This week I got introduced to the rotatory cutting wheel and now I don’t know why I have never used one before! Yes it does mean having a large cutting mat area and I did manage to cut my finger on one of my attempts… but now I find it so easy to use for fabric cutting and it has definitely sped up the cutting process. I think that I will definitely be investing in one of these for my own work.
Another new thing that I learnt to do at the start of this week was how to invoice. I needed to do my own invoicing for the month as well as providing a helping hand with the company invoices. Previously the only experience I have had with claiming back expenses had been simple, just sending receipts; but for this I had to follow the company's format and then create my own invoice template. With this being my first time doing this sort of work, I made sure to go through it all slowly to make sure that I was doing everything correctly and I was pleased to have everything checked as I went along.
One of my main projects for the rest of the week was button sourcing. We needed urgent buttons for two projects for Paris, but the current supplier didn’t have the correct sizes needed, so it was down to me to hunt a new supplier down. I started my search back at London Trimmings, but with no luck, I went into central London to Soho. I’d never thought to source trimmings in the Soho area so it was interesting finding all of the different shops that were around there, including MacCulloch and Wallis which was amazing inside! Although the hunt ended up taking me over into the following day, I managed to find the perfect buttons and I enjoyed the feeling of accomplishing something by myself. I also got to travel across London towards the O2 Arena, where one of the sample makers is located. Although they now complete some of our more urgent samples, they are originally a bridal studio, so it again was a different environment to be in and seeing all of the gorgeous dresses hanging around the studio was a bonus too! It also gave me another contact to add to my list of every growing people I am meeting in the industry.
Thursday was the leaving day for Paris and with nearly everyone on the early morning Euro Star, it meant I was in charge of getting the final items to Sophie, who was waiting at the station for the early afternoon train. At the time the problems we hit seemed impossible to overcome, but with my neck on the line, there was no giving up. I was over in Ealing waiting on two parcels, due to arrive at 10.30, but with one of them nowhere to be seen, we began to hit problem after problem. I have never found an automated voice message so annoying until now and after being on hold for what felt like forever, I gave up and jogged over to talk to them in person. It was only about 10 minutes away so we all agreed that we might be able to grab the parcel from there, but upon arrival we got told it had left 20 minuets ago and should have been delivered! That was when the panic set in... Alongside this, the Ealing studio team were working on completing shirt labels for me to also take. These weren’t urgent but now with the extra time gained, the decision was made for me to take them all, with another jog, now to ASDA in search of a case to carry all 40 shirts in! Luckily at the very last minute before we ran out of time the parcel appeared and I jumped into a Uber, willing the traffic to play ball and I reached St Pancras with moments to spare! It was a crazy few hours, but at the same time the experience was a great learning curve, seeing just how tight deadlines in the industry can be. As a bonus I even got a workout from it all!
After such a hectic day I was glad that with the team being away, I got to work from home the following day; giving me a chance to catch up with emails and technical files ready for the team to have over in Paris for the sales appointments the following week.
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