Production 101: how do it know?

If you want anything done, you have to tell them what to do. Makes sense, right? But, you don't just say, "cut 5 of these and 10 of those. And then sew them together." It's a little more formal. For the facility I'm using, I had to provide a Cut Ticket and a Sew Ticket. (are you picturing little citations? because that's what I was picturing when they told me last year. luckily, they gave me another one to follow and forehead slapping ensued.)

(As you can see, my printer is wonking up. Supposedly there is another on order, and it better not be a Mother's Day gift, ya dig?)

Cut Ticket: I took pictures of my fabric and uploaded it to my computer. Then you make a little document with your company name, the date, the item and a short description (with any pertinent fabric information, i.e. BOLD pattern for main body, SOLID CONTRAST for trims, ties, etc.)

You have to give everything a style number - I just grabbed a number out of thin air (they're floating around up there if you look). On your document, make a table with the style number, fabric, and cuts. So for my main body here, I have 5 cuts for each garment (I'm having 5 of each fabric style made); and for the contrasting trims, whatever those are (ties, pockets, etc.)

Sew Ticket: Similar, but shorter, because that's when it all comes together. The Item & Description basically stay the same, but you can add Special Instructions, like where you want your label to be placed, thread color, etc. You might also want to include a sketch, or your own sample. I left them the sample they made for me two months ago.

Also, I made a couple of slight changes to my previous sample. This was called a Pattern Adjustment, and was minor enough that they didn't have to start from scratch, and simple enough that I didn't feel like I needed another sample before they continued. Of course, I'm sitting on pins & needles until I see it, but I trust them.

I'm writing a post on finding these people, because so many of you have emailed about that!

Again, this is solely my experience. I don't know what I'm doing, and whether this is the way it's done everywhere, and I don't know if this is even the right way. But this is what I'm doing right now. :)

Comments

[pam]

I'm totally facinated by all this.. even though I don't suspect I'll ever be using the info.. well except for dazzling all my friends with my vast knowledge base. Oh wait, that's irritating.

Anyway, super thrilled you're going for it!!!

[erin]

i'm so intrigued by this process...can't wait to hear more about it.

[Helena B]

Thanks so much for posting, this is so interesting!