Keeping your lingerie supplies in order
I got asked the other day how do I keep my lingerie supplies in order so I don’t run out of anything.
One of my pet hates is when I sit down to sew only to realise I haven’t got the right elastic or hook and eye to finish the project. Up on Instagram stories @vanjonssondesign (I’ll put it in the highlights) I went through all my supplies and patterns and how I keep it all tidy and in order. Whatever trims or fabrics come in, I take time to write down all that I receive.
I no longer have a separate room or studio for where I work, I’m based in the corner of the room (not as bad as it sounds - it’s not like my name is ‘Baby’) at the moment so that means everything has to have it’s place. When I ran Vanjo in its busiest I had a studio room, and would have full rolls of fabrics along the wall, cardboard patterns along the wall on pattern hooks, and a floor to ceiling rack where I stacked and stashed fabrics and findings, rings and sliders in their hundreds in boxes. Now I operate on a much smaller scale, I still deal in dead stock but instead of ordering hundreds of meters of elastic its most likely to be tens of meters, some even less if I’m just doing a commission piece for someone.
What I do to make life easier and designs consistent is to sew my samples with the same width bra strap, which means I can but rings and sliders and know I always have some. I also now design with silver rings and sliders which means I always have some no matter what colour design I’m doing When the bag runs low I buy more and re-top it up. I
Hooks and eyes I usually run on the same width of 55mm or 38mm, I design for the small back, bog boob gal or know what works and what doesn’t in terms of trims and components.
I design a lot more designs now but on a smaller volume, so don’t need the volume of fabric, and taking in the fact that 1m of fabric on average makes 6 pairs of briefs, there is a lot of scope when I am designing patterns or doing commission pieces. If I’m working on a new pattern I tend to use what fabrics and trims I have then will re-make it in the desired fabric so that uses up a lot of the smaller pieces from previous collections.
The key to everything I think is to take a weekly or fortnightly look at everything, that’s the fun part after all isn’t it? Pulling all your fabrics out and designing, it;s from there you will see if you have any gaps in your trims that you need to order.
I usually keep all types of fabrics together, so meshes, cottons, denier etc so I can see what I have, if I’m going into production with a collection, I will then keep all the fabrics and trims for that collection together to ensure I have everything and can then work out how many can be made from that.
Finding a system that works for you can only be done by organising what you have, to keep on top of things. That way also you’ll see what you use most of etc.
Helpful links: the design sheet pack that has the trims and fabric page in to keep everything in order. http://vanjonssondesign.com/shop-1/a-six-pack-bundle-of-download-templates
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