Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Bag Bliss

Previously on The Saga of the Magical Chair-Cover-Eco-Bag-Favor...

We had a sizing issue. If we were to make a couple hundred bags, it would be nice if they actually fit on the chairs in Hawaii, right? Well, I emailed the venue to ask what the dimensions were. They gave me a few numbers, but recommended I save myself some time by simply renting covers. Unfortunately, when in DIY-mode, practical advice falls on rather deaf ears.

Now, it's not that I don't trust their measurements; I'm sure they are correct. It's just, I need to visually see the "end product". For example, you can calculate and order a certain-sized part for a job, but you never really know if it will work out until you see it in action.

There's a reason you can never do a worksheet without this baby:

|(Theoretical - Actual)/Actual| * 100 = % difference


So we made up three different-sized samples to try out.



I tagged each different bag with a number, and we'll ship them out to Saka-Aunty.

#1 - 16" x 22", squared corners. The square corners are the easiest to sew, and look more "bag" than "cover". But I am worried that these corners might flop around too much on the round chair.

#2 - 18" x 22", rounded corners. The reason we have two at the 22" length was because that required the least amount of cuts to the initial fabric. We're thinking mass production here!

#3 - 17" x 17", rounded corners. This one is my favorite, as it looks most like a bag. I put a strap on this one, to simulate what it might look like. The actual strap will probably be nylon or something more sturdy.



She'll then go down to the venue and try on each sample real-time. She's so awesome! Hopefully our % difference is as close to zero as possible. But since there will always be a difference - with her judgement we can fine-tune the measurements before starting on mass-production.

The goal being to finish all 200 before we go to Hawaii this Christmas.

Do you have any projects where your expected measurement varied significantly from your actual? This might apply to dress sizes and budgets as well!

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