better sewing quality with work instructions" »
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By Kathleen Fasanella on May 6, 2013 at 10:46 am
I had no idea that sewing machines favor left-handed people. Did you? Quite a few people do, I guess I was late to the party. One explanation is that the inventors of the modern sewing machine, namely Elias Howe and Isaac Singer, were both left handed but this is disputed by Rex Pulker*, inventor of a right handed sewing machine. His explanation is a bit difficult for me to follow (a matter of writing style?) but the claims that machines were originally optimized for right handers -there was a crank on the wheel on the right side- but once technology improved and the crank was no longer needed, machine design did not follow suit and reverse the buttons and what not to lie to the left.
Continue reading "Are sewing machines designed for the left handed?" »
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By Kathleen Fasanella on May 1, 2013 at 5:26 pm
Once upon a time, I majored in economics, specifically developmental economics aka “third world economics”. I wanted to change the world; go to work for the United Nations, the IMF or maybe the World Bank. And I did end up working for the UN but there were so many roadblocks -if they weren’t political or economic, they were social. For example, in the highlands of Guatemala where I was working at a weaving cooperative, women were limited to the portable back strap looms while the larger and more efficient floor looms gathered dust. The reason was, social mores dictated that only men could use the floor looms. Since most of the men were working in fincas or coffee plantations during the season and only came back sporadically, the potential for decreasing collective poverty was diminished. It was incredibly frustrating and sad.
But anyway. In developmental economics you learn that when a country is undergoing industrialization, the first industry that is developed is clothing manufacturing. I say industry implying value added as opposed to export of fungible commodities like agricultural products or mining. Did you know that clothing production is the first manufacturing strategy of any developing nation? As such, there is nothing in the way of means testing or infrastructure or even, ways to assess the solidity of infrastructure because it is so broad to include things like available power, water, proximity to transportation -much less political stability and social customs. So forget such lofty goals like building inspectors; the nation is too focused on generating export income. And having no money, how could they afford inspectors? Sure they can be homegrown but with so little experience in industrialization, what kind of meaningful experience can be learned and taught? I think I read somewhere that the whole country of Bangladesh has fewer than 300 inspectors. Elsewhere I read something like 80.
Continue reading "We all share the shame" »
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By Kathleen Fasanella on Apr 25, 2013 at 5:16 pm
At long last -having been interminably delayed- comes the solution to last week’s pattern puzzle. The upper bodice of which you can see at right. As I’d mentioned in comments, I didn’t know how the neckline was going to present itself but this is what I came up with. With a cascade -as Ann correctly deduced- there are a wide variety of options. You play with the folds and fullness until you find something palatable and congruent with the style. Before I get ahead of myself, here is a list of image files which provide more detail on how the style was put together:
Left side seam
Close up of gusset at left side
Full size front view
Front bodice, straight on
Three quarter view of front bodice cascade (from left)
Three quarter view of front bodice cascade (from right)
Right side seam
Three quarter view of right side seam (from rear)
Right side seam, skirt folds & gusset
Back bodice
Full back view
Larger view of left side seam
Another angled view of front
And still another view of the front
Continue reading "Pattern Puzzle: Style #22005 pt.2" »
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By Kathleen Fasanella on Apr 19, 2013 at 3:40 pm
The site feed has been broken. Let’s hope this entry is delivered…
This style amounts to an experiment I’m working on, it’s being cut as I write so I have no idea if it will come out as I envision*. It is entirely possible it will come out looking rather horrid -as my last project did. I had done something incredibly stupid to it, I took screen caps of it as an example of what not to do so maybe I’ll post it next week.
It is as self explanatory as these things go. Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to draw a picture of what you think this style looks like. I will give you one clue, it is supposed to be a dress.
Continue reading "Pattern Puzzle: Style #22005" »
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By Kathleen Fasanella on Apr 11, 2013 at 4:43 pm
Following the theme of yesterday’s entry, I’ll post some suggestions on getting your stuff back from a sewing contractor. The first step is to know what you have (inventory management) and a lot of people don’t. I will also provide some suggestions to avoid getting in a bind like this. By way of introduction is this quote:
I just told my sewing contractor yesterday that I will no longer be needing their services. They have my patterns and fabrics that I want shipped back to go to my new contractor and I want them back ASAP. I don’t really trust that they will ship all my patterns and fabric back in a timely manner. I owe them $100 for samples although my property is worth 20 times this amount. They want me to pay this before they ship and I want them to ship before I pay. It’s a Mexican stand off (minus the third party). I feel if I pay them first then there is no real incentive for them to ship my stuff out quickly.
I omitted a lot of information from the quote but the designer in question is justified in worrying about getting her goods back. It must be said that it is traditional to pay before shipping but she has legitimate reasons to worry her goods won’t be shipped when she needs them so it is the proverbial Mexican stand off.
Continue reading "How to prevent theft by bad contractors" »
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By Kathleen Fasanella on Apr 10, 2013 at 6:00 pm
Here the worst has come to pass, such an ugly drama.
If you’re not a member and can’t access the details, one of our designers -we’ll call her Jane- received several angry emails from her sales reps saying that another designer -let’s call her Haley- was selling many of Jane’s styles and in Jane’s exact fabrications. Jane isn’t one to jump to conclusions but she did some legwork and found that Haley was even selling clothes that were made of Jane’s custom printed knits. More worrisome, Haley was describing the styles as having been cut from another manufacturer’s scraps.
Stop right there. If you’re having things made from another manufacturer’s leftovers, don’t assume it is okay with that manufacturer. They may find out and you’ll be painted with the same brush. In this case, since Jane’s contractor got caught, he is blaming Haley for all manner of indiscretions -ranging from design theft and theft of a cell phone. No one gives the contractor much credence at this point but it is wise to avoid any hint of impropriety. Speaking of (forgive the digression), you need to be very cautious if a contractor is providing your fabric because it may be stolen from another party. Once the contractor gets caught, he may go out of business but even if he doesn’t, your fabric source and artificially low production price is going to increase so if your customers are spoiled with low prices, you’ll find yourself in a peck of trouble both coming and going.
Continue reading "When your contractor is stealing from you" »
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By Kathleen Fasanella on Mar 28, 2013 at 4:44 pm
A young lady I will call Mary writes:
While working at a fabric store, a business owner asked if I could sew prototypes for him. He said he only needed someone who could sew simple items. He was paying $10/hr so I went on to sew many prototypes for him.
Two months later he said that he wanted my pattern. I asked for a raise for the hard work I made on this pattern. He doesn’t want to give me a raise nor will he give me credit for creating the pattern. He said he would write me a letter of recommendation and mention my contribution as “HELP IN DEVELOPMENT”. Bottom line is, no one helped me. I worked alone in the office he provided for me, and created the whole instruction manual myself (with detailed, symmetrical computerized how to pictures).
Since the duties and required skills of your job had increased, the best time to have asked for a raise would have been when you began to develop the pattern. As it seems to stand, you’ll have to rely on your employer’s good will to get a bonus. The only exception would be if you developed the pattern on your own time and for which you were not compensated. If you were on your own time, your employer wouldn’t be entitled to anything you’d done -barring of course, that you were salaried or had signed an employment contract.
Continue reading "I’m being taken advantage of, how do I regain control?" »
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By Kathleen Fasanella on Mar 26, 2013 at 4:15 pm
And the winner of the book Drape Drape 3 -thanks to the internet random number generator- is Sandra Stroud!
Or I should say maybe. It depends on whether she is amenable to putting in a bit for postage since she lives in Australia (I pay the first $3.99). I’m sure she will but if not, our runner up is Judy Byrd. I need to remember to stick that postage caveat in the give aways because it is not fun to disappoint people and the cost of international postage has gone through the roof -nearly a 25% increase since last year.
The crazy thing is, Sandra emailed me yesterday for probably the first time in nearly a year on a matter unrelated to the giveaway. Some people have the right kind of energy I guess.
Fairly soon I hope to sponsor giveaways for new products I’m developing. To qualify, one will have to link to this site (it is amazing how few of those who use the content from this site, ever link to it). One month’s linking equals one entry so someone who has been linking for years, is entered 12x however many years. Actually, those people are more likely to get an item for themselves plus an additional one to give away to visitors on their own site.
Continue reading "Drape Drape 3 Give away winner" »
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