children's - Fashion Blogs - Fashion Industry Network

The Princess and the Pea

Posted by Melody Wilson on April 27, 2009 at 9:34am

How could I have understood, before giving birth to a Princess, the humor of The Princess and the Pea?

It can get to you, if you lose your sense of humor about it. Some little girls are simply born with an acute sensitivity to anything -- ANYTHING -- that rubs them the wrong way.

I suppose I was this way myself as a girl; perhaps that is why I find myself designing little girls' clothing.

My little princess had issues with jeans. She simply would not wear them. Denim was just not soft enough to be

A Basic Sewing Studio for Knits

Posted by Melody Wilson on April 18, 2009 at 8:53am

I am indebted to the Leabu Sewing Center for not only repairing and maintaining my machines, but advising me on how to provide myself with the essential machines for my work, without breaking the bank.

Many designers do great work without sewing, but I design mainly by sewing. Since I began working mainly with knit fabrics, in developing the Pixyworld line, I realized that my sweet little Huskystar 219 (Husqvarna) wasn't going to be adequate for sewing my samples.

I first acquired a serger, used,

Full Belted Skirts are Only for the Few

Posted by Melody Wilson on April 12, 2009 at 8:00pm

Have you noticed the growing popularity of the belted full skirt?

I was on a discussion board (Body Type and Body Image) recently, where someone was asking whether this type of skirt would work for her body type. My question is, who does it work for??

OK, it looks great on these models. But it seems to me it is not for most women. It is so waist-conscious, and the fuller styles require slender hips as well!

One thing is for sure: It is not a style for my children's clothing line. Toddler girls' w

Profile of a Designer-Entrepreneur

Posted by Melody Wilson on May 4, 2009 at 1:22pm

I'm sure everyone has a different opinion about what it takes to be an independent designer-entrepreneur. We designer-entrepreneurs probably all think, "you have to be like me!"

I know I started out feeling extremely under-qualified. With no current connections in the industry and no fashion education, where was I to start?

At that time I failed to recognize the strengths I had inherited from my family. Both of my parents are entrepreneurs, who can never be happy in an ordinary job. They are alway

Images on Clothing: Embroidery vs. Applique

Posted by Melody Wilson on April 9, 2009 at 10:30am

The ability to put images on clothing has opened up new vistas of fun and personal expression, both for adults and children. Printed fabrics and printed tee-shirts are so ubiquitous now that we take them for granted. But my favorites, especially for children's clothing, are embroidery and applique -- two methods that give an image a special texture and style that really makes it pop.

Embroidery Library has great examples of both. With embroidery, there is the possibility for almost limitless deta

Yummy Yarn-Dyed Stripes

Posted by Melody Wilson on April 11, 2009 at 11:00am

Fabric quality is such an important element in producing a pleasing and long-lasting product. The average consumer does not necessarily know the technical terms for different types of fabric, but she knows good fabric when she sees and feels it.

My aspirations in this area, for my toddler girls' line, are high. One aspect of high-quality knit fabrics is that striped knits are yarn-dyed rather than printed.

Having a yarn-dyed fabric custom made for a small boutique line is virtually impossible, be

Online Clothing Sales: Return Policy Matters!

Posted by Melody Wilson on April 17, 2009 at 10:11am

When I was considering advertising my little girls' clothing line on Momfinds.com, I ran across a very interesting snippet on their advertising page:

"Online Shopping Concerns (ranked in order of most common response to least common response)Fit of itemsHassle of returnsShipping costsQuality of itemsSecurity of entering credit card number onlineFinding right item or shopWrong item(s)/lost item(s)NoneMomFinds Consumer Insight:Online shoppers' primary concern is that an item will not fit and that i

Why Wovens but Not Knits??

Posted by Melody Wilson on May 1, 2009 at 7:18pm

It's a little puzzling, given the immense popularity of knit fabrics in fashion today, why knit prints are relatively hard to find. Premier fabric designers like Robert Kauffman (pictured), Amy Butler, and Michael Miller all seem to design prints produced exclusively as woven fabrics.

Is this because their target market is primarily quilters? Today, with the emergence of so much patchwork in boutique apparel, there would seem to be a growing market for designer knit prints.

At this point, Pixyworl

ALWAYS Get Counter-Samples

Posted by Melody Wilson on May 11, 2009 at 11:01am

My overseas production manager has proved herself responsible. After sending her a physical sample, graded patterns, and finished product measurements for my new Pixyworld collection, and after being hit with high FedEx bills in the past, I figured it would be unnecessary to have her send me finished counter-samples. Photos would be fine.

But she was concerned enough to do it anyway, at her own expense. And, sure enough, we had narrowly averted disaster. She had made the dress bodice out of jerse

Spec Sheets, Schmeck Sheets.

Posted by Melody Wilson on April 7, 2009 at 8:41am

As much as I love Mary Gelhar's The Fashion Designer Survival Guide, there is one area in which it hasn't tallied with my experience.

Tech sheets. Spec sheets. Whatever you want to call them. The fact of the matter is, I have rarely ever been able to get a manufacturing quote for my little girls' clothing line with one.

When I first started looking for a factory, I made beautiful tech sheets. By the book. One production manager even went out of her way to compliment my flats. But the response I in

Toddler Hair Accessories: What's Out There?

Posted by Melody Wilson on April 21, 2009 at 8:30am

Gymboree (hairpiece pictured) is clearly a leader in mass-produced hair accessories for little girls. There are also many clever moms producing unique custom hair pieces, selling on etsy or eBay. So, is there room for more?

Gymboree seems to have two advantages, besides the obvious cost benefit of mass-production. One is one-stop shopping. Moms shopping online will choose a hairpiece from the same site as the clothing they are buying, if possible, to save on shipping.

Their other advantage is outf

Standard US Sizing???

Posted by Melody Wilson on April 20, 2009 at 10:01am

In soliciting our business, the overseas factory Pixyworld is currently working with proudly announced that they could grade our patterns for us according to "standard US sizing." Is there such a thing??

Even for women's clothing, I've found significant variation between brands. But in the children's clothing I buy, sizing is all over the map!!

In shopping for my boys (aged 7 and 9) I've found that the smaller brands tend to run on the smaller side. Gap Kids is long in the legs, good in the arm le

WAHMs in Fashion: an Age-Old Tradition

Posted by Melody Wilson on April 10, 2009 at 11:00am

If you are one, you know what it stands for: Work-At-Home Mom. (As if moms who stay home with their children without pursuing a career are not working??) At any rate, as Pixyworld's designer, I am one.

Now, it's interesting to me that we have a term for this now, as if being a mom pursuing a career from home were a brand new phenomenon. As far as I can see, most moms throughout the centuries have been WAHMs.

Take the biblical ideal woman, described in Proverbs 31: "She sees that her trading is pro

Cluttered Studio, Cluttered Mind??

Posted by Melody Wilson on March 27, 2009 at 10:46am

The classic retort to the aphorism "Cluttered desk, cluttered mind" is, "Well, then what about an empty desk??"

I might say the same for my design studio, the wellspring of Pixyworld children's fashion, should it ever be accused of being... shall we say, less than tidy? I had to admit to finding a large piece of unused marker paper the other day, after having made do without any (thinking I'd run out) for several days of pattern making.

But I like to class myself as "artistic" (as if that somehow

Inventory in the Bedroom

Posted by Melody Wilson on March 31, 2009 at 9:23am

I take comfort form the story Mary Gelhar tells in The Fashion Designer Survival Guide about a young designer who's apartment was so full of inventory, her husband had to take refuge at Starbucks to find a place to sit down. At least we're not that crowded!!

But it can't be denied that we do have Pixyworld inventory stacked in our bedroom. It's neatly stacked, and securely packed, but the fact remains that it's there.

Right where our next baby's crib should be, should there be a next. (Would Freud

Colors in Fashion Design

Posted by Melody Wilson on April 4, 2009 at 11:01am

As cheesy as the title has come to sound, Color Me Beautiful, by Carole Jackson, has been a milestone in fashion history. Take a look on Amazon at how many titles and products use it as a springboard. And for me, it was the beginning of the love affair with color that eventually led me to a career in children's fashion.

Jackson's color theory forms a foundation for color selection in fashion design. It reminds the designer to select colors from all four seasons, so that her line can have the broa

A New Look at Wholesale

Posted by Melody Wilson on March 26, 2009 at 8:43am

It seems that with the advent of e-commerce, the rigid dividing lines between apparel wholesalers and retailers is softening, and Pixyworld is ready to step into a newer hybrid role. We have always been open, in theory, to wholesaling, but we seemed to have readier access to the retail market. Not to mention profit margin -- which is miniscule for our wholesale sales at present.

However, we've been getting more and more wholesale inquiries, and it's caused us to take another look at the potential

It's In the Fit (that's where it is...)

Posted by Melody Wilson on March 28, 2009 at 11:19am

There are so many thing that have to go right in garment production, to make a pleasing product. It's no wonder I find myself returning half the clothes I buy from Chadwick's, my cheap online clothing source.

But if I had to pick one detail that is make or break, it's fit. And I'd say that with the childrens' clothes I design, sizing is even more challenging, but just as important.

It's more challenging because children vary tremendously in both height and weight, whereas in standard adult women's

Email, Anyone??

Posted by Melody Wilson on March 15, 2009 at 8:01pm

It took me awhile to get used to the fact that the fashion industry still uses fax over email. I don't own a fax machine, and I find myself sending faxes to work with my husband, in order to order stock garment labels and other production supplies. What's up with that??

Strangely enough, these faxing businesses seem to proliferate in the USA, whereas I stay in touch with my overseas contacts via email.

Hey -- whatever it takes!! It's a privilege to work with people who have years of experience in

Overseas Manufacturing: Pros and Cons

Posted by Melody Wilson on March 19, 2009 at 8:26am

Pixyworld is dipping its toes into the deep waters of overseas manufacturing. We're starting with one collection, as an experiment, this season. Amazingly enough, we found a factory that is willing to come low on minimums and even make one fabric in an extremely small quantity.

But there's more to overcome than high minimums. How about shipping cost -- not just shipping for the product, but back and forth for sample fabric, patterns, samples, & counter-samples!! Using a courrier service like FedE

children's (88)

The Princess and the Pea

A Basic Sewing Studio for Knits

Full Belted Skirts are Only for the Few

Profile of a Designer-Entrepreneur

Images on Clothing: Embroidery vs. Applique

Yummy Yarn-Dyed Stripes

Online Clothing Sales: Return Policy Matters!

Why Wovens but Not Knits??

ALWAYS Get Counter-Samples

Spec Sheets, Schmeck Sheets.

Toddler Hair Accessories: What's Out There?

Standard US Sizing???

WAHMs in Fashion: an Age-Old Tradition

Cluttered Studio, Cluttered Mind??

Inventory in the Bedroom

Colors in Fashion Design

A New Look at Wholesale

It's In the Fit (that's where it is...)

Email, Anyone??

Overseas Manufacturing: Pros and Cons

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