Last week, we caught up with Abby, our production guru!  She’s the one who ensures your little one’s clothes fit comfortably and move when they move.  Read on to see how the magic happens. 

So what is it exactly that you do? Tell us about your job.

I think I’ve been asked this at every job that I go to. It’s complex what I do. Here at Appaman I am both the technical designer and half the production team! You can guess I am always busy. As the technical designer I work very closely with our design team and I assist in developing the structure of the design from concept to production. I work with the boys and girls designer to make their vision a success. I particularly focus on the fit of a garment, its construction, and fabric structure. All of these elements are tricky when it comes to children because of how quickly they grow and how active they are. For example, when I’m fitting a garment I always take into consideration how the body of a child moves, if a seam is too uncomfortable for them, will they wear this out on the playground? I’m basically trying to engineer a great product that a kid can feel comfortable wearing and will have a good life span.

Where did you study or learn your craft?

My mom couldn’t afford any of the fancy dresses I always wanted to wear, but apart from that she loved sewing. I grew up watching her sew my birthday dresses and halloween costumes and since then I’ve been fasinating with how garments come together. I started sewing at such a young because I wanted to be just like mom! I think I was six years old when I first received my first toy sewing machine, I loved it! Half way through highschool I decided I no longer wanted to persue this as a passion but as a career and so I enrolled in vocational classes for design earning credit towards my college degree. I guess it started there. I received my first degree in fashion design at a two year school and wanted to continue studying it. Believe it or not I failed my first pattern making class in college, I was mortified. But I was determined to spend the rest of my life in design. Once I finished my first degree I applied to the Fashion Institute of Design, because it is one of the best schools in the world for art and design, and fashion. So I packed my bags up and moved across the country. I received two degrees there in both fashion disign and techinal design. A lot of my experience and expertise comes from working with some world renown pattern makers from Italy, Hong Kong, and Sri Lanka. Both who have either worked in design houses or are the head pattern masters of huge factories who worked with large clients like Nautica and Material Girl.

What is the thing you are proudest of that you’ve made, designed or achieved?

I love walking the streets of New York and recognizing some of the designs I have worked on being worn by New Yorkers. Especially when it looks great on them, I always want to walk up to people and tell them they look amazing in something I helped bring to life. But then I remember I live in New York and would probably sound crazy if I did that.

What is the biggest challenge about your job?

Everything. There is no easy part of my job. I am one of the few people, apart from the designers, who really has to understand each product and trim inside out. It becomes very stressful. Usually, I have to get several different final approvals before telling overseas to cut and sew for bulk production, that alone is avery stressful position to be in. Especially when math is involved. There so much math that is involved in childrens wear because the way kids grow just doesns’t make any sense, there’s no equation that desides that other than it’s just the way the human body grows in the first 14 years of life but because we’re dealing with thousands of units for mass production there is little room for error. So, when the design is finally ready to be cut and sewn I need to make sure all my T’s and I’s are dotted and every step and procedure is as cleavoyant as possible.

Check out www.appaman.com to shop our current winter collection.