Finding a Sewing Contractor

I needed to find a sewing company that could work with me in smaller quantities and someone who was close by in Seattle. I did search in yellow pages first and talked to several companies and went to their shops. Nothing. Either they were too big for me or I they did not work with nylon webbings. I needed a company that had industrial machines handling webbing in various thicknesses.

I did find one sewer and gave her several rolls of webbing and some ribbons, supplies, etc to try out. SHe tried to "help" me by sewing all 100 yards of one ribbon on to 100 yards of webbing, to cut up later. Problem was I need projects done as ordered so that we could conserve webbing for styles I needed made. All of that was wasted. She did not help. ALso the quality was not good. Crooked stitching and lots of stray threads. Back to the drawing board.

I am not sure I can remember how I found the one company I still use today. But "Sandy" was my savior. They were willing to work with my smaller quantities and grow with me. They were starting out as well. She did beautiful work and caught on quickly. This company is still with me today after 10 years! I did need one more sewer because we were growing past Sandy. I had some new items that she could not do. I put an ad on Craigslist and the first gal who called me worked out wonderfully. Lucky again! Works out of her home and has family that can help if extra busy. Both of these sewers are within 30 minutes of our warehouse. Yea!

One must have patience when looking for a manufacturer. THere is a lot of sending supplies and samples back and forth and tweaking. Be patient. It is worth it.

How it works with an outside sewing company is that I have all supplies (parts) of collars sent to them directly. I gave them a master sheet of all of our designs and sizes. Exactly how much ribbon and webbing to cut for each size, the hardware needed etc. I will email them an excel sheet of items needed. They sew, call me when done and we pick up and bring back to our warehouse, package and ship for orders.