Monday 11th January 2010

Since Thursday I have continued to standardise the bags we are to make to fulfil our contract. There are many different ways of attaching handles and today we got the overlocker up and running and so on Thursday hope to get a small production line going to see how many we can do per hour working together. I wonder if that is a feasible option. There are many jobs to go into the completion of a bag - especially a bag made from recycled material. Firstly the material needs to be sorted and if curtains we need to separate the lining from the curtain; take off the heading tape and open all hems and seams. If the material is to be washed this is the stage it is done. When clean and the material is ironed flat the bags are then cut out, We have decided to cut out all lining or cream cotton handles as this material is thinner than some of the curtain fabric, therefore easier to sew the handles on. So a lot of the lining will go for handles meaning we need more lining than curtain material. Difficult :) The next job is to cut out the bags and the handles. Each has then to be ironed to get out any creases as they are recycled material. The handles are then ironed into shape and stitched. Then the bag itself is stitched around three sides and the top hemmed. Then the handles are attached. The bag is then finally checked for cotton ends which are cut off and the bag is ironed, hopefully the final time. Each bag will be quality checked prior to being transfer printed with the logo and wording. We hope this week to start bringing in donated material and sewing machines with the help of The Autistic Society and by open day next Thursday 21st January to have production going flat out. That is the next 10 weeks used up for many of us. We are looking forward now to the open day and to achieving what we have set out to do. Watch this space. Anyone who would like to join us for our open day, we would love to see you.