Making patterns

This year I found myself and my family had lots of extra time on our hands.  The Corona Virus has given us lots of more time to work around the house.  This has been great for our home because we have improved many needed areas and it has been great for our summer because now we will have more time to go out and enjoy it.  Hopefully, the country does open back up soon, but if not this is a really great time to create, build, and explore new hobbies.  So my wife and I have decided to create a new product while we are trapped inside. This has been a crazy process but it has been fun and kept us busy.

The first thing we did was to create an idea.  We got a useful idea in our head that we believed many people needed and that there was not a proper item to fill that need in existence.  Once we wrapped out head around this plan, the idea soon came.  We found a need that was not filled and found it was not patented either. 

From this point on we then created a plan for it.  We started to build the dimensions of the product and what it would be made out of.  The goal is to make it look really good so this was a painstaking process.  We started on the computer to sketch out the idea. Then once we were thrilled with the initial plans we needed to build a real outline pattern of it.  So we went to the closet and grabbed shipping supplies and wrapping paper to make a pattern to create the product.  It did take a little while to measure and cut it all correctly.  Lots of tape was needed  to hold things together, so I did make a few extra trips to gather more shipping supplies. From that point on we were on the way to making the first prototype.

Getting the pattern was really important because it allows us to use real materials only on the actual prototype.  The materials are simply more expensive that paper and tape, so remember to put your product together accordingly and not waste money on good materials when paper and tape will do. Finally after many weeks we had a working prototype and were able to test it.  It was a great journey and we hope to start an actual business out of the work we put in while on quarantine at home!