How We Make Your Order - from start to finish!
We thought we'd give you a little insight behind the scenes of your orders at the Tutu Factory. We're going to take you from the beginning of the process right up to the end!
A lot of people usually think that we are a large company with a team of staff. But really we work out of the spare room of our house and in some cute little studios down the bottom of our garden!
There's only a few of us here, working long hours every day as well as running a home and what's left of a social life in the week. We hope this can help people understand better why we aren't around to answer your email instantly or why we have a 3 week processing time.
Receiving your order
Your order will be received here up in the Tutu Factory Office (found in the spare room of our house) If you've spoken to Laura before placing your order it will usually be from here unless she is working from home.
Here all of the orders are printed off individually for your postage addresses and put into our Order Book.
Once we've done that Luby writes all the orders down in the Cutting Book to be used in the Cutting Studio.
Then it's sent down the garden for the next step of the Order Process Journey.
Down to the Cutting Studio - Cutting Your Order
Now we come to the Cutting Studio/Stock Room to start on cutting your order out to be ready to sew. And it literally is down the garden path!
Down at the bottom of the garden we have a cutting room, stock room, sewing room and packing room!
The Cutting Studio is also half stock room so we have lots of accessories to go out with orders. Lots of flower crowns, legwarmers, etc. It's always over flowing with Minnie Ears. No joke!
Post It notes EVERYWHERE!
Each tutu is then wrapped up with a Post It detailing the name, date and other info such as size, how many layers, if it's part of a Group Order or if it has such things as lights, star sequins, L Plates, etc. to be added after.
Archie the Westie is usually keeping us company when we're cutting so he will request cuddles throughout the cutting process. He does prefer to be in the Sewing Room as it's a much nicer room and a lot warmer. The Cutting Studio doesn't get very warm!
(Grumpy Archie in the crappy Cutting Studio last week despite a new bed)
So, once the tutu has been cut and wrapped up with all the order info it is put into the queue over in the Sewing Room to wait to be sewn.
Over to the Sewing Room to be made to your specifications
(Yes, Archie has another bed in the Sewing Room)
Now your order will sit and wait it's turn in the Sewing Room to be sewn by our Tutu Factory Machinists (who happen to be Luby's mother Wendy and auntie)
Once the tutus (or veils, the many, many Minnie Mouse veils!) have been completed they're ready to then take into the Packing Room to pack up ready to post out. Wendy now packs all of the Tutu Factory orders as well as cutting and sewing them. Luby is now usually upstairs in the office supplying the world with Minnie Mouse ears for our sister company Luby&Lola.
Next door to the Packing Studio to be dispatched!
This is the newest addition to our 'studios' (sheds in the garden)
This is where all of the orders are packed up, ready to take off to the Post Office. Our mannequin Katy is also usually down here for last minute accessory photos (and to scare delivery men)
In this shed you will find 'Thank you' letters to include in parcels (3 different versions!) Light up tutus/veils instructions. We've got homemade address labels and lots and lots of flat pack boxes.
We also like to add pretties to our orders where possible. This is easiest for our boxed up veils.
We have lots of themed sequins, glitter as well as punches for love hearts and a Mickey shape. We also include of Fan of the Month 'Selfie Queen' note as well as a Disney quote for Minnie Mouse orders.
We like to make our Disney themed orders a little extra special so we write them out with a Walt Disney font. We just know how we would think it was cute if I'd ordered something Disney inspired and have that little extra touch so we hope you like it too!
Ready to start packing! (tea and coffee is much needed by this point!)
So, once the order has been packed up it has to marked on as 'Dispatched' on the phone. This is either on the website App, eBay or etsy. Then it's to fill in the Royal Mail Drop&Go sheet so we don't have to queue and stand while all 30+ items are scanned (And get hate glares from other customers!) Wendy also fills in a back up postage sheet just in case it doesn't go through on the App and we don't have the Drop and Go sheet back with us when the customer gets in touch for a tracking code or wondering when it was dispatched.
All done!
Once it's done it's just to take them to the Post Office. Our post has to be at the Post Office for around 4PM to be scanned and ready to go before the last collection on Mondays-Thursdays and it has to be in before 11.30AM on a Friday if we want a Saturday delivery. The fun of living in a small village!
Luby's dad usually takes the parcels to the Post Office once he's back from work. (Bless) It's a good job really as the amount of parcels we post daily really won't fit into Luby's small (but lovely) Fiat 500.
So that's a little behind the scenes info on how your order is processed and how we go about it!
Loving the 'Behind the Scenes'? We have even more for you to check out in our 'What is it like at the Tutu Factory?' post. See our little work rooms being made as we build our empire!