Fishing

It’s 7:30 and I’m fishing for a topic. I’m distracted considering:

I went to yahoo and did a search for this site and it said I didn’t exist. Yahoo hosts two of my sites. Evidently, one needs to pay to be submitted to search engines these days and I need more traffic. Everybody’s sewing just now for fall deliveries so I’m out of work. I wrote some meta-tags (thanks Jess) and submitted myself best as I could.

I got an -as yet- unsubstantiated report that Katie Couric did a story about retailers sewing in vanity sized labels. Note that was retailers, not manufacturers. I tell you, retailers are up to their eyebrows in this; why do we get the rap?

It is claimed [link deleted as the page is gone now] that push manufacturers can go from concept to delivery in 8 weeks with 4 of those weeks on the water- I decided that guy’s fishing for consultancies. It brings to mind this website, that says “If you’re not part of the solution, there’s money to be made in prolonging the problem”.

I finally broke down and subscribed to WWD Women’s Wear Daily. It’s a miracle. It’s only amusing to poke fun at the establishment media for so long. Pragmatically, I also decided it was endless source material.


I went grocery shopping. I’ve decided I like Food City on Alameda. Nobody speaks English there. There’s a hardware store in the back. Grocery shopping is an activity most likely to provoke me into a melt-down. I went last week and bought everything I needed except the milk, bread, eggs, tortillas, butter, cereal and coffee. One could wonder what it was I did buy. I know I am.

I burned another pizza. I don’t think you understand just how I mean that but I think I should get a break here; at least this time I took it out of the box. I once stuck a pizza in the oven complete with all packaging…two nights in a row!

A lady from the mental health department came by to pick up some supplies for their arts and crafts program. Obviously, our definition of “a lot of leather” differed. She giggled happily over the mix-up and agreed it was fortuitous that she brought an SUV. She didn’t make a dent in my stash. I hope she comes back for more.

Speaking of unloading stuff, I have some auctions going on ebay. I’m selling hair pipe beads to the tune of about 200 lbs and soon to add a bunch of buttons (all metal) zippers (by the 600 yard lot), more leather, and some vintage patterns. There’s much more than that of course. I have some machines; one button sewer (Brother), one button-holer (Reece) and a nice double needle (Brother). I swapped a blind stitch (no motor) and got a service on my serger in exchange. I’m very happy about that. I’m hoping somebody will write or call me and show up with a big truck and take all of these things out of my life. I’m getting Lean.

For the umpteenth time, I tried to write a comparative analysis of craft v.s. lean manufacturing and my head kept turning around in circles. I have to cover this and soon; it’s just that I’m not sure I can articulate everything I think about it. Problem is, my thinking descends into prescriptives derived from Maslov’s hierarchy of needs. I have a whacko economic development theory I’ve been playing with for years- I believe there’s a natural scale to human endeavor and you can’t be as profitable if you surpass it. I don’t write it because people think I’m nuts as it is.

My co-author Miracle is dealing with Mommy-crap and I want her back but I can’t be pushy ’cause I’m just so grateful she does anything. You’re going to love her posts. She’s like me but in the sales and marketing side and just as stubborn and opinionated.

Somebody bought me a book off my Amazon wishlist. Thanks Mike, I appreciate that. Hint, hint.

And lastly, I’m distracted with the four stray bundles of jackets that four people failed to claim for the bagging tutorial so those are up for grabs again. As soon as I ship those to anyone who wants to volunteer, I can start the bagging tutorial. For specifics, see the Tutorials Index, scroll down to bagging and proceed. Well, first write me and send a shipping address. Kits are $15.

That’s enough for today, don’t you agree?

Get New Posts by Email

6 comments

  1. Jess says:

    You wouldn’t happen to have an off the arm felling machine would you? or a keyhole button holer? I have a double needle and I was hoping to somehow make it do felling but I haven’t found any folders that actually do the job and I think I may be forced to buy a machine that is specific for felling.

  2. Gigi says:

    Your double-needle isn’t by chance a walking foot, is it? Darnit, I wish you didn’t live so far! I’m just not up to a long road trip right now. :-)

    Can’t wait for you to post your leather on Ebay…

  3. kathleen says:

    Jess/Josh (Jess is listed but it’s just as likely that Josh forgot to sign in as himself): I don’t have off the arm anything, much less a feller. My button-holer is a fish tail. I’ve seen those on denim but can understand why you’d prefer the keyhole.

    Gigi: are you sure you want a walking foot? Those are some big machines and due to their basic operative mechanism, can sew right through your hand, finger guard or not. Don’t ask how I know that. And a double needle no less. I didn’t know they made double-needle walking foots but it only stands to reason they would. A standard dressmaking machine will sew through garment weight leather (2-3 oz) very easily provided you stick on a teflon foot and spray the throat plate with silicone. That’s how I do it. I had 4 walking foot machines but I sold them 3 years ago since I sew rarely on the heavier weights these days. I’ll get some stuff up today, and thanks.

  4. Gigi says:

    The double needle walking foot is not for me, thank heavens. :-) My friend Sandy is an upholsterer and has been looking for a nice used one so I’m always keeping an eye open.

  5. Susan McElroy says:

    I for one am anxiously waiting for your opinion on lean manufacturing because when I read an article like that one you reference in the last entry my eyes just glaze over. Isn’t lean manufacturing the elimination of waste/muda? How can a process that thinks up out of essentially thin air (my mental picture is actually more anthropormorphic and references another “pull” activity but is inappropriate here) a design and basically bullies everyone in the process to get made and into stores in record time going to eliminate waste? I know I’m naive in this but where are the assurances that any of this is going to sell to consumers? Much less be worn by them, which is my lowly consumer view of the garment industry. Did I see a reference to the idea that one starts without a formal PO? Man, I know that fashion is a fickle industry but my folks never lost sight of the risk of turning out a set of steam turbine blades without that little “PO” detail. I’m in a strange b*tchy mood this week, forgive me…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.