Week Eight - Dying

Week Six - Sewing continues.

Week Five - Sewing has begun.

15th April 2022. 

Week Four - Preparing Your Jacket for Sewing.

Now that every piece of your jacket has been cut, all those individual pieces need to be prepared before they get sewn together and start to resemble your jacket.

Preparations include folding, pressing and overlocking the insides of every pocket so they stay neat and don't fray after years of wearing.

Before the hip pockets are attached, the limited edition label is sewn in. It's a tricky one this time because the characters in the illustration are purposely upside down. If you imagine sewing in over 750 labels upside down, that's quite the task!

Next, the top collar and under collar are sewn together, then turned the right way around and carefully pointed.

Likewise for the cuffs.

The two front pieces of every jacket are carefully marked with temporary ink, so the team know exactly where to sewn every pocket, and the hem height all the way around. The front facings are prepared too, where your buttons and button holes will be in a matter of weeks.

(And don't worry, all the pen marks that are made on the jackets at this stage come out in the wash! They're just there to help to make sure every part is accurate.)

Side note - The pressing / ironing roles don't normally get much of the lime light in factories, but it's such an important stage of preparation. It's easy to be heavy handed with the iron and stretch or change the shape of something, so if it's not done right it can change the fit or details of the jacket. It requires a lot of care and attention so that when the pockets are sewn onto the jacket, they all look as they're intended to.

Week Three - Collar Preparations.

1st April 2022.

See that zig-zag stitching underneath your collar? This week every collar has been prepared just down the road at our embroidery partner, see how that happens via the video below. 

Week Two - Cutting Your Corduroy.

25th March 2022.

This week your jacket has been cut. Counting up every piece from the cuffs to the hang loop, there are over 20 pieces that make up your jacket, so for the whole Batch that's over 19,000 pieces. Whoa. Here's Mario in the factory doing one of the many things he does best...

The process is a complex one.

First, the head of pattern making and grading creates the cut plan. That means working out how each pattern piece will be cut from the 1.5m wide fabric, with as little waste as possible.

It’s important that every piece of your jacket is cut from the same roll of fabric, so that they react in the exact same way when they’re dyed.

Once the cut plan is loaded into the machine and the corduroy held into position, cutting begins.

Once each size is completely cut, the individual pieces are laid out and labelled by their size, so no piece goes missing.

You'll notice every piece is white despite us not selling a single corduroy jacket in white... but don't worry, we'll be sewing your jacket together before it's dyed, then it will go through a 'garment dye' phase at the end. Doing this means we're able to have the exact amount of fabric woven in white that's ready to dye, before knowing which colours and sizes each of you will order on release day, so it's a great way to minimise wastage in our production process.

Week One - The Beginning.

18th March 2022. 

Before we jump into the making of your jacket, we just wanted to thank you for being part of Batch No.11.

You are one of the crazy people, in one of 41 countries who backed our Italian Corduroy Chore Jacket. Thank you!

Let's jump straight in.

There are two parts to Paynter. There's the jacket and there's the journey. You've ordered the jacket, so now you get to see the journey.

Over the coming weeks, we'll be showing you the behind the scenes of your jacket being made. 

We physically couldn't be closer to our clothes. But right now we're so disconnected with our wardrobe. We have no idea where the majority of our clothes have come from, where they were made, by whom, with what materials, in what conditions, how they were designed, how to look after them and even what to do with them once their time is up. 

What we're going to do over the next few weeks is close that gap.

You'll be getting to know the jacket that's being made for you. From start to finish. But to be able to show you the journey takes time. It's the reason why we only launch 4 times a year, so we can take the time to show you every step of the way. 

By the time your jacket arrives with you, we hope that instead of just having a physical relationship with your clothing, it will be a meaningful one too. 

There's going to be a lot to show you, and we'll be sharing each step of the way until your jacket is made and ready to send to you.

The first week of making is never our most visual! Much more thinking, planning and plotting than cutting or sewing.

It's very much about everyone within the manufacturing process getting their ducks in a row and gearing up for what comes next.

The pattern department have started plotting out the pattern for your jacket, trying to find the most efficient way to cut your jacket to minimise waste. (It's like a very technical game of Tetris.)

The fabric is being shrink tested to make sure it's consistent across every roll of fabric. The buttons have just arrived from Italy where they were being made by Cobrax. And the labels are being woven a few miles down the road by Pedro and his team.

Next week, once everything has been planned and signed off, the cutting begins!

If there's anything you'd like to know about the jacket making process or anything you'd like to see over the next few weeks, please reply to this email and we'll do our best to make it happen. 

Huw and Becky.