Hi everyone,
If you are a seamstress, you probably know the term, assembly line sewing…or sometimes called “batch sewing.”
It’s an efficient method where multiple garments are made simultaneously by completing one specific step for all items before moving to the next. It reduces the time you handle each piece and is much faster than making one piece at a time. You do the pressing of ALL the pieces you have sewn together at the same time too…
That’s what I did today. My day was busy and I had limited time, but this was done in steps and I’ll show you what I mean.
Sorry, but we are back to those swim trunks, or board shorts again… for the Ruby Red Fashion Friend dolls… I wanted to get enough made so I could sell them without having to make any special orders.
Of course, the first step was cutting the pieces out. I did make a template out of cardboard, but forgot to take a picture of it. Instead of cutting out the piece using a pattern, I laid the pattern piece onto a piece of thin cardboard, drew around it and then cut out the piece. I was left with a “frame” of the pattern piece… that way I could take it to my fabric lay it on my shirt and cut out the piece exactly as I could see it through my “frame.” I did use spray starch my shirt and ironed it to begin with… to make it a little less flimsy.
Anyway, here are my cut out pieces… I used the “fussy cutting” method to get the exact design on each piece I wanted for my shorts. Here is a closeup of the airplane.
On that same shirt, there were motor bikes too… I was able to cut out 4…
…and there were surf boards too…I was able to cut out 4 surf boards.
As you can see, each pair of shorts will be unique… because I had to cut out the pieces that would fit together…like 3 of the surf boards will have them on one side and one of the pair of shorts will have them on the other. I was working around pockets and front buttonholes and yokes and sleeve seams on the man’s shirt I cut up.
The next step was to sew the front seams of the shorts…and I did this just by stitching one, then another and another behind it. I pinned a waistband on to each pair as I finished the front seam.
Here they are cut apart…
Then I clipped that front seam down through the crotch and serged the shorts again… going from one to the next…
Here they are with the front seam pressed open…
Next, a waistband was attached to each pair…
…then pressed. Here are the 3 airplanes…
Here are the 3 motor bikes…
Here are the 4 surf boards…
Here is a closeup shot of each…
There is one that will have the motor bike AND the airplane on it…
Well, that’s how Assembly Line sewing happens. I got quite a head start on them and will do some more soon. I have a Mammogram tomorrow at 2:45 and then a birthday celebration at 6:00… I have to get a 7-layer salad made in there too.
So I’ll be fortunate to get any sewing done tomorrow… but it won’t be too long…
Maybe you can start thinking about which pair you’d like! *wink* *wink*
See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne
I’m very familiar with assembly-line sewing, as I do it fairly often, when the situation is appropriate.
You are coming along nicely with those shorts, and I’m glad you got some more going. I think they’re going to be popular!
Marilyn, you mentioned that child born on 3/17 and named Patrick Kilpatrick. Well, before we became parents, we were trying out baby names, and quickly decided we had to be careful about initials, because there are a LOT of 3-letter words that end in T!! For instance, we had thought about Theresa Irene for a girl, Theresa for my mother (her first name, but she went by her middle name) and Irene for his mother (her middle name). Lovely sounding combination! But NOT with a last name that starts with “T”!! 😂
i laughed at the initial problem but I’m sure a daughter would have never forgiven you. I have a friend whose last name is Rhodes. She loved the name Roxanne but decided not to use it for any of her three girls since if you say it fast it sounds like “rocks and roads”. My sister’s birthday is St. Patrick’s Day and everyone always asked why my mother didn’t name her Patricia. Beth is named after my mother’s Godmother Elizabethanna, all one word. We called her Beth because mother did not want her called Liz or Lizzie. I think my sister’s name is so pretty and Beth is one of my favorite names.
Assembly line sewing has never happened here, and probably will never, unless you count sewing just two doll capes for Christmas gifts, Jeanne! But then, I don’t sell doll clothes either! These shorts are adorable, and look so real! Unfortunately, I have no boys to buy for, but if I did, I would be very interested in those! I could barely understand what you were talking about, but you do make things look so much easier!
Talking about naming children, oh my, Charlotte! Good thing you didn’t go with what you could have there for a girl! My problem was that our last name is one syllable, and some names just do not work well with Doyle. Plus I wanted Irish names, at least something sort of Celtic sounding. I did not want to name anyone after anyone else, since I wanted them to have their own names. Plus I didn’t want a name to be one thing, and then call them by a nickname or shortened version, so I was in a tizzy about what to name my children. We managed!
My son’s name is Sean. We had the hardest time getting people to pronounce it correctly even with Sean Connery being so popular. We even had to correct the priest at his Christening. He kept pronouncing it like Seen. Someone asked once why we didn’t spell it Shawn. We said we wanted the traditional spelling. They actually said it would have been easier for him to pronounce. Like he wouldn’t know how to say his own name. Sean’s middle name is Andrew (Patron Saint of Scotland) and our daughter is Andrea, a name I have loved since I was a kid and named my dolls and paper dolls. My mother remembered that when David called her to tell her she had been born. My mother remembered it mostly as the sinking ship Andrea Doria. I guess that’s where I first heard the name. Andrea’s middle name is Kristin.
Linda, I missed the blog yesterday but want to tell you how much I loved your dolls all dressed up for St. Patrick’s Day. They all looked lovely and their outfits were amazing. And little Betsy. Adorable as usual.
Thank you, Barbara!
Good morning dearies. Wednesday already.
Jeanne, these shorts are cuties! WOW, that was a great discovery of fabric!!
Jeanne, good luck getting your boobs squeezed ugh, that is such a painful exam.
When it gets painful, tell them to STOP! If you stay quiet they will squeeze.
What a horrible exam. I hope you get out of there unscathed and healthy of course
Okay, The shorts are so cute! and I know you are going to make some snappy shirts too! T shirts might be fun too.
Assembly line sewing is always a great idea!!! I do the same. I try to always have something under my needle so I do not have lengths of thread, a leader-ender scrap of fabric is okay but it is better to always have the next thing lined up.
So I am making quilt blocks and sewing Geese! I have the first Goose completed and stuffed. Yesterday I cut out pieces to make 7 geese, different fabrics instead of white. Some are white though and I am making fancy wings.
Jeanne, I know you will have a great time putting together the 7 layer dish, and the birthday party. Yay parties.
Today is another cold gray day, but I have plenty to do here at home. I am such a “homebody”. Anyone else like that? My dad liked to be a home body, but go out for walks and stuff. My mom was always off somewhere doing things with other people. She sang in 5 choirs! Anyway, life takes us in different directions over the years.
Maybe I will be a winner and put my coat on and go for a walk around the block.
I hope all of you have a super happy nice day.
Being a diehard introvert and home body I love hanging out by myself. I always found it to be so peaceful. But lately with all this stuff going on around me, especially the craziness with the city and having to collect things for income tax, I can’t seem to reach that level of tranquility I need to indulge in my creative solitude. Hopefully soon. Sigh…..
I understand completely Barbara. We have our obligations and some obigatory commitments which are nice diversions (okay, except taxes), and there are always a variety of dramatic forces in our lives that we have to accept because we can’t control it.
It is important for me to find a few moments each day to focus on some creative solitude. …even just drawing pictures of jars with kitty faces on them, or vases with flowers… certainly not surfing on pinterest or instagram. Do things that make you a little bit happy and calm.
I truly hope you can push through the stuff, and gather up all of that tax clutter. (((hugs))) I get it.
Love the shorts parade this morning. Jeanne’s, fussy cutting really makes some cute shorts. Will there be some shirts to go with them? That would be fun. And then there will be the buttons and snaps, if you do shirts. Maybe not. I’ve done assembly line sewing, but not in some time. I once made cupcake pincushions for our staff at school which were so fun to make. I called it Cupcake Day! I put up little signs that said that Cupcake Day was coming to remind everyone. 🙂 The other teachers were so glad that they didn’t have to remember to bring anything for that day. I put the cupcake pincushions on a tiered plate on our staff room table and then had mini cupcakes for everyone to eat as well. At lunch, everyone had already picked out their cupcake choices so I put them in fancy paper bags with little ribbons to take home. Everyone loved cupcake day and definitely deserved to have some fun. I think that I made 10 or so, and put washed rocks inside so they wouldn’t tip over. That was a long time ago. 🙂
Well, I only was able to fill part of a can with weeds yesterday as it hit the low nineties. We actually had to turn on the AC unit when it hit 80 inside. And another hot one is expected today and through the rest of the week. This is crazy having to water the yard in March. I won’t be happy seeing the water bill.
I have to add that the corned beef we had yesterday was delicious. Can’t wait for a sandwich on rye for lunch today. 🙂
I enjoyed reading this from you today, Joy!
Thanks Rosemary. Sometimes, I just can’t stop! 🙂
What a cute idea, Joy! I wish I had been teaching in your school! Hope things cool up a bit for you.
Looks like we won’t have lower temps until the weekend. Tks on the cupcakes.
Yum, a corned beef sandwich on rye. Sounds really good. Your cupcake day project sounds wonderful and I know everyone really appreciated your efforts, both the pincushions and the real thing. If you think it’s bad having to water in March imagine having to mow your lawn in January. Sure goes against my image of what you are supposed ot be doing in January. Like ice skating, sledding and building snowmen. How I ever ended up here in Texas I have no clue but evidently it’s where the Lord thought I should be because he worked real hard at getting me here. But once I met my soulmate here I would have been okay with pulling up stakes and moving too cooler climes. We often talked of moving to Colorado, but we waited till the kids were out of school and then life kept happening.
Colorado, I’ve always loved seeing it. Only been there once, but other person’s father was born there. However, now, they are in need of rain. Hope they can get some as everything is so dry. I do think that with all going on at your place, you are greatly needed there. How’s the city problem going?
Tell you more about the city problem tomorrow. David has an appointment with the she dragon at 10 a.m. He and the boys have been working tirelessly to clean up the mess left behind by our one mobile home tenant that moved. They were the best tenants but they had hung on to so much stuff that they couldn’t get it all in the construction dumpster they got when they tore their old mobile home down. I guess they couldn’t afford another dumpster so they left the rest behind. That was one of the pictures. She didn’t even give us a chance to take care of the problem before she was hanging around taking the pictures. But considering that we found for sure that the road that goes through the park is private property, she may be in trouble for taking the pictures at all because she was on the property and standing in front of it when she took the picture.
Well, I come home to a lot going on this morning. I will try to get y’all to have something to read from me.
There is a jewelry store in Brunswick that has people come to buy things like stirring silver and jewelry, this happens about once a year. I had done this last year with silver pieces that no one in my family wants and took what I thought was the last of it until I recently found more in the attic. My Grandmother and her sister had a lot of it, and my mom had kept it. So we went there again today and sold more. I have saved some that my sons want. We needed it to help pay for money that went to fix some things on the house.
Jeanne, I know all about Assembly Sewing because of the years I sewed for Helen Kish. It does make things a lot easier. I love what you are doing and wish some of your cute suits and shirts would fit my Meadow Dumplings. I love the fabric you showed today.
I hope you don’t get too squeezed tomorrow.
Talking about naming kids, Y’all, it does not always end up like you think it will. I gave my sons names that could be used as nick names as kids and use the full name as they grew up, Ronald and Thomas, Ronnie and Tommy as kids and change as they grew up. WELL NO! They are sixty and fifty seven years old now and on their business cards neither have changed from their kid names. So you just never know.
Well, our cold weather is warming up in a couple of days, wishes for good weather for you all.
Love the big boys names. Ronnie and Tommy. Other person’s brother was Ronald. His mother always called him Ronnie, but his dad called him Ron. I never heard anyone call him Ronald.
As to the silver, I couldn’t sell it. But, I’m sure that daughter will at some point. It is from all of my relatives, now deceased. I even have the teaspoons that my grandmother received for her HS graduation in 1902. The girls gave each other spoons with engraving back in the day. But, good for you to be able to sell yours and get some cash. Around here coin dealers will weigh it and give you the current market value of the metal. But, I don’t want to do that. 🙂
I have a LOTTT of old stuff, old china, old silver spoons, lots of precious silverware, lots of old paintings from my gramma, pretty flowers paintings with psalms on them. I have so many treasures. It is hard to think about the future of these treasures.
Jeanne, the shorts are very clever. What a great shirt, I don’t think many men wear shirts like that here, or they wear them out so they never get to Goodwill. I have a friend who only uses shirts for quilting and when she showed one last meeting she mentioned that finding a colourful shirt is very rare so you have to make the most of it when you do.
I am very aware of ‘assembly line’ sewing, we do it all the time in machine piecing and call it chain piecing. Some people even make a quilt while they are making a quilt by piecing squares as leaders and enders. I have tried that but my 80 yr old brain doesn’t cope well with organising two quilts at the same time.
I sent the photo of the quilt to Jeanne, I haven’t sent it to my brother yet. The photo isn’t as clear as I would have liked, it doesn’t show the pattern on the light fabric very well but it is finished, yay. I still need to put a label on it but that is a small thing. I will be taking it to Show and Tell at guild this morning.
Going to be much colder today, it is going to be a long winter.
Want to trade a day of cold for a 90 degree one here? I’ll make the arrangements. 🙂
Chain piecing!!!! and yes, certainly leader ender projects. I am making a chain quilt 4 patches, 6 patches and 9 patches, and also making Geese! and oh, various other things. I am very excited to see your quilt Anne.
I might cut a chain off of my machine and it will be blocks for two different quilts, something I am mending, and now a goose leg!
I have never done assembly line sewing because I absolutely cannot make several like items at the same time. I once was making tote bags for the church festival and after I made six I could not make another even though each one was a little different so it was a creative endeavor. I never touched the pattern again. Is it a major character flaw? It would probably be a good way to torture me if anyone was needing to do that. I have no idea why I’m like that. No one ever forced me to sew several like items so I can’t blame it on that. Hmmmm
I love fussy cutting things and these shorts show a great deal of that. Cute shirt and the shorts are turning out great. I know they will be best sellers. Sadly I have no gentlemen dolls. I once wanted to buy some for props for school dances, etc., but the cost was more than I was willing to pay just for that.
Chamber of Commerce day here today. Sunny with a light breeze and temps in the low 70s. I will be heading out for a walk in a little while. I finally discovered why I was having so much trouble with my left leg being stiff and it was because I thought I was doing the right thing. I bought a pillow for my desk chair that was ergonomic. The other day I took it off just to see if that made a different and it did. I still have some lower back and knee stiffness from time to time but the total stiffness in my left leg is gone. I also bought a thing called a Physio Board for my bed. Since I can’t get down on the floor to do my stretching exercises these days (or mostly can’t get up) I saw this and thought I’d give it a try. It’s lightweight and will slide under my bed when not in use. I’m 5′-4″ so I got the petite board which will fit on my bed better. I’ll let y’all know how it works after I get it and try it out.
that board sounds interesting. I’m 5ft 4″ too.
I’ll be sure to let you know how it works out.