Posts filed under 'Product Development'
Wow, where’d I go? This week was so crazy. My husband has started up his high-school season (he coaches volleyball in the afternoons / weekends), and I’m doing a couple of side writing jobs, so the balancing act is just awesome. But, it works. We’re keeping it up, and one of us is still with the kids at all times. My daughter has had to miss a couple of days of school in the last couple of months, because it’s a parent participation pre-school. But, my neighbor has offered to take her with her, her daughter is in the same class. So, that’s incredibly helpful.
We got a surprise review on celebrity-babies.com this week. That sent us a lot of unexpected traffic and
has already led to a few good and flattering offers; these sorts of things are like little blessings, and they seem to come when they are needed the most. 
Another blessing has been finding an amazing local pattern maker / and grader who got our cutie-pants (TM) pattern crafted in 12 months and graded into all the sizes we needed. Now we have cutie pants outfits to ship this week. And then, we have our fall fashions in boutiques- YES!! Going beyond the blankets.
So, this is when it’s up to me to “ship on time”. We’re on it. We’re so on it.
Delivered a blanket set to my dream boutique yesterday. And they were impressed by how well we had the whole process put together. It’s easy baby! That’s the whole point. We’re creating demand. We’re actually creating demand for our only-on-of-its-kind product. It’s amazing to start experiencing the plan working. Actually working.
Back to it. Don’t put off to tomorrow what you can do today.
March 10th, 2007
I managed to get my urgent pattern dropped off for grading yesterday. And I learned something new, which is awesome, but I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me before. I need to have an infant’s pattern and a toddler’s pattern made for each style. Especially for bottoms, because the room for the diaper in infant patterns requires a pattern change, not just a sizing change, between toddler and infant styles.
The first style that I had graded was a poncho, so there wouldn’t be much impact between toddler and infant growth; there’s really neck hole (already has a slit to ensure it eases over the head) and arm length to worry about with a poncho.
The standard sample size for infant clothes is 12 months, and standard sample size for toddler clothes is 2T. So, I was ok with the size 2T - and we can have that graded up fine. But, she has to do pattern adjustments to create a size 12 month pattern. I’ll work up a prototype, do a fitting, and then we’ll go from there.
I’m happy with this, because I was considering changing from size 2T to size 12 month patterns for my samples. At this stage, I felt ok with this change because: A) I haven’t created a ton of patterns at this point, nor anything I feel adament about using as block. B) Size 12 months clothes just look so darn cute compared to the size 2T clothes.
I went with size 2T samples because the kids are always walking by that age and the modelling should be easier. Now, I don’t have to compromise or lose what I’ve invested in…but I will start creating size 12 month samples as well. Here’s a link to an infant & children’s garment size chart: http://www.fibergypsy.com/common/children.shtml
It’s very exciting to be in the clothing sales now, and beyond the blankets, as magnificant as they are. 
Happy Sunday to all of you - I hope that you get some R & R.
February 25th, 2007
In the past week contractor nightmares have been a theme. And, since I dropped off the sample kits with my sewing contractor yesterday (I still can’t believe I made it - I was cutting up to the last minute, even putting the right spec sheet with the right kit on the way there!), it seems really timely to share what I’ve learned. I even learned more yesterday.
The first contractor I went to, I found through the yellow-page grapevine. Few people in the area take on, or have experience with children’s clothing manufacturing. I was also running late in the season - which made me feel desperate to find somebody, anybody, that would work with me. I should always be concerned about finding THE RIGHT person to work with me.
This being my first experience I went in with somewhat schizo spec sheets (admittedly), bolts of the fabric. I’ve since learned sewing contractors generally never cut the sample fabric on their own. She didn’t say anything about this. It was a disaster. Not a single sample came back on time, not a single sample came back decent, and what’s worse was that the styles actually changed. Unmatching prints and fabrics came back, wrong color trim on many of the garments - and in restrospect, I’m sure she had no clue what I actually wanted. But instead of ASKING me what the he** I just left with her (we did talk through it when I was there), she just went for it. We shouldn’t have paid, but we did - so mistakes all the way through.
Now, I’m in the loop with a good contractor, who was referred to us by my most-excellent pattern maker. He laughed at me (not in a mean way), when I asked if he cut the samples.
After our nightmare experience (and a whole season literally lost), here’s the single most important thing I learned, and trust me, if you don’t have the time to do this, then don’t do your season: Have the contractor make only one or two samples the first time. See their work, understand the communication process and how they like to work, what they expect from you, how they meet deadlines, how much respect they have for you as a small business - all of these things are crucial to the development of your product.
Beyond that, here’s what I need for my contractor and how the sample production process works:
- Once I’m satisfied with the pattern, fit and look, I sew up one final prototype. I will take this prototype to the sewing contractor, it doesn’t matter if my sewing skills suck, it’s for a visual of the style.
- I cut the fabric for the samples and group them together. Yesterday, I dropped off three styles, for two samples of two styles, three samples of the final style, almost all in different colorways. This is a small line and you can see from reading that last sentence how confusing it can be. The sample stage is more complicated because you’re throwing a variety of styles at the contractor at one time. (I’ve received some good production advice along these lines, but will save it for another day).
- Group all of the inputs for each sample together into one kit. I throw it all in one ziplock bag - including the associated spec sheet. Make sure any buttons, snaps, elastic, ties, etc. are also included in this bag.
- The spec sheet is the most crucial part. I hated the very idea of spec sheets when I first started this, maybe based on fear of the unknown alone. The spec sheet says everything about that style, contains the technical sketch of that style and (this is important) has mini-swatches of the fabrics and trims stapled to the top right corner, reading from left-to-right in the following order:
- Talk about each style and each sample of that style. Don’t leave until you feel you’re both on the same page (or get off the phone, whichever it may be).
I’m lucky enough to have a local contractor; this eliminates weeks of back-n-forth shipping for the samples. I will literally have the first round of samples next week, and time to drop off the final round of samples before KIDShow.I’m sure there is more I’m missing. Oh, yes, the new thing I learned yesterday. Stick the style# to the prototype for cross-referencing. I didn’t do that. I’ve needed little stickers a lot lately, so probably a good idea to just have a few blank sheets of address labels in the car at all times.
It was such a relief to get everything done yesterday that I actually got a full night’s rest last night. That’s about the most amazing thing of all. Somehow, miraculously, we’re all a little happier this morning. And I have lunch with some of my oldest and dearest friends. Excellent.
January 27th, 2007
Ha Ha, I was going to write everyday. I can barely keep up with myself everyday, much less on top of everything. Kids are starting the holiday break and that means a less-hectic schedule for us. Less running around anyway. Met a friend for lunch today and ended up in this same random strip mall that has a wonderful CUSTOM baby / child boutique that is going to be a great match for our products, so that was fortuitous.
I’ve had all of these projects just h-a-n-g-i-n-g over my head for a couple of weeks; I was knocked down with the flu, and I’m just finally caught up. I have done some planning for the gifting suite. It was flattering to talk to the event planner, because she raved about how excited she was to have OUR products represented - even if it was just a lot of sunshine, it was nice to hear it.
Here’s what’s big in my life right now and I don’t care how cheezy it sounds - positive vibrations. I got into such a rut - and could feel how much thinking about being in the rut made the rut worse - so, I had to remind myself of what an optimist I truly am and get myself out of the rut; faith and hard work helps a lot too.
Something cool for me is that I’ve devised a new product that I’m really excited about and believe we can realistically launch by for the celebrity event. And I’m really excited about it and the labor is simple, the design is simple and this is good stuff. I feel strongly that we need a hot product that is at a good price point. Our personalized blankets are hot; getting a lot of buzz, but they are still on the pricey side of baby gifts. I know that the sales will continue to build, but how nice it’d be to have an item that’s HOT and accessible by a larger demographic. This will be a great KIDShow item too. I’m working on the first pattern to get a prototype, so I can find out if my idea will work the way I envision it. But if it does, it’s full of all sorts of potential.
Oh, I saw a whole blanket tag about not leaving bedding in the crib with infants, so I’m going to have to look into that and see if I can find standard wording. It was much more detailed than “not intended for bedding”.
Isn’t there always so much to do?
December 15th, 2006
Next Posts
has already led to a few good and flattering offers; these sorts of things are like little blessings, and they seem to come when they are needed the most. 