The tote bags featured here are a good example of my product development process. The top one is the full boat, all the bells and whistles version. It has three zippers, pockets on all sides and in the interior. It has an interior partition that I'm not sure is relevant. I added adjustable straps, which add to the look. As a gift item it rocks. People love it. It takes several hours just to cut out the pieces, an entire day to sew if you're speedy, and that doesn't include the time it takes to fuse the Pellon 809 interfacing to just about all of the parts. Clearly I don't stand of chance of being able to make one and pay myself more than someone in a factory in China.
The tote bag, below, is my prototype streamlined bag. I make prototypes of all my products so that I can gauge the amount of time it takes to produce the item and figure out which features give back value and which can be cut. My first decision in doing my prototype was to eliminate all the zippers. Phew! I hate sewing zippers! Like any sewing skill, it is one you have to do constantly to be good at and if your seam wobbles just a little, your bag will not look like a professional sewing job, which is absolutely necessary if you are going to sell anything. In some of the prototypes - I did more than one - I also eliminated the back pocket. I had found in using the bag that I didn't use the pocket, so away it went. I also eliminated the ties on the side pockets because I found that I never had to cinch in the pockets when I put a water bottle in them, so they were unnecessary. The interior pockets were time consuming to make, especially the central interior divide. So away they went, also. The result here is a very pruned down bag, but one that is still cute. I can sew up three of these in a day, which still puts the price a little high for some consumers.
The next step in the process is to determine whether I should be adding some features back in and where the price points are. In order to get top dollar, I have to be able to show that this bag is either special because it has features you want or its so cute the consumer will purchase it anyway. One of the features that I may add back in is the additional zipper compartment on the front pocket. Its cute. I don't really use it. I may add ONE interior pocket because the inside looks naked without it. The back pocket is also cute and some people may use it to stash newspapers. Feedback from my Beta testers has indicated they want the top zipper back. In a car, driving down the road, (when closed!) it keeps the junk from spilling everywhere. If I add the zipper back in, I will upsize the scale of it making more of a design statement. Ordinary dress zippers look a bit whimpy.
This leaves my next task at seeing if I can sew three of the enhanced versions in one day. I am concerned that I may have added too many features back in. Below is my baby diaper bag. Isn't it cute? I have enough fabric to make aproximately 4 or 5, so we'll see how we do at parsing out the steps and doing them in batches. More about my assembly line in a future post. Let's just say no one is sleeping in that bed once I start!
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