The nearest we get to mass production....

Everything we make in The Workshop is individually made, no two items identical unless for some reason they have been ordered that way - for example a pair of cushions.
Sometimes, however, we do make a lot of the same thing, it's just that they all turn out different from each other. For example, over the last couple of days, the embroidery machine has been hard at work embroidering little celtic designs onto small pieces of Harris Tweed that we turn into keyrings.

We make two types of keyring - a basic small fob that on one side says "Made in the Highlands" and on the other has a Celtic knot - and a small zip purse keyring that has a Celtic knot and a Harris Tweed label.

This week we made 100 of the small keyrings and 60 of the purse keyrings and no two are the same. There may be a few made with the same tweed, but they will be stitched with different colours of embroidery thread and with different knotwork designs.
When we make things in these quantities we do our best to streamline the processes so we can make them efficiently. However, we still give a lot of attention to detail and it is this that makes our products so popular.

Today, Mary made up the small keyrings. You can see her here sorting out the colours prior to stitching the tweed together onto the split ring.
Rachel and I did the keyring purses between us. I did the preparatory work - stitching tape onto the ends of the zips, cutting the webbing for the tab and heat sealing the ends so they don't unravel in use. Rachel put everything together and as they came off her sewing machine, I turned them right way out and pressed them flat.

A good team effort - and as we were working, a shop that we supply (Lael Crafts Gallery near Ullapool - click here to visit their facebook page) sent an email ordering 30 keyring purses......

Rachel concentrating on her sewing

Ruth taping the zips

melting the ends of the webbing

component pieces pressed and ready to sew

zig-zagging the edges so that nothing will fray

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Our Textiles Workshop at Inchmore

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