The Project from Hell

[Mojo]

Have you ever had one of those projects that turns into a major disaster ? Remember the fabric I cut too short last week ? Well I got the new fabric today and decided to sew my center seam tonight so I could do the beading and pockets tomorrow.

I ran the center seam and laid it out on the table and about had a frigging heart attack. The two pieces of fabric do NOT match. One is a grey and the other is no where near a match. It looks almost like olive green in color.

I will be on the horn to MiamiMike first thing in the morning. He always takes care of me and always makes things right so I am not worried about that but dang it........ I needed this like a hole in my head. I am so backed up with orders I cannot waste time screwing around with this one order.

I have 2/3rds of this job done. Now what ?? Start out with all new fabric that matches and re-sew everything ?

Has anyone ever run into this where you start a project, need more fabric, order the same exact color but find the dye and color is off ?

What did you do ?

Chris

[zanepurcell]

what are you upholstering chris?

[kodydog]

To many times to count Chris. Its what keeps this work always a challenge. Its like having just enough fabric to finish the project then finding a big old flaw right at the end. Just gotta keep on keeping on. Six months from now it will all be forgotten.

[Mojo]

what are you upholstering chris?

I am doing two Omega awning/toppers and two window awnings. I only have the large Omega to do. The rest of the order is done.

Chris

[JuneC]

Yep, and your replacement fabric for this one remaining piece will likely be the "new" color and not match the pieces you already finished.  Hopefully Mike can find enough of the old color to finish your job.  Dye lots can be a nightmare for all concerned.  Been there.  And these things ALWAYS happen when you least need them to.  Bad enough when you're not so busy, but Murphy's Law is alive and well in the needle trades. 

June

[baileyuph]

Chris, sorry to hear all this.  

Mike might have the best solution.  He can check invoice numbers and get clarity on what you need.  How long would it take for you to provide him samples of what you got and what you need?  I notice both of you are in the same state.

Dye lots lately are pretty close, from what I read. Mills are and procesors are pretty consistent on their products.  There is a reason for this and Mike is the man!

Doyle

[Mike]

what canvas is it? ive ordered the same color sunbrella to match existing old stuff up in new Hampshire I didnt see the fading you see in florida..in fact I added onto a friends cover that was a few years old and once used a bit couldn't tell it was a new addition.

[JDUpholstery]

The pontoon I am doing right now, I just finished sewing the last cushion...with 1/2 a yard of material left, when I realize that I haven't even started sewing the console! I am short! Luckily, I am also doing this customers Bimini and will install that on site later, so I will tell him I will also wrap the console on site when I get the extra material in...if its not one thing it is another right

[Mike]

I just wrapped a console last week on site it was the lower half the top had all the controls and dash and I would have had to remove all the stuff so I just did it in place saved a lot of agrivation I hate removing the cables

[mike802]

Ouch! Chris I feel your pain:  I once upholstered a large sofa, skirt, three cushion with attached back cushions.  When I got to the outside back I found out that I was one yard short, called and ordered the extra yard only to find out it was a different dye lot, nothing I could do except reupholster the whole sofa again  >:(

Now I always order a couple yards extra, just for insurance, even then I sometimes end up with just enough, to me that means I did not order enough.  The modern furniture with the huge arms can gobble up tons of fabric.

[Mojo]

The bad part with this order is that due to my brain fart of cutting the fabric too short I had to reorder more fabric. That cut my margin. Now I am going to have to order more fabric which will pretty much kill all profit for the job.

To make matters worse my first lot came out of Jacksonville - flat $ 10 ship fee. My last order came out of Cinci - $ 20 ship fee. Now I need to order more out of Cinci since my first order cleaned out Miami's stock in Jacksonville. Another $ 20 shipping fee.

Between the $ 20 shipping fees not to mention the cost of the fabric it has pretty much killed the margin for me. There is nothing I can do but remember that 99 % of my jobs go smoothly and I have some huge profit margins on everything else. This is one of those jobs where my margin was slim to begin with and I got caught with my pants down.

I hate doing these Omega awnings. If this was a slide topper I would have been golden because my margins are so large but my margins are slim on the Omegas so there is no room for screw ups.

Oh well, another day another dollar............or 25 cents in this case. :)

Chris

[Gregg @ Keystone Sewing]

Have you ever had one of those projects that turns into a major disaster?

Chris

Nope never!  Did I mention that sarcasm does not come across well through text!

[sofadoc]

In reference to this topic's title, I guess it shouldn't surprise me that Satan owns a gas guzzling RV. After all, he has an "In" with all the oil companies.