Interview with Shelley Ediger, Owner of Sew With Sero (DIY Fashion Kits)

Can you share about your journey from learning to sew to owning your own business? Looking back, were there any signs growing up that this would be your future?

Growing up I had a great deal of freedom when it came to creativity. In first grade a teacher noticed I may be dyslexic and spoke to my parents about it. I grew up on a farm in a rural community - and the teacher had the most amazing response. She said to my parents not to focus on my struggles with reading but rather encourage my creativity, an area where I excelled. She said that I was smart, and if I could keep my confidence up, I'd thrive in other areas. 

My parents would have nurtured my creativity either way, because they're also creative. I started sewing with my mom around age 4 and before I was in school I was able to operate the machine by myself and started creating my own make shift patterns. But interestingly, I never, ever in my life used a store bought pattern. I made my own clothes, costumes etc. throughout growing up. 

When I graduated high school I didn't know that fashion was a realistic career choice - and turned to agriculture. I studied AG at the University of Manitoba and then quickly realized I didn't like being in school anymore. After working for a construction company for a few years and setting my sights on being an architectural engineer, my dad quietly nudged me and said... 'I thought you always wanted to do that fashion thing...' That was enough. I decided not to go into studying Architectural Engineering.

Coincidentally that week I had met a girl at a party in Winnipeg who was studying Fashion Design in Vancouver at Blanche MacDonald. I didn't know her, and we only spoke for a minute, but I remembered the school. I called Blanche MacDonald and convinced them to give me late acceptance. I packed up my car and moved to Vancouver 2 weeks later.

How did you acquire your sewing and design skills?

 
I learned sewing from the women in my life, my mom and grandmothers. As I grew older, I made up my own methods of making things. I didn't like to fuss with all the pins, so I learned to control most of the fabrics with my hands alone lining up as I went. I learned the commercial way of sewing later. My design skills came early on from glimpses and exposure. Having grown up in rural Manitoba, I didn't see a great deal of fashion around me - but when I saw magazines, or went to the opera or ballet with my family, my eyes were opened! It was not only the stage costumes, but what guests were wearing. 

I kept the images of details tucked inside my head and tried my best to replicate them. When they didn't work, they morphed into something else which was usually even better. Later I would have my first professional industry job with a company that was extremely diverse. And while pattern making was my weakest spot, I also felt it was the most important, so I took the Jr. Pattern Making Job at Mondetta. With a stroke of luck, my boss, friend and mentor Helen somehow got through to me and made it all make sense.  I became a terrific pattern maker and was exposed daily to outerwear, athletic wear, stretch, no stretch, and men's and women's clothing. I saw everything and was involved in it all daily. This opened my eyes to how much I could learn and how different all of these things were not just in design, but in fit, pattern making, ease, tension, construction methods etc. 

After I outgrew my position there, I was asked to join a team working with National Defense. I managed the factory floor as well as did the design, and pattern making. This was an entirely new experience as I was able to work on the factory floor directly with the production workers and sample makers. I was still young at this time. Again, it opened my eyes to a new way of designing and articulating my work. In 2018 I opened my own factory, GarmaTech, where all of these experiences came to their pinnacle. We opened our doors with immediate and consistent orders, navigated our way through the pandemic, and never looked back!

What inspire you to create your Sew with Sero initiative? At the start was the idea smaller, or did you commit to launching it as a business right from the beginning?

At GarmaTech, I noticed post pandemic our clients had a wave of thriving business, and after that wave was a long and noticeable lull. As a factory we were okay because we still had a great deal of clients, were designing with National Defense, and could take on additional clients to fill the voids of existing clients decrease. But I wanted to stay on top of what was happening.

 
The push for slow fashion to combat fast fashion has been a long journey, and one that I am heavily involved with at GarmaTech as it is a domestic cut and sew factory. Realistically, I never thought it was the approach. Everyone started making sour dough bread in the pandemic. People want to know how to do things. I think it's in our blood to want to be able to have a life skill, to be able to create. This paired with a real life problem. In the factory I typically order 4% extra fabric for all production runs to accommodate for mis-cuts, fabric damages and other various human errors. Often this 4% is not used and the fabric rolls are left on a shelf. This has added up to some rolls 5m and some rolls 50m. 

Sero Youtube Tutorial

It is all new fabric. It is too much to waste and throw away, but not enough to use for a bulk manufacturing project. Because GarmaTech does patterns for several other Canadian factories as well, I happen to know that I am not the only one with this problem. I tried to think of a way to utilize the fabric as a business but was not interested in becoming a fabric store. I wanted to nudge fast fashion out of the picture, but recognized that economically we need a cost effective way to make clothing in order for people to turn away from overseas fast fashion. 

These thoughts sparked it. DIY. Save on the cost, learn a skill, make something that actually fits your body, use up my (and other factories) fabric ends, teach people, help with their mental health because they're doing a project start to finish with an end result that they already want. Get that dopamine hit when you have a parcel in the mail. Feel that boost when you put on your garment and say to yourself - 'I made that!'

Add context to the young people on social media posting their outfits. It’s not a cheap clothing haul, it's a DIY haul. Making things IS cool, and it's good for you. I knew right away that I wanted to jump in. Because we are based in a commercial factory, the things needed are already in place. I am a pattern maker. I can make markers and designs that are fun and exciting. We have a fabric cutter and can do high ply cutting to both save time for us and the end user. We have wholesale pricing on everything that we can pass on savings to people and we have the workforce already here.

Sustainability is a driving force behind Sero as you are taking factory waste and dead stock and turning it into sewing kits? How did you come to be passionate about creating a healthier fashion business? How did you find your sources for the deadstock and waste fabrics you use in your kits? 

Most of the inspiration came from looking at Gen Z'ers. They are such a creative group of people, but somehow so many of them feel lost. Mental Health is a very serious topic among so many people and because of the work I do, I have somewhat of a different perspective. Your skin drinks in everything you put on it. When you wear cotton clothing your skin is fine - but hyper synthetic clothing is putting chemicals into your body. This is scientifically proved. 

When clothes are made cheap they have to be made fast. When they're made fast corners are cut. This might be in the process for fabric printing or dying where the dye does not have the appropriate amount of time to cure. This might be in the fabric yarn process that the chemicals are not properly set into the yarns. This paired with the very simple fact that I was also a young girl, a millennial who loved clothes! So I do get it. 

We want to look cute. We want to feel beautiful, and for so many of us when we are at that age - early 20's - we don't have a lot of extra money. All of these things are reality and I understand why the young people are defaulting to these cheap clothes. I want to offer an option. It's like killing two birds with one stone. You can feel better getting away from technology and focusing on a small project - start to finish - with the end result being that you created something cute and trendy. This will add context into their social media stories. And they get to learn a new skill that we teach in a very simple way. I teach commercial sewing. It's fast, easy, and has room for error. I teach people to iron their seams and clip their threads, it will change the whole piece for the better!

As mentioned above, the parent company GarmaTech is the 'in house pattern maker' for 7 other Canadian factories and as such I am very familiar with these facilities and owners. THey have all offered us to buy their deadstock at a good price to move forward with this project. We also buy form our regular suppliers at wholesale costs for some pieces.

What has been the hardest challenges you have faced building a business like this? What has come easiest for you?

 
The hardest part has been communication. Both communicating instructions to the end user to make sure that I fully explain the process and don't wiz by making assumptions about people’s knowledge, but more so communicating with people that these are easy DIY kits that they can do at home. It's an entirely new product and people are not familiar with the idea of pre cut fabric in their kit, thread and trims included ready to go and the user just has to assembly. This communication has been the hardest part.

 
The part that comes easy and is fun is designing around the parameters of available fabric. Making use of last season's colours or textures in a new and fresh way. And while this business is just shy of 1 year old now and has been a hard start with slow sales early on, I continue to feel very passionate about it and about what it could give to people by way of creativity.

How do you come up the ideas for your kits? Do you create the sewing ideas/patterns first and then look for fabrics, or do you design kits based on the fabric you acquire?

We have 4 female avatars that we design for. Olivia is 12, Emma 24, Kelly 38 and Mary 65. Between all these characters we try to design each piece that would be interesting to at least 2 of them. For example, some kits are for Olivia to make with her grandma Mary. Some kits are for both Kelly and Mary showing a relaxed casual vibe or fashion forward pieces for Emma and Kelly. 

Ultimately our customer will choose whatever they want for their own personal taste but having these avatars keeps us on track to stay inclusive, and relevant for everyone. We have some unisex pieces and are hopeful to have a full mens line within a year. We do typically design first, then look at the fabric available and then come back to the design room to re-evaluate. Sometimes we can get it on our first try, and other times we make adjustments. But being so hands on with the resources GarmaTech has means we are able to be nimble and quickly make those adjustments.

Readers would love to hear about the types of kits (and other products) you have available. Are they all easy sew or is there a range in the skill level required in the different kits?

We offer 3 levels of sewing, beginner (level 1), intermediate (level 2) and expert (level 3), but the interesting thing is - because these are more fashion forward and not 'crafty' you often may not know what level a project is  just by looking at it. We do our best to keep the level 1 category stacked as it's the most fun, easy and time effective to make. It's our take on 'fast fashion.’ Products range from a hammer and rivet denim vest that does not require any sewing machine, hammer and rivet tote bag that's great for kids just exploring, or an easy sew t-shirt - right up to a fully waterproof rain jacket or bridesmaid / bridal kits with intricate shirring and invisible zipper closures.

In closing, is there anything else you'd like to share with readers? 

We are very excited to teach every single person how to make their own wardrobe. No matter your skill level or type of machine you have (or don't have) you can get started with us. We are particularly excited about our kids hammer and rivet denim tote bags as they're perfect for birthday parties. The only tool required is a hammer and flat surface and they're a level 1 beginner project. Each kit is $15.00 and allows the kid a chance to make their very own bag.

Links -

• Website - www.sewwithsero.com/
• YouTube - www.youtube.com/channel/UCD9wRdgZkSh6SPeyfTCPq0A
• Instagram - @sewwithsero
• Facebook - www.facebook.com/p/Sew-With-Sero-61559893796900/
• TikTok - @sewwithsero