Mass Production Sewing
Thursday September 4, 2008
I spent a period of my life doing production sewing for local companies. I learned a lot during that phase and until someone asked me about it, I hadn't realized how much "production" had rubbed off on how I get piles of things made.
Factories use mass production to get a lot of product made in a short period of time because time is money. Production sewing gets a lot of things made in a short period of time... even when it seems like we don't have enough hours in a day!
With so many of us taking on second jobs and never having enough hours in a day, production sewing is a great way to make Christmas gifts and things to donate to the places that are close to your heart.
Factories use mass production to get a lot of product made in a short period of time because time is money. Production sewing gets a lot of things made in a short period of time... even when it seems like we don't have enough hours in a day!
With so many of us taking on second jobs and never having enough hours in a day, production sewing is a great way to make Christmas gifts and things to donate to the places that are close to your heart.
Comments
I enjoyed the article. how do I go about finding manufactures to sew for?
How do I find the companies to sew for?
I don’t know if it is the same all over but around here… watch local newspaper ads and contact local textile factories. I just learned of one local factory that is using home sewers to produce private label hand bags so I know there are “some” jobs out there.
I wanted to leave a comment on your “how to mass produce sewing projects” but comments are not enabled.
The traditional process you describe is what is called “batching”. In many respects it is the best option if your equipment is limited. For sure, cutting should be batched.
However, there is a counter culture in manufacturing. It is counterintuitive but it’s easily proven that sewing in “one piece flow” is actually more efficient and higher quality than batching. One piece flow is what home sewers do. This is also known as “handmade”; this is the legal, technical definition (there is one, did you know?).
Anyway, I write extensively about this, the most recent entry is Why Handmade is best
http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/why-handmade-is-best/