New sewing factory set up is underway!

Kathleen on May 18, 2015

keep_your_work_at_homeWe closed on the new sewing factory building in Albuquerque on March 13 but the seller didn’t vacate until last week. That said, remodeling is underway. We’ll be adding skylights (some are in already!), feedrail in both buildings and purchasing 2 48 foot long cutting tables for the shared workspace.

I hired a mechanic from El Paso to advise me on the ideal placement for the feedrail and lighting. He’ll also be sourcing the feedrail and tables from his contacts in El Paso. Ideally, the facility will be ready for business the first week of June. Subscribe to ABQFI (at right) to be notified of updates by email.

Oh, and if you don’t know what feedrail is, it is a nifty way to plug in sewing machines overhead. It is very flexible because you don’t use outlets per se; or rather, the feedrail itself is one long outlet. This allows you to move sewing machines to wherever they are needed without worrying about plugs along the wall. We’ve had flexibility built in from the get go; all of the industrial machines are on casters so they can be rolled around instead of having to use a pallet jack to move them. This article (from Fashion-Incubator) shows common items one would find in a good factory. It shows the kind of fabric spreader I will be buying too. Read More

Albuquerque Fashion Incubator & New Mexico Fashion Week!

Kathleen on March 20, 2015

scissors_teresaromero

Image courtesy of Teresa Romero

The founders (Kathleen and Eric) of the Albuquerque Fashion Incubator have decided it’s time to start something serious in this town. Collectively, we have over 50 years of genuine garment industry experience working for designers and manufacturers or being designers and manufacturers ourselves.You can find out more about us here.

We’ve realized that fashion promotion businesses like New Mexico Fashion Week have generated enthusiasm for fashion careers in New Mexico but the business owner doesn’t have any industrial experience or connections in the trade so the promoter cannot (or has not) referred designers to long standing local resources and services to help designers move their careers forward. Or maybe there is no interest in producing fashion in NM? We don’t know, we only know that none of us, in spite of having long standing international reputations, have ever gotten a referral from NMFW or its promoter in spite of her frequent assertions to create networks of opportunity.

So, being that design, patterns, buying wholesale fabric, finding sales representatives sewing and production, are our bread and butter,  it makes sense for us to become proactive to overcome barriers between the fashion promotion side and the production end. In doing so, we also have the resources to provide dedicated work space, equipment, tools and hard skills to other New Mexicans who would like to pursue a career in apparel.

Toward that end, our expanded and newly remodeled sewing factory and training facility will open on June 21st @ 410 Old Coors Dr SW, Albuquerque NM 87121.  The facility has two 50 foot cutting tables, a cutting knife, 2 spreaders, a CAD system, digitizer, 72″ roll plotter for markers, 40 industrial sewing machines -all in a shared workspace.  Read More

New Mexico finally has its own Fashion Incubator

Kathleen on February 27, 2015

Pretty crazy that it took so long to create a fashion incubator in Albuquerque but better late than never.

The steering committee, comprised of Director A, Director #1, Director Director, and me, Founding Director (not that it matters, we’ve decided that our official titles will rotate being that none of us are wild on being the head honcho of anything)- will be pleased to announce our pending and very official open house as soon as we’ve bought the building. Yep, we’ve got a location all picked out; the space will be stocked with cutting tables, industrial sewing machines, CAD software and even -get this- two sewing contractors on the premises. It’s going to be awesome. Read More