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Three Part “Harmony” and Experimenting with “Mass Production”

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I continue with making project/drawstring bags (little obsessed) for my imaginary reopening of my tierneycreates Etsy shop. While making the latest group, I thought I would try something: making them “mass production” style. Okay well small scale mass production style. I would cut all the pieces out, fuse the interfacing, and sew them production style one step at a time.

The first three bags to come out of this experiment was three bags in different sizes (small, medium, large) made from Figo Fabric’s Harmony line, with the word “Harmony” from the selvage stitched onto the bags.

I decided to name this series of three bags – “Three Part Harmony”. Get it? Or perhaps the name is silly but it made me smile. I will sell them as a set on my Etsy shop.

I didn’t have enough of the word “Harmony” in the rest of the fabric’s selvage to continue to stitch it onto the rest of the bags, but I finished them up also “production style”. Here are the rest of the bags in progress:

What I learned from my “mass production” experiment:

HATED IT!

And if you’ve ever seen the comedy TV show In Living Color you can hear the inflection in my voice in your mind, ha!

Something about the magic of completing a bag got taken away when I was doing each step production line style on 7 bags.

I guess I just enjoy making one bag at a time and being in the process of completing one bag. I would be very poor if I tried to live off the proceeds of selling on Etsy – ha!

But this is to be a hobby not the way I make a living. Unless I could sell each bag for $1000….ha!

Postscript

My friend Judy (the one who got me in to quilting in the late 1990s) and her husband came for a long weekend visit this past weekend. We did a little Denver area “quilt shop hopping” during her visit and stopped at Treelotta Fabrics which I discovered during the Rocky Mountain Quilt Shop Hop. While at this shop we discovered a different take on the drawstring bag that we really liked:

Instead of ribbon or cord, they made the drawstring from the same fabric as the bottom of the bag. Also they added some rick-rack to the seam between the two coordinating fabrics – very creative!

This gives me future ideas for bags. Of course I do need to make other things for my Etsy shop besides bags! (I do actually have a stash of other things I’ve made that I will share in future posts).

Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

25 thoughts on “Three Part “Harmony” and Experimenting with “Mass Production””

  3. I find there is a fine line between the efficiency of sewing production line style and it feeling like a chore. I find by the time I’m getting to the last steps I’m not enjoying it anymore even though I’ll have more finished items compared to if I had just made one

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  4. Even though I can see the appeal of mass producing, that’s got to take away a lot of the fun for you. And you are so creative in your fabric and embellishment choices! Much better for you to be able to do one of a kinds or wherever your fancy takes you 🙂

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  6. Ha, I completely get not liking assembly line style sewing! I only did it last year when I mass produced masks one weekend. It was efficient, and for masks that was good because I wanted to make loads and a single mask is already not that exciting anyway!

    Your bags look great though!

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  9. Love your three part harmony and the rest of the ‘choir’.
    When making items for my market table I also use the production line mode. Yes, it’s boring but I also find it quite satisfying to finish a batch in one go.

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  13. there is another side to mass production which is kind of what happens with my current art – I don’t make “everyone the same” but I often start by having one or more bases and adding to it. It might not be a scrap but rather in the process a scrap is created – because I need to cut something slightly down and there is this “new scrap”. It might get right into the next “crumb quilt” or might enter my box of “scraps”
    At the end of a session, it will look like a production line but in a way it isn’t…
    So you could just cut a pile of different fabrics in the shapes you need, then as you go you have choices…

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