{"id":1980,"date":"2015-01-12T09:53:07","date_gmt":"2015-01-12T15:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/homesteademporium.wordpress.com\/?p=1980"},"modified":"2016-08-06T10:58:14","modified_gmt":"2016-08-06T16:58:14","slug":"the-making-of-a-product","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/2015\/01\/12\/the-making-of-a-product\/","title":{"rendered":"The making of a product here at the Homestead Emporium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>*This is a repost of an older blog post from when we were still back\u00a0on the West Coast, we&#8217;ve since moved to the prairies but not much has changed except our work space is completely different, and Alesia no longer works\u00a0for me, Julia does now, along with the occasional help from Elsa. Shaylah helps where she can too. The girls are no longer little as in the photos, but 15 &amp; 17.\u00a0I\u00a0also\u00a0have another helper, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eveningdesign.com\/\">Wendy<\/a>, who does all our product\u00a0listings and webwork with the help of her fantastic husband Ryan.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>The making of a product, in photos and a few words, here on the blog.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The very first step is to wash, and then dye, the top layer fabrics. Mostly bamboo velour, but sometimes organic cotton velour, bamboo fleece and even silk. I also wash &amp; dry all the inner fabrics, a couple of\u00a0times, on hot, to ensure they will not shrink after we have created our products, and you&#8217;ve received them!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/homesteademporium.smugmug.com\/photos\/i-HsLnJBv\/0\/M\/i-HsLnJBv-M.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"324\" height=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This is one of my favorite parts. Time consuming, yes, but oh SO much fun!<br \/>\nI LOVE playing with color!<\/p>\n<p>Once the fabric is dyed, I cut out each and every top layer. The prettiest part of the pad!<br \/>\nJulia has begun helping with this part now, but we usually kind of argue over who gets to cut the pad tops that week. We both love the job, especially when we have dyed new fabrics! It is so rewarding to be a part of\u00a0beautiful fabrics become products!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/homesteademporium.smugmug.com\/photos\/1189742369_byDMN-M-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"299\" height=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n<p>From there,\u00a0Julia\u00a0cuts the inner layers and the backing layers.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/homesteademporium.smugmug.com\/photos\/1189743126_jcjxu-M-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"358\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I let her know which backing layer is needed for each top cut, and away she goes, leaving me with something that looks like this.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/homesteademporium.smugmug.com\/photos\/1195079401_H5jN8-M.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"347\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then I sew up each one. Sewing and serging where needed!<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/homesteademporium.smugmug.com\/photos\/i-RFgVSvm\/1\/M\/i-RFgVSvm-M.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"509\" height=\"405\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Until I have a nice big stack that looks something like this!<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/homesteademporium.smugmug.com\/photos\/1206474750_MLwfg-M.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"359\" \/><\/p>\n<p>From there, the snaps are put on by our son, usually each Wednesday. He works 8-10 Monday to Friday as a heavy duty mechanic apprentice and often has other jobs working for farmers etc. so occasionally I have to wait until he has time&#8230; I am blessed to have his help though, so I try not to complain. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/homesteademporium.smugmug.com\/photos\/1206476835_MmxnA-M.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"527\" height=\"405\" \/><br \/>\nThreads are snipped off , Elsa usually does this job, along with using a lint roller to make sure all the fluffs from the cut fabrics are cleaned off.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" style=\"border-color: initial; border-style: initial;\" src=\"http:\/\/homesteademporium.smugmug.com\/photos\/1189746715_5nSHj-M-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"299\" height=\"450\" \/><br \/>\nSnaps are\u00a0randomly tested.<br \/>\n<em>(We try our best to test every one, but some days get very busy.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/homesteademporium.smugmug.com\/photos\/1189746125_nzotm-M-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"251\" height=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After that, it&#8217;s time for photos! See my expensive set up? Ha!<br \/>\nIroning board near the window, and white poster\/card board thingy. It may not be fancy, but it works.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/homesteademporium.smugmug.com\/photos\/1206474114_62dpc-M.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"359\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The products are then put into the <a href=\"http:\/\/hyenacart.com\/stores\/HomesteadEmporium\/\" target=\"_blank\">hyenacart shop<\/a> for sale each Friday, and some make their way to our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.etsy.com\/shop\/HomesteadEmporium\" target=\"_blank\">etsy shop<\/a>\u00a0throughout the rest of the week.<\/p>\n<p>From there, once ordered by our awesome customers, they are packaged into clear bags.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/homesteademporium.smugmug.com\/photos\/1191341466_HwiTc-M-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"319\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then packaged into their poly mailers to keep everything well protected.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/homesteademporium.smugmug.com\/photos\/i-Q4N29hc\/0\/M\/i-Q4N29hc-M.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"394\" \/>Shipping and custom labels put on.<\/p>\n<p>And away they go to each of you, with an email sent off to you to let you know that your package is on it&#8217;s way!<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>And that is the making of a product (or two, or three, or two hundred), here at Homestead Emporium!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(This is a repost of an older blog post from when we were still back in BC, we&#8217;ve since moved to the prairies but not much has changed except our work space is completely different, and Alesia no longer cuts for me, but still works behind the scenes putting up all our etsy listings. I now have another helper, Heather, who does all our hyenacart listings and Julia has begun helping me with cutting now that she&#8217;s just about 13 years of age. She&#8217;s been waiting a VERY LONG TIME (in her short 13 years!) to be a bigger part of the business! I swear this girl is going to take over Homestead Emporium one day, so watch out!)<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/2015\/01\/12\/the-making-of-a-product\/\">Read more<i class=\"fa fa-arrow-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[740,741,728,137,697,159,219,343,344,346,347,357,422,698,739,423,780,733,537,539,732,540,632],"class_list":["post-1980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-womens-corner","tag-cloth-canada","tag-cloth-menstrual-pads-canada","tag-cloth-menstrual-pads-in-canada","tag-cloth-pads","tag-cloth-pads-canada","tag-creating","tag-emporium","tag-homestead","tag-homestead-emporium","tag-homesteademporium","tag-homesteademporium-com","tag-how-we-make-things","tag-menstrual-pads","tag-menstrual-pads-canada","tag-menstrual-pads-in-canada","tag-menstrual-products","tag-pads","tag-reusable-canada","tag-reusable-cloth","tag-reusable-pads","tag-reusable-pads-canada","tag-reusuable-cloth-pads","tag-the-making-of-a-product"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1980"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3854,"href":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1980\/revisions\/3854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}