Sewing Induction

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 11:14:45 +0000

Sewing Induction

Tote Bag Activity

With the assistance of Emma and Jimmy The Edge has developed a Tote Bag activity as a practical/ takeaway product for our Sewing Inductions. The tote bag is easy to make, popular with the participants ( have seen alot of punters that didn't finish during the werkshop come back and finish) and has some basic branding on it.

a first draft of the instruction sheet for the tote is posted below.

Tote Prep Instructions

While the tote has the has all the above going for it… preparing the materials for this workshop is labour intensive and probably burns up the time of a couple of team members ( totaling ~ 3hrs for 10 participants)

Here's the instructions

each tote uses a piece of fabric 60 x 90cm. If roll of calico is 120cm wide, 4.5m (min) is required for 10 participants
Cut enough calico off the roll to make about 12 totes (5 or 6m) and throw it in the washing machine (preshrink) - 10 min
Spin dry Calico
Lay Calico out flat on long table and fold in half widthwise (use a couple of QwikGrip clamps to stretch it out so its)
Fold it it all up into 1m lengths along the length of the material

from - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This —

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This will provide you with a neatly folded pile of material that can come of the pile without get twisted

Set yourself up with a cardboard Ironing Board behind one of the standing benches. Have your unironed pile on one side and a space to stack an iron pile on the other side.
use Qwikgrip clamps to stretch out the folded material so its exactly in half and iron a crease down this fold and then fold all of the wash/dry creases out. use a HOT iron and plenty of steam.
As you get a bit done ( the width of the table) undo your clamps and feed more material into the “IRONING ZONE” continue using you clamps to streach it out.
As iron material comes off the IRONING ZONE neatly fold it into a pile on the other side of the table.

Once you have this all ironed head back to the long table to cut out each of the parts. you'll need the tote bag template the large green cutting board and a rotary fabric cutter

Line the side of the template marked “fold” up with the fold. Consider the fold as the point of origin.
Run the rotary blade (being careful not to cut yourself) around the other sides of the template. Make sure you dont cut the cardboard (when the CNC is up and running i'll cut another out of expanded PVC) and make sure you cut straight and and that the template stays square up against the fold.
keep the offcuts as Jimmy and Emma are always looking for remnants for the assessment parts of the workshop.
make a pen ark at each of the registration lines on the template. (this shows the participants where to cut and fold different components of the bag.
Once you have finished cutting all of these give the calico another iron to assist Talia with getting the best screenprinting outcomes possible.

Screen printing designs are here:

tote_bag_designs.zip