Container Day. Groundhog style.

Oh gosh, how much do I suck at keeping this blog up to date! Feel free to not answer that, but here I am now, tadaa!

Hamish got home a week or two ago after spending SEVEN LONG WEEKS in Asia overseeing production runs.

We are now flat tack in Brisbane unloading said products out of their 40 foot container which arrived late yesterday afternoon. I think by this time tomorrow night it will all be in the warehouse. That which hasn’t already been shipped out that is, Hamish has been doing the heavy lifting and I’ve been doing the filling of preorders and sending it back out the door again.

And then there’s been all the lovelies schlepping over here to pick up their bulk orders. We love putting faces to the names we see on our invoices all the time It’s a pity we’re doing it at a time when we are looking our sweaty bedraggled grime covered worst and in such a rush we can hardly string a sentence together, but lovely none the less

Hamish flies out to NZ to repeat the process (except in a 20foot rather than 40 foot, phew!) at the crack of dawn on Sunday morning. So we have ONE more day to get this sorted before I’m in it up to my eyeballs on my own again. Ack. Noooo. Not that I envy his end of the bargain either, poor Hamish!

One Hamish + one Sarah + one 7 year old child labourer ÷ 2 days before Hamish flies to NZ = 13 tonnes of new stock just backing in.
READY, SET, GO.

Our oh so very kiwi truck driver stopped for a quick yarn, and then – Into It!

Helpful. Yes.

Very obscenely late on the first night.

Late dinner break tonight (night two).
(who remembers the GreenBean baby?
That’s him up there scoffing pizza! No way! Yes way!)

Just now, calling it quits for night two. Can’t see the back wall yet, but I know it’s there somewhere!

Patterned FOE now open for Preorders

Our first four FOE designs are now open for preorders! This FOE is the super soft thick and lovely stuff, similar to our 2.5cm wide Matt FOE.

We have hearts, zebra print, hedgehogs and snowflakes, all due in May but open for preordering – with a 10-30% discount – right now.

Head on over to the FOE section to check them all out.

PUL of an evening

Our PUL has been laminated!!!! And is now setting, ready to be packed.

That takes some waiting, so Hamish just went on the Suzhou Ferris Wheel – 120m tall, takes 20 minutes to complete one rotation!

(I just fed kids, supervised homework & am attempting to wrangle them into bed. Hmmm… jealous much )

The speel -
Hamish is in Asia at our chosen factory to be physically present to quality control the production of our PUL in person while it is in production, and give the final sign off prior to shipping. Our sample production run is 1,000 metres of White PUL, which will be shipped direct into Australia. Most of it has been presold to our bulk WAHMs, the rest will be on the shelves in April!

It:

1- Feels very similar – if not difficult to tell the difference – to the feel of the old Fabrite PUL.

2- Is more durable than the old Fabrite PUL. From our testing and development so far it has lasted through over 300 hot washes and 70 hot dryer cycles. This far exceeds any other product we have tested, including the original Fabrite and the “new Fabrite company” PULs, both of which have failed during our testing, while our new PUL samples are still going strong.

3- Is 210cm wide rather than the PUL norm of 150cm wide. 40% wider can mean increases in yield of up to 60% per linear meter due to an overall wider product. Factor the extra width into the equation as to price, not only in square meters delivered, but also how much yield that will deliver to you.

Limited dispatch hours for the next two weeks.

DISPATCH HOURS for the NEXT TWO WEEKS: 8 – 11am (Bne time)
Our staffer in Brisbane is leaving, but she’s kindly agreed to cover us by continuing dispatching in the mornings for the next two weeks until Sarah, Hamish and boys can move back over.

From 28th Feb we will be back permanently and everything will be as normal.

However dispatch hours will be restricted (8-11am only, Mon-Fri) for the next two weeks until we get there.

Halfway: Better than a kick in the pants.

Wash 110!

110 hot washes down, 90 hot washes to go. Plus hot dries of course… It’s rather laborious but we’re pleased with some of what we’re seeing so far, and at the end of this part of the process, we’ll be one big step closer to our new PUL supplier. Yay that!

And in the meantime, if nothing else, at least we’re keeping the detergent industry in business

Odds & Ends gone live

258 new odds and ends listings have gone live today.
Hamish will be listing the rest of the odds & ends we have here from 4am tomorrow (Weds) morning, and then that cleans us right out of odds and ends, with no more to be listed until new shipments of fabric arrive next year

When the piles start closing in on us…

they’re folded, labelled and listed, with crates of odds and ends tucked in every nook and cranny, under shelves

In walkways

And all over the show

They’re priced to clear because we can’t wait to get them out of here!

Pre-Christmas Sale On Now

From now until 10pm Saturday 27th November, we have the following items on sale:

 

50% off WHITE SUEDECLOTH – last batch in odds & ends

30% off HEMP FLEECE

30% off CLEAR ELASTIC

30% off MICROFIBRE INSERTS

30% off COLOURED FOE (NOT MATT OR WHITE)

20% off Coloured Suedecloth (Not White)

20% off Coloured Hook & Loop (Not White or Black)

5% off MARKERS, CUTTERS, & THREAD

5% off COTTON VELOUR

5% off ENTIRE SNAP SECTION including PRESSES / DIE SETS

Enjoy!

Bamboo!

The bamboo showed up a day early – this morning. I despise having to go and borrow a forklift to get pallets off a truck while the driver stands around waiting for me to magic one up, and worse I can’t drive a forklift myself so I have to grovel for someone to drive it for me too. For this reason we always try and organise shipments to arrive when Hamish is going to be here.

But the best laid plans can run awry and he’s not back from Asia until tomorrow, so this morning I was cursing my utterly unkempt appearance as the truck unexpectedly pulled up and I had to run next door with my damsel in distress act. If I’d known I’d have to be playing the damsel today, I’d at least have put mascara on. Perhaps even brushed my hair.

Anyways… here it is!!

And not only is it HERE a day early, but I managed to get every last one of the preorders cut and out TODAY too! I know… my awesomeness astounds even me, occasionally.

And in the course of all that cutting, I got a few of each measure cut for the shelf as well. Officially back in stock Woohoo!

Happy sewing!

11 metres is an excellent thing.

10 metres of Grape Microfleece. (And D, packing orders )

1m x 4, 1/2m x 2, 3m x 1 & 2m x 1 of Grape Microfleece

Just like that, easy as pie. Yep, an 11m cutting bench is a most excellent thing.

A few photos.

For the first week of his trip I hadn’t had a photo from Hamish yet and was nagging him to start sending them through. “I just want one a day, send me one a day” I asked him.

The next morning, I woke up to 170 photos, 336MB worth.

Many were very interesting – the inside of factories, people, places, products. However a somewhat alarming number were of the hotel’s electronic toilet with remote control. Duly impressed

This morning there was another big bunch. So, I thought I better share a couple.

Outside one of the factories he’s visited, a very familiar site – vege garden for staff’s onsite meals. He says almost all of the factories have vege gardens squeezed in wherever there’s a spare patch of dirt. Awesome!

KAM, where we get our snaps, isn’t a factory, it’s a mini-city!

And on the left hand side of this photo of the main office, where all the office girls are working, is a fish pond.

Uh, with a chopped up goat sitting randomly next to it. Glad it was him not me on that particular visit – vege gardens in the workplace are more my thing!

The famous Textile Fair is so big it is in two separate buildings – with a covered bridge between the two.

Too shopped-out to walk over a bridge? Drive a funky wee car over it instead then

Fabric-fabric-fabric-fabric-fabric

Plastic-plastic-plastic-plastic-plastic-plastic

Snap press-Snap press-Snap press-Snap press

FOE-FOE-FOE-FOE-FOE-FOE

“A warm welcome to the gusets from all countries and regions attending the 108th session of China Import and Export Fair”. Misspellings are that much more awesome when the sign is 12 foot wide aren’t they? But the sentiment is nice nonetheless.

And he certainly has been made welcome. A smooth trip so far