Our New (Temporary) Work Space

Things have been wild (to put it lightly) in the world of Nikolette this month. We are refreshing our color offerings, working on sprucing up the website, and on top of all that we moved! The move was less than a mile away, but it was still just as much work as moving across town. Especially when you have a 300 - 400 pound industrial sewing machine in tow! It took 3 of us to move it and even then it was quite difficult - and all three of us work out regularly!
The new work space is temporary, probably just for the summer. Then we will be moving on to a more permanent place.

The old work room was basement level and quite spacious.

The big white box? Its a light box for photographing bags.

That is one quadrant of the space. I had a sewing area, cutting area, and work bench area for hammering rivets. It wasn't glamorous, but it was roomy!
One major drawback though was that is was often FREEZING down there! I ended up cutting and sewing in a very contained area around my space heater all winter long.

The new space is working fine, though I don't have the space I used to.

As you can see it's a little tight, but everything is within reach. I am cutting and storing fabric in another room, so the trips back and forth are going to get old, but again - its not forever.

We have a goal to have the prettied up website live by 5/1/12 with most of the new colors. There may be a few stragglers. Until then... !

Updates on Everything

Those are some red fellas ready to go in the shop. Cell phone pics never do anything justice!
We've been working alot lately on streamlining production. You may have noticed a few lower prices in the shop and that is why.
Some helpful steps have been minimizing vendors. We now get all of our canvas from one supplier instead of several and all our hardware comes from one place etc. This minimizes delivery costs and allows bulk pricing, which in turn allows us to shave a little off the top of our prices!
I've also been playing around with how the bags are actually made. If I can make them faster then there is less labor to be factored in. I've found a few little tricks, but more on that once I really get it figured out.
We're working on a little fresher-upper on the website for you guys. New season... new look. Plus maybe a new style or two, exciting!
Until then, keep it classy!