Outfitting the wallpaper factory for fabric sample production

The day has finally come! Our first fabric offering is available to the trade! We couldn't be happier.  

The days and months leading up to the receiving the material had my head churning with ideas on how to outfit the wallpaper factory for fabric sample production.

There are very specific tools required none of which I had so I took to eBay!

Did you know you can buy antique mill works on eBay? I started first with a pinking machine. There was a cast iron beauty from the late 1800's available .. if you've ever used pinking shears you know why I needed to have this!   This beautiful  hand crank mechanism is going to save me time and arthritis!! 

Following that was a measure graph from the 1910's I found. I was pretty sure this wouldn't work but it was beautiful and worth the risk.. I won the auction and it arrived and what do you know: IT WORKS.. probably nearly as good as new! I'll need to build an adjustable frame for it to move in and out of use... it weighs a ton!

​The next relic from industry past is the industrial merrow machine (probably 1950s) I won from Allentown PA. It's arriving to the shop after Labor Day and I can't wait to test it out and see how good it works. It's going to have to be the work horse of all the tools because it's going to make a mountain of memo samples! It weighs a ton and costs more for freight across country than I won it for but if it's true and in good working order I will be very lucky indeed to have such a fine machine. 

In the month or so ahead my filmmaker is coming to make a movie about these machines being repurposed in our shop.. I do hope to share that footage with you of our little home grown factory mill in action! So stay tuned!!