CONTENT 11:

--talking induced dry mouth

--smell of military surplus ponchos in our room-what did we expect collaborating with the Ace?

--Dawn Sharp's amazing printed bed sheets

--Pattern People peephole

--*magical*mimes*

--more talking induced dry mouth

--robotic repetition explaining "what is......?" PGF

--surrounded by Portland beauties

--jumpsuit wedgie

--FUN

 This is a hallway moment at CONTENT 11 brought to you by portlandispretty.com

Made In The USA

This is the image folks, the image of Made in America. American flag pumps.

In all seriousness, Portland Garment Factory is excited to be presenting at this event in Seattle aimed at,

"helping local companies source and manufacture their products closer to home. Many companies are choosing domestic production in a trend that is being seen industry-wide. Benefits of domestic apparel production include speed-to-market, quality control, social responsibility and reduced shipping costs. Although many companies hesitate to produce domestically due to pricing or minimum production requirements, Fashion Group is confident that the manufacturers presenting at the September ‘Made in the USA' event can be viable resources for small and medium-sized companies looking to start or maintain domestic production."

PGF+Ecouterre

WorkingWORKINGworking. We love to work our booties off for PGF.

Proof is in the pudding....when the pudding is press and the press is ECOTERRE.

www.ecouterre.com

TOO BOGGED TO BLOG

After a lengthy hiatus from the blogosphere, your old pals at PGF are back! We have been absolutely up to our eyeballs in projects, events and general bad-assery, and are thrilled to have had so many great things to report. Since we last checked in, we have worked with so many amazing and creative people and have produced over 5500 garments!

We have worked with some lovely folks so far this year. We thank you for your support and salute you for choosing to produce your garments in an environmentally and socially responsible way.

Makelike - Lemolo Bags - Josh Buck - Pilloporto - Alma - Canlis - Tutu & Betz - Dally Brand - She She - A Bird Baby - Girl & A Mouse - Poler - PreFresh - Vian Hunter - The Good Flock - Oddball - Sapling - Rio Wren - Lunette - RYZ - Bonfire - 8th of Judah - Dawn Sharp - Issac Hers - GEAR - JET - Sweetskins - Bridge and Burn - Nia - Blitzen - Cold Splinters - Jess Desbrow - Peri Ponchos

GUNG HAY FAT CHOY

Happy Chinese AND Vietnamese New Year! Our PGF family celebrated in style, with an incredible lunch and wonderful friends. Chúc mừng năm mới!!!

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Once again we are hosting a fabric show and tell! We are excited to bring you a rep who is knowledgable in sourcing everything from bridal silks, peau de soie to stretch to buttons and zippers! The PGF crew will also be on hand to help you with some in-house sourcing for fabrics such as wool, canvas, weird 90's floral and much more.

Tuesday Jan. 25th from 2:30-6pm

We will have swatches and anwsers to your questions!

Not to mention coffee/tea and cookies! See you (t)here.

PGF IN THE OREGONIAN

PGF was featured in the Oregonian!

Britt Howard (left), and Rosemary Robinson work with one of the tailors they hired to help meet demand at their Portland Garment Factory in Southeast Portland's Montavilla neighborhood. The growing company is in its third location after starting a little more than two years ago.

Like women everywhere, but particularly in their chosen industry of fashion, Rosemary Robinson and Britt Howard can be coy about their ages.

The accomplished co-owners of the city's hippest cut-and-sew salon, the Portland Garment Factory in Southeast Portland, aren't sure they want customers to know how young they really are.

Twentysomethings they may be, but they're taken quite seriously in a sector that's been on the rise in Portland during the past decade or so.

Long known for fleece and sneakers, the metro area has produced three winners in eight seasons of "Project Runway," the reality TV competition that's the nation's highest-profile mass showcase for emerging designers.

There's also a growing core of independent designers here, many devoted to the city's eco-hip ethos, who need help with all aspects of production -- pattern drafting, size grading, sample construction and sewing final garments -- to meet demand for their creations, whether in local stores or online outlets.

Enter Howard, Robinson and their humming new Montavilla warehouse space, the third location for a business that's been bursting its own seams since it began a little more than two years ago.

It was Howard who started the business in 2008. A mother at 17, who has worked both as a model and an Oregon Zoo researcher, Howard had been hand-sewing chic little outfits for her second child and getting inquiries from boutique owners about selling her designs.

Stores, of course, want to carry multiple sizes of different styles, and Howard was thrown by the time commitment for such production. She hoped to find some help, someone with an interest in design and a reverence for her garments, and most of all, someone local, instead of in Los Angeles, New York or China, where so much clothing is made. She asked friends in fashion, but it didn't take long to determine she'd found a niche to fill.

A Belmont beginning

So the self-taught sewer opened a tiny storefront on Southeast Belmont Street, and, at least in the beginning, did most of the sewing herself. Still nursing her baby girl, she rifled through books when she needed to learn a technique, and to drum up business worked her connections in the creative community as a sometimes model married to a musician.

By 2009, Howard had enough clients to move up to a space nearer to her home in revitalizing Montavilla, where rent is still cheap but cool new storefronts pop up all the time. More importantly, it's close to the heart of Portland's Vietnamese community, where Howard found skilled sewers.

Robinson, a San Francisco State University graduate experienced in pattern cutting, walked into the Belmont location as a potential client, took one look at the operation and figured out two things: It was a great idea, and Howard needed help. A few months later, they were business partners, later launching First Friday gallery and fashion display events in their storefront, the forerunner to the now-rollicking and regular First Friday celebrations on Montavilla's Southeast Stark Street main drag.

Kate Towers, who opened Seaplane, an influential, early adopter boutique that was one of the first citywide to showcase locally owned designers, says Portland Garment Factory is "something that the city was really missing. I like that it has the term factory, but it is really much more of a grass-roots place, just like everything else here. Suddenly, there are all these people here that are making clothing, and this is still keeping it local."

Employees and interns

These days, settled into a hangar-like space that has been a mechanics shop and woodworkers studio, Howard and Robinson have six employees and a cadre of interns. They offer everything from fit sessions and initial pattern-and-sample making to design consultation and production of entire lines of clothing, as well as fabric goods like slippers, pillows and baby slings. They're size-blind, accepting jobs as small as 10 pieces, and working with some of Portland's bigger fashion names, including Project Runway winners Leanne Marshall and Gretchen Jones.

Commissions from outside the area have been growing. Florida-based A-Bird, a spendy, trendy baby/toddler line, has placed orders for hundreds of pieces, and the Seattle fine-dining restaurant Canlis placed an order for custom jackets for its women servers.

Profits go back into the business -- Howard and Robinson recently swallowed hard and wrote a check for more than $3,000 for equipment, including machines that can sew leather -- and they've only recently quit second jobs waiting tables. But they've got no debt, though not for lack of trying -- "No bank would give us a loan," Howard laughs. Plans call for sourcing fabrics for clients and representing designers to boutique owners.

Howard and Robinson know they'll never be as cheap as having clothes made in China, because labor costs will always be higher here, they say. But local designers say the quality control, and chance to keep production logistics simple and local, are worth the cost.

Barbara Seipp, who owns Phlox boutique on Mississippi Avenue, had been frustrated by the lack of care put into garments made for her own line, sold at her store. Then she started working with Portland Garment Factory.

"We struggle because Portland doesn't have the same resources for fabric shopping, production, promotion," she said. "So for them to be here is amazing. These guys are realistic about what we need, and their prices are reasonable for locally made small volumes."

-- Julia Silverman

SHIP IT GREEN!

If you ship anywhere near as much as we do, please take a look! Click the link and let the EPA and DOT know how important cleaner trucks are!

Urge the EPA and DOT to Clean Up Our Nation's Trucks

Thanks to UCS supporters, packages across the country are now spreading the word that our nation’s trucks should get a whole lot cleaner. But now it’s time to share our Ship it Green! spirit with decision makers as well.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Transportation (DOT) are currently accepting public comments on the first-ever national fuel economy and emissions regulations for medium- and heavy-duty trucks.

Please tell them that, from packages shipped to far away friends and family, to the abundance of goods that crisscross our country daily, we deserve a truck fleet that minimizes pollution and oil use.

Trucks account for only four percent of all the vehicles on our nation's roads, but they use 20 percent of our fuel. The technology already exists to make these vehicles cleaner, and everyone benefits when we have more efficient trucks on the roads—we get cleaner air and we can help break our dependence on oil.

So send a message to the EPA and DOT today!

(click the link in this post's title to jump to the form)

Portland Garment Factory

new space & additions to our amazing

& talented crew

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Welcome to the new PGF, folks.

MIKE TODD

Meet Mike Todd!
Mike lives in Portland with his beautiful wife and baby boy (and two dogs) in an old drafty house in SE Portland. His main goal with the new space and with his creative work as a whole is to develop creative technological toys that other artists can use to further their own artistic visions. Oh, and to have fun. Right now he is working on an album and a series of interactive audio/video pieces dealing with surveillance, security, and privacy issues. He is full of plans for 2011 including building a 3D printer and scanner, doing outdoor projector-based graffiti, and collaborating with Alex DeSpain on some multimedia projects. He is available for commissions for music, video, or tech consulting for installations or otherwise. "I have a weird brain and I like solving problems for people. I feel incredibly blessed to be surrounded by so many talented people right now and am very excited for all of the possibilities within the space at PGF."

Get Your Fabric On

S. RIMMON & CO., INC.

Imported Fabrics of Elegance

&

The Portland Garment Factory

are hosting a SALE & SHOW of

IMPORTED DESIGNER & SUSTAINABLE FABRICS

Our representative Dan Rimmon will be in your area soon showing our exclusive lines

of finer European and designer fabrics and leather. Our complete collection is available to you

with low minimum yardage requirements. He will be showing our new jobber fabrics

from Monique Lhuillier, Frankie B and others!

Wednesday Dec. 8th

3:00 PM - 6:00 PM

at

The Portland Garment Factory

408 SE 79th Ave

Portland OR 97215

ALEX DESPAIN

Meet our new friend and space-sharer, Alex DeSpain! We are so happy to have him in one of our studio spaces here at PGF! http://alexdespain.com/
Alex DeSpain is an illustrator and designer based out of Portland, Oregon. He lives with his wife, Vanessa, and his three pets. DeSpain was born in July of 1984 and began drawing at the young age of six years old. Encouraged by his parents, he studied graphic design and some animation at the Art Institute of Dallas from 2002 to 2004. He has traveled with Vanessa across the country and has immersed himself in the Northwest American culture.

He has used his talents for clients like NBC and The Gap. DeSpain also enjoys creating album artwork and promotional illustrations for musicians, videographers, authors, fashion designers, magazines and newspapers.

Currently, he spends most of his time working on his personal and commission work in his studio.


Contact: alexdespain@gmail.com or by phone, 940.368.3711

PGF+Maria Bamford+Target

You may remember the hilarious Maria Bamford from appearances on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job and with The Comedians of Comedy, but most recently, she has been picked up as the face of Target's Holiday 2010 Ad Campaign. Portland Garment Factory constructed the dress she wears in a few of the commercials and we are so excited! Take a look..

SOFT KNOTS

Soft Knots by Britt Howard - Opening Thursday, December 2nd at Stumptown

In Soft Knots, Britt Howard intends to explore the inchoate nature of motherhood and the necessary deliberations that occur when one’s life has become the dependent of another. Knots secure and trap, bind and hold, they are defined through context, transcribed by circumstance. Couching them in feminine textiles implores the exploration of the pieces’ maternal premise. The various uses of texture further imply Howard’s contrasting, developing, and ever pliable relationships.

Britt Howard is an artist and designer from Portland, OR. She has a husband, two kids, and is the owner of Portland Garment Factory. All aspects of her life are regarded with reverence, though she tends to find herself exasperated daily. This is her first public show.

On view December 1st, 2010 – January 3rd, 2011
Opening reception First Thursday December 2nd, 6 pm – 8 pm

Stumptown Coffee Roasters
128 SW 3rd
Portland, OR
503–295–6144
Mon-Sat: 7am-9pm
Sun: 7am-8pm

ICE HOUSE

This warehouse was, in it's inception, used as an ice house. Workers would bring ice from the river and other icy places, like mountains, probably, and they would store it in this 5000 sq ft warehouse-right up to the ceiling. They would chip of a block for grandma and deliver it to her ice box! This is pre-fridge, people! wow.......

Well now it's 2010 and the space finds itself useful to a different type of labor. Portland Garment Factory is excited to bring a fresh tenancy to the space. We will be moving in, painting and feng shui-ing it up in late October.

We will be offering a limited number of work spaces for rent (sizes are negotiable). Email me if you are interested!

Ice House or bust!

xoxox britt

Smooth MOVE

Imagine a roll top garage style door widening itself open for your pallets of fabric and calling to you...more space, more space, more space! The warehouse is to PGF what the bigger house is to a growing family; a necessary change in layout.

You can imagine PGF as a pregnant lady ready to pop one, no make it twins out.

I prefer to think of it like that since I feel it was a baby, I nurtured it and it grew up to be a strong level headed (and fashionable!) lady....who is pregnant.....and now I am about to be a grandma!

What does it all mean to you? Our darling little ranch for two, where we honeymooned and honed a plan for the future, is for lease!

Call me for details. This baby's gonna go fast.

Uh..News Flash Everyone!

UPDATE!

In mid July we had to make an over night decision to do away with the retail/boutique side of Portland Garment Factory in order to make room for the ever bustling (and now bubbling over) factory. Although sad to say goodbye to the retail end of things, we are proud to be equipped with even more machines and capable of more than ever!

We are just busier than bees at a honey convention.......but as always, call us if you need anything because we got your back!