The golden age began in 1977

Chapter 240 The garment factory lays a solid foundation and works with great enthusiasm to produce trench coats.

The trench coat fell open, its hem brushing against the desk, stirring up a few wisps of cotton wool.

“This is…” Zhang Hongmei’s expression turned serious.

"A double-breasted trench coat!"

Qian Jin nodded.

This sleek, streamlined trench coat, with its chic and rugged style that seemed out of place in its surroundings, was displayed under the dim lighting and presented to the female workers.

"Goods from the Japanese." Qian Jin lowered his voice, his fingers tracing the shoulder seam of the trench coat. "I asked a friend in the foreign trade industry to bring them back. This is a window display item from a Tokyo department store."

"This is the trench coat that appeared in 'Manhunt.' Now it's not just young people who like it; if we could produce this..."

He smiled but said nothing.

There's no need to say anything more.

It's sure to be a bestseller!

This gun is so powerful it could make people fight to the death!

The clicking sound of the sewing machines in the factory suddenly became much quieter.

Several young female workers pretended to come to pick up the fabric, but their eyes were fixed on the trench coat.

Its crisp collar was as angular as the deck of a warship, and the belt around its waist hung down in two graceful arcs. Most striking of all was the gun guard on its back, which resembled the armor of an ancient warrior.

They recognized the dress very well.

The Chase!
It's still "Manhunt"!
Zhang Hongmei's thumb and forefinger automatically pinched the fabric together, and she analyzed, "It's a polyester-cotton twill weave, and the warp and weft density must be 68×42, which is 50% denser than the Hailang brand polyester-cotton fabric produced by our own No. 6 State-owned Cotton Mill!"

This discovery made her exclaim, "The Japanese cotton spinning technology is far superior to ours!"

Qian Jin secretly thought that this was not actually the Japanese's fabric, but fabric produced by small factories in our country in the future.

The master craftsman turned the collar over again: "Look at this lining. It's not sewn together, it's bonded at high temperature, and then the stitches are hidden inside."

Qian Jin smiled.

This experienced craftsman is truly professional!
He asked, "Can we do it?"

Zhang Hongmei took off her reading glasses and pondered for a while. In the end, she didn't say anything but called out to the cutting area: "Master Chunhua, come here."

Jin Chunhua is the second-in-command among the veteran masters. Her skills are not much worse than Zhang Hongmei's, and in some aspects, she is even better.

Jin Chunhua looked up from behind the electric cutting table, her reading glasses slipping down to the tip of her nose.

The old tailor was just over sixty years old. Today he was wearing a dark blue cotton-padded jacket with a front opening. The cuffs were worn shiny, but the Flying Man brand sewing machine needles clipped to the collar were gleaming.

She was still clutching a piece of chalk in her hand, and the fabric in front of her had already been drawn with the pattern of bell-bottoms.

She nodded when she saw Qian Jin: "Hey, Chief Qian, you've come at just the right time."

She put down the chalk, picked up a wooden ruler, and tapped a batch of fabric. "Chief Qian, come and take a look. This batch of 65-count blended fabric has skipped yarns. We need to get the Sixth State-owned Cotton Mill to replace it..."

Qian Jin didn't answer immediately, but pointed to Zhang Hongmei.

Zhang Hongmei beckoned to her: "Come here, look at this. Your father used to sew trench coats for warlord officers in the old society. You learned how to do it too. Now see if we can make this trench coat."

Qian Jin suddenly understood.

Jin Chunhua's family still has this story from the past.

Jin Chunhua's presbyopia was worse than Zhang Hongmei's; she had been learning sewing since she was a child, and her eyesight had been ruined by the strain.

Upon closer inspection of the trench coat, her gaze was immediately drawn to it.

Instead of immediately taking the clothes, she reached out her hands, marked by the passage of time, and with an almost reverent touch, gently stroked the fabric of the trench coat.

As I ran my fingertips over the diagonal texture, I felt its thickness, resilience, and the subtle astringency of the barely perceptible windproof coating.

Then, she pinched the hem of the garment and carefully examined the fabric's texture and density under the light.

Turn it inside out and examine the thin fabric and the stitching.

Fingertips traced the crisp collar, the strong shoulder line, and the tightly fitted double-breasted buttons at the placket, finally settling on the neatly arranged, gleaming metallic vents at the hem.

Zhang Hongmei handed her her teacup: "Sister, how is it?"

Jin Chunhua took a sip of water and remained silent.

It took her a minute or two to speak: "The item is of good quality, it looks impressive, and the material is exquisite."

"Windproof and neat, I've seen this kind of clothing before. Back then, officers in the warlords called it a trench uniform."

She paused, then asked, "What are you doing? Producing this trench coat?"

Qian Jin nodded: "Is that possible?"

Jin Chunhua pointed to the front of the trench coat with her finger, her gray eyebrows furrowing: "This thing looks beautiful, but it's difficult to make."

"It's much more difficult than making Zhongshan suits, work clothes, and bell-bottoms in the factory in the past, or making them now."

Zhang Hongmei looked at her and said, "It's difficult, not impossible, right?"

"I can't match your skill in making trench coats, but I can figure out the general idea from what you've seen. I think it's not difficult for an experienced woman like you."

“It’s not that the craft is difficult,” Jin Chunhua shook her head.

She beckoned to her apprentice, and the young female worker immediately brought her a pencil and a notebook.

Jin Chunhua picked up a pencil and quickly sketched on a blank sheet of paper: "It has many rules and intricacies; if it's even slightly off, it won't have the same feel."

The pencil tip scratched across the paper, deftly outlining the trench coat and breaking it down into pieces of varying sizes.

"Let's talk about the fabric first." Without looking up, her voice was steady and familiar. "The main fabric must be a special windproof material. It has to be a polyester-cotton twill, a thick woolen fabric, or a blended wool yarn. It has to be such a good material!"

"Then let's talk about its size. Take this piece for example, it's 1.44 meters wide. Just the fabric alone takes up 1.9 meters!"

"It can't be substandard either. The fabric has to be inspected, piece by piece. Color difference, fabric defects, whether it's holes, skipped stitches or stains, it's all unacceptable. There can be no sloppiness when making such high-end trench coats."

"In addition, it has an inner lining. Look inside, isn't it? The material is different."

Jin Chunhua picked up the money and went in to see.

Qian Jin knew without even looking.

This kind of trench coat does require several different materials.

Zhang Hongmei is an expert in fabrics: "Yes, this requires a thin chemical fiber lining, and it also needs to be treated with anti-static agents. The width is 1.44 meters, and the amount used for one piece is 1.22 meters."

"Is that so?" Jin Chunhua sighed, "Just these two main ingredients alone are a huge financial burden!"

Qian Jin asked, "Just these two main ingredients? According to you, the auxiliary ingredients won't be easy to obtain either?"

“There are plenty of odds and ends.” Jin Chunhua stroked the neatly tailored trench coat. “You can ask Lao Zhang to say that he’s an expert on fabrics.”

As she spoke, she handed the pencil to Zhang Hongmei.

Zhang Hongmei asked Qian Jin, "Chief Qian, are you going to listen to the whole thing from beginning to end? That's quite a hassle."

Qian Jin said, "As the factory manager in charge of production, how could I not know the specific details of a garment?"

"Don't worry, I may not be an expert, but I do have some basic common sense."

Zhang Hongmei wrote the words "auxiliary ingredients" on the paper, then scribbled them heavily in the blank area:
"It has a lining, and it must be at least 1.5 meters square. The collar, placket, and pocket openings—these areas that bear weight and need to be sturdy all rely on it for support."

"This isn't sewn; it's high-temperature adhesive. The temperature has to be kept within 130 degrees Celsius, fluctuating by about ten degrees. If it's too high, it'll stick together; if it's too low, it won't stick properly," Jin Chunhua added.

Zhang Hongmei nodded: "Yes, and the sewing thread must match the color, it can't be a clashing color. The piping, here on the front."

She pointed to the inside of the placket on the drawing, "We need to add piping to reinforce it, otherwise it will definitely deform after wearing it for a long time."

"Buttons, main buttons plus decorative buttons, a total of fourteen. That should be easy to handle; Yongjia should have such buttons."

“The belt buckle is not easy to make. Look how beautiful this belt buckle is. It's the only way to keep the hem out of the wind. It's an air vent.”

Qian Jin felt a chill run down his spine, as if the beautiful trench coat had instantly transformed into a mountain built from countless meticulous details.

He knew from the beginning that producing trench coats would be difficult.

Perhaps it was out of trust in the wisdom of the working people, or perhaps it was the successful production of bell-bottoms that gave him confidence.

Anyway, trench coat production had long been part of his clothing production plan, following bell-bottoms.

His original plan was to produce trench coats again next year.

Give the bell-bottoms three months to be produced, and also give the female workers three months to practice on them.

As a result, Zhang Hongmei and the female workers were urging him to hurry up, so he took out the trench coat.

However, he discovered that the production process was much more difficult than he had imagined!
“This doesn’t even include the cutting and sewing work.” Jin Chunhua put down her pencil, placed her hands on the blueprint, and looked intently at Qian Jin. “For pattern making and grading, this trench coat will require seventeen to twenty pieces of paper patterns!”

"This is completely different from bell-bottoms. Bell-bottoms are such simple things, but a trench coat? It's much more difficult to make than any work clothes or work uniforms. Bell-bottoms can't compare at all. The only thing that can truly compare to it is a suit!"

Zhang Hongmei studied the trench coat and nodded: "Yes, the pattern making and grading of this garment is a project. Small parts such as the collar and sleeve tabs all need to be sampled separately."

"People have a specific way of adding seam allowance. For the hem, you need to add 3.5 centimeters; for the areas where you're going to do visible stitching, you need to add 1.7 centimeters. If you're even a millimeter off, the seam will be twisted."

Qian Jin sighed: "Is it that difficult?"

Zhang Hongmei slammed her hand on the table: "I'll say it again, the technical difficulty isn't the problem, the real problem is the fabric! Where are we going to find the main material and the accessories?"

“I know the situation at the No. 6 State-owned Cotton Mill. Our mill can’t produce this kind of main material.”

Qian Jin said, "But we don't need that kind of material. We only cook as much rice as our pot can hold, and we wear only the right size pants for our size ass."

"It's the same thing we said back when we were producing bell-bottoms: our competitors aren't the foreign clothing factories, but the domestic ones."

"The fabrics we can't find, they can't find either."

Wang Lijuan chimed in quickly, "That's right, and besides, Master, how can ordinary people like us afford trench coats these days? Let alone imported ones like this."

"Even if we have suitable material, so what? A trench coat costs thirty yuan, which is the monthly salary of a new worker with perfect attendance. Can this work? Who would buy it?"

The others nodded in agreement.

Qian Jin, you really don't understand the market. The clothing industry is very complex. Don't even mention that a single garment is equivalent to a new worker's full-time monthly salary. In the future, there will be garments that are equivalent to an old worker's annual salary, and they still won't have to worry about selling them!
Of course, that's for the future, but right now is the present.

He nodded.

Jin Chunhua stroked the trench coat and said, "Our fabric can't support this style, it's a pity. It's a fine garment."

She hung the beige trench coat on a makeshift clothes rack, and the female workers stopped working, took off their arm sleeves, and came up to look at it.

The trench coat looked even more crisp and spirited on the simple clothes rack, like a silent flag.

The female workers all wanted to reach out and touch it.

Zhang Hongmei tried to stop them with a stern look, but Qian Jin waved his hand and said, "If you're interested, then let you touch it as you like."

"They are seeds; they will sprout, blossom, and bear fruit, and what they produce will all be these windbreaker fruits."

The factory manager had spoken, and Zhang Hongmei could only nod.

The young women reached out and touched the trench coat, their voices dreamlike and ethereal.

"Can we produce clothes like this in the future?"

"I wish I could buy one for my brother. He would definitely look great in it."

"This is way more stylish than bell-bottoms..."

"Chief Engineer Zhang, Master Craftsman Jin." Qian Jin continued his conversation with the two veteran craftsmen.

The two experienced craftsmen looked at him and saw a flame burning in his bright eyes.

Qian Jin said, "The difficulties you two mentioned are all very valid. High costs, complex processes, and no sign of a reliable supplier for main and auxiliary materials..."

“I have seen these mountains of difficulties.”

"But we're not a bunch of peasants, and we don't figure everything out on our own. To be honest, there are reference books we can learn from!"

Qian Jin reached into his briefcase and pulled out a booklet, slightly larger than his palm, carefully wrapped in kraft paper.

The edges of the kraft paper were worn and frayed, clearly indicating that it had been frequently rubbed.

This is a piece of kraft paper that Qian Jin specially found, so that people would feel that this booklet is indeed very precious and has been repeatedly wrapped, opened, and studied.

He gently placed the booklet on the wooden table in front of Zhang Hongmei, which was covered with diagrams, and pushed it towards her. The kraft paper rubbed against the rough wood grain, making a soft rustling sound.

The atmosphere is amazing!
Qian Jin said, "Please take a look at this first."

A hint of doubt flashed across Zhang Hongmei's wrinkled face.

She picked up the booklet, untied the thin hemp rope, and opened the slightly rough cover.

On the title page, a line of clear mimeographed text catches the eye: "Standardized Production Process Guidelines for Military and Civilian Windbreakers and Multi-Style Design Schemes (Trial)".

Her fingers suddenly stopped.

Jin Chunhua is an expert in Western-style clothing such as trench coats and suits. She was in charge of producing simple suits at the No. 6 State-owned Cotton Mill, so she was immediately excited when she saw this book.

She practically snatched the book away and eagerly began flipping through its pages.

The paper was a particularly fine cellophane, with a distinctive grayish-yellow hue, and the contents on it were incredibly clear and precise.

Each structural breakdown diagram features clean, crisp lines and precise markings of dimensions and angles.

Each process flow diagram uses simple boxes and arrows to mark the complete path from fabric inspection to quality control.

The specifications of the raw materials are clearly listed in the table...

She flipped to the last page and looked at the trench coat styles.

Too much!
Each sheet of paper features a trench coat design on one side, and there are dozens of such sheets!

Furthermore, the key process control points for each product were specifically marked:

This design features multiple overlapping plackets; the center front seam needs to be moved outward by 2cm to avoid it being too thick.

Key points for adjusting the alignment of the blade at the armhole seam.

The method for securing the back windproof panel (gun guard) to another model using a straight stitch is described in detail on a certain page…

Jin Chunhua's fingers trembled slightly as she watched.

Her fingertips traced the cold numbers and diagrams, but her eyes grew brighter and brighter, like parched land receiving sweet rain.

She looked at it very quickly and very carefully, her lips moving silently as she rapidly recited the precise process parameters.

Zhang Hongmei watched along.

They were all experts; after watching, the production process of a trench coat took shape in their minds.

The old craftsman looked up, his eyes behind his glasses fixed on Qian Jin, surging with unbelievable elation: "Where did this come from? Chief Qian, you, you, I mean this, this manual... this manual..."

Wang Lijuan asked curiously, "What's wrong?"

"What else could it be? This is our work guideline!" a girl said with a smile.

Zhang Hongmei nodded vigorously: "Nana is absolutely right, everything will be different with this. With this book, our factory won't have any technical problems producing trench coats!"

She then asked Jin Chunhua, "Old sister, isn't that right?"

Jin Chunhua exclaimed, "Yes, absolutely right!"

She stood up, her hunched back seemed to straighten a bit, and her face radiated a long-lost glow, as if she had instantly become ten years younger.

To the old tailors, this book was like a martial arts manual.

Unfortunately, Jin Chunhua had been exposed to Western-style clothing tailoring since childhood, so this manual was a perfect match for her.

She took the booklet and flipped through it again, this time quickly, the pages rustling.

"Look, where did this book come from? It's really well written. It covers the standards for inspecting fabric, the location of the cutting marks, the specific dimensions for adding seam allowances, the steps for sewing the main body, the seam allowance and ease requirements for lining assembly... and all these key control points!"

She pointed intently to the text in the booklet about adjusting the placket, armholes, and securing the windproof flap.

"All the tips and tricks are written in here. This isn't just a manual; it's a golden key! It's our guide to working in the garment factory!"

"As long as you follow these steps, no matter how complicated the process is, there are rules to follow! Our experienced workers know exactly what to do, and you new workers will also have a guideline to follow!"

"This is a treasure! With it, we can save so much money on trial and error, rework, and waste materials!"

She clutched the manual tightly, as if she were holding the future of the entire garment factory in her hands.

Looking at the experienced worker who suddenly radiated amazing energy, Qian Jin was also deeply moved by their emotions.

He simply said, "This book was indeed hard-won. It was actually compiled by a foreign fashion design master, but it was translated by experts in the capital, and then I asked a friend from the Capital Institute of Light Industry to bring it to me."

Act in full set.

Facing the admiring gazes of the female workers, he tried to make his voice sound proud: "It's all thanks to having many friends, and all thanks to the fact that we are now cadres in the supply and marketing system, big and small."

"This is the entire production process for trench coats, from fabric inspection to quality control, without missing a single step. Just follow along and try producing them with our polyester-cotton fabric first."

Hearing this, the female workers looked at him with even brighter eyes.

They were afraid of losing money.

That's a gaze straight out of ovulation...

He felt he might have overdone it, so he wanted to be humble.

As a result, Jin Chunhua even burned some firewood for him: "Oh, right. Look at what's written in this book, this place—"

She read aloud from the booklet: "Tear strength of critical areas..."

She turned around and made a tearing motion. "You have to use a special instrument to pull it, and the pulling force can't be less than ten Newtons. And this place, it's about measuring the moisture permeability. The weight of water vapor that permeates through one square meter in 24 hours has to be more than five pounds."

“I remember when I went with my dad to visit an English tailor, he always mentioned these places.”

"I guess this book was written by an Englishman?"

Qian Jin mumbled, "Pretty much, anyway, a bunch of foreign devils."

Zhang Hongmei said eagerly, "Once our technology is perfected, we'll produce clothes and sell them to foreigners to earn foreign exchange for the country!"

Qian Jin gave her a thumbs up.

You're really good, master craftsman.

We never forget about generating foreign exchange.

Qian Jin thought that this would work; he could use the foreign exchange earnings to motivate the female workers.

So he had to keep performing.

His expression was solemn as he slowly walked to the window with his hands behind his back and looked outside.

The dim streetlights shone on the asphalt road and into the holly flower beds along the roadside.

Several young people wearing military green cotton-padded jackets are having a snowball fight.

Further away...

I couldn't see anything further away...

But that's just right.

He pointed towards Port Aka and asked, "Can you see what the situation is like there now?"

Yu Lijuan glanced at it and said, "Oh my god, how can we see it? Even during the day, we can't see the sea from inside the factory, it's all blocked by the buildings."

"What do you want to see by the sea? Climb up to the roof and you'll see it." Nana said blankly, "Our factory building is five meters high, like a two-story building."

Qian Jin waved his hand: "It's okay if you can't see it, I can tell you."

“During my work hours today, I went to Port A to inspect some foreign goods. There was a Panamanian ship and a Cuban ship unloading cargo, and then they were about to load more.”

"Needless to say, they didn't load our products on their trucks, but I know that one day they will definitely have to load our products on their trucks. Our Han Tang clothing will one day leave Haibin City and go to the whole world!"

These days, the Chinese people have plenty of confidence.

The women loved hearing this and readily agreed with his speech, saying, "Yes, that's absolutely right!"

“Master Zhang, Master Jin, comrades,” Qian Jin said without turning around, “do you know what I saw when I went to the south a few days ago to attend the Canton Fair?”

“I saw an overseas Chinese.” Qian Jin turned around, beaming with pride. “An overseas Chinese in a trench coat.”

"At that time, the most common clothing worn by overseas Chinese from North America, Southeast Asia, Europe, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan was trench coat."

He walked back to the cutting table, pointing to the waterproof coating of the trench coat. "This isn't an ordinary garment, it's..."

"Foreign exchange!" Zhang Hongmei could always chime in at this moment.

Qian Jin said, "This is the entry ticket for foreign exchange; we are not yet qualified to enter the market and earn foreign exchange."

"But we walk one step at a time, and we eat one bite at a time. One day we will be able to earn a huge amount of foreign exchange for our country!"

The wind and snow outside seemed to become even more violent at this moment.

They whistled and pounded violently against the windows, making a continuous, heart-pounding thud.

The female workers listened carefully and then realized that the thumping sound was coming from their own chests.

It was the sound of their passionate heartbeats.

The thick frost flowers that had formed on the glass windows blocked out the white world outside, and seemed to block the way out for the Taishan Road People's Garment Factory.

But inside the design studio, the furnace fire crackled weakly and stubbornly in the iron furnace chamber, tenaciously resisting the bone-chilling cold that seeped in through the cracks in the doors and windows.

Even Qian Jin had a connection to this at that moment.

After the reform and opening up, it was extremely difficult for domestic enterprises to compete with the advanced production monsters abroad.

He will then need to continue expanding his business to fight these monsters.

It now seems like a fireplace fighting off a cold wind.

The cold wind blew relentlessly, while the fire in the stove burned weakly.

But we will definitely succeed!

"What are you all waiting for? Get to work!" Zhang Hongmei suddenly slapped her thigh, startling Qian Jin, who was in the middle of his enthusiastic work.

Mobilization efforts are always effective.

Jin Chunhua said confidently, "Isn't it just producing a trench coat from scratch? It's nothing. Back in the day, I even made vestments for a German pastor with my father. That was much more complicated than this!"

Zhang Hongmei put the thimble back on and went back to thread the gray-green polyester thread onto her electric sewing machine.

She instructed her apprentice, "Xiao Juan, go and dig out all those old, treasured wool fabrics! Ai Hua, tell the sizing worker to prepare lining fabric 1.44 meters wide. I'll work overtime tonight; I need to get this trench coat pretty much figured out!"

The female workers sprang into action like soldiers hearing a bugle call to charge; they all wanted to work overtime.

Qian Jin had no choice but to advise them again: "Well, we're mainly producing bell-bottoms right now, so there's no rush to produce trench coats."

"Everyone, please go home for dinner. It's getting late, and I think it might snow again today, so let's leave work early."

"Chief Engineer Zhang, let's forget about it, let's forget about it, we'll discuss the trench coat tomorrow..."

Zhang Hongmei ignored his words and said with her head down, "There are still a few days left this month. We must finish making the first trench coat perfectly."

"Chief Qian, you should work overtime too. You and Chunhua should discuss what materials to use. Before we start large-scale production, we need to figure out the main and auxiliary materials."

Qian Jin was stunned: "Huh? But, Teacher Wei has already prepared the meal. We should eat quickly in this cold weather."

"Once the trench coats are made, everyone in our garment factory will have food to eat, and everyone will have a secure job!" Zhang Hongmei said this without saying anything more, and began to study the booklet.

Qian Jin looked at this scene with some sadness.

The production manual, which Zhang Hongmei and Jin Chunhua treasured, now lay quietly on the large wooden table.

The pages of the book fluttered slightly in the draft, like a white dove that wanted to spread its wings but was bound by invisible threads.

He, on the other hand, was a eagle that had been bound!
The culprit was that beige trench coat sample.

Under the bright white light, it still has the same smooth lines and majestic presence, but it is imprisoned.

It can't leave this factory.

Just like Qian Jin, he can't get out now.

Because everyone is busy, very busy, he has to be busy too...

(End of this chapter)