Tailoring a Workforce for Industrial Sewing

From weather balloons to backpacks, shower curtains to parachutes, and awnings to space suits, the world needs people who can sew. Aerospace and hospitality industries, the U.S. military and outdoor furniture companies are among those seeking a workforce with sewing skills, and Moonshot at NACET’s Arizona Stitch Lab believes there’s an opportunity to harness and cultivate that skill set.

“We are creating a pilot project to see if a sewing program can have legs in Northern Arizona,” said Moonshot President and CEO Scott Hathcock. “The focus is on skilled labor workforce development for companies in need of staffing industrial sewers and entrepreneurs with products in the sewn goods sector.”

Using funding from a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant, Moonshot, in collaboration with the City of Winslow, is hosting open houses at the Winslow Council On Aging Active Adult Community Center to explain the project and recruit participants for a six-week Basic Industrial Sewing Skills course that starts this month. Hathcock is inspired by the success of a similar Moonshot program currently underway in Tucson that has partnered with the City of Tucson and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, and has become overloaded with demand.

Winslow Economic Development Director Una Wirkebau is inspired as well. She says there’s growing interest in the area right now from land developers, manufacturers and businesses, and she believes having a trained skilled workforce with commercial sewing skills will be a valuable asset for attracting more employers. She notes the high unemployment rate in Navajo County and on the Navajo Nation, and believes this initiative could create lasting change.

“There is a wonderful opportunity for entrepreneurs to take these skills and run with them,” she said. “As long as they have an industrial sewing machine, they can start their own business and work from home. We see this as having a multi-generational impact on families where a mom, a son, a grandmother, for example, could all be creating work to bring in money for the household.”

Wirkebau shares the vision with Moonshot for a locally grown workforce, using Arizona cotton and becoming a hub for sewing needs globally. She says that an empty Winslow textile warehouse, known locally as “the hat factory,” could become part of the picture. “There’s more than enough work out there that we can easily fill that location if someone has the passion for making this happen. This goes beyond economic development in local neighborhoods. Oh my goodness, there are so many possibilities. We are right on Interstate 40 and we have a train depot.”

Stephanie Pierotti is the executive director for the Arizona Stitch Lab at Moonshot. “There is gap in the skilled labor market and it’s a national challenge,” she said. “It was a surprise to me to learn of the great need for industrial sewing skills. There’s a trade union for theater in Arizona, for example, the International Alliance of Theatrical State Employees (IASTE), that has a large need for repairing curtains and other cloth components for theaters in Phoenix and the surrounding area. We want to make Arizona a hub for the sewn goods industry, and create awareness that we do have a skilled labor workforce here and we can handle jobs from all over the country and all over the world.”

Pierotti says working with the Pascua Yaqui Tribe in Tucson has been a great fit. “Sewing is part of Arizona’s indigenous culture and this program is creating awareness about how valuable and marketable that skill is. We are discovering so many jobs that require commercial sewers that we didn’t know existed. Right now, much of that work is being sent overseas.”

The Tucson program connected with Erika Yngve to be the Moonshot entrepreneur in residence. Together with Yngve, the Moonshot team created a curriculum to raise home sewing skills to industrial sewing skills for higher paying jobs, help launch sewn goods companies, create small-batch manufacturing opportunities and build a database of sewing talent throughout the state.

Similarly, Moonshot is working with Tina LaChance, founder of Red Thread Sewing, who has been sewing full-time in Flagstaff since 2007. She will be the hands-on instructor for the Winslow program. “Sewing skills are in high demand. With every single turn I’ve made in the sewing industry, there are not enough people to help me,” said LaChance. “The industry needs experienced industrial sewers. I’m really excited about serving the community with sewing services and helping Northern Arizona’s economy as well.”

LaChance works with Overland Campers, a locally grown business that creates pop-up mobile habitats for the outdoors. She says she learned her sewing skills from her mother when she was in the Girl Scouts. “I would get old pants from the thrift store and make bags for other people in high school. In my 20s, I moved to Flagstaff and met a wonderful lady who knew how to do home decorating. I started making curtains for folks. Before 2007, I got a job doing embroidery and alterations. Sewing has really been critical to my life. I’ve been through my fair share of health scares and issues that kept me from having a regular job. Sewing work filled the gaps in income. The overhead is very low compared to other industries. Keeping and maintaining those machines has enabled me to be fluid in my life and income. Sewing can be a steady income maker for anyone.”

Pierotti sees the pilot project as an exciting opportunity that will create awareness about upskilling opportunities for occupations like digital patternmaking and 3D modeling that can create six-figure salaries. QCBN

By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN

For more information, go to
azstitchlab.org.