Interview with AG Seamstress!

We interviewed Marilyn of the AG Seamstress Etsy shop awhile back and we are finally getting around to posting it here. We are slow!

(And also, Photobucket has been a pain in the butt. :-( )

Check out Marilyn's shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/agseamstress

She currently has four things for sale and periodically adds more.
(She also does custom orders, particularly of her previous designs, fyi.)

We have interspersed pics of her items, some available, others already sold, in amongst the questions and answers.

Thank you for doing this interview Marilyn!!!

When did you start making clothing for American Girl dolls? Why did they interest you?

I started making AG doll clothing about 12 or 13 years ago.  The dolls interested me, because I'd always loved dolls, and I was drawn to the historical aspect of AG.

Did you/do you make clothing for other types of dolls? 

I started out making my own doll clothes when I was about 7 or 8 years old, from scrap fabric that my mother gave me.  I made all kinds of doll clothes for my two younger sisters, and my two cousins.  My daughter had "My Friend Mandy" and Cabbage Patch dolls that I sewed for.

When I started selling on Ebay, about 11 years ago, I made clothing for Chatty Cathy, Ann Estelle, and several other dolls.

What kinds of dolls do you own?

Right now, I only own AG, and one bride doll from my childhood.  A few years ago, I decided to sew exclusively for AG, and sold all my other models.

I have all the AG Historicals and their friends, and a few other AG's.

What time period do you prefer to sew for - historical or modern? If historical, do you have a favorite historical time period?

The historicals are definitely my favorite time period to sew for, especially the 30's and 40's.

Where do you get your design ideas from?

Ideas come from everywhere!  There are times I stay up late looking at vintage pattern websites of children's clothing just for ideas. Sometimes a magazine, or a catalog will give me an idea, and sometimes design ideas come from my husband, who is my biggest supporter!  A lot of my ideas actually come from fabric. I might be looking through my fabric for one thing, see a piece of fabric, and come up with another idea!

Do you have a difficult time finding appropriate fabrics for your projects?

You're kidding.........right????  I have such a large fabric stash right now, that I just need to go downstairs, and start opening plastic bins!  I kid you not!  I've been cleaning out some of my fabric, since my husband is retired now, and we'd like to downsize.  Right now, the count is 20.....18 gallon totes, plus multiple drawers and cabinets. I still look at fabric online all the time, and do buy at least one or two pieces every week.

Do you take custom orders? If someone wants an item that you have made before, can they ask for another one? Also, if someone has their own idea for a custom object - do you take those types of orders? 

Some things I've made, can't be duplicated for one reason or another, usually it's because the fabric isn't available anymore, but I try to do as many custom orders as I can. If someone has an idea for an item, I'll consider it, time permitting, but only if it's an item I'm interested in making.  I don't have much interest in making copies of items from a lot of the current movies, so things like that I probably wouldn't do.

What types of challenges have you encountered with creating the clothing and selling it?

As for challenges, there's been a few, but nothing major.  The biggest challenge is establishing a reputation, as a skilled seamstress, and the sales seem to follow.

Do you use bought patterns from other designers or do you draft your own patterns?

I use many patterns from other designers, and draft some of my own. I was trained in patternmaking many years ago, so if there's a certain part of a garment I don't have a pattern for, or if I want to change something, I'm capable of doing that.

Do have any new ideas or plans around the corner for your doll clothing and/or for your business?

My future plans revolve around sewing exclusively for AG.  I used to make clothing, home decor, bridal gowns, and do alterations for others.  That was how I spent most of my sewing time.  Doll clothes were just a sideline.  Now my focus is entirely on doll clothes, since I'm getting older, and dolls are certainly more fun to sew for than people!

Thank you for visiting us today!

And again, thanks for doing this interview AG Seamstress!

We're Back! And Our First Interview with Liberty Jane Clothing's Cinnamon Miles

We're back from our vacation! And we brought a cold with us! Le sigh. We are a bit worn out and tired because of our cold, but we will try and press on and do as much as we can this week.

First off, we have a lot in the works -- giveaways, trip reports, cute posts, new things we've ordered, and more -- so keep your eyes peeled!

Second, we got the idea to do interviews from Karen's Mom of Three Blog (giving credit where credit is due, heehee) -- and we asked Cinnamon Miles of Liberty Jane Clothing if she wanted to participate. We've come up with a plan to do a series of interviews with her so you guys can learn more about her company, her products, and the various projects she is involved with. Hope you are all excited!

If you have a question for Cinnamon, please feel free to comment on this post and I might just ask her your question!

Here we go everybody!

1) When you started Liberty Jane Clothing, did you ever think it would be where it is today?

I'd have to say, probably not. I didn’t even realize there was such a big market for custom doll clothes until we started to get into it. But my husband Jason would definitely say "Yes!", or that we’re not as far along as he thinks we could be. I love to design and create, but I'm not the visionary, he is. For that reason we make a great team. The design and presentation is an integral part of LJC, but there are so many other things that need to be woven into it to make something like this successful.

2) Where do you see LJC heading in the future?

We’re incredibly excited about our short-term opportunities. We’re growing so quickly, it’s getting harder and harder to keep up with everything related to the business. We know that we need to hire employees to grow, So over the last month or so we’ve been on a mission to seek advice from fashion industry insiders on how best to grow.

We’ve had the good fortune of meeting with Jaeil Lee the Professor of Fashion Industry at Seattle Pacific University and a former Abercrombie & Fitch Designer. We’ve also met with veteran people from Levi Strauss, Eddie Bauer, and Nordstrom’s. This has been an incredibly humbling experience where we get to brainstorm with these truly remarkable experts on how to grow a clothing brand. We’ve asked them for their advice and listened to their perspective. They’ve been incredibly gracious to us, and helped us clarify our opportunities. We’ve come up with a simple plan that we are super excited about.

(See the LJC blog post about the newest LJC employee!)

3) What did the Fashion Industry Insiders Tell You that you didn’t expect?

We were surprised at how well they resonated with what we were doing. Maybe we have an inferiority complex or something, but when you think of meeting with a senior designer from Eddie Bauer, or the founder of a mega brand, you sort of expect them to not appreciate the 18-inch doll design work, but we didn’t get any of that – they were incredibly ‘into it’. That surprised us. It was really fun. They immediately saw the power of our brand, even if it is tiny compared to the scope and scale that they are accustomed to. Beyond that, they mainly re-assured us that we were on the right track in many ways. Their advice, besides from specific next steps, was that we just needed to keep taking one step at a time.

4) What are the next steps you’re planning?

We see a huge opportunity to continue to grow the pattern business, and we’re going to take several specific actions to help boost that part of our work. You might notice we don’t publish too many of our own designs these days, because we’re just too busy, but we’re going to work hard to ramp up that part of our work. Designing & publishing our own work more. That’s a clear short-term goal. That will also mean that we will likely move to a system where we have new Limited Edition designs for sale via EBay throughout the year, rather than just during a Spring & Fall launch. The Spring/Fall Launch model generates a lot of stress & pressure, which we want to move away from a bit.

5) What stage are you at for the Fall Line? How many different outfits will you offer on Ebay?

With the 2011 Fall line, we are continuing with The International Collection. There are four outfits one for each location - Tokyo, Euro, Malibu, and Outback. This set of outfits has been challenging and fun at the same time. As our company has grown and we provide the LJ patterns to our partners, it is becoming more and more of a challenge for me to think up new ideas! But it is great to have that push to do something new and different. I'm really proud of this new collection of outfits.

6) You started offering BIN Fall outfits on your website. There are two currently available. Will you offer more BINs this year? Or just these two?

We plan to offer more of these types of “not-limited edition” outfits. We’re calling them "unlimited" outfits. They will be available on our website and through our EBay store. These outfits will be a bit simpler in design than my LE outfits, but be the high quality and construction that LJ is known for.

7) What inspires your recent clothing designs? Specific outfits from clothing companies? Specific trends? Specific celebrities?

I find inspiration everywhere! I'm snapping pictures on my phone everywhere I go, from the high-end shops to places like Target. My girls laugh when I see something and say "Oh! I have to make something just like that for the AG Dolls" then I take a quick pic, and look at the inside of the garment to see how it's put together. One of my favorite magazines is Vogue Bambini, it's the Italian Vogue for kids. It's pretty hard to find, but it's filled with amazing print ads and so much inspiration!

--- Thanks for reading our first interview peoples! Stay tuned for more interviews with Cinnamon -- and again if you have a question to ask her, feel free to comment with it on this post! ---