Thank you so much, Caroline! I remember when I was younger, how our clothes lasted for years. It was nice getting hand me downs. They even lasted for years after I received them. I started buying my everyday items American made and healthier. So now I'll venture into clothing. We need to build our country up and bring jobs back. Again, thank you for this video!!
Thank you so much! It's been difficult for me to find America made fabrics and clothing. I hate that most shirts are labeled cotton but are really polyester. If you cut a little piece off and set it to fire and it melts, it's polyester. I will be looking for these American companies now.
It's not only important to support quality american manufacturers, but another BIG issue is all the man-made fabrics that clothes are made of do not break down in the landfills. Natural fabrics can be composted once they are too far gone (or made into quilts, doll clothes, rag rugs, etc.)
When i was young, 60's, i had a seamstress neighbor. She was 60 years plus. She had the most wonderful sewing room. I learned a lot, plus my mother loved to sew, made clothes for her family. Of course, I loved to sew and make things. My daughter also learned the machine. 2 years ago she bought a machine for her grand daughter, my great grand daughter. This last August I asked how Addy was doing. This Christmas will be two years and no one has showed her how to use the machine. After the first of the year, I am going to slow down. I will help her. Life is so fast now. I had a life of sewing my pom dresses, costumes, my childrens costumes. Special outfits the kids would see in vogue. We had fun trying to duplicate. And this story
Unfortunately the gentleman’s audio was not very good . I will read the transcript. Wool is such a good resource that North America should utilize more
It is such a complicated issue! Its a mindset shift at the societal level. I have a closet full of clothes and I gravitate to the same three pairs of pants and maybe five tops. There are limits to the amount of choices our brains can handle. We need to start valuing the skill and effort it takes to make good clothing and workers deserve a good wage. As someone who has attempted to make her own (with odd results) it is certainly not unskilled labour!😂 That said, for a good wage and safe conditions I would happily trade in my three degrees to sew for a living.
Zig Ziglar said something like … Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly in the beginning. Practice, practice, practice and you will be very proficient before you know it. The knowledge and skill will be worth it even if you don’t do it for a living. Your skills just might inspire the next generation.
My daughter buys cheap $20 T-shirts vs the American made I buy. Hers gets holes within 3 months. I have T-shirts that are 10 years old. The only problem I have is buying jeans for women. I need to try them on before I buy them, and most are made of stretchy material. I want real blue jeans made with blue jean material. I am not a big woman but my inner thighs rub together, so the stretchy material wears out in that area. I want jeans to last me five years not 1.
Same here. I've got a pair of jeans that look great but they have so much stretch that I had to relegate them to farm wear only because even with a belt they ride away down and I'm constantly pulling them back up.
I am a quilter of 45 years. The material that we used today is very thin cotton compared to the older stuff. Do we have a shortage in cotton T-shirts are so thin and so is our undergarment
Happy to pay more for quality textile....my sewers were Taiwanese in Canada, who thrive on piece work, as well as supporting our own citizens in employment, keeping taxes and wages at home. Raw materials are likely a better/smarter trade than finished product. Look for American or Canadian Made. Goes for furniture as well. Best Smoker/BBQ I ever assembled was made with American Metal, went together smooth as butter. Amazing....not to speak of our quality wood products. We have plenty of trees ;]...obviously counting on organized Governments to have proper tree planting programs in conjunction. Harvested 3 times in a life time. Meanwhile we ship lumber twice across oceans and highways, to receive a simple product in a cardboard box, boxes that travel more than most humans, though without windows....just a bit crazy Great conversation, thanks.
Interesting chat. Thank you both. Like everything else, clothing is a throw away commodity. Walmart and like stores are/was/is the ruination of small business in the world. But yet, people continue to support. I understand, but it is sad to watch it all happening. Not everything can be found locally but doing what we can will certainly help.
This has been a concern of mine for years. The way people over purchase clothing and other items and throw away items that fill our landfills. I keep almost everything and use it for decades until it is not useable or I donate to second hand stores. I also purchase many things at second hand retailers.
I feel the same. My really old stuff is going to be made into quilts. I haven’t decided who will get them though. So many people need blankets right now.
Nice! If they want to add some American suppliers of cotton, linen and wool fabrics and yarns that aren't ridiculously overpriced, there is a big market for people who would buy domestic instead of at fabric stores. Lots of people make their own clothes, curtains, linens and toys because of low quality and chemical saturation of those items in stores.
If it lasts longer, it pays for it's self. Also, to see how many clothes people have in their closets is ridiculous. I'm not saying you but in general.
I'm 72 and when my dad was alive I would buy him a Pendleton shirt for B- days and Christmas. That was his shirt of choice. Now, that shirt is 175.00. And now they are made USA and imported. We know that means china. But the word imported is used to justify the price. In the 70's 80'sand 90's the shirt was 35.00 ending 75.00 80.00. I really couldn't afford todays price. Maybe one shirt a year. Pendleton has really let america down, import my foot.
Now that hemp is legal ,I expect to see some denim m jeans made out of it. I live in an old mining town. Every once in a while, a pair of jeans turns up from the mines , or someone’s collection, still usable today. I also upcycle clothes to make new ones. I pass on newer materials, the quality it is not there in the threads. New clothes get sprayed sometimes, to combat mold while in shipping. This is poisonous. I hate to see people wearing new clothes they haven’t washed yet. When I was a child in Arizona, I saw cotton fields. That land now has houses. Extremely over population is terrible for the earth. We are paving over productive soils. Food is extremely expensive and will never be cheaper.
Hemp Upholstery is like lush linen ;] Yes, boo to irritant chemicals in clothing and the garments' non-deterioration, to be found forever. It's awful garbage....and still 'they' wonder..... just stupid for money
We made our own textiles, and more, in America until we had a president who moved much of our businesses overseas, I believe China He because the "president" of GM and the whole area around Springfield Ohio died. Millions lost their jobs and couldn't get all the education and experience to restart a career. I used to live near there and that is when Ohio died. We all know about Detroit and a lot of PA. I sew and have found fabrics, only from overseas, to be twice or three times as much money, before Bidenomics. I would love to find economical textiles, made in the USA. We need our country back. My son in law lost his job in September after Google bought the company he worked for. Now, Google is using AI and hoping for the best. The product has to have human interaction. It's just unreal what happened to this country.
Im all for US manufacturing and love to purchase what I can thats made here, but what's the alternative for the workers in those other countries if the manufacturers pull out and come back to the US? it is sad that they have to work like that, but if those jobs go away, what kind of work would they have?
I don’t know if this is the best place to ask this I’m new at freeze drying & Im FD all my herbs but thinking of creating powdered herb blends in a shaker bottle as Christmas gifts but will they rehydrate that way. Can I mix them with salt to help them keep their flavor?
In the links you provided in the notes, there is only one that makes a few women's clothing items. Once again, VERY limited choices for women's pants and other women's clothing in general. Maybe American companies using American grown and processed fibers see no market for women or don't value women's participation as a customer in their companies?
I agree with the concerns and the availability of “American made” products, however; in researching some of the company’s inventory, the prices are staggering. I have preferred to buy US made, but Not all want to, or can afford to pay $140 for one flannel shirt. Granted they’re durable, and made right here in our United States, but unfortunately we have become a very greedy, spoiled , and vain people. People don’t want to work for less than $25 an hour, and not to mention the benefits demand along with that. Granted, we are deserving of these benefits, but we are pricing ourselves out of the country by doing so. It’s a vicious circle. And someone has to do the menial jobs, and they are just as deserving and there in lies the problem; they cannot afford those finer amenities. I personally am a more simple person, I don’t shop for clothes much, having a “new” car isn’t one of my bigger goals. materialism and status is a HUGE problem here, and again we are a very spoiled nation in that regard. I am all for buying and supporting American. So where does it end??
I think the answer is to thrift most of your clothes and then buy what you can afford of companies that have ethical principles. The more customers they have the lower the price. We have a global clothing glut. Thrifting makes sense.
Not really responding for discussion or to disagree but your comment was a good launching point for something my husband and I have been discussing. Americans can't or won't pay $120 for a shirt because we buy so many clothes or we buy clothes of poor quality that wear out so quickly . A google search says Americans buy 53 pieces on average every year. If we switched to a sustainable wardrobe , "capsule" wardrobe and limited our clothing to core , quality pieces we could spend $120 on a shirt if you only have 5 high quality shirts m....versus having 30 shirts that were $20 each. Both are going to cost the consumer $600 a year. And Thrifting is a great option to shop for quality pieces at a bargain and to save clothes from the landfill but I hope more and more we can support companies that make quality , American made clothes that pay their employees a fair wage so therefore have to charge more.
This documentary had me shaking with anger. To be sure this doesn’t just apply to the garment industry, I am suspect of any company that does global business until research shows otherwise. To begin voting with my dollars in response to this documentary, I have deleted Amazon and Wal-Mart Apps and will be boycotting them. I will be doing better to support my local economy which I should have been doing all along. I will be much more diligent about who I am purchasing from when I need to purchase something that I cannot get from a local producer. This isn’t just about the apparel business but about how global businesses and brands treat our fellow human beings and lull us into being lazy about our purchases. We all have different ways and abilities that we can support local and made in America even if it may seem insignificant. Present the question to your brain and you may be surprised by its’ inspiration.
Thank you so much, Caroline! I remember when I was younger, how our clothes lasted for years. It was nice getting hand me downs. They even lasted for years after I received them. I started buying my everyday items American made and healthier. So now I'll venture into clothing. We need to build our country up and bring jobs back. Again, thank you for this video!!
Thank you so much! It's been difficult for me to find America made fabrics and clothing. I hate that most shirts are labeled cotton but are really polyester. If you cut a little piece off and set it to fire and it melts, it's polyester. I will be looking for these American companies now.
It's not only important to support quality american manufacturers, but another BIG issue is all the man-made fabrics that clothes are made of do not break down in the landfills. Natural fabrics can be composted once they are too far gone (or made into quilts, doll clothes, rag rugs, etc.)
Darn tough socks is another Vermont based company that has amazing products that last a long time.
Fascinating topic! We need more textile factories in the USA❤🇺🇲
Where are the fabrics made that they use to produce their clothing in the US? I sew my own clothes and would be interested in fabrics made in the US.
When i was young, 60's, i had a seamstress neighbor. She was 60 years plus. She had the most wonderful sewing room. I learned a lot, plus my mother loved to sew, made clothes for her family. Of course, I loved to sew and make things. My daughter also learned the machine. 2 years ago she bought a machine for her grand daughter, my great grand daughter. This last August I asked how Addy was doing. This Christmas will be two years and no one has showed her how to use the machine. After the first of the year, I am going to slow down. I will help her. Life is so fast now. I had a life of sewing my pom dresses, costumes, my childrens costumes. Special outfits the kids would see in vogue. We had fun trying to duplicate. And this story
That's a great idea to help teach your great granddaughter how to sew. I am sure she will appreciate it.
Unfortunately the gentleman’s audio was not very good . I will read the transcript. Wool is such a good resource that North America should utilize more
I did the same
Time, money, quality. To have a good quality product, at best you can only sacrifice one.
It is such a complicated issue! Its a mindset shift at the societal level.
I have a closet full of clothes and I gravitate to the same three pairs of pants and maybe five tops. There are limits to the amount of choices our brains can handle.
We need to start valuing the skill and effort it takes to make good clothing and workers deserve a good wage. As someone who has attempted to make her own (with odd results) it is certainly not unskilled labour!😂
That said, for a good wage and safe conditions I would happily trade in my three degrees to sew for a living.
Zig Ziglar said something like … Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly in the beginning. Practice, practice, practice and you will be very proficient before you know it. The knowledge and skill will be worth it even if you don’t do it for a living. Your skills just might inspire the next generation.
The fabric with micro plastic in clothes bothers me. Pure cotton & wool is what I look & save $$'s for. 😊
Me too, and linen.
I went through my cupboards and threw out all synthetic clothing..
I wish All American Clothing would make boot cut jeans for women 😊
How do we make sure that the American clothing brands are also using fiber from America. The few websites I checked didn't say anything.
Many fibers cannot be found in the states. Have to buy overseas. I appreciate the effort. The prices made in the states are astronautical as well.
My daughter buys cheap $20 T-shirts vs the American made I buy. Hers gets holes within 3 months. I have T-shirts that are 10 years old.
The only problem I have is buying jeans for women. I need to try them on before I buy them, and most are made of stretchy material. I want real blue jeans made with blue jean material. I am not a big woman but my inner thighs rub together, so the stretchy material wears out in that area. I want jeans to last me five years not 1.
Same here. I've got a pair of jeans that look great but they have so much stretch that I had to relegate them to farm wear only because even with a belt they ride away down and I'm constantly pulling them back up.
I am a quilter of 45 years. The material that we used today is very thin cotton compared to the older stuff. Do we have a shortage in cotton T-shirts are so thin and so is our undergarment
Happy to pay more for quality textile....my sewers were Taiwanese in Canada, who thrive on piece work, as well as supporting our own citizens in employment, keeping taxes and wages at home.
Raw materials are likely a better/smarter trade than finished product.
Look for American or Canadian Made. Goes for furniture as well. Best Smoker/BBQ I ever assembled was made with American Metal, went together smooth as butter. Amazing....not to speak of our quality wood products. We have plenty of trees ;]...obviously counting on organized Governments to have proper tree planting programs in conjunction. Harvested 3 times in a life time. Meanwhile we ship lumber twice across oceans and highways, to receive a simple product in a cardboard box, boxes that travel more than most humans, though without windows....just a bit crazy
Great conversation, thanks.
Interesting chat. Thank you both. Like everything else, clothing is a throw away commodity. Walmart and like stores are/was/is the ruination of small business in the world. But yet, people continue to support. I understand, but it is sad to watch it all happening. Not everything can be found locally but doing what we can will certainly help.
I work at the post office. The amount of Temu and Shein clothing that comes in is astounding.
The odor from clothes bought from there doesn't seem to go away. Sizing isn't very accurate either (an elder bought from them).
I think they dump very underpriced clothing and items to the US to ruin businesses here
This has been a concern of mine for years. The way people over purchase clothing and other items and throw away items that fill our landfills. I keep almost everything and use it for decades until it is not useable or I donate to second hand stores. I also purchase many things at second hand retailers.
I feel the same. My really old stuff is going to be made into quilts. I haven’t decided who will get them though. So many people need blankets right now.
Nice! If they want to add some American suppliers of cotton, linen and wool fabrics and yarns that aren't ridiculously overpriced, there is a big market for people who would buy domestic instead of at fabric stores. Lots of people make their own clothes, curtains, linens and toys because of low quality and chemical saturation of those items in stores.
That's wonderful would love too to do more but the cost makes it difficult
If it lasts longer, it pays for it's self. Also, to see how many clothes people have in their closets is ridiculous. I'm not saying you but in general.
I'm 72 and when my dad was alive I would buy him a Pendleton shirt for B- days and Christmas. That was his shirt of choice. Now, that shirt is 175.00. And now they are made USA and imported. We know that means china. But the word imported is used to justify the price. In the 70's 80'sand 90's the shirt was 35.00 ending 75.00 80.00. I really couldn't afford todays price. Maybe one shirt a year. Pendleton has really let america down, import my foot.
Now that hemp is legal ,I expect to see some denim m jeans made out of it. I live in an old mining town. Every once in a while, a pair of jeans turns up from the mines , or someone’s collection, still usable today.
I also upcycle clothes to make new ones.
I pass on newer materials, the quality it is not there in the threads.
New clothes get sprayed sometimes, to combat mold while in shipping. This is poisonous. I hate to see people wearing new clothes they haven’t washed yet.
When I was a child in Arizona, I saw cotton fields. That land now has houses.
Extremely over population is terrible for the earth. We are paving over productive soils. Food is extremely expensive and will never be cheaper.
Hemp Upholstery is like lush linen ;]
Yes, boo to irritant chemicals in clothing and the garments' non-deterioration, to be found forever. It's awful garbage....and still 'they' wonder..... just stupid for money
We made our own textiles, and more, in America until we had a president who moved much of our businesses overseas, I believe China He because the "president" of GM and the whole area around Springfield Ohio died. Millions lost their jobs and couldn't get all the education and experience to restart a career. I used to live near there and that is when Ohio died. We all know about Detroit and a lot of PA. I sew and have found fabrics, only from overseas, to be twice or three times as much money, before Bidenomics. I would love to find economical textiles, made in the USA. We need our country back. My son in law lost his job in September after Google bought the company he worked for. Now, Google is using AI and hoping for the best. The product has to have human interaction. It's just unreal what happened to this country.
Im all for US manufacturing and love to purchase what I can thats made here, but what's the alternative for the workers in those other countries if the manufacturers pull out and come back to the US? it is sad that they have to work like that, but if those jobs go away, what kind of work would they have?
Ordered your freeze drying book. Can’t wait to get it
I don’t know if this is the best place to ask this I’m new at freeze drying & Im FD all my herbs but thinking of creating powdered herb blends in a shaker bottle as Christmas gifts but will they rehydrate that way. Can I mix them with salt to help them keep their flavor?
So where can I purchase these flannel shirts that you were talking about that you're wearing?
Here it is: www.vermontflannel.com/?aff=51
In the links you provided in the notes, there is only one that makes a few women's clothing items. Once again, VERY limited choices for women's pants and other women's clothing in general. Maybe American companies using American grown and processed fibers see no market for women or don't value women's participation as a customer in their companies?
I can’t afford to buy cheap!!
I agree with the concerns and the availability of “American made” products, however; in researching some of the company’s inventory, the prices are staggering. I have preferred to buy US made, but Not all want to, or can afford to pay $140 for one flannel shirt. Granted they’re durable, and made right here in our United States, but unfortunately we have become a very greedy, spoiled , and vain people. People don’t want to work for less than $25 an hour, and not to mention the benefits demand along with that. Granted, we are deserving of these benefits, but we are pricing ourselves out of the country by doing so. It’s a vicious circle. And someone has to do the menial jobs, and they are just as deserving and there in lies the problem; they cannot afford those finer amenities.
I personally am a more simple person, I don’t shop for clothes much, having a “new” car isn’t one of my bigger goals. materialism and status is a HUGE problem here, and again we are a very spoiled nation in that regard. I am all for buying and supporting American. So where does it end??
I think the answer is to thrift most of your clothes and then buy what you can afford of companies that have ethical principles. The more customers they have the lower the price. We have a global clothing glut. Thrifting makes sense.
Not really responding for discussion or to disagree but your comment was a good launching point for something my husband and I have been discussing. Americans can't or won't pay $120 for a shirt because we buy so many clothes or we buy clothes of poor quality that wear out so quickly . A google search says Americans buy 53 pieces on average every year. If we switched to a sustainable wardrobe , "capsule" wardrobe and limited our clothing to core , quality pieces we could spend $120 on a shirt if you only have 5 high quality shirts m....versus having 30 shirts that were $20 each. Both are going to cost the consumer $600 a year. And Thrifting is a great option to shop for quality pieces at a bargain and to save clothes from the landfill but I hope more and more we can support companies that make quality , American made clothes that pay their employees a fair wage so therefore have to charge more.
This documentary had me shaking with anger. To be sure this doesn’t just apply to the garment industry, I am suspect of any company that does global business until research shows otherwise.
To begin voting with my dollars in response to this documentary, I have deleted Amazon and Wal-Mart Apps and will be boycotting them. I will be doing better to support my local economy which I should have been doing all along. I will be much more diligent about who I am purchasing from when I need to purchase something that I cannot get from a local producer. This isn’t just about the apparel business but about how global businesses and brands treat our fellow human beings and lull us into being lazy about our purchases.
We all have different ways and abilities that we can support local and made in America even if it may seem insignificant. Present the question to your brain and you may be surprised by its’ inspiration.