About Us
What is Northwest Sewn?
The mission of NW Sewn is to advance and support an inclusive, collaborative, and vibrant sewn-trades and circular textiles economy by creating the conditions for meaningful employment, increasing local manufacturing capacity, and industry collaboration.
Our work in the circular textiles economy aims to:
- Increase awareness within the industry community about opportunities within the circular economy through educational campaigns
- Facilitate regional connections through resource sharing and transparency to increase the stability of circular supply chains
- Build a community of practice that develops strategic partnerships in support of textiles circularity
We're Connecting Industry
Designers
Identify with manufacturers, retailers, and meet a community of practice.
Industry Partners
Bring your trade and resources to the textiles industry.
Manufacturers
Connect with designers, find sewers, and get access to resources.
Professional Services
Establish relationships and find clients across the sewn trades.
What We Do
In order to build a thriving, sustainable regional textiles economy, we are working to:
Build Capacity
building capacity to train more low-income sewers,
Connect
connecting those trained sewers to jobs with local manufacturers, and
Identify Opportunities
mapping the existing sewn-trades ecosystem to identify gaps, challenges, and opportunities.
A Brief History: Sewn Trades in the Pacific Northwest
The fabric of the Pacific Northwest is woven by vibrant textiles and sewing traditions from a myriad of cultures – and complex histories of trade and manufacturing.
Pre-colonization, vast trade networks across Native nations and clans supported a thriving economy that included the exchange of raw materials, services, and finished goods – including woven textiles carrying symbols of heritage and hierarchy.
Coast Salish women famously crafted their woven blankets using a mix of natural fibers, including the fur of Salish woolly dog which dually had its own currency as a valued trade item (Peck, 2022).
Today, the Coast Salish weaving traditions and those of the many tribes across the PNW continue to be practiced by Native artists and artisans. A modern resurgence of the traditional weaving practices that colonization had suppressed for over a century brings reawakened vibrance and continued legacy to the PNW textiles economy (Duffeck, 2023).
The last quarter of the 18th century saw the proliferation of the Northwest fur trade, with the trade adopting a systemic network marked by the establishment of The Pacific Fur Company in 1811. The fur trade laid the foundation for the establishment of major industry across the Northwest Coast, including the lumber and fishing industries.
These industries represented the major beginnings of what would become the settler-colonialism of the Northwest Coast (Lesson Six: The Continental Fur Trade, Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest).
The advent of these industries connected the Northwest Coast to the Pacific and Eastern markets, establishing the region as a hub for resource-based railroad commerce by the mid-19th century and as a port for manufactured goods by 1911 (Lesson Six: The Continental Fur Trade, Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest; Lesson Fourteen: Industrialization, Technology, and Environment in Washington, Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest; Oldham, 2020).
From the beginning of the industrialization of the Pacific Northwest region, the sewing & textiles industries offered employment for women – poor, immigrant, or refugee women in historic and some contemporary cases (Sayler 2022; Szabo, 1996). This employment usually came in the form of sweatshop labor or home-based employment (History of Sweatshops: 1820-1880, The National Museum of American History).
Over the last decade, demand for “Made in the USA” apparel paired with the growing ethical fashion movement has created an increased demand for qualified industrial workers. At the same time, apparel work has been largely off-shored, leaving local fashion designers and manufacturers struggling to find qualified sewers.
Today, the foothold of the PNW textiles & sewn industries still remain even after the popularization of offshore manufacturing and production through the mid-1990s (Mercer, 2014). Although our contemporary textiles industry is harder to find than it once was, small and large designers, manufacturers, and other industry members are actively revitalizing the trade with a commitment to creating good jobs, protecting the environment, and honoring the immense skill and tradition of textiles in the PNW.
Northwest Sewn, an initiative of Seattle Good Business Network, is working to provide visibility and education for our textile & sewn trades and the businesses committed to rebuilding a thriving sewn industry.
The Work So Far
Since November 2015, this initiative has
- Trained 57 low-income immigrants and refugees as commercial sewers. Trainees have come from 10+ different countries, and 60% of students have been refugees.
- Through our partners at the UW’s Evans School, completed research on the factors that contribute to successful sewn-goods industries in several U.S. cities. Read the report here.
- Done an initial map of the state of the sector in the greater-Seattle region (assets, gaps, opportunities, and challenges. Through focus groups and online surveys, the project also researched market demand among independent designers and small-run manufacturers for a co-production sewing studio.
- Connected hundreds of industry players in person and through an online platform for collaboration and shared resources.
- Created a curriculum for advanced training with a product line from local manufacturer, Outdoor Research.
- Identified the challenges and opportunities surrounding transitioning to a circular business model for small business owners in Seattle’s textile industry, supported by funding from Seattle Public Utilities Waste Free Communities Grant. Read the report here.
Into the Future
In January of 2020, NW Sewn received approval for Washington state’s first registered apprenticeship program for Industrial Sewing Machine Operators. The employer site for that first program is KAAS Tailored, who have currently turned over their entire operation to sewing masks and PPE. Many of our NW Sewn businesses are similarly stepping up to support this effort to save lives.
