Volume 9: Home Chapter 311 Daily Work of the Winged Clan
Xiao Yun had the confidence to build the Grand Canal with a base of only tens of thousands of people. The biggest reason for this was that the emergence of agricultural machinery freed up a lot of laborers who were tied to the farmland.
Even for humans on Earth whose civilization has entered the stage of industrialization and technological advancement, agriculture is still the foundation of all countries on Earth. This world is no exception... Whoever has a full granary has the right to speak loudly. This is a truth harder than diamonds!
But... then again, the population of Fire City is still too small. Even if it absorbs nearly 20,000 bear heads, it is still tight. Arranging more than 10,000 people (including 9,000 bears) to repair the canal is already the limit. If they want to withdraw more people, the internal operation of Fire City will be in trouble.
So, all the high-ranking officials of Huoyan City were looking eagerly towards the east, hoping that the Beast King could send some more manpower as soon as possible... ahem!
The Winged Clan patients, who had been recuperating for almost a month, had almost recovered. Xiao Yun did not dare to let these fragile birdmen, who were thin and less cold-resistant than human female workers, run around in the cold wind like the Fox, Tea Bear and Lion Clan. Of course, their labor would not be wasted - the woolen mill and its subordinate blanket factories and garment factories, whose production efficiency dropped to 20% after most of the female workers returned to their hometowns for the winter, needed them to contribute!
The door of the garment factory workshop, which had been closed for more than two months, was opened again, and the "clicking" sound of the sewing machines was heard again from the workshop...
The head of the garment factory, Sherda, sat at her workstation and instructed the Winged Tribe members who were learning around her, patiently demonstrating to the students: "Sew the sleeves from the inside like this, and cut the thread ends cleanly, leaving no threads behind... This kind of shirt is made for ordinary citizens of the human race. The collar, cuffs, and front should have a border of the same color. Just by adding these borders, a shirt can be sold for at least ten more copper coins."
"This round-neck pullover is targeted at farmers. You see, because more hemp thread is used than cotton thread during weaving, the fabric quality is lower than that of a shirt. It doesn't feel very good to the touch, and it is only dyed the cheapest indigo blue, but it is very strong. For this kind of pullover, the edge around the collar should be this black strip of cloth, which makes the clothing look beautiful overall and is resistant to dirt."
"Okay, take turns to try, start with hemming, and if there is no problem, try sewing." After Sheldon finished the demonstration, he stood up, encouraged a Winged Clan member to sit at the workstation, and instructed him to operate the sewing machine.
The garment industry in this world... to be honest, it's really not that good. Except for the elves who live longer and have relatively abundant resources, other races, let alone dwarves, orcs, or sea people, only the top group of people are qualified to pick and choose clothing styles. Most people wear whatever they have...
Well, this is not surprising. If it weren’t for the monster of New China that entered the clothing industry and produced more than half of the world’s ready-made clothes in one go, most of the world’s middle and lower classes would not have the conditions to throw away old clothes one by one. (Many elderly people have the habit of collecting old clothes and old bedding because they have experienced the era of textile shortages)
Otherwise, why would the Americans change their tune from free trade to trade protectionism?
Due to the limited population base and raw material supply, Huoyan City cannot dream of dominating the entire continent's clothing industry, but it is no problem to make ready-made clothes based on its own textile industry to generate income... Although the cost of making ready-made clothes using wool-woven cotton cloth (actually cotton and linen blended, graded according to the amount of cotton contained) is a bit high in the absence of synthetic fibers, it is better than selling pure wool. (Some petty bourgeoisie who have nothing better to do hate synthetic fibers, but the problem is that if there are no synthetic fibers, these petty bourgeoisie may not be able to afford a few pieces of clothing a year)
The hands of the Winged Tribe are their wings, and their feet are their claws, which means... The Winged Tribe is a very peculiar race with very dexterous hands and feet. In addition, they are naturally endowed with strong spatial imagination as they have the ability to fly. They use sewing machines to sew the pieces of cloth cut according to the white lime marks in the tailoring workshop into clothes. This job is like tailor-made for them. The Winged Tribe sitting at the workstation took a few minutes of experimenting and adapting to the job before they could sew the edges smoothly. Problems such as skipped stitches and stitching have never occurred.
Sheldah picked up the other party's trial product in amazement and looked at it over and over again, but could not find any fault with it!
"It's amazing. You can sew so neatly, just like a skilled worker who has been working for several years!" Sheldon praised with a thumbs up in amazement. The Winged Clan member, who was a little nervous at first, blushed at her praise.
As a woman who dared to cross the sea with her daughter to make a living on the land of an alien race, although Shelda had no chance to show herself in the first thirty years of her life, she was indeed a woman of great courage and daring. She was not afraid that the new Winged Tribe members would waste fabric, and immediately asked them to sew clothes.
So, Shelda received a great surprise - after a Winged Clan member carefully sewed a low- to medium-end white cotton shirt, he felt unsatisfied and asked Shelda if he could give him wider fabric for the sleeves. He wanted to try to sew the kind of puff sleeves that he had seen human merchants wearing.
"Can you do this?!" Shelda asked in amazement.
"That nice puffy effect, as I remember, was achieved by folding the edges. If the sleeve fabric was cut wider on the upper arm, I think it should work." The Winged Tribe man with a Mohawk hairstyle said cautiously.
Without saying anything, Shelda immediately went to the tailoring workshop and got a piece of cloth. The puff sleeve shirt was the favorite style of the nobles, and many middle-class families and relatively well-off citizens followed suit. If puff sleeves could be made, the price of the shirt would increase by at least twenty, no, thirty copper coins! (The customer group was not the middle class or the nobles, but just the citizens who pursued fashion. Even if the shirt was not very close-fitting, some people would still pay for it...)
That night, the lantern-sleeved shirt made by the novice sewing apprentice from the Wing Clan was placed in front of Xiao Yun.
Sheldon, who had specially brought the shirt to him to see, looked at him eagerly.
Xiao Yun didn't think puff sleeves were pretty at all, and even thought they were stupid... But since they were being sold to the human kingdom anyway, it would be fine as long as the customers were willing to pay for them. He immediately said, "Let's make 3,000 pieces first, and then send them to Isaac to test the waters. If they're popular, we can increase production."
"Yeah!" Shelda nodded excitedly, then picked up the shirt and prepared to tell the Wing Clan students the good news.
"Hey, wait a minute." Xiao Yun stopped her, "Since you can make puff sleeves, and as you said, it's not difficult for the Winged Tribe to make this, then we can also make a batch of pleated skirts and send them to Isaac together with the puff sleeves to see the market reaction."
As a classic skirt style that has never been popular on Earth, Xiao Yun felt that this kind of skirt should be able to be made - he had not considered it before because making pleats was a bit time-consuming and labor-intensive. After all, the rich people would definitely not wear ready-made clothes that were mass-produced and only had a few standard models (not particularly fitted). They specialized in the lower-class market and could not afford to waste manpower.
Since the Winged Tribe is so talented in doing this kind of delicate work, it must not be wasted!
After handing the matter over to Shelda, Xiao Yun turned around and busy himself with other things, quickly forgetting this little episode.
It was not until four days later that Shelda, with two Winged Tribe members, came to him with beaming faces after dinner to hand in her "homework".
When Xiao Yun saw the three pleated skirt samples produced by the Wing Clan, he was completely stunned!
As I said, the garment industry in Huoyan City specializes in the grassroots market and makes money by volume, so in terms of style, dyeing, and tailoring, as long as they are acceptable and can be sold, they are not very particular.
The style and tailoring can be learned from the forest elves through Evelyn, and the dyeing is quite casual - either indigo, or the simplest three primary colors, or white and black...
Dyeing wool yarn and wool materials is all for the purpose of making handicrafts with higher profits. The cheap ready-made clothes can’t be sold at a high price anyway, so why bother?
And even under such "simple" conditions, the Wing Clan actually made three quite beautiful pleated skirts - one had layers of wavy hems sewn with cut-off scraps of cloth below the knees, one used red, yellow, blue and white cloth to create a beautiful color scheme and then made into a pleated skirt, and the last one was even more amazing, as the Wing Clan directly took the cloth and dyed it themselves, making blue and white stripes and then made it into pleats!
After picking up the three skirts and looking at each one carefully, Xiao Yun thought about it and called Evelin over.
“Hmm? What beautiful skirts!” Evelin couldn’t let go of the three skirts as soon as she arrived, and happily tried them on herself, “Teacher, is this for me? I like it so much!”
"What are you thinking about? It's a sample from a garment factory." Gu Zhusheng Xiao Yun waved his hand in disdain. "Try it on and see how it works. If there's no problem, let the Wing Tribe produce it in batches."
Evelyn: “…”
Sheldar looked at Xiao Yun with a strange expression...
Seeing the two ladies' mouths twitching, Xiao Yun slapped his head and finally realized his straight male behavior: "Well...you can wear it if you like, but don't forget to pay with Shelda."
Evelyn & Sheldah: "..."
The two ladies said nothing, but they were thinking in their hearts: If this guy was an elf/human, he would be single for the rest of his life.
Evelin didn’t even bother to change her clothes, she just put the skirt on, and once the skirt was on, her dissatisfaction with Xiao Yun immediately disappeared: “This kind of skirt doesn’t need a supporting crinoline to look good, and the horizontal row of buttons on the waist is also a good design, it can be worn by people who are fat or thin. Is this inspired by the belt?”
The Wingman who designed the waist buttons nodded with a smile: "Buttons arranged like this can fasten the belt and can also be used as waist decoration. It would be great if we could make small glass balls into buttons. Plastic buttons are also bright in color, but not shiny enough." (Birdmen love shiny things)
"Yes, it would be so beautiful if there was a row of small glass balls around the belt!" Evelyn's eyes lit up.
"Huh? Won't it be uncomfortable?" Xiao Yun frowned and interrupted.
This time, Evelyn, Shelda, and the two Winged Tribes all stared at him.
Xiao Yun: "Uh... whatever kind of glass buttons you want, you can go to the glass factory and order them."
The four of them stopped staring at him and continued to discuss with Evelyn how to improve this skirt that did not require a crinoline (a crinoline made of steel or bamboo was beyond the affordability of ordinary citizens and was very inconvenient and could not be used for housework) to make it more eye-catching.
Xiao Yun had no interest in this kind of thing. He lowered his head and flipped through the annual expenditure summary sent by Xuehua. As they talked more and more excitedly, he raised his head and knocked on the table: "Don't even think about the pearl buttons and lace. The price of this kind of skirt sold to ordinary citizens is at most four or five silver coins. With such a high cost, who do you want to sell it to?"
"..." Evelyn looked at him expressionlessly, then turned to Shelda and the two Winged Clan tailor masters, "Shall we go to my room to discuss this?"
