Kathleen started production patternmaking in 1981. Starting in 1993, she began providing consulting and engineering services to manufacturers, small companies, and startups with an emphasis on developing owner-operator domestic cut-and-sew operations. In 2015 she opened a 5,000 sqft. fully equipped sewing factory: The Sewing Factory School. Kathleen is the author of The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing, the most highly rated book of any topic in the garment industry. She's been mentioned numerous times in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, National Public Radio, Boston Globe, LA Times, Vogue, French Vogue and has at least 15 Project Runway alums at last count. Kathleen writes nearly all of the articles on Fashion-Incubator.com and hosts its forum, the largest private online community for apparel manufacturers on the web.
It’s crazy out there -lots of competing information, mythinformation and just plain craziness -I’m not going to go there. Still, like many of you, I wondered what I could do to help so I started watching mask sewing videos. Very quickly, I realized that the videos are all the same -or rather, that makers had the same constraints.…
Take a look at Rosie the Riveter. A near myth of heroic proportions, she and her friends had to weld planes, build ships, trucks, and armaments, while millions of menfolk went off to fight in World War II. Have you ever wondered how Rosie learned to do her job so quickly?…
Once upon a time, I’d written a post about sewing contracts and a few about quality control (links at close). Those were fine as these things go but lately, I’m seeing a lot of silly advice on the web. I read a particularly bad post this morning that inspired me to clarify.…
There is no simple, bullet point list to follow when considering your first approach to a sewing factory. Like you and your product line, every provider is unique. In the end I can only speak for my factory but I hope this will be helpful.…
I can’t speak for anyone but myself but I’m facing 2017 with trepidation, mostly due to the uncertainty of our political and social climate. On one hand, a proposal for the elimination or renegotiation of international trade agreements can ostensibly benefit domestic producers -but at the expense of consumers who will then have less to spend on our stuff.…
