The Sewing Department
Sophia had to admit that the sewing machines were by far her favorite.
As a woman, she had always taken a lot of time to hand-sewn her husband's clothes, as well as her children's clothes.
But with the help of sewing machines, the time spent sewing had reduced drastically.
The black colored sewing machines, where attached to tables that had leg paddles at the bottom.
Again, the workers couldn't see or understand the interior workings of the machine, since it was shielded with the black metallic casing.
So it basically looked like the portable sewing machines back on earth.. the only difference was that this one was attached to a table.
All the workers could see was the table, the sewing machine attached to the table, the place for putting the thread and needles... as well as the leg paddle at the bottom of the table.
At the center of the table just beneath the sewing machine, there was a rectangular metal slab attached to the table.
This slab was put there, so that the needle head wouldn't dig into the wooden table when sewing.
The table itself looked like an office table, having drawers on it's right and left ends side.
The right side drawers were used by the workers to place their measuring tapes, rulers, needles, threads, pins, chalk, scissors, size charts, and other necessary tools and guidelines needed for sewing.
As for the left side drawer, the pulley system which connected the sewing machine to the leg paddle was also enclosed within it.
Of course, this particular drawer would always be kept locked, and the keys were placed at Chief Sophia's office.
These particular drawers could only be opened if the pulley system needed maintenance, or repairs.
On the sewing machine, there was also a switch that said 'On' and 'Off' on it.
To turn the machine on, the workers simply had to flip the switch upwards... And for turning off the machine, the switch would be flipped downwards.
Within the machine, there was a latch mechanism that stopped the pulleys from working when the machine was off.
In this way even if the workers pressed the leg paddles a hundred times without flipping the switch, it would never work.
As for the workers, all they knew was that once they flipped the switch and moved the paddle, the sewing machine would start working.
Again, everyone was impressed by the size charts that their king had come up with.
Right now in this era, sewing was really frustrating.
One could sew a pair of pants for their loved ones, and only later realise that the thigh region was too tight, or the waist was too big.. and sometimes, even the butt region got too tight as well.
It was really infuriating because these people had to sew and redo the same things over and over again without any guidelines.... that's why people that made clothing items were scared of mass production.
So normally, tailors would visit their clients over 10 times, just to measure the items again.
The only clothing items that were mass produced generally had big sizes, and rarely fitted people's bodies well.
But with the size charts, things were now several times easier for them.
For clothing, there were 3 main size charts that catered to different genders and needs.... These size charts were for men, women and children.
Back on earth, Extra large had their own Size charts, but Landon had decided that he didn't want to separate them from the masses.
For example if an extra large man wanted to find their size, it would still be seen under the men's size chart.
Instead of the size chart ending at Extra large Landon had made it end at Triple extra large.
Although in this era, the largest Landon had ever seen was a Double extra large person.. and they were very few.
With people constantly, farming, working and fighting... only the spoiled nobles, and a few peasants really got fat.
These people burned a ton of calories a day from work or from knighthood... and little things like illnesses and constant health issues, wouldn't even let them get fat.
On all size charts, there were general sizes like extra small, medium, Double extra large and many more.
As well as specific sizes like size 'BM 00' (Baymard size 00).... BM 0... BM 3, and so on.
On the size guide, the workers could easily see the connection between the general and specific sizes.
For example, they could easily see that BM 0 up to BM 1, fell under the 'XS' (Extra small) category.
Again on the size chart, each size had bust, waist and hip measurements... As well as different sections like: Tops, Bottoms, Jackets and so on there.
There were also specifications for sleeve and pants length.
Also for other items like beddings, there were size charts which showed measurements for queen, king, Twin, Twin XL, baby Cribs and full size beds.
In fact even towels, table cloths and so on, had their own size charts... that's why Sophia had divided the workers into several groups.
Only those that made beddings like pillow cases, would use the size charts for beddings.
And those that were in charge of clothing, would only access the size charts for clothing.
Within the Sewing departments, there was also a specific group that was in charge of making size tags that would be placed at the back of all clothing items.
For now, the Size tags showed: the size (king size), material (example wool), item name (shirt), and the words 'Made in Baymard' on them.
Of course the words at the back of the label depended on whether the item was a pillowcase, blanket, jacket or even a table cloth.
These words were stitched on the price tags.. and once they were made, they were distributed to those in charge of sewing clothes, bedsheets and so on.
The sewing department was by far the busiest department within the Textile industry, so Sophia assigned more people here.