How our clothes are made: Part I
Today I read this article on the labor conditions of those who make Apple’s iPad in China. It reminded me that now might be a good time to start a series I’ve been meaning to write on how Adooka is made. I am so proud that our clothes are made by fellow U.S. citizens, and thought you might like to see some photos and hear a little bit about the people who make our clothes.
I’ll start with the cutting room — I’m skipping around here, because cutting is way down the line in the order of how things are done. I just happened to have these photos I took when I dropped off some fabric rolls for this spring’s production.
The cutting room is in an old building in the city of Philadelphia. Other companies, including at least one well-known boutique clothing brand, share this building. The man who runs the cutting business is an older gentleman who has been doing this for decades, and cuts for many brands, big and small (he was shy about me taking his picture, so you won’t get to see him). Like many aspects of garment making, cutting is a skill that we may be losing here in the U.S. When I talk to other business owners, including factory owners, I often hear that there is a labor shortage in this industry of good operators and cutters. They are hard to find! We are lucky to have found ours.
Here is what the cutting room looks like:
The room is large, with high ceilings and windows all around. You can see that they have good lighting — rows of lights suspended over each of the very long tables. I took this photo between Christmas and New Year’s, so many of the tables were not in use. During heavy production times, these tables would all be full of spread fabric. Here’s how the cutting works: say I am making a dress in sizes 2T-6. First I have the patternmaker lay out all the pattern pieces for the dress, one set of pieces (front, back, two sleeves, etc.) for each size that I’m making. I will do a separate post on this process — for now it’s enough to know that she makes a printout of all the pieces needed for each size (called a “marker”), and sends it to the cutter. The black machines at the ends of the tables are spreading machines — they spread the fabric back and forth in layers (called “plies”) across the table, to the exact length of the marker. If I want to make 200 dresses, and I have 5 sizes on the marker, the cutter will have to spread 40 plies of fabric on the table. You can see spread fabric with a paper marker on top in the top left table of this photo. If it’s a knit fabric, it rests here for a day or so, to let the fabric relax flat (after being tightly rolled on the fabric roll). When it’s time to cut, a cutter uses a vertical knife saw that is suspended from above to cut out the shapes of the pattern pieces. He cuts through all 40 plies at once, and ends up with stacks of each piece (40 size 2T fronts, 40 size 2T backs, etc.), which he bundles together with ties, leaving the printout piece on top so the factory will know what each bundle is.
Here is a photo of cutting in action:
As you can see, the cutting here is all done by hand. In some companies, laser cutters are used, and everything is computerized. All of the traditional shops I’ve seen have done it by hand.
I hope you enjoyed a little glimpse into our processes. More to come! Our big make-way-for-spring sale is still going on — pretty much everything is marked way down to prepare for our upcoming Big Exciting News.
New Year, big sale! And exciting news coming soon…
Stay tuned for some exciting news about Adooka… to get ready, almost everything left in stock is now on sale! Dresses are marked down substantially. Infant sizes are also on sale, like this romper, our bestseller for baby showers (it has appliqued eyes on the bum, too). It also comes in blue and light pink (not pictured on the website, but you can email me if you’re interested in those colors — i n f o [at] a d o o k a . c o m).
If you’d like to hear the details about the exciting news, you can follow the link below to be added to my mailing list. I don’t email very often — I know how annoying it is to get bombarded with too much email. I’ll only send the good stuff. Subscribe me!
Come see us at the JCC Art Fair
The JCC Arts & Craft
s Fair is Sun, Nov. 20, and I will be there with special event pricing on lovely holiday styles for girls and boys, and perfect layette gifts for winter babies! I had a great time at the Bexley Shop Hop last weekend — bought an upcycled bag that I love from Sol & Son, and met Leslie from Leslie Lantz Designs, who metalsmiths gorgeous jewelry and who invited me to get a table at the Art Fair. It’s free admission — bring your kids, because there will be children’s art workshops!
It’s “Shop for a cause” time again!
The Bexley Shop Hop is right around the corner, and I will be there again this year with my entire remaining inventory of fall styles at special pricing for this event, lots of baby/layette, plus special deals on past collections. And of course my little bargain bin of slight irregulars. I am donating a portion of total sales to DARN (Developmental Assets Resource Network), which means your portion of the donation goes right back into the community. Organic, made in the USA, helping your local community… why would you buy big box this season when you can do so much more with your purchase? I hope to see you there! Preview party November 4 from 7-11pm (requires reservations), shopping day November 5 from 10am-6pm.
Fall Adooka pre-orders & gorgeous photos
Select styles from my fall collection are available now for pre-order at MyLilDarlings Boutique. Check out the gorgeous photography taken by owner Carla’s photographer Beth.
Adooka sample sale!
I will have all things Adooka at a sample sale this coming Saturday in Worthington, OH, in conjunction with the Riverlea community sale. Current season styles, past seasons, samples, and a bargain bin of odds-and-ends. If you’re local, here are the details:
Riverlea Community Sale, Worthington, OH
Saturday, April 30, from 9am to 3pm
A romper for Earthlings – 35% off
Happy Earth Day! In celebration, from now until the end of April you can dress your little earthling in this earth romper for 35% off! Super-soft organic cotton in springy blue & green with a reverse-appliqued earth floating on a wavy sea. Sewn and appliqued in Pennsylvania, fabric made in Canada.
Here’s a closeup of the earth:
Perfect for little earthlings everywhere!
If you’re local, be sure to head over to the Earth Day Celebration in Franklin Park on Saturday… see you there!
Earth Day cleanup
I learned this week that Columbus has one of the largest Earth Day volunteer efforts in the country! This weekend, volunteer worksites are happening all over the city in preparation for the Earth Day celebration festival April 23. Today we grabbed some friends and headed out to the Alum Creek River cleanup and tree planting. It was a drizzly morning and it had rained all night, so it took some force of will to actually get out there, but so worth it… the kids loved it, and we all agreed that it’s so rare to feel like there is nothing you could be doing at this moment that is better than what you are doing now.
Cleanup in action! We won’t look too closely at what exactly he’s picking up.
My little guy posing next to the tree he just helped plant. That really, really skinny stick poking up to the left of him — that’s the tree. It’s a little cottonwood.
Spring has arrived!
Spring is finally here, and so is my new collection of very soft, very wearable dresses, sweet peasant tops with rollup pants that can be worn year-round, infant rompers for that special gift, go-anywhere striped clamdigger shorts for the little guys, and more…
First look at Fall/Winter 2011
Button dress with petticoat skirt, from Saturday’s photo shoot:
I cannot believe how my little models are growing up! The model above is the same one as in my blog’s header. Here is a “before and after” of another: in a newborn sleep sack, and in a brand-new-for-fall-2011 kimono dress with new peonies print:
More previews to come!
