Downs Designs

The End to a Frustrating Year

2012-01-01T05:35:00.003-05:00

Well, today is January 1, 2012, and I look back on this whole last year with some regrets and some joy. An entire year passed by and I had nothing new produced. The disappointment I feel about this fruitless year runs very deep. BUT, the experience I have gained brings me back to the joy I am feeling now.

After struggling with the pattern designs of everything we worked on, most would say we wasted a lot of time, but what I take from this is how much we gained. Jillian has blossomed in her pant designing. She has figured out the secret to make these pants fit properly.

The children’s jeans are in production now and I can’t wait to see them. Jillian has finished all the samples for the youth and teen sizes and they have been sent off to the factory to have the denim samples made so we can test the sizing on our models. She is currently redesigning the men’s jeans with great success and then she will remake the ladies jeans with our newly designed waistbands.

So, 2012 will be the year of our pants. Once we know they are a successful fit, we will start adding different fabrics and styles. Hopefully, we will have even dress pants by year end. The fearful part is finding a new factory to manufacture the non-denim fabric pants. My trusted friend, Andy Yen, only manufactures jeans and khakis, so any other material will have to be made by another garment factory. That will create a new issue to be solved.

Jillian feels that she will be able to design T shirts, blouses and dress shirts this year as well. We will see how that goes. This also involves finding another factory to manufacture them. I return to China again in May and that project will be at the top of my list.

Some really exciting news happened in December as well. CNN wrote a story about Downs Designs and published it on the front page of their website. It ran the whole day on Sunday, December 11, 2011. The story is actually still showing on their blog page called In America. I am overwhelmed with the response.

On their blog page, In America, people have a place to comment on the stories. Well, in the reporter’s writing she mentioned that she spoke with me while I was in China visiting the jeans factory. Oh boy, it caused quite a stir. There were over one hundred comments from some grateful people and some not so kind comments from pro “made in America” people. It took every ounce of restraint not to respond to their cutting words. But if the “naysayers” knew anything about my journey, they would not have been so cruel. What was so amazing were the many people that came to my defense. It was very emotional for me.

These “naysayer” have no idea the struggle it was to find someone to work with me. When I first began to look for a manufacturer, I thought it would be easy to make my jeans here in the US. But when I searched for a factory, I was told jeans weren’t made in the US and one women even hung up on me when I told her what I was trying to do.

The one place I spoke to about manufacturing my jeans, was in Allentown, Pennsylvania. They were very nice, but when we discussed the cost, I was blown away. A pair of small children’s jeans would cost about $20.00 to manufacture. How could I sell them with a reasonable markup to sustain a business when the cost was more than I could charge?

So after hearing from the naysayers, I again revisited the idea of getting them manufactured here in the US. I looked at all jeans factory’s websites to see what they manufactured. The places that make affordable jeans looked like work clothes; no style or fashion at all. The manufacturers who make stylish jeans sold for over $250.00 a pair. Can you see my options here? I don’t want to be forced to make jeans that aren’t in fashion for my customers just to keep them affordable. After all, isn’t this point of what I’m doing?

But, because of the media coverage, I actually started to get orders for our ladies jeans. Since the ladies jeans are really all I have to sell, and some ladies Tee shirts, I am very excited. I am finally starting to sell something. I have all the software necessary for my shipping department,but haven’t really had a chance to use it. So I made a few mistakes along the way, but I think I have finally got the hang of it.

The best news of all is that they are a very success fit. That’s what I needed to hear. Until I actually had customers wearing our jeans, I really didn’t know if they were designed properly. But when the repeat orders started to come in, I knew Jillian had done her job. One young lady now owns five pairs of our jeans, even though we only have one style. There is one thing I would change on them and that is the waistband. I love our newly designed waistbands and I think it will add a new dimension. The current ladies jeans are marked down because of the pocket size on the larger sizes, so that is something else that will be redesigned as well.

But I’m sure of this, everything we design the first time will probably need improved upon once our customers let us know what they like and don’t like about our clothes. Our sizes, being the first of their kind, are blazing the trail in fashion. Jillian has an opportunity to create something that has never been done before and she has taken the “bull by the horns” and is doing a fantastic job. I couldn’t be more proud of her.

December Turns Out to be a Great Month!

2011-12-14T07:12:00.001-05:00

It’s almost Christmas and I must say that December has been an incredible month for Downs Designs. I couldn’t be happier these days. It seems like it’s been awhile since I have felt so good. We’ve had so many setbacks this year, but I think we’re about to forge ahead now. Reflecting back on 2011, I feel that it was a year of learning what NOT to do.

December began with a change in our office staff. Jillian is my only designer again and it will probably remain that way for quite some time. I want to say that I couldn’t be more proud of her either. She has blossomed over these last two years and her work has been amazing. She is truly the creator of our clothing line and I look forward to seeing everything she designs in the future.

Here’s where we stand so far:

Jillian finished designing the little boy and little girl basic jean patterns. They are both at the factory now in production and I hope to have them in our shop by mid-January if all goes well. My first order will be a small one, only 35 pairs of each size and there are seven sizes of each (at total of only 490 pairs). I want to be sure that these are a good fit before I order any larger quantities. (That’s one mistake I won’t make again.)

I made a major decision about the waistbands. The waistbands have been our major problem all year. There is no doubt that all our jeans (and all casual wear) will need to have an elastic waistband, but I want them to look fashionable as well. I originally started out with the ribbed waistband in our first samples. They fit well and looked good but I tried to have them designed in denim and it just doesn’t work. There is too much gathering when you get into the larger sizes for older children and adults and they are not as comfortable. But when we use a soft, ribbed material instead of the denim, they look and feel SO MUCH better. This is a picture of how the waistband looks, but the finished product will have belt loops and rivets with a Downs Designs button for looks only. For the youth boy, teen boy and men pants we will offer two styles; one as pictured and described and the other with a partial elastic waistband which will have a working zipper and button fastener.

Our clothes are being designed for people with Down syndrome, so we have to make them special. I have spoken with hundreds of mothers and even teachers who work with children with special needs, and they almost all have requested an elastic waistband. It’s been a struggle but I’m now at peace with my decision. Our ribbed waistbands will be standard on all our casual wear. In this picture you see a sample pair of our "dip downs". Remember we make our samples in muslin, not denim.

Jillian also finished designing the jeans patterns for our youth and teen sizes and she is now redesigning the men’s jeans pattern. She made all the muslin samples for both boys and girls in the youth and teen sizes and last week I sent them all off to the factory to have them made into denim prototypes. We should have them by the end of this year.

Then the factory will be closed for about three weeks and we have to be patient. While they are shut down, we will be testing the youth and teen denim samples on our models and hope for a good fit. Once the factory is back to work, then we can begin again. I’m hoping that our first denim samples will be good, but there is a big probability that we will need to make a few changes. If we do, that will mean more samples would have to be made which would take about 3 weeks. So realistically, we probably won’t have the youth and teen sizes until late spring, but I can’t say for sure at this point. I have learned that things take time and I want to get them right.

Another wonderful thing happened this month. CNN posted a story on their website about Downs Designs. I am writing another chapter about that story but the response was amazing. So I can say with joy in my heart that the year 2011 has ended on a very positive note and I look forward to 2012. I feel that we are making big strides now and I am confident that there are many more good things to come.

Ending November 2011

2011-11-30T07:08:00.001-05:00

November is almost over and I must admit that we are finally making some progress now. I’m excited to say that we've completed the little boy’s jeans pattern and the factory is ready to begin manufacturing. The fabric has been ordered and they are preparing for production. The little girl’s final sample is being made now (and I hope it’s the last) and we should have it in the shop by late next week. If this last sample is good, we can also begin production on the little girl’s jeans as well. I’m hoping to have the small children’s jeans completed and available for sale by the end of this year.

So here is what we’ve decided to do: This first batch of the little boy’s jeans will have a denim elastic waistband. We’ve decided not to make the adjustable waist just now, we’ve had too many problems with the design and I don’t want to hold up production any longer. But we’ve since decided to use the ribbed waistband again, so the little girl’s jeans will have a different waistband. And when we make our next round of little boy’s jeans, we will use the ribbed waistband on them as well.

Most of our problems with our samples have been trying to have a denim elastic waistband that looks good. But, it’s just about impossible, especially in the larger sizes. As the sizes get larger, the amount of gathering is just too much when using the denim in the waistband. When we use the ribbing material, they look so much better with much less gathering and they are also more comfortable.

The decision to use the ribbing has been a struggle for me because I want our jeans to look like every other pair of jeans, but the bottom line is that our pants will have elastic waistbands and most jeans and pants do not. But it’s what makes the most sense. It’s just too important for our jeans and pants to be comfortable and easy to get on and off. The whole point of Downs Designs is to accommodate those with Down syndrome. So by using the ribbing for the waistband rather than the denim, this solves so many problems for the look of our jeans. The ribbing allows the waists to lay much flatter and they are certainly more comfortable.

Jillian is finishing the patterns for the rest of the sizes. We are hoping to get samples made of the youth and teen size jeans before the end of the year as well. If they are good, we hope to begin production on those sizes in the spring of next year. I won’t promise that we will, but that is our goal at this point.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been a whole year since anything has been in production. I feel that 2011 has been a year of learning experiences for me. As the owner of this business, there are things I should have done differently, but I chose not to listen to my instincts. That’s the most important thing I have learned and I won’t make that mistake again.

All the years I have owned my own business, my natural instincts have usually been good decisions, but this year I somehow lost my way. But I never dwell on negativity and I won’t look back. I’m moving only in one direction now…forward!

Life is nothing but a series of lessons and what we do with those lessons is what’s important. If we learn from them, then they are good lessons, if we choose not to learn from them, then we stunt our growth.

Jillian and I have been a great team for almost two years and she has grown so much since we first began. Her designing skills have come so far and watching her work is awesome. She has evolved into an amazing designer and I couldn’t be more proud.

Cara is not with us anymore and I wish her well. I hope she finds what truly makes her happy.

So we’re wrapping up November on a good note. I couldn’t feel better than I do these days. I am keeping my fingers crossed to see what December brings us and looking forward to the New Year. My excitement and enthusiasm for what we are doing has never faded and I will continue with our quest until we reach our goal…to have a line of clothing for people with Down syndrome. I want to eliminate the clothing challenges that they must face every day and make rolling up pant legs and sleeves a thing of the past.

China Trips May and Oct 2011 at OneTrueMedia.com

2011-10-27T09:09:00.001-04:00

Both trips to China in 2011

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Back in China for a Third Time October 17, 2011

2011-10-26T07:13:00.000-04:00

I think I am now a seasoned traveler to the jeans factory in China. This trip seems very simple and less complicated now. I know exactly what I have to do and where I have to go. I know how much money I need to exchange for both Hong Kong and China because where I go in China does not take American money or American credit cards. I even know which train to catch and where to get the taxis. Now if I only knew Chinese!

I think it is probably one of the most important trips I have made. There are some things that cannot be handled by phone, Skype or instant messaging. Being here and speaking with the manufacturer face to face is vital and with the language challenges, it makes it much easier to explain our issues in person.

People ask me why I make this trip and I can say with all honesty, I MUST! If we are to solve the ongoing problems, than I must be here several times a year. Also picking the fabrics cannot be done through the mail, it’s important for me to see and feel the variety of fabrics myself. I think the quality of our clothing will be much better by being here in person on a regular basis. The trip is brutally long and expensive but the value of being here is priceless.

This is not a fun trip or a place I would come for a vacation. I’m deep into southern China where the living standards are not what most would feel comfortable. The weather is hot and there is no pollution control. The streets are packed with people, cars and scooters everywhere and crossing the street is like playing “Frogger”. No one speaks English and my blonde hair is like a neon sign over my head.

Andy Yen

But I love the people and all the help they have given me. Because of one man, Andy Yen, who is the owner of jeans factory, my interpreter and my friend, I am able to communicate with everyone with whom I need to be involved and learn the ways of the Chinese manufacturers. He has been my teacher of this industry for almost two years and without him, we could not accomplish our goals. He has persistently stuck by me through all our difficulties and has helped solve many problems during our development. There are not enough words to describe what his help has meant to me. He has made Downs Designs his top priority until we finally launch our children’s jeans. He knows how important it is to get our jeans completed for all ages as soon as possible but he also knows how difficult this has been for my designers and his pattern makers as well. We are virtually inventing the wheel in the fashion industry.

October 19, 2011

Our first day of full business was an important meeting, probably the primary reason I am here. I met with his new pattern maker. He has hired the most skillful of teams to be his pattern makers and sample makers and this alone, speaks of his integrity and his desire to have a successful jeans manufacturing facility. His standards are very high and his sincerity is beyond reproach.

Through interpreting only, I spoke with the pattern maker. I could tell he had many skills in this field. We discussed the waistband problems that we have been having consistently and I’m hoping that we have now solved them. The Chinese have their own ways of doing things and it’s important for us to learn their ways. But after our conversation yesterday, I think they will follow our design style of measuring the waistbands. It seems that the difference in how they measure has been a large problem and the reason for the constant discrepancy in the size of the waists. They will make new samples while I am here and I hope we will have good results this time.

October 20, 2011

Our second day of business was spent at the fabric shops. I chose some other denim options for our next round of jeans. Once we finish the patterns successfully and I find our first batch of jeans to be a good fit, I want to immediately start another batch of jeans of different fabric and style. I also want to start some casual dress pants, khaki, black and navy colors. I want to finally offer some casual dress pants for other occasions. Here I ran into a snag right away. I want a wrinkle-free fabric for our casual wear. NOTHING like it at all! I must have gone into about 20 shops and not one shop had a wrinkle-free khaki. Mmmmm, this is a dilemma to me now.

Later that night, I contacted Jillian and told her of this situation. She checked online and it appears the treatment to make them wrinkle free is applied after they are made. No one knew that here. Andy only specializes in jeans, so he was not aware of this method. The store owners don’t speak a word of English and had no idea what I was talking about. So we must do more research on the khaki fabric. Nothing is ever simple, that’s for sure.

October 21, 2011

The third day of business blew my mind. We went out of the city to see the “wash” factory. This is what actually makes the jeans…jeans. It’s difficult to explain the amazing process to manufacture a pair of jeans. It’s like no other fabric in the world. When we go to a store and buy a pair of jeans, we have no idea all the work that goes into manufacturing them.

Andy has always talked about the importance of the wash, but I had no idea what he was talking about. I had to be here to see it for myself. When the jeans are made in the factory, the denim is in a raw material state; it’s a very heavy canvas like material and the color is almost black. As I have explained previously, the jeans are made before shrinkage so the calculations must be precisely made before the pattern pieces are cut. So if the fabric that is used is tested first, the process goes like this:

A sample of the fabric is sent to wash factory where it is put through the chemical process that changes the color and then it is put through a precise heat and time process that shrinks that particular fabric. For example, if the fabric swatch is 10” x 10” it may shrink to 6” x 8”. That difference then must be added to the pattern pieces.

Then the sample jeans are made with the denim in this raw material state and sent to the wash factory. There the jeans are chemically treated and any fancy stressing is done to it. Then it goes into these enormous dryers that are set for the precise heat and time the sample was tested. If it not the exact heat and time, it will not shrink to the proper amount and the jeans will be misshapen.

So in touring this factory, I couldn’t believe the enormity of it. It employed about 3000 people that all live on the premises. It was like its own city. The factory itself was so huge; walking through it all would have taken a very long time. But we visited each of the departments. I saw firsthand the many steps to make a pair of jeans and they are done one pair at a time. This factory does millions of jeans. It has to be so organized and controlled because hundreds of different manufacturers use the same facility. The jeans come in by the truckload and the docks where full of truck after truck.

All the fancy coloring is like tie-dying shirts. One department gathers the area on the upper thigh and sews it together so when it goes through the wash it has the variegated colors that you see on the jeans. One guy was taking a steel brush to a pair of jeans that obviously was stressing the fabric. There were huge carts full of stones that they use to stress the denim and other departments spray on a chemical to lighten the jeans in certain areas such as down the thighs. No one pair of jeans is ever exactly the same. They are each individually prepared one step at a time. Then they are put into large vats and the chemical washing is done. They are then sent to the dryers for shrinkage which is precisely monitored.

The next step is the ironing of the jeans. And there are several steps to the ironing process as well. Then I think the final step is putting the order back together where they are then shipped back to the manufacturer. There the manufacturer folds and packages the jeans and prepares them for shipping. How they keep track of every pair is mind boggling. There is just no way to describe this process. I have a new appreciation for a pair of jeans now and I hope I been descriptive enough for you to have an idea as well. Who invents this stuff anyway?

October 22, 2011

On our fourth day of business, Andy had made arrangements for me to visit a new clothing manufacturer, remember Andy only makes jeans. After the last batch of samples from the other shirt factory, I decided to look into another manufacturer. Even though I decided not work on the shirts until we completely finish the pants, I thought while I was there I could look into finding a different company.

Andy told me we would be picked up about 4:00 pm by the representative of another company. They arrived on time and I was met in the hotel lobby by a sweet young lady named Renee. Her driver picked us up in front of the hotel and we all headed into Guangzhou. From what I am learning the factories are in similar districts. While the jeans are in one district, the other clothing factories are much farther away outside of the city of Guangzhou.

Our ride into the city soon changed very drastically as we drove into the factory district. The streets became much smaller and the conditions deteriorated very quickly. This part of town seemed to be the most depressed I had seen since I had been in China. Poverty was obvious and made me feel very bad.

We finally arrived at the factory which was in a small building about four flights up. The factory was just one floor and was in complete disarray. But this seems to be their way. The sewing was obviously not done in this building. On appearance, one would have no idea how anything gets done, but the end results are what we see in our stores. Being at the source is an eye opener.

I will have them make samples for us when we start working on shirts again. Renee was a very nice person and spoke a little English. I’m still unsure of what the results will be from this company, but I am more than willing to give them a try. After looking at the quality of the clothes I saw, I was very pleased with their work but only time will tell.

October 23, 2011

Well, my last day in China came as a pleasant surprise. Andy arrived around 11:30 am to pick me up and suggested we go to the mountain in Guangzhou. I had no idea what he was talking about but I was excited to do something just for fun. He had an unexpected visitor arrive this week, a good friend from college. He brought him along to spend the day with us and wondered if I would mind. Of course, I didn’t mind at all. His friend spoke not one word of English.

We took a taxi into Guangzhou which took about 45 minutes. We were dropped off in front of a hospital and I had no idea where we were going. We were in the middle of the city and I couldn’t imagine where there was a mountain. We walked along a back street for quite some time and then we came upon the entrance to the park. The weather was very hot and humid. What was ahead was to my complete amazement.

As we entered the park, we had to climb many, many flights of stairs. Then the stairs turned into a road and we kept walking uphill. We continued our uphill walk for about 30 minutes, and then we entered a large park area full of activity. This was not what I expected at all. There were people everywhere having a good time. There were restaurants and areas where people where playing games. There were small rides for children and even a bungee jump. What a great place!

We passed through the park area and continued our ascent. At last we reached the top of mountain. Here was another very active area; so many people! We spotted a bird walk and thought it might be fun. So we bought a ticket and entered through the gate; it turned out to be a fabulous experience. The first thing we did was enter a small aviary alive with small birds of all kinds like parakeets and love birds. There were many birds I didn’t recognize and we actually got to touch them and some even got on our finger. I love birds a lot and really enjoyed being around them.

When we left the aviary, we passed by a parrot show stadium. The show was about to start so we sat and waited. What a laugh. The huge parrots put on quite a performance and the finale was spectacular. The trainer held up a $5.00 bill (Chinese money) and out from a window where the birds must have lived flew a small bird about the size of a pigeon. I had never seen a bird like this one before. The bird landed on the trainer’s hand and took the $5.00 bill and flew back into the window that he flew out of. The trainer held up another $5.00 bill and out came the bird again. The bird took the money and flew back into the window again. Soon everyone was holding up $5.00 bills and the bird kept flying out, taking the bills then flying back to drop them in the window. Andy was so excited, he held up a $5.00 bill and out came the bird, landed on his hand and off the bird went with his money. It was a clever way to support the parrot show; we had such a good time; I was so glad we came.

When the show was over we walked deeper in the bird park. It was like walking through a zoo. There were peacocks and ostrich in huge cages and many other species, some I didn’t recognize. We saw a black swan and a white swan and many other parrots. I really enjoyed seeing all the different kinds of birds. Then we came to what appeared the end of the bird park so we followed the stairs that seemed to be the way out. Andy thought this was another way down the mountain and suggested we take this way out of the park through the forest. I kept seeing signs pointing the opposite direction that said, “THIS WAY OUT”. I told Andy, I didn’t think we were going the right direction and I was afraid we would eventually have to turn around and climb back up all these stairs. After about 45 minutes of climbing down these stone steps through this beautiful forest on the side of the mountain, there it was…the stairs stopped going down and we were headed back up. I knew it! Now we had to climb back up all these steps. We were hot and tired and I didn’t think I could make it, but I had no choice. We stopped many times to catch our breath and rest. At last we made our way back to the bird park and headed back out into the main area.

I suggested we take a bus back down as we were completely exhausted by this time. But Andy chose another way down the mountain, the cable car ride. Who knew our day would turn out like this. So we bought tickets for the cable car ride and hopped on board one of the cable cars. The view from the top of mountain was amazing. We could see the entire city of Guangzhou and all the forest below us. What a contrast from city to mountain side.

Finally we were at the base of the mountain and headed back to the main streets. There we caught a taxi and rode back to the hotel. We were hot, tired and hungry, but we really had a great day. I enjoyed the experience. We were all starving by this time, so it was out to another restaurant for dinner.

The night ended with the two buddies watching their favorite sport, soccer. The two favorite teams were on TV that night and I just couldn’t let them leave without them watching the game. They yelled and hollered as the opposing teams played ball and they had a great time. I finished my packing and prepared for the long flight home the next day.

Andy arrived at 8:00 am the next morning to take me to the train station in Guangzhou. The traffic was not so heavy and we arrived in plenty of time. It’s always very sad to say goodbye to my friend so we sat and had a quiet breakfast together and then said our goodbyes at the gate. The train ride was uneventful and I arrived at the train station in Hong Kong, caught a taxi to the Hong Kong airport which took about 35 minutes and then finally boarded the big jet for Toronto. I had to wait about two hours in Toronto for the plane to Cleveland but the plane took off on time and I arrived in Cleveland about 9:30 pm and headed for home.

God Bless the USA!

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2011-10-26T06:25:00.001-04:00

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Children's Jeans Almost Complete

2011-10-15T05:41:00.000-04:00

September was a busy month and the designers, Jillian and Cara, have been really pushing to complete the children’s jeans pattern. They had been working on the them for months. The four children models that we used all looked good in their last fittings and I felt confident that we’d finally gotten the patterns correct.

The girls prepared their final paper patterns, their sample jeans (made out of muslin) and their spec sheets and I sent them off to the factory for what I hoped was the last sample for the children’s jeans. It took almost four weeks to finally get the sample jeans from the factory; I was so excited, I couldn’t wait to see them on our models.

Disaster!!!

The next day (Friday) I called Jessica’s mother (one of our little girl models) to see if she could bring her in for a fitting. She arrived in the afternoon and when we put them on her (to my utter amazement) they looked terrible. It was a complete disaster! I was beside myself; I just could not believe this was happening. What went wrong? We were sure that what we sent the factory was correct. I was furious to say the least! Another delay was my only thought. Of course, China was sleeping so I couldn’t call Andy to find out what happened. My stress level was off the chart.

The next day, I tried to contact Andy but he was not available. Of all days for him to be out, I really needed to talk to him. I felt like I was having a bad dream but couldn’t wake up. I told myself I had to calm down and stop the negativity running through me but it was just too difficult. I was frustrated and disappointed.

Finally, Saturday night about 11:00 PM, I headed to bed but, just on a chance, I checked my online connection to Andy and I saw that he was finally online (remember its 12 hours later in China.) We talked until about 2:00 AM. I let him know how upset I was and he was upset as well. He said he would visit the pattern makers to see what went wrong.

Well, the next morning, I finally got my answer. Andy was able to talk with the pattern makers. The jeans in question (the adjustable waist style) were made according to our paper pattern as I had instructed. But our paper pattern was for the shape after they were washed. Because I was so insistent that they use our paper patterns, they didn’t understand that they should have adjusted the pattern first for the shrinkage so the denim was a little distorted after the wash because the shrinkage altered the shape just enough to destroy the fit. This is one of the challenges of denim; it’s like no other fabric. So the pattern makers got busy right way to make more samples for us.

Perfect Fit!!!

On Monday, we had a fitting with our little boy, Danny, for the boy’s jeans with a full elastic waist. It was perfect! I couldn’t believe it. The denim used in the boy’s jeans was a different fabric from the girl’s jeans and they shrunk in the proper proportion and turned out great. But the pattern makers actually wanted to make the boys jeans again as well and use their own pattern this time, just to make sure that when they go into production, there are no surprises.

Surprisingly, I got the remade samples in one week. God bless them for their speedy efforts. In the meantime, I had Cara change the girl’s pattern, I wanted her to make a different shape; there is just something about the adjustable waistband jeans that I don’t like. She also made another pair with a full elastic waist to try and one with half elastic in the back.

I contacted my daughter to see if my granddaughter would be available to try on our samples. So Jillian and Cara headed to Michelle’s to see how the three different jean styles fit her. All three pairs were a size too small, but they were still able to test the fit, nonetheless. The one remade pair from the factory in denim with the adjustable waistband was a perfect fit, the half elastic waist fit the best though and the full elastic waist had some issues.

Next, our little boy model came back in for another fitting on the second sample from the factory. Not good at all, the first pair was perfect so I was a little surprised at the bad results on the second pair.

In two days, I leave for China. Cara made a new sample of the girl’s jeans with a half elastic waistband. I’m taking this new sample with me and hope the pattern makers can make a sample while I’m there. I’ll finally get to meet them and work with them face to face.

I’m really looking forward to this trip; we have so much to resolve that can’t be handled over Skype or Instant Message. I’m also very excited to see my friend Andy again as well; we have a very busy week planned. I’m going to pick some new fabric for pants, go the “wash” factory to learn about what happens there, spend time with the pattern makers and meet with a new shirt manufacturer. I’m sure next week will go very fast and before you know it, I’ll be heading back home.

Recap of August 2011

2011-08-29T13:58:00.000-04:00

Wow, I’m certainly being tested these days. I’ve got my mojo back but I’ve been dealing with some challenges nonetheless. It’s now the end of August and I still don’t have even a sample pair of our kid’s jeans. Even though the factory really screwed up this time with our paper pattern, we uncovered something else of great importance; so I believe something good came out of something bad.

Our grading issues have come to the surface and we’re really analyzing how to grade our patterns. Standard grading does not apply to our special sizing. So even if we could use standard grading on our patterns, it doesn't work. So it’s another challenge that we’re facing; but Jillian and Cara are working it out. It’s a good thing that we had a major delay because it really brought up this very important issue for us.

So, here’s what’s been happening since my July entry:

We prepared for the National Down Syndrome Congress Conference. Jillian, Cara and I headed to San Antonio, Texas. We flew out to the conference August 4^th and returned home on August 7^th. We packed up our dressing room, one of every size ladies’ jeans and our samples of youth and children’s jeans and tees. We met so many wonderful people and actually sold a few pair of our ladies jeans. We got a lot of well-needed measurements of children and talked to lots and lots of parents. The event was a wonderful experience.

When we got back, we had lots of work. Our T shirt samples were useless. They just aren’t right. But without models, we’ve only been guessing on how to size them. Now that we’re starting to get more models, I think we’ll eventually get these sizes correct. We’re trying to finish up the children’s jeans and tees first, and then we’ll concentrate on the youth sizes.

Next came our local Buddy Walk. The event was August 20th and the turnout was absolutely incredible. I believe there were more than 4,000 people in attendance. I met more people and got more measurements. So many people were happy to help us, I just couldn't believe it; they are so desperate for clothing that fits their kids. Jillian was unable to attend but Mom was by my side.

One of my goals to be a speaker actually came to pass. I was invited by the Rotary Club of Mentor to be their guest speaker. On August 25th, I was so honored to share my story. I planned and prepared for days. Using a Power Point presentation I was able to visually show some of the clothing challenges that we are trying to overcome with our unique clothing line. The response was amazing. I can’t wait to have more opportunities like this one.

Photo Book

2011-08-21T09:24:00.001-04:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

Downs Designs is Back on Track!

2011-07-10T07:17:00.000-04:00

Now it’s the middle of July and still nothing is in production. Since returning from China in May, I expected to be farther along. I’m NOT! But now I know why…I lost my focus and my positive energy. But guess what? I found it again.

I have been a strong believer in the “Law of Attraction”. I have practiced positive thoughts for years and always reached my goals. When I began Downs Designs, everything I did fell into place as if I was being guided along by something bigger than myself…and it was true.

Then a few setbacks came along and I got caught up in negativity and then more setbacks happened and then more. Duh!!! I let myself get trapped into negativity and forgot all that I had believed in regarding the “Law of Attraction”. How did I let this happen?

Well, a few weeks ago our good friend came to visit and we got into a conversation about this subject matter. He was also a great believer in positive thinking. He suggested I purchase a series of CD’s by Dr. Robert Anthony who is the author of “Beyond Positive Thinking”. This series of CD’s is called “The Secret of Deliberate Creation”. So I spent about $200.00 and took his suggestion.

When the package came it contained seven CD’s so I downloaded them onto my Ipad. When I saw how long each CD was, I thought to myself, “when will I have time to listen to all these?” But, after I listened to the first one, OMG, I realized what was going wrong in my life…I’d lost my focus. I had let myself fall into the trap of negative self talk. That was not me; I had never been negative or had doubts about Downs Designs or anything else for that matter. But after several disappointments, I’d lost my way.

Well, I’M BACK! My fears and doubts are now gone and once I got rid of all that negativity, everything turned the corner. Almost immediately changes started taking place. I decided that we would go back to basics and make our own samples as we did in the beginning when it was Jillian and I and our models, fitting after fitting until we got it right. Why hadn't I thought of this sooner? But, because I was stuck in negativity, I couldn't move forward.

Here's what has been taking so long...having the factory make the samples, takes too long and we can’t make the proper corrections when the fit isn’t good. When a sample would come in after 2 or 3 weeks of waiting, then we would have to call in the models, which took more time. We would make adjustments to the pattern instructions, send them off to the factory again and have them make another sample. Then we waited! Another two or three weeks would go by and we would start over again, still not getting a good fit. In the meantime, weeks turned into months and still NOTHING!

So after listening to these CD’s and getting my head back on my shoulders, my thinking started to change. Then, with a clear head again, I made the decision to go back to the beginning and do our own sample making and guest what? It only took one week to make two pairs of jeans for our little girl model. That would have taken about 6 weeks using the factory sample maker. What had I been thinking???

But that’s behind me now and Downs Designs is back on track. Things are going so much smoother now and nothing is standing in our way. We will have these kids clothes completed very soon now and our youth sizes will be our next project to get under way.

Doubt, fear and disappointment only attracts more doubt, fear and disappointment and that’s exactly what was going on. I couldn’t get past my own self. But turning those thoughts back into certainty and excitement has put me back to where I need to be. Whatever was going wrong is now going right again. I’m more sure and confident than I have been for months and it feels great!

Taking our Time

2011-06-24T09:48:00.000-04:00

Taking our Time

Now that I’m back from China, I need to focus on a new plan. I do think that part of my problem has been that I have been trying to do too much at one time. I have had the jeans factory working on the children’s jeans, the youth size jeans and remaking the men’s jeans. I’ve had the shirt factory working on the children’s, the youth’s and the adults shirts all at the same time. I think I have been handling this all wrong.

Sample of children's shirt

So this is my new plan. We are only going to focus on the children’s for now. The children’s jeans are the least complicated and so are the children’s tees. So we will first get the patterns correct for only the children’s sizes. Once the patterns are correct for the children’s jeans and tees and we’re sure the fit is good, then and only then will I start production. For the little children, we only have four style jeans: we have two girl’s styles and two boy’s styles. One style has a full elastic waistband and the other style has an adjustable waistband. For the T-shirts, we are preparing the short-sleeved shirts for now and Jillian and Cara are busy creating new graphics for them.

The youth sizes will be much more difficult. We must make more styles just like the adult sizes. For the youth girls we are designing a full elastic waistband but for the youth boys, we will offer both a full elastic waistband with a mock zipper and a partial elastic waistband with a working zipper. We will also have “Dip Down” styles for both girls and boys as well. So the youth sizes are much more difficult and complicated.

For the youth size T-shirts we will offer six sizes and two styles for both boys and girls. For the girls and boys sizes there will be a regular fit around the waist for the first three sizes and the next three sizes up we will offer a full-figure style so they are not so tight around the middle. We have found this to be necessary for a better fit.

Because of the fuller tummy on many people with Down syndrome, we have found that these adjustments are necessary; so all the adult shirts will be redesigned as well. Since we need short sleeve shirts anyway, we decided this was a good time to redesign the adult tees. We already have full-figured shirts for the adult ladies, but we did not give the men the full-figure design in the bigger sizes. So we are redesigning the men’s tees because we feel it’s necessary for a better fit.

So once the youth size jeans and tees are completed and we are sure the fit is good, we will begin production on those. Then, finally, we will begin to remake the men’s jeans. Our ladies jeans have been a great fit, but the men’s jeans had too many problems. It was a tough decision not to sell the men’s jeans, but I knew I had to correct the problems we had with them. So that will be our last pattern to remake. We also decided to offer a full elastic waistband for the men’s jeans with a mock zipper as well as the partial elastic waistband with a working zipper. We had too many mother’s tell us their son cannot work a zipper, so that is something we had to take into consideration. We need both styles to accommodate these issues.

So as it stands as of the end of June, 2011, we will still have nothing in production. My nerves are at their very end. But I must keep going, in spite of the struggles. We’re so close, yet so far!

China 2011, Day 8 Coming Home!

2011-06-07T14:20:00.000-04:00

Monday, May 17, 2011

I’m up very early this morning. I get ready for the day and finish the rest of my packing. I packed very light so I didn’t have that much to drag around with me on the long trip here. I check to make sure I have enough of the proper Chinese and Hong Kong money to get me to the airport.

By 8:30 AM Yuan arrives, but his friend is not with him. Apparently, he was in a small car accident last night (oh, big surprise there) so we’ll have to take a taxi after all. The taxis are readily available at the hotel, so we catch one immediately. We have a long drive ahead and I pray the traffic is friendly. As we get close to Guangzhou, we hit a traffic nightmare. It’s bumper to bumper all the way (and I mean…bumper to bumper!). I’m getting nervous now, because I can’t be late or I’ll miss my train. The taxi driver takes a few side roads and we finally arrive at the train station just a little behind schedule.

It’s no problem at all, we have about 30 minutes to spare. I’m so relieved; the ride was a little unnerving. I purchase my train ticket and there is actually a Starbucks in the train station so we step inside to wait. I’m amazed that the man behind the counter actually spoke English. I order a chocolate muffin and Yuan orders a muffin too. He’s never had one so I enjoyed watching him eat it. He doesn’t eat sweets like this and he really enjoyed it. I hope I didn’t create a monster. But I don’t think he would ever survive on American food; I think he would become very ill. His eating habits are nothing like ours.

Well, with my train ticket in hand, we follow the signs to where I must say goodbye. I feel sad now to leave but I will return again in October. So I’m off to catch my train. The return train is ultramodern; it’s actually two stories high. The ride is a comfortable two hours and I try to relax.

We arrive in Hong Kong, and I have to go through customs again. The line is very long and I know I have to catch a taxi and get to the airport. I feel like a seasoned travel by this time though and I know right were to go. I know exactly how much money I need and I’m not nervous at all. I get in the taxi line and the taxi I get into is driven by a very old man. He attempts to speak a little English but I barely understood him. I tell him I need to get to the airport quickly and off we go.

OMG, this guy is really bad! Either he is playing me for a long ride or he’s really stupid. We drive around God knows where trying to get to the terminal. He finally stops and asks some other taxi driver because, by now, we’re completely lost. I have no idea how he could have missed the terminal. We circle the airport several times and finally get to one of the two terminals. Hong Kong airport is gigantic and I need to get to Air Canada. He has no idea where Air Canada is and I’m so upset I tell him to drop me anywhere. I walk into the terminal and can’t find any signs for Air Canada. I stop at an information desk and the woman tells me I have to go to Terminal 2 and I’m in Terminal 1. I start to panic now! I’m not sure how far this is and I’m afraid I’m going to miss my plane.

By this time, I’m running with my luggage in tow (good thing I packed light). At last I see a sign for Terminal 2. I asked a policeman where I can find Air Canada and he directs me to the 7^th floor. Holy Cow, this place is so big! I get to the 7^th floor and I must have made a wrong turn somewhere. I’m now surrounded by restaurants. I’m starting to sweat by this time, I’m so afraid I’m going to miss my plane. AT LAST, I find the Air Canada booths and step right up to the counter. Phew, there’s no problem, I have time. A woman checks me in and I get my boarding pass. Now I have to pass through customs again but it goes very quickly. By the time I get to the gate, I only have a few minutes before the plane starts boarding. I can’t believe it! I made it. Once on board, I can finally settle in and relax.

I’m exhausted. I slept almost the entire flight home. I woke up to eat and maybe watched part of a movie. I had plans to work on my blog, but never even opened my laptop. After a perfect 15 hour flight, I arrive in Toronto. I had to pass through customs again and then I took the wrong exit. Oh dear, I have to go back through security again. But I have some time before the plane takes off for Cleveland, so I’m not worried at all. I finally get to the gate which must have been a mile walk and sit down to wait.

I think now it’s time to board but we’re informed that the flight will be about an hour late. Great! I think I’m never going to get home. Then we’re told after that there’s another 30 minute delay. But, I enjoyed the wait because I was sitting next to a young man who was from China but was now living in Canada. He was actually heading for Cleveland Heights to visit with some of his friends. We had a great talk and I learned a lot of interesting facts about some of the habits of the Chinese that Yuan never shared with me. Such interesting people!

Well, we finally board our little propeller plane and head for Cleveland. It’s actually a very smooth ride and we arrive in no time, about 45 minutes but it’s now after 12:30 AM. I have no luggage to pick up so I hop on the Park ‘N Fly bus back to my car and can’t wait to get home. I call my husband and mother and let them know I’m on my way home but I’m sure they rolled over and went back to sleep. I also Skype my friend back in China and let him know I’m home safe and sound.

The good news is, I’m wide awake and not too sleepy to drive home. When I do get home, there is no way I can sleep, I’m still on China time and I’ve been sleeping most of the day. So I stay up the rest of the night and play with my cat. I’m so happy to see her and she’s really happy to see me. I had no idea I would miss her so much.

China 2011 Day 7

2011-06-01T15:23:00.000-04:00

Sunday, May 16, 2011

Well, sadly, it’s my last day here but I’m starting to get homesick, so the timing is just right. Since Jacky couldn’t make it yesterday, our plans are to visit his new office facility today. I’ve definitely decided not venture out on my own today for breakfast, so I nibble on some fruit that we got at the market yesterday. I’m sticking with the grapes; they are a familiar food from home. I know Yuan will probably not arrive until around 11:00 AM so I get ready for the day and do a little packing. I’ll be leaving early tomorrow morning, so it gives me something to do.

Yuan arrives right about 11:00 AM and we sit and chat for a while. He peals some strange looking fruit that he bought and it actually tastes very good. So different are these flavors, I’m amazed. Then he breaks open this strange looking purple fruit. Inside there are about six small pieces of the oddest substance…feels like eyeballs L, but they were delicious. But noontime comes and he’s ready for some lunch. We venture back out into the streets to find a restaurant we haven’t tried yet. It’s easy to find a restaurant here as there are restaurants everywhere. We walk a few blocks and find one that serves a different type menu. Each menu is completely different, so he always has to explain what to eat. But, as usually, I’m very surprised how delicious and different the food is. After a very tasty lunch, we head back to the hotel to wait for Jacky. It’s not long before the phone rings. He says he’ll pick us up in about 20 minutes.

We sit in the lobby and wait for Jacky and I watch the people as they walk by me and stare. So after a painful 20 minutes or so, Jacky and his partner arrive. We hop in his car and I say a short prayer as we head into the traffic. His new office is about 15 minutes away and in strange neighborhood. Not sure if it’s business or residential; I just can’t tell.

He opens a large garage door to enter and I’m not sure what to expect. Again we head up a flight of stairs to the next floor and I’m blown away. This place is absolutely lovely. He just moved in within the last three days and he has done a great job. It’s clean with lots of space and very organized. He has a small display of mannequins that show off some of his past work. There are four desks with phones and computers and a beautiful tea server (very traditional here in China).

So we sit down and his partner serves tea, but I don’t like tea so I feel bad that I refused. Who doesn’t like tea? But we talk for a while about our plans and he explains every detail about how he handles the business of manufacturing. Step by step he explains how he thoroughly prepares an order. I’m just amazed how professional he is. I am happy to be working with him on our clothing line. I’m sure he’ll do a fine job for us. Before we leave, we take a few photos and a short while later; we’re headed back to the hotel. He drops Yuan and me off and says goodbye until the next time we talk.

Well, you guessed it, it’s dinner time. This will be Yuan and I’s last dinner together. So we head out to our favorite restaurant for a quiet dinner. It’s been a busy week and I’m really tired. I have to be on the road headed for the train station in Guangzhou by 8:30 AM at the latest. Yuan says his friend will be taking me back to the train station so I’m glad we don’t need a taxi. He walks me back to my hotel and says goodnight. He’ll go back to his office to work and I know he will stay well into the night as that is his habit to do so. Let’s hope I can sleep tonight; the long journey home is heavy on my mind!

China 2011 Day 6

2011-05-26T14:38:00.000-04:00

May 14, 2011

I really need some American food!!!! I’m not sure I can take one more plate of fried rice. So I wake up early as usual and get myself ready for the day. Today, Jacky is going to take us to his new office facility. Not sure what time though and Yuan won’t be here for hours. So I decide to venture out on my own…not real comfortable with this idea, but my need for something else to eat over rules my better judgment.

One problem I have here is the glares and stares and I get from EVERYONE when I walk down the street. I don’t think there are too many blondes in China because of the way people look at me; it makes me feel like I have a big boil on my nose! I’m not Asian which makes me unique to the area, but I think the blonde, curly hair must be the main cause for staring. I’m actually getting a little upset with the glares because I start to give back dirty looks. Not real smart on my part as I’m a little outnumbered.

I know right where the McDonald’s is, it’s about 10 blocks away. So I venture out for a tantalizing Egg McMuffin and glass of orange juice. My mouth is starting to water as I think about the taste of something from Home. As I get about half way there, I’m almost regretting my decision to make this walk on my own. Even though it’s fairly early, the stores are beginning to open and people are everywhere. I try walking faster so I can get inside and out of eyeball range.

At last, I reach McDonalds and get inside as fast as I can. Once I’m inside, it looks like every other McDonalds and the menu looks the same accept for one small thing…it’s all in Chinese. The woman behind the counter hands me a picture page and has me point to my selection. I’ve got plenty of Chinese money, so I get my tray, pay the bill and head for a seat way in the corner out of the way. Ahhhhh, it tastes so good! I can’t believe something so bad for me could taste this good. At home, I would never stop at a McDonalds but today, it’s a piece of heaven!

I sit for a while and enjoy my breakfast; I savor every bite. When I’m finished, I’m already dreading the walk back. But on the way back I duck into the little shops along the way and look through the tiny stores. The clothes are too small, so clothes shopping is not an option; but I settle on a new pair of tennis shoes. In Chinese money they cost about 250 RMB’s but in American money, it’s only around $35.00 or $40.00. Not bad I think and I quickly head back to my hotel room.

Back safe and sound in my room, I wait for Yuan to arrive. He shows up about 11:00 AM and we chat for a while. He’s such a dear friend, I really enjoy our conversations. I’ve learned so much about China and their culture that I feel differently about this country now. We hear and read things about their government, but actually being there and seeing for myself how they live their lives sheds a different light on how I think now.

We waited for a few hours, but no sign of Jacky. It’s about 1:00 PM and getting close to lunch; Yuan suggests we grab a bite to eat. So, it’s back to the streets and the stares and the fried rice. We finish our lunch at a local restaurant not far from the hotel and then go for a walk around the denim fabric market. The streets all look alike in this section of town; denim shops everywhere.
Yuan explains that there are thousands of these shops here in Xintang, the jeans capital of the world. I can’t imagine how so many denim shops all can stay in business but if you think about how many people there are in China alone, 1.3 billion, and they almost all wear jeans. Then they also make jeans for the entire world here as well. So I guess there is enough business for all of them to go around.

Jacky finally calls and tells us he can’t make it today and he will see us tomorrow. So now what will we do; we decide to head for the local mall. It’s quite a walk but finally we get to there. This mall has about seven floors, so we spend quite a while walking around. The top floor is a food market and Yuan wants to buy some fruit. I don’t recognize anything too familiar in the fruit department. There are some really strange looking fruits here. But he carefully selects some funny looking items and he can’t wait for me to try them. In the stores here, you aren’t allowed to walk around with packages so they have drop-off locations to check your packages. It’s really a nice service because you don’t have to shop while carrying so many packages. So after a long day, we head back to hotel. We drop off the fruit in my room and guess what, its dinner time.

Back out into the streets we go to find to another restaurant for dinner; oh nummy, another fine meal. I’m really tired by this time so we go back to the hotel. But, Yuan has been in touch with the factory and some of my samples are finished. They have some questions about the waistband, so he suggests that we go there and talk with the sample maker. It’s a hot night and I really just wanted to get into my jammies and relax, but I didn’t come here to relax. So, we grab a taxi and go back to the factory. After meeting with the sample maker we discuss the issues with the waistband. Why are these jeans so difficult? So many problems we have with them.

It’s so hot, and I just want to go back to my room now. Yuan calls for a taxi and I say goodnight; at least the taxi has air conditioning. I’m really looking forward to a hot shower and a good night’s sleep.

It doesn’t take long to fall asleep, but about 2:30 AM, my Skype rings in. It’s a call from home; it’s my husband! What, how can this be him; he can’t even turn on the computer? But he's been out to lunch with his friend and his friend shows him how to use Skype (there's no way he could have done this on his own). It was really nice to talk to him and check on my cat, too. They are both doing fine and have become good friends by this time. I’m starting to get a little homesick now and I think I’m ready to head for home soon. I go back to bed, but sleep is now not so good.

China 2011 Day 5

2011-05-25T14:31:00.000-04:00

A very busy day is planned; we’re headed to the textile market in Guangzhou. This is the largest fabric market in the world. The population in Guangzhou is about 20 million people, I don’t know if there is any way to wrap your head around those numbers? Jillian and Cara sent me here with swatches of fabric for our blouses, shirts, a jacket, pajamas, a skirt, casual pants and hoodies. Jacky will help me find fabrics like the ones they have chosen. I don’t expect this to be an easy task. The fact that this place is so big scares me. Too many choices are more difficult than only having a few. I will have to rely on Jacky’s expertise in this area to help me muddle through this enormous place.

But, this is Jacky’s specialty; with the type of business Jacky has, he has to know about all types of cloth, not just denim. Denim is its own specialty and requires a different type of knowledge. So it’s nice to have two experts to help with our clothing line. Both have helped above and beyond any expectations I could have had.

Yuan arrives around 10:30 AM. Jacky arrives shortly thereafter. As Jacky drives and has his own car (a Buick) we don’t have to rely on anyone else for a ride. The trip to Guangzhou takes about an hour and the traffic is unbelievable. Surviving the traffic in China is a miracle in itself.

When we get to the market, I’m absolutely overwhelmed. There is building after building each about seven stories high. On each floor are hundreds of little cubby holes that have different fabric shops; thousands and thousands of them…OMG…how do I even begin? Thank God Jacky takes charge and seems to know where to go. He spends many days a week here choosing fabrics for his customers so he seems to know just which little shop to visit based on the swatches I have.
We seemed to find most of the fabric the girls sent me to find. But the one thing I really wanted to find the most, I just don’t see it anywhere. One of the things I really want to make this year is Christmas pajamas. I want to make pajamas in our “Down size” and then make the sibling sizes to match. We hunted for almost two hours for flannel with a Christmas pattern. I’m so disappointed; how can there be no flannel with a Christmas pattern on it in the biggest fabric market in the world?

Jacky reassures me that he can have flannel printed with any design we want on it so I give up the hunt and decide to let Cara design our own Christmas pattern and have it printed onto the flannel. It will make it even more special if we have our own design. So we fight our way through the enormous crowd of people that are here and finally get back to his car. The traffic leaving is even worse than when we came. How can any human being survive on these crowded streets? There is absolutely no traffic control whatsoever. People pay no attention to traffic lights or laws or anything. They drive like nothing I have ever seen in my life. Jacky drives a beautiful car without one ding in it…HOW???

The day has been completely exhausting. Jacky drops Yuan and I back at the hotel. We say our goodbyes and I thank him for all his help. He instructs me that when I get home I must email him the corrected spec sheets right away so they can begin making the new sample T shirts. If these are a good fit (and I think they will be), then he will make another set of samples with the artwork printed on them for my approval. If everything is approved, we can begin production. So much time is lost, but this is the process and it just takes a long time. I’m sure most people have no idea how much time is involved in creating just one piece of clothing.
By this time I’m starving, it’s time to eat and Yuan and I look for a different restaurant to have our dinner. Since most people have no kitchens they usually eat all their meals out. Restaurants are everywhere; so we pick one…mmmm what will I try tonight? I decide to get really brave and try one of Yuan’s favorite hot and spicy meals. Boy, I don’t know how he can eat these foods. My mouth needs an entire fire department to put out the flames. I must admit it really tasted good, but the pain in my mouth and on my lips was almost unbearable, I don’t know how he can eat this type of food on a regular basis; he must have a cast-iron stomach and a firewall in his mouth. Yuan walks me back to the hotel and we say goodnight. I know he’s headed back to his factory and will probably work late into the night.

I can’t believe how proud I am of Yuan’s accomplishments since I first had contact with him back in November of 2009. At that time he was the general manager of a jeans factory, he was 25 years old and graduated from one of the best colleges in all of China. In China, only the cream of the crop get to go to college, but only a very small percent get to go the their best colleges. He graduated from one of China’s top colleges in Beijing and learned to speak English very well.

When I first started working with him and the factory where he worked, he was very proud of the company and I was confident that they would do a great job. The company was owned by a woman and after I had been working with him for about six months, the woman’s husband came back from the army and came to work at the factory. Well, this was a complete disaster for her business. He didn’t know anything about the industry and came in like a tyrant. Almost all the experienced people began to leave. In less than a year about 90% of the staff had left and other, less experienced people took their places. Yuan was really struggling to work there. His dream was always to have his own factory, but he thought he would be older before that could happen.

But, things changed for Yuan. He and the production manager from the factory decided to open their own factory sooner than he ever planned. So, in December of 2010, Yuan gave notice where he worked. He worked through the month of January and when their Spring Festival came in February, he left for good. During the holiday time, he and his partner set up their own factory. It happened very fast. By the time the holiday festival was over, their factory was up and running. I’m so amazed at his accomplishment in such a short time. I was so relieved that he would be in his own business with complete control of how it would operate. His ethics and standards and beyond reproach so I know when we get our jeans from him, they will be the best they can be. The production manager is responsible for the factory and Yuan handled everything else.

Since I began this journey, the good things that have happened cannot be explained. Yuan having his own factory is another example of this. Jacky is also a special gift. He can have anything else made that we would need and I trust him completely. What more could I ask for? Both young men have given so much to help Downs Designs create its own standard sizing. I really couldn’t do this without their help.

China 2011 Day 4

2011-05-24T16:36:00.000-04:00

Thursday, 5/12/11

Yuan said he would arrive at 10:00 AM today and I am pleasantly surprised that he actually does. Our plans for the day are to meet Jacky, my other contact here in China. He can have all other clothing made for us other than the jeans. His factory is very different. It’s very small and does everything but the actual sewing. He explains why he does it differently; he says the most important part of manufacturing clothing is creating the actual paper pattern and cutting the pattern pieces. The second most important part he says is packaging and shipping. The sewing can be done by other factories very easily he says; so he has very little overhead doing business this way.

Our original plans were to meet Jacky around 11:00 but he calls to postpone the meeting until 2:00 PM. So Yuan and I head out to the street to do a little shopping. There are hundreds of clothing stores and a huge mall just around the corner. I don’t buy anything though, but it was nice to spend a little time just walking around.

Jacky arrived right on time and we have a meeting about the all our problems with our shirts. I learned so much from him about how to fix them. It was worthwhile to meet with him. I couldn’t have done this any other way but face to face. This type of business cannot be handled over the internet. Frequent trips to China will be necessary to keep the quality of our clothes at their best. The experience of these people cannot be matched. They are truly experts in their field.

Next we head to Guangzhou, about a one-hour drive, to see his small factory where the pattern pieces and samples are made; his pattern maker is there working on our samples. He and the pattern maker explain the reasons our sleeves are not fitting properly; it’s quite an easy fix after he explains it to me. Wow, I’m so impressed!

By this time it’s about 7:00 PM and we head back to Xintang. He invites Yuan and I to dinner so once we arrive in Xintang we’re starving. The restaurant he chooses is the same one we ate in last night. I haven’t eaten all day, so I’m very hungry, but Jacky's food choices were not good. I nibbled on a few things, but just could not get into this meal. McDonald’s is starting to look good to me.

After dinner, I’m dropped off at the hotel. I say my goodnights and its back to my room. It’s now about 10:00 PM so I give the office a call. The time at home is 10:00 AM. I have so much to tell Jillian and Cara, I’m so excited. They have good news for me too; they had two fittings today. A little four-year old girl came in and they tried on the sample shirt and jeans. She was adorable. Another young man came in as well and they tried him in a T shirt. They took pictures of both of them and sent them to me. WOW, they looked so good. The problem we’re having with the underarm is much better, but still needs more correction. A little adjustment in the length is needed also. After what I learned this week, I know the next samples will be correct, I’m sure of it.

So, I work a little while longer and then crawl into bed. But my sleep is restless so I get up about 3:30 and call home. I check in with my mother and get an update on her day; the weather has been very nice for a change, so I’m happy to hear that.

China 2011 Day 3

2011-05-24T09:42:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

I wake up about 6:00 AM and I’m wide awake. Yuan said he would pick me up at 9:00 AM so I have plenty of time. I work on my computer for a while then I get ready for the day. By 9:00 AM, I’m ready and waiting to be picked up. I can’t watch TV here because there is nothing in English so I’m a little bored and hungry. Well, I wait and wait and, of course, he’s late. He calls at 9:30 and says he will be here in ten minutes and to wait in the lobby. So I head down to the lobby and it’s very hot. But I sit there for another 30 minutes and finally he arrives…late again!!!

I try to be mad at him, but he’s just too darn sweet. It’s impossible to feel that kind of emotion towards him. He apologizes many times, but I know the next time he will late again. I don’t think he arrived on time last year either. I think this culture is very different about punctuality. Most are very casual and laid back. Again he has his friend pick us up in his car and we drive to the factory.

In, February, 2011, Yuan left the factory where I first met him. He was the general manager of that factory, but he and another very experienced man in the industry started their own jeans factory. He named his factory Jeansburg, and I was very excited to see his new place. I'm so proud of him for stepping out of his comfort zone and putting everything on the line to have his own business. He is so honorable and has so many work ethics, that he didn’t feel other places met his high standards and the only way he could achieve his goals was to have his own jeans factory and be in charge of his own business. It really gives me peace to be working with him and having him a big part of Downs Designs. Without his help, we could not possibly have gotten this far.

Well, the early morning temperature here is very hot and it’s starting to climb. The humidity feels like 100% but it’s not raining. My hair is already a disaster and I know that as the day goes on, it’s only going to get worse.

We drive into what appears a nicer part of town; the buildings look very new. Of course, everything here is small square footage per floor, but with multiple floors; his factory has five floors. The place is buzzing with activity and we head into his office. NO air conditioning anywhere, not even the small office where he spends his day. In this office there are four small desks; one desk is for him and then a desk for a young girl named Lisa, who he is training to be a contact person. A contact person is someone who is a sales representative for the company. Lisa also speaks a little English and is very nice. His partner, the production manager also has a desk here and there is another desk that appears to be unused so I sit down and set up my computer. The room is merely a place where work is done; there are no fancy offices for the owners with fancy desks and secretaries. Here they don’t feel the need for status; they come to work every day and focus on all the things that matter.

Their day starts early and ends late. Yuan usually arrives around 10:00 am and works until 2:00 or 3:00 am. Their lives are very different in this culture and they work hard. But the factory workers take many long breaks during the day. They take several hours for the lunch and several hours for dinner and they are free to leave if necessary. Their rooms and meals are provided by the factory owners as well. They make various wages based on their skill levels and are paid a fair hourly wage. I do not see unhappy people working. Music is playing and people are laughing, so I feel good about the environment in his factory.

We first work on selecting fabrics for the men’s jeans we are remaking. Then we decide on the denim for the children and youth size jeans. He has swatches brought in from a local fabrics store with the fabrics that I suggested before I came. I’m very happy with the look and feel of the fabric and choose the ones I like the best. The quality is very good and they feel great, very soft and stretchy. I only hope Jillian and Cara are happy with my choices.

Last week Jillian and Cara made a trip to New York City to visit some friends. While they were there, they went to a store called Mood. It’s a huge fabrics store where they were able to bring back swatches of the type of fabrics they want me to select for many of the items they are designing. Because I’m not an expert in this area, I let the girls decide the type of fabric needed for the different clothing items we are making.

By about 2:00 pm we finally get out for some lunch. We go to a local restaurant and finally cool down, this place has air conditioning. Lunch here was not so good, they had no fried rice, so I had some sort of potato or squash, not sure what it was. We walked back and I couldn’t believe the fabrics stores, literally thousands and thousands in this area of nothing be denim shops. Like I said, this town is the jeans capital of the world and if you can imagine the need for jeans factories that produce jeans for the entire world, you can relate to what they do here.

We came back to the factory and the heat is nauseating. With no air conditioning anywhere in the factory, there is no relief from the temperature or the high humidity. But, I finally get a tour of his new business and I’m amazed at what he has built in just a short time. The second floor is the cutting room where the fabric is stacked and cut into pattern pieces on a huge metal table. The next two floors are sewing floors where the pattern pieces are sewn together. Most workers are not working now because they work in different stages. Each person specializes in a different part of the jeans so unless they are swamped with orders not all sewers work at the same time.

At 7:00 PM we are picked up by his good friend and have been invited to join his friend for dinner with about 40 other people. The bank where his friend works is celebrating a good sale and have all been treated for dinner. People here celebrate everything around food. Food is abundant here despite what you may think. They live in such small dwellings that most do not have kitchens. So eating out in restaurants is their way of life. In large groups, food is served in a family style fashion. Dish after dish after dish is brought to the table with every kind of food you can imagine. Each table has a huge lazy Suzan in the middle and the dishes are passed around. I don’t mind tasting new foods, as most are very delicious, but if the food looks back at me, I’m just not interested.

After about two hours of meeting new people and not understanding one word of any conversation, we head back to the factory. We meet with the patterner late but at least it’s much cooler. What a great guy he is and very knowledgeable. He speaks not one word of English, but, as usual, Yuan is my translator. We’re working out a huge crotch problem in the men’s jeans and he guides me with his skillful advice. They will remake the samples with the changes we have made and the children’s and the youth size problems are also discussed. I hope this next set of samples is finally correct. I don’t want any more mistakes this time so I am being much more cautious with my decision on when to start production.

It’s now about 11:00 PM and we finish up our meeting and now it’s time to eat again. The production manager, the patterner, Yuan and I are now head out to another restaurant at this late hour. It’s their culture here! We walk to a small outdoor restaurant around the corner and they order a few dishes. Wow, this meal was really very good. I can’t believe how different they can make food taste. I really enjoy their company even with our lack of communication. They try to teach me a little Chinese but have a good laugh as I struggle to pronounce their language. I think Chinese is probably one of the hardest languages to learn. I’m not sure I could every master it.

So, after dinner Yuan walks me back to my hotel and we say goodnight. It’s about a 20 minute walk but the streets are still alive with people. I’m not afraid at all here in the city streets this late at night. Because the punishment for crime is very high and no guns are allowed, the streets are very safe. I have learned that everything we read is not necessarily true.

Back in my hotel room now, it’s time to check in with the office and see how things are going. Skype is such a great tool and saves lots of money on phone calls. I spend about an hour with Jillian and Cara discussing the day’s events, answer a few emails and check my Facebook page. Here in China, Facebook is blocked, but with remote access, I’m able to connect to my office computer in Mentor and get online there. I never thought about that method when I left home and thought I would be out of touch on my Facebook page. I love posting our events and sharing our progress on Facebook. So far there are 1,100 people who have joined my Downs Designs page. I think it’s important for those who are interested to know exactly what we’re doing and how we are coming along. Finally about 2:00 AM I get some sleep.

Headed Back to China

2011-05-24T09:08:00.000-04:00

Monday, May 9, 2011, I’m off to China again. This year’s trip has a huge agenda. We have so much work to do and so many decisions to make. I’m traveling alone this year; Jillian and Cara have sent me off with swatches of fabric to choose.

At 3:30 AM I’m awake and start getting ready for the long journey ahead of me. I have everything packed and ready to go so I shower, double check my list, kiss my sleeping husband goodbye, hug the cat and I’m out the door by 4:30 AM. I arrived at the airport about 5:30 AM and head for the gate. The plane is on time and I’m in the air by 6:40 AM headed for Toronto, Canada. I catch the long flight to Hong Kong at the Toronto airport at 10:00 AM. It’s a 15 hour flight, so I have plenty of time to relax.

The flight was uneventful and I even caught a nap or two. I arrive in Hong Kong at 1:10 AM (US time) on Tuesday, but it’s now 1:10 in the afternoon in Hong Kong. It’s hard to believe I’ve lost a whole day! I get through customs very quickly. I make my way to the exit where I catch a cab to the train station. I arrive at the train station in Hong Kong just in time to catch an earlier train than I took last year by two hours. I couldn’t believe the luck. But I think the fact I knew what to do this year helped make the process go much smoother.

My friend, Yuan, will pick me up in Guangzhou after the two-hour train ride. Once I travel out of Hong Kong get into China, my cell phone picks up a signal so I call Yuan to tell him I’m arriving two hours earlier than we planned. He says he will be there to pick me up. I also expected a long line at customs, but I was through in 10 minutes, what a break.

After traveling for two days, I couldn’t wait to get to my hotel. BUT, Yuan is late!!! I waited for about an hour for him to show up. Finally, I see him running my way and then, OMG, he runs right past me. I yelled but he didn’t hear me. I couldn’t believe it, he didn’t even see me…the only blonde in China. Finally, he calls my cell and I tell where I’m standing. At last, there he is. I’m so happy to see him that I forget to yell at him for being late.

Yuan does not drive, but he has a friend drive him to the train station to pick me up. He’s made reservations for me at a hotel near his factory so I’m anxious to get there. About an hour later we arrive at the hotel. Its right across the street from the one we stayed in last year so I’m at least familiar with the area. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. The room was large and very nice, but it was not a non-smoking room. This is a problem for me; in China almost everyone smokes and you can’t escape it. (Thankfully, Yuan does not smoke.)

I quickly freshen up and Yuan and I are off to dinner. We walk to a familiar restaurant that we ate at often last year. I love the food in this restaurant. It’s very flavorful and the fried rice is awesome. Yuan orders his usual…hot and spicy something or other! After dinner he walks me back to my hotel and says good night. After checking some emails I collapse into bed completely exhausted.

2011 is Overwhelming!

2011-04-30T12:23:00.000-04:00

OMG, we have so much to accomplish at one time it’s almost overwhelming. No one could ever believe what is going on at Downs Designs. On the surface, it appears not much is happening, but behind the scenes our office is buzzing with work.

Here’s a summary of what has happened since January through April, 2011:

At the same time our first shipment was delivered early in the year, the first samples of the children and youth sizes arrived as well. We were excited to see them. They looked great, but we still had no idea how they would fit. But we were so busy unloading our first shipment, getting adult fittings and preparing the website store to open, that the youth size samples were put on the back burner.

I also decided to use Cara’s graphic design skills to create some fun graphics for about 1000 of our plain colored shirts. I found a local printer in the area to do the screen printing but the process was slow. We averaged about one shirt color per week and we had 8 colors. But it was fun watching the plain color shirts get a facelift. Here are pictures of just two of our different designs.

Now that our first order had arrived, the news media started to take notice. Michael Cardamone, my marketing agent, had put out a press release. Then our local newspaper, The News Herald, called and wanted to do a story about Downs Designs. I was thrilled, of course, but so disappointed about our men’s jeans.

Next, The Plain Dealer called and wanted to write a story also. Wow, this was really exciting. The Plain Dealer is a huge newspaper that reaches the entire Cleveland area. Here's a link to the story in The Plain Dealer:

http://www.cleveland.com/style/index.ssf/2011/03/downs_designs_in_mentor_offers.html

Also at this time I made an appearance on a local program called “Good Company”. The interview was only 5 minutes, but it was an opportunity to tell my story. I was so nervous, but I managed to get through it. If you would like to see this interview, here's the link:

http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/177921/267/Karen-Bowersox-Downs-Designs--the-Story-behind-the-Company

Next both Channel 5 News and Fox 8 News called about doing a story. I couldn’t believe this. The article in the Plain Dealer drew so much attention. I was excited to have the publicity but still felt very sad about not having men’s jeans. But in spite of the problem with our men's jeans, I couldn’t pass up these opportunities.

Because of the local media coverage, we started to get local business. We were getting calls for private fittings from all over Northeast Ohio. My main problem was I didn't have men’s jeans. But our fittings for women's jeans went very well. The jeans looked and felt great on our women clients. The women’s shirts looked great as well and the graphics added so much more to the plain colors tees.

Finally, we began working on our children and youth size samples. We started to make calls to our youth size models. I also managed to get my granddaughter to stand still for a fitting. We found another 5-year old boy whose mother was willing to help out as well. I found a few more volunteers to do more fittings and after these fittings; we learned we had quite a bit to adjust on the samples. It took weeks to accomplish these fittings and time was passing very quickly.

It’s now March, 2011, and still I have no children or youth sizes. I know people have no idea what is involved in designing clothes. I would not believe why it takes so long to create a pair of pants and a T shirt myself if I was not involved. It all sounds so simple, but the truth is, it’s incredibly difficult. Nothing is easy or quick and I’ve learned a very hard lesson with our men’s pants that we cannot rush anything.

The second set of children and youth jean samples arrived, but we still had more work to do. We immediately started making adjustments again to our patterns so the factory could get started working on a third sample jeans order. The sample T shirts got finished and should arrive the first week of May.

While we were trying to repair our men’s jeans patterns and make adjustments to our children and youth sizes we also find some issues with our large size men’s T shirts as people started trying them on. We decided to make some changes in the men's adults T shirts as well. OMG, I felt like I wanted to explode inside, but I had to keep going.

The internet was not bringing in the orders like I thought it would, but, if I speak frankly, I was really relieved. I liked the local traffic for now. It was a better learning experience for us. Also, what I saw coming into our shop were very elderly parents of people whose children were between 35 and 50 years old. Their parents were typically in their 70’s or 80’s. This age group generally does not shop online or even have a computer; so I realized that the adults would more than likely not be the main source of my business. I knew I had to get the kid’s clothes finished as soon as possible.

Money was getting tight as well. I've been working on trying to get more financing. But, what most people don’t realize is that I am completely self funded. I have been investing thousands of dollars per month into this company for over a year and half with full time employees, manufacturing expenses, travel expenses, office expenses and much, much more.

But, truthfully, I am not fearful or worried. I know that this business will flourish one day and I am where I’m supposed to be. I feel that everything will fall into place in good time. My dad always told me that "anything worth having is worth waiting for". So I hope people will be patient with me…

Our First Shipment Arrives...Oh No!

2011-04-17T08:40:00.000-04:00

The air shipment containing 5 of every size jean and tee arrived between Christmas and New Years. I immediately start calling our models to see how soon they can come into the shop for a fitting. Our first model to arrive was Timmy.

Timmy fits the Charlie/Michael style pant. Once we determined his size we have him try them on…right away we see problems. The pockets were too small and too low, the thigh portion of the legs were a little too tight, the elastic wasn't tight enough and the back rise was about an 1 ½” too short. This was not good! Boy, it appears we have made some miscalculations. But, in spite of these issues, Timmy still looked great. Because he is so small, the problems weren't that noticeable. He really loved them. We put him in one of our T shirts and the shirt was a great fit. At least something went well. We hem his pants and get some photos. What a handsome guy he is!

Our next model to arrive was Kelleen (the “Diva”). We have a small problem with the pockets on the ladies jeans also. They weren’t graded properly and I’m not happy with the placement. We try her in both the Diva jeans and the Emily Dip Downs and she favors the Dip Downs. Our little Irish girl loved the Kelly green T-shirt so we get her dressed for the fitting. We put a hem in pants and she loves how they both fit. She just loves her new clothes in spite of the pocket issue. We get more photos.

A few days later, Charlie and Sheryl come in for a fitting. The Sheryl jeans fit Sheryl very well, just a quick hem and she was ready to wear them. She chose the pink shirt. Charlie on the other hand was not so simple. His shirt fits great but again the jeans aren't right. Oh dear, we have problems for sure.

We tried to get Jonathan in for a fitting but he just couldn’t make it. We managed to find another model his size, but he wanted to remain anonymous. But at least we got to test our big men’s size jeans…and again, the pockets are too small, the rise is too short and the waistband is just too loose. I’m really at a low point now!

Michael and Emily have their fittings and, of course, Michael's jeans have all the same problems but Emily's fitting was great. She feels most comfortable in the Diva style jeans.

Lori was away until April so I was unable to fit her in the Lori Jeans. But I was about her size, so I test the fit. Wow, they really felt good and I loved how comfortable they were. Everything seemed okay with the Lori Jeans but once Lori gets back, we’ll do a proper fitting on her and get photos.

By this time the balance of our shipment arrived. The truck pulled up to our warehouse door and we were ready to unload it. But inside that truck I knew there was 1300 pair of jeans with problems. I can’t explain the bitter/sweet feelings I had on this special day.

So I made a hard decision not to sell the men’s jeans online at all. I had about 600 pair of men’s jeans that were a complete disappointment. Because of the pocket problems with the women’s jeans, I decided not to sell them at full price; I just didn’t feel they were up to standard either.

So we finished the website store with photos of our ladies jeans, our unisex shirts and our women’s full figure shirts. Since the men’s jeans had so many problems I made the tough decision to have them all remade. I was really upset over this, but there was nothing more I could do. I knew I must continue to move forward.

Finding Cara

2011-03-27T21:47:00.001-04:00

The holidays came and went very quickly. Jillian was frantically working on the children and youth size jeans and tees. She needed help! In China, they celebrate their Chinese New Year for almost the whole month of February. During the month of February everything shuts down and nothing can be manufactured during that time. So we had to see if we could finish the children and youth size patterns in time for them to make our samples before they went on their month-long holiday.

So, in January, 2011, I hired another designer, Cara Junker. She and Jillian knew each other because they both went to the same design school and Jillian spoke very highly of her. I trusted Jillian’s judgment and brought her on board. What a great addition she was with many unique skills of her own. She was well trained using the Illustrator program so I put her to work designing some unique graphics for our young-age T shirts. She got to work right away. I could see she was going to bring another dimension to Downs Designs. I was amazed by her creativity Anything I ask her to design, she would come up with a really unique graphic. I wanted the kids and youth line to be fun and I wanted them to have some choices besides solid colored shirts since all I was making for now were jeans and T shirts. I’d certainly found the right person for the job.

The girls worked very hard to get our patterns and artwork completed so they could be sent off to the jeans and shirt factories where samples could be made. Time was running out and every day was valuable. In making the children and youth sizes, we really didn’t have any models. We had a 12 year-old girl and a 13 year-old boy but that didn't give us enough different body shapes. Jillian had to base her calculations on other things. One way was by scaling down the adults sizes. The other way was buying pants and shirts from a store in young children and youth sizes and taking their measurements. Then we could modify those measurements according to what we knew about the unique body of shape of a person with Down syndrome. We knew these clothes from the store would not fit, but using the proportion differences that we knew from the adults, we felt we could come up with a pattern that might be appropriate.

Finally the first patterns and the artwork for the children and youth size jeans and tees were completed. Off they went to the factory. Again we wait.

Getting Ready for our First Production

2011-03-27T21:09:00.001-04:00

While in China, Jillian and I picked the fabrics for our jeans and T shirts for the adults, youth and children sizes. Even though we were only working on the adults for now, we were planning ahead for the kids and youth sizes. Now that we were home, we had to wait for samples of our adult sizes to be made. It seemed like an eternity but finally by the end of the September, the first samples of our adult jeans and tees finally arrived.

When they finally arrived we only had one size from each style. This was a problem because we didn’t have models that fit the sample sizes they had made. It was a challenge now to test our samples. So after we had a few fittings, we had to make some hard decisions as to whether we felt our jeans were ready for production. We made some big mistakes in judgment and when I look back now, I have many regrets. We didn’t realize these mistakes at the time. The most obvious mistake on both the men’s and women’s jeans was the pockets and zippers. We had failed to grade the pockets or the zippers. The fact that we only saw the one size was why we didn’t notice. What this meant was that the pockets and zippers on the smaller sizes were the same size as the ones on the larger sizes, but on the larger sizes, they were too small in proportion.

We also had a problem with the waistbands. Never having made this type of waistband, we were unsure how much tension to put into them. So we miscalculated the waistbands in the bigger sizes. Our samples looked okay because they were not in the largest sizes, so we did not realize this big mistake either. This was a big miscalculation on our part that I would ultimately pay for later.

Time was passing quickly and I needed to get the production started. It was now the end of October and I was hoping to have the jeans and tees in before Christmas. The T shirts were very simple, but the jeans were much more complicated. They had been a challenge from the beginning.

Well, plans didn’t go as expected. We had a huge problem near the end of the jeans production with the men’s “Dip Downs”. The factory was worried the elastic we had chosen might not be strong enough to hold up the men’s denim. Remember these were very large sizes and denim is a heavier fabric. More testing had to be done. Finally, we made the decision to use double elastic to make them stronger. The testing process took more time than was planned and then sewing the double elastic into the band took even more time as well. But finally the jeans and tees were ready for shipping. By this time it was almost the end of December, so receiving them by Christmas was out of the question now.

Due to their minimum order requirements I had ordered 2000 shirts and about 1300 pairs of jeans. This was bigger than I needed at this time but I had no choice. I was so excited to see the finished products so I asked them to ship 5 of each size of both the jeans and tees. Air shipping was very expensive, but I thought this smaller shipment would get us started and I also needed to get pictures for the website of our models wearing our clothes. I knew if I got a few pairs of every size in sooner, I would have each of their sizes when the first shipment arrived. Remember, the samples didn’t actually fit our models.

The rest of the order was coming by sea. This would take about one month. The ship would leave China in a shared container to Los Angeles. Once our shipment arrived in Los Angeles, it would be picked up by a trucking company and delivered to our warehouse in Mentor, Ohio. Now we wait.

Back to Work

2011-02-06T20:23:00.000-05:00

The next morning I was too exhausted to go back to work at our medical practice, so I took the day off to recover from the trip and to get a head start on the laundry. I was still on China time, which was exactly 12 hours later; I was like a newborn with my days and nights mixed up.

At this point, I was still working full time running my husband’s medical practice, I also had a very busy weight loss business and I spent many hours working with Jillian on our clothing line. I also spent two days a week with my 85 year-old mother, found time to visit my two daughters and my eleven grandchildren and worked out at the gym about 3 or 4 times a week. Busy???? Mmmm, just a little!

To add to my already busy schedule, I decided I was going to write a book about my journey. I thought the blog page on my website was the perfect venue to collect my thoughts. I tried to find time every week or so to write another chapter. I didn’t want to forget one thing about my experience while creating Downs Designs.

My day usually begins around 3:30 am. My adrenaline must be in abundance because I rarely feel tired. At age 61 most would think I would be exhausted but it’s just not the case. I feel motivated and driven every day and wake up with enthusiasm to see what each new day will bring.

Well to get back my story: From the very early stages of creating Downs Designs, I began posting our progress on Facebook and my Downs Designs' page continued to grow more “fans”. I felt it was important to keep people aware of what we were doing at all times. Development was a slow process and people seemed interested in its progress. I also loved to hear input from parents who had children with Down syndrome, young or old. Their feedback was so helpful and informative for us; we needed to listen to their comments and suggestions. Facebook had become an incredible media and I was amazed at the attention Downs Designs received.

People from over 25 countries slowly joined my Downs Designs Facebook page. It was amazing to meet people from all around the world. The problems were all the same; clothes just don’t fit their kids. They were desperate for someone to come to their rescue. It drove me even harder when I would hear their struggles. And their kind words and sincere appreciation for my efforts gave me encouragement and strength. Their support kept me going.

I wished I could have worked faster, but the process was very slow. I only had a pair of jeans and a plain, long-sleeve T shirt. It wasn’t much but it was a start. We really needed to establish a proper size that fit a person’s body with Down syndrome before we could move on to other clothes.

I was also self funded. I had no investors nor did I want any. I was determined to do this on my own. I poured everything we had into this business and I was borrowing the rest. I was going to make Downs Designs a full clothing line for all ages of people with Down syndrome.

But truthfully, I knew people didn’t understand why it was taking so long. I myself never realized what it took to make an article of clothing. Who would know unless you were in the industry? I’ve learned a lot since I started my journey. I realized the difficulties involved in creating a clothing line, but creating a size that never existed before was even more daunting. But with the help of my dear Jillian, we forged on.

Our journey back home

2011-02-06T18:31:00.000-05:00

Taken from my journal on my Trip to China

Jillian and I got up early and packed up our things. We got ready for our journey home. We had plenty of time, so we walked back to our “favorite” restaurant…McDonald’s… and had our last meal in China. Yuan arrived on time about 8:00 am and we still had a little time to visit, so we went back to McDonalds one last time.

Now it was time to head to the train station. Yuan would stay with us until we got on the train. We loaded our luggage in the trunk of a cab and we were off. It was a quiet ride. My emotions were all over the place. I was excited to get home yet very sad to leave. It had been an experience I would never forget.

When we finally arrived at the train station, it was under construction as well and we were dropped off somewhere nearby. Thank God Yuan was with us because I would have never found my way without him. Once we got into the station, we had to buy our tickets and no one spoke English. Yuan helped us with all of that and we were so thankful he was there with us.

Saying goodbye was very sad for me. I wanted to pack him in my luggage and bring him home with me. But we had to catch our train and head for home. We had a two-hour train ride back to Hong Kong, a 15-hour flight back to Canada and then a short flight back to Cleveland.

We finally got aboard the train but this train was so different from the one we came in on. It was very modern with two stories; it was more comfortable and much faster than the other one. It seemed like no time at all before we arrived at the train station in Hong Kong. By this time we were more familiar with the area and knew exactly what to do.

We grabbed a cab and headed for the Hong Kong airport. We got to the airport and made our way through the airport processes. It wasn’t very crowded at all and the lines were very short. We finally boarded our plane and settled in for a long flight.

Time passed so much more quickly. I worked on my computer for hours writing my journal. I also worked on editing all 450 pictures I took. I even slept for a few hours this time. Before we knew it, we landed in Toronto. Going through American customs was the hardest of all; they were very thorough and it took a long time waiting in line. We had only a short wait before our plane took off and just like that, our trip was over.

Once we landed in Cleveland, it was like we never left. We were back home and our lives would return to normal. I hugged Jillian goodbye and went back to my car. Jillian is a great traveling partner and I look forward to many more trips together with her. I guess since she didn’t kill me, we must still be friends.

The ride home felt a little strange for me. I had waited for months for this trip and now it was over…just like that! We will need to travel to China every year to pick our fabrics for each year's clothes. But our next trip will be so much easier. The unknown is over and we will become seasoned travelers.

Day 4 our last full day in China

2011-02-06T17:57:00.000-05:00

Taken from journal on my Trip to China

This was our last day before we headed for home. I was feeling sad about leaving. We have so many misconceptions about life in other countries and seeing firsthand how other people live has changed me. I’m grateful for our country and our abundance but I also see how happy people can be without so many “things”. It’s wonderful to see people respect each other and be grateful for what they have, no matter how minimal it may seem to us.

I also felt bad about leaving my friend, Yuan. We had become such good friends over the last year and finally meeting him sealed our friendship. Having a good friend helping Downs Designs grow makes our relationship even more special. Having someone who cares so much about making our clothes is a gift I have been given. His communication skills are excellent and I’m so thankful for all he has done for us.

On our last day, Yuan made plans for us. He’s planned a trip to a beautiful waterfall in the mountains that was about 2 hours out of town. Jillian and I were up very early, about 4:30 am. It was a good thing we got up that early because you should have seen the hair dryer in this room…OMG…it looked like a big vacuum cleaner hanging on the wall and it took us forever to dry our hair. We finished getting dressed and headed to the lobby for an early breakfast. This hotel had one of those “free” breakfasts included and we needed to eat before today’s excursion.

We tried to eat this food but I can’t tell you how bad it was. It was an attempt at French toast, an egg, sausage (that was only a funny looking hot dog) and orange juice. Not one item on this menu even vaguely tasted familiar. We remembered there was a McDonald’s around the corner so we ran there as fast as we could. I have to say one thing about being a blonde in China, we were a rare commodity. We were starred at everywhere we went. Walking down the street this morning was no different; I was feeling a bit uncomfortable.

We finally get to the McDonald’s and it felt good to be in familiar surroundings. Everything looked just like any other McDonald’s in the U.S. and menu was the same as well. We ordered our breakfast and when I attempted to pay, I realized I had brought the wrong money. I had brought Hong Kong dollars and not Chinese dollars.

So back to the hotel we went. I grabbed the right money this time and we walked back to McDonald’s for another try. A sausage sandwich and orange juice was our meal of choice. I’m not a big fan of fast food, but today it was like a gourmet meal. Every bite was a bit of heaven. To Hell with my cholesterol!!!

After we ate, we headed back to the hotel to wait for Yuan. He arrived on time! It was still early in the morning and the temperature was already very hot. We had to wait on the corner of the street for a bus. That was an experience in itself. Traffic was everywhere and so were the buses. I don’t know how Yuan knew which one to take, but the right one finally came along. He said we would ride this bus for quite a while to another bus station, and then change buses again.

The trip took about two hours. It was a very pleasant ride. The bus was air conditioned and it really felt good to be out of the heat. I couldn’t believe the change in life style once we were out of the city. The farmers live very differently. I saw cows along the way, but they didn’t look like cows in the U.S. They actually looked Asian. Yuan explained that these cows are not eaten, they are used for work. I saw no horses; instead, cows were used for pulling their plows.

We finally arrived at the park. We could see this beautiful, white waterfall very far up the mountain side. We walked for quite a while before we got to the base of the mountain. There were thousands of steps that would take us to the top. The steps at this point were made out of wood and followed along the side of the water. It was beautiful. The huge rocks made for many waterfalls along the way. It was still fairly early and there weren’t too many people but the heat was almost unbearable already.

We climbed for hours and I was able to take so many beautiful pictures. The water was chrystal clear. As we got higher up the mountain, the steps became steeper and wooden steps became stone steps. We held on to the railing tighter and tighter. It seemed like bus loads of people were beginning to arrive. We were hot and tired but the scenery was worth it!

Finally about 2:00 pm we stopped and Yuan spoke with some people who were coming down the mountain. They told him we still had about a three hour climb to the top. We couldn’t believe it. We had climbed almost 2000 feet up and we still had another 2000 feet to go? At that point we thought we better start heading back. We weren’t sure how long it would take us and it was getting late in the afternoon.

So we started our descent. It was obviously much faster coming down than going up. More and more people were there at this point and it was more difficult getting through the crowds. The heat had drained us and people were jumping in the water to cool off. It looked inviting I must admit. We finally made it back to the bus and climbed aboard. The air conditioning felt wonderful! The ride back was quiet. We were very tired. Jillian wasn’t feeling too well and she couldn’t wait to get back the room. We think she was suffering from elevation sickness.

Yuan dropped us off back at our hotel and we agreed we would meet for dinner later. It was our last night and I looked forward to a quiet dinner together. A shower was definitely in order. Poor Jillian just wanted to sleep so she climbed into bed and was out like a light! The shower felt great but I had to deal with that hair dryer again…OMG!

About 8:00 pm, Yuan arrived. Jillian did not want to go with us so I left her there sound asleep. Yuan and I walked to a local restaurant and had our last dinner together. We enjoyed a great meal and talked for several hours. It was nice having a one on one conversation with him. We talked about his childhood; we talked about their government and we talked about what he wanted for his future.

Yuan is highly intelligent and very educated. He speaks out strongly about the things that bother him and he would like to see changes in the way the government runs his country. I learned about how the young people feel about their government through his eyes. They want to make a difference. Because the internet has opened up the world to China the people know there is another way of life. I’m so proud to know him!

After dinner, we walked the busy streets. Not far from our hotel, was another big shopping mall. The malls are on many floors in China. Each floor is a different department; such as, women’s clothes on one floor and men’s clothes are on another. I still didn’t see anything I wanted to buy and the clothes were way too small for me.

It was getting late and it was time to head back to the hotel. I was tired and we were leaving the next day. It was going to be a long flight home. I said goodnight to Yuan and headed up to my room. Jillian was just waking and we talked for a short while. She said I fell asleep in the middle of a sentence. I was truly exhausted by this time. Anticipation for our trip back home didn’t keep me from a good night’s sleep tonight.

Day 3 of our China Adventure

2011-01-29T17:39:00.000-05:00

Taken from my Journal on my trip from China

Friday, August 27, 2010

Jillian and I got ready for the day and headed to the hotel restaurant for another delicious breakfast. When we finished eating, we waited for Yuan to arrive, but again he was late. I felt so bad for what he went through every morning to pick us up. When he finally arrived, we packed up our things and checked out of the hotel. We took a taxi to the new hotel outside of Guangzhou not far from where Yuan lived. When we pulled up to the front entrance, I was little nervous. But once inside, it wasn’t so bad. Nothing like the Hyatt, I will admit, but at least it was more convenient for poor Yuan. It was within walking distance from his apartment and not far from the jeans factory. For that reason alone, it was worth the downgrade. Besides, I saw several McDonalds very close by and their food was looking mighty tasty by this time!

Once we checked in, we all ate lunch together in the hotel restaurant. This restaurant did not have very good food, but the fried rice was satisfactory. Then we went back to the jeans factory. Yuan wanted to prepare gifts for us he said. He was going to have his company make us each a pair of custom made jeans. He wanted to get our measurements and wanted us to design them however we wanted. What a special treat this was. I was thrilled to have something custom made and embroidered especially for me. It meant a lot to him to do this for us. But instead of jeans, I chose a jeans skirt and, of course, Jillian could fit into a pair of those “skinny” jeans! They will begin making these for us very soon and send them to us later.

We took a tour of the factory, floor by floor, and were amazed at the skills of the people who worked there. There were no modern computers or lazars for cutting. Everything was done by hand or on a sewing machine. On one floor, two men were laying out the fabric on a huge cutting table. Yuan explained the process to us. They stack the fabric sometimes 300 layers high. The pattern pieces are laid out on top of the stack and then the workers use a large “jigsaw” type saw to cut out each pattern piece. In the U.S., this would be done by a computer and lazar. One woman I watched was putting a stencil on a pocket piece. She had some sort of white solution that she brushed over a stencil that sat on top of a large stack of pocket pieces. She was as fast as any machine; her hands moved like lightening. She would stencil each pocket piece so it could be embroidered with stitching.

On another floor, the pieces are sewn together by the sewing staff. It was a large room with many people at sewing machines. Each person had just one job. I watched one man sew the flat felt seam from one end of the pant leg, around the crotch and down to the other end of the pant leg. It may have taken two or three seconds. I watched in amazement how fast he could do this. He had a stack on one side of work to be done and on the other side of him was his completed stack. Parts and pieces were everywhere. Some people wore masks, others did not. The fabric dust was everywhere and scraps of denim lay in piles.

The next floor we toured was the shipping department. The people on this floor inspected and packaged the jeans and prepared them for shipping. It seemed like a very simple process here.

After our tour of the factory, you guessed it; it was time for another meal. So, we’re off to a different restaurant. It’s Friday night and dinner was even more of an event. We were joined by many other people. The meal turned into an enormous feast, so many different dishes. They just kept bringing more and more food. I tried many of them and most were very delicious. But, the restaurant got really crowded and smoking was allowed…I couldn’t wait to get some fresh air.

When dinner was over, we went to a shopping mall nearby. We shopped with the owner of the factory. She was so kind and bought us each a small gift. We walked around for a while and finally headed back to our hotel.

Yuan had a special night planned. In China, the young people love to go to a place called KTV. I was definitely out of place here. This place consisted of individual party rooms where they gather to eat, drink beer and sing Karaoke all night long. They also played some sort of dice game which I really didn’t understand. Jillian joined in and played for a few hours. They really had a great time. I think this was their way of unwinding after working long, hard hours all week. No man was embarrassed to sing; they each took their turn. Yuan chose all his songs in English. We got such a kick out of watching him sing; he’ll be ready for American Idol very soon!

We had a good time but it was getting late and we were tired. So we asked if someone could drop us off at our hotel. Saturday would be our last day and Yuan was taking us to a place called White Water Valley. I knew it would be hot and we needed to get a good night’s rest. Back in our room, I collapsed on the bed and was fast asleep in no time.

Day 2 of our China Adventure

2011-01-29T17:30:00.000-05:00

Taken from my Journal on my trip to China

Thursday, August 26, 2010

As usual, I woke up very early in the morning, today it was 3:30 am. I started writing my journal yesterday and today, as I sat quietly trying not to disturb Jillian, my writing continued. Documenting this journey as it happened is very important to me. I want to remember every detail.

When Jillian woke up, it was time to get ready for another new day. Still no flat iron! Yuan was going to meet us at 10:00 am today so we took our time getting ready and then went down to the restaurant for another delicious breakfast. The food in the restaurant was fantastic. We could choose from an amazing buffet of Asian and American style foods.

After we ate, we headed for the lobby to wait. Yuan called to let us know he was on the way and said he would be arriving in 20 minutes…which we guessed would be an hour. We were right! Once he arrived, we had to wait for the owner of the shirt factory to pick us up…more waiting.

After the owner finally arrives, Yuan introduces us and, of course, he speaks no English. He is the owner of the factory that will be making our shirts. By this time, guess what, it’s time for lunch. He takes us to a beautiful hotel restaurant that is near his factory. We head up to the 5th floor to a private room. When we get into the room there are others there waiting for us. The feast begins. He orders a large variety of foods and we were at a loss as to what to eat. Many of the foods were looking back at us. We tried being polite and tasted several of the different dishes which were actually very tasty. It took several hours to complete the meal. The owner commented many times that woman my age in China do not usually work and he admired me for the business I was starting. He continually gave me a “thumbs up” with a twinkle in his eye. He was so friendly and gracious. Thank God we had Yuan to help us communicate!

When lunch was over we walked to his factory which was right around the corner. We had to climb several flights of stairs to get to the office and showroom area. The temperature was very hot and the building was stifling. Air conditioning is not what we’re used to. The air conditioners are large, individual units that look like a big refrigerator in the room. They didn’t turn it on until we got there so the room was very warm. We all sat down on a large sofa that surrounded a very unusual coffee table. The coffee table was designed to serve tea in a very unique way. We had the same type of seating when we visited the jeans factory; it must be their way. The owner sat at the head of the table and prepared the tea. He was very talkative and Yuan was doing a wonderful job interpreting but still the conversation was difficult. As I became more comfortable, we got down to business. Next he took us into his enormous showroom. This company manufacturers many things that we will be making later on as we grow. They are a local manufacturer and have never made clothes for people from other countries and especially not for people with Down syndrome. But we were very pleased with the quality of their work and plan to continue to work with them in the future.

The next order of business was to take a tour of the factory. It was very impressive. Again, in their standards, this place was very modern. I will be happy to do business with them and I liked how the factory looked.

We went back to his office where we discussed our shirts. He brought us many types of fabrics from which to choose. Jillian and I decided to go with 100% cotton. We picked some fun colors and discussed price. He invited us to stay for dinner but I graciously declined. We just couldn’t face another creature looking us in the face; besides, Yuan had promised to take us to a shopping mall.

The owner was so kind and drove us back into town. He dropped us off at this enormous shopping mall: so many floors and stores. I’ve seen nothing like it in the U.S. People were everywhere. I needed to find a FLAT IRON! We headed up to the fourth floor where all the electronic stores were located. We were completely shocked at the prices of their electronic equipment…almost double the price in the U.S. We looked at computers with common brand names and they were outrageously expensive. Even the flat iron was more than I should have paid.

The clothes were much too small for us and we just couldn’t find anything of interest to buy. It was getting late and Yuan had to get back to his apartment. He wanted us to take a taxi back to our hotel but we wanted to walk. We said our goodbyes and thanked him for being so helpful.

It took us about 25 minutes, but we needed the exercise. It felt good! When we got back to the hotel, we headed to the restaurant for some dinner. It was about 9:00 pm and the restaurant would be closing soon. We ate dinner then headed back to our room. Yuan had asked if he could get us a hotel nearer to his town. He had made plans for us to do some site seeing and the long distance back and forth would make the plans more difficult. We agreed we would move to another hotel closer to where he lived because the traveling time for him was just too much. I was a little unsure about giving up all the comforts of the Hyatt for a hotel I knew nothing about but we only had 2 days left and I felt very bad about how much time Yuan was spending on a bus or in a taxi. So in the morning we would move.

Arrived in China - Our First Full Day

2011-01-29T16:55:00.000-05:00

Taken from my Journal on my trip from China

Wednesday, August 25, 2010
It seemed we had lost two whole days of our lives…we left Cleveland on Monday morning and now it was Wednesday morning. Where had those two days gone? But, it was our first day of business and our plans were to go to the jeans factory and pick out our fabrics and accessories. I wanted to see for myself where our clothes were being manufactured. Choosing the fabric is so important and we must be here in person to do that.

We showered and prepared for the day. I had brought an outlet adaptor for our electronic devices to plug in to. But when I plugged in our hair dryer smoke instantly starts pouring out of it. I quickly shut it off. I had no idea what just happened. Luckily, the hotel room had a hair dryer so we were able to use that one. The next problem was my flat iron. I was afraid to plug it in now because I realized that it might catch on fire if I did. What was I to do now? My hair was a disaster. I did my best with the hair dryer, but I knew I was in for a “bad hair day”! I needed to buy a flat iron somewhere here in China that would work in their outlets.

Our plans were to meet Yuan in the lobby at 9:00 am. He was coming with the owner of the company to pick us up as he does not drive. We had a great breakfast in the hotel restaurant and proceeded to the lobby to wait for our ride. We waited for almost two hours. Apparently, the traffic was so jammed up due to construction in the city that it took them almost three hours to get here from their factory that was only one hour away. I felt terrible that it took them so long.

After meeting the owner, who spoke absolutely no English, we headed for the jeans factory. The ride was another “nail biter”. I just can’t believe the disorder on the streets. We finally arrived in one piece at their facility. The appearance is not what we expect to find in the United States but I am beginning to see how different this culture is from ours and their way of life is not ours. What appears to us as very unusual is completely normal for them. We went inside and were seated in the main office. The smell of incense burning is pungent but not unpleasant. Yuan introduced us to the owner’s wife who actually runs the factory. She is another reason I liked this factory…its run by a woman! Conversations are very difficult as none of these people speak English. Yuan is our only source of communication and I look to him every step of the way.

By now its lunch time and we were taken to a restaurant not far away. Jillian and I were about to experience real Chinese food. They seated us in a private room for lunch and we were given menus we couldn’t read. So we looked at the pictures and Yuan helped us to choose our foods.

The food was delicious and very spicy. Jillian actually had a pizza that was the best I’ve ever tasted but it was also very spicy. I stuck with a more traditional meal of fried rice. It was simple but full of such a different flavor. The meal was quite a feast and was eaten very slowly. Our observation so far was that people are very laid back, they work at their own pace and their meals are very important, almost ritualistic. They don’t seem in any hurry at all and it appeared that time didn’t matter. Yuan explained that his everyday habit was to eat his lunch very quickly and run home for a 2 hour nap.

After lunch we got to work. We spent several hours with their fabric specialist making decisions for every detail of our jeans. Their people are extremely knowledgeable and I feel very confident in their abilities. But in truth, their facilities are not like factories in the United States. They would never pass an OSHA inspection that’s for sure! Their workers have a lot of experience and seem very happy in their jobs. The conditions were not what we would expect in the United States either, but I didn’t feel bad or uncomfortable with their surroundings.

By this time, dinner was the next order of business. Another ritual we were to experience. We took a cab to a different restaurant which was very crowded and no private room was available. Yuan was uncomfortable eating in a large crowd. He said he preferred to eat at 8:00 or 9:00 pm after the crowds thinned out. All workers stop working and everything closes down during their lunch and dinner hours. This restaurant served another type of food, Cantonese, which is not as spicy. I stuck to the fried rice but I did taste some of the other foods that were served. Eating in this restaurant was different from the last one, it didn’t look as appetizing as I would have liked, but strangely enough was quite delicious. How do they make so many flavors?

From there it got a little hairy. Apparently the taxi driver was invited to eat dinner with us but he refused. When we finished our dinner, he was still waiting. When we got in the taxi, the conversation between Yuan, the owner and the taxi driver became a little heated. I knew they were disagreeing about the fees. Yuan explained to us that in China the taxis wait for the rides to finish their dinner and cannot charge for that time. This taxi driver had left his meter running and they were not going to pay him for that time. Finally we headed back to the factory, dropped off the owner and said goodbye to Yuan. He gave the taxi driver enough money for our trip back to Guangzhou, an hour away….

Okay, we were a little uncomfortable with this driver but Yuan assured us we would be fine. It was a long ride back to our hotel. Again, insanity was everywhere…how could anyone survive these crazy drivers or the drivers survive these crazy people.

Because the city was preparing for the Asian Games, construction was everywhere. The roads were being rebuilt and new skyscrapers were being added everywhere the eye could see. This made travel in the city even more difficult. Getting to our hotel became very confusing for our driver. We saw the hotel, but he couldn’t find a way to get to it. We finally tried to tell him we would get out and walk but he had absolutely no idea what we were talking about. He pulled over as we tried to explain we wanted to walk to our hotel, but he didn’t understand us. I had no Chinese money to give him and I felt bad for the time it took him to drive us back to our hotel. I tried to give him a $20.00 bill in American money but he had no idea what it was. So finally I handed him the money Yuan had given us and the $20.00 US dollars from me and we hopped out of the cab. We made our way through the mayhem of traffic and finally arrived back at our hotel…happy to have survived the ride back.

The day had actually been a very good one. We had gotten so much accomplished. The main purpose of our trip was nearly completed. A little celebration seemed to be in order, so we headed for the lounge for a cocktail. We sat for a while listening to a woman sing, had a drink that was actually not very good, then headed back to our room for a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow we were meeting with the people from the shirt factory.

Our next stop … China!

2011-01-20T17:52:00.000-05:00

The next part of my story, I will take directly from the journal I wrote while in China. The experience was so memorable; I wanted to journalize every detail. It may be a little long and too wordy, but it is important to me to remember all the details. I'll start from the beginning:

Monday, Tuesday, August 23, 24, 2010

I woke up at 2:30 am but sleep had been very sporadic. I had been waiting for this day for months and the anticipation was beyond description. My husband slept soundly as I got ready for my journey. Everything had been carefully packed and completely organized. I was totally prepared but had no idea what to expect. I kissed him goodbye and I was out the door at 4:00 am headed for China!

I was meeting Jillian at the Cleveland airport at 5:00 am for a 6:40 takeoff to Toronto. Our first plane was a small one, not even a jet. It only took one hour to get there and then we had a two hour layover. Our flight to Hong Kong was leaving from Toronto at 10:00 am.

Flying to Hong Kong was going to take a long time…15 hours! I wasn’t afraid or worried. We were actually flying first class on an enormous jet. We had our own individual pods that were very comfortable with every convenience. The seat was completely adjustable in all positions, even a bed. We had movies galore to watch and all kinds of different programs to keep us busy.

We tried to sleep, but it was not possible. Not sure why, but I was wide awake. I may have dozed for 10 or 15 minutes once during the entire flight. The flight was uneventful but very, very long.

Our landing was perfect in Hong Kong. Not a glitch. We got off the plane with no idea what was in store for us. The airport was very large and very busy. The weather was rainy and humid. I think the temperature was fairly cool because of the rain; it may have been in the high 70’s. My contact in China, Yi Yuan, had sent me all the information to get from Hong Kong to Guangzhou, China. He had everything prepared for us and even wrote it in Chinese in case we couldn’t find someone who spoke English. I tried right away to call him and let him know we had arrived safely in Hong Kong but I had no service on my cell phone and was unable to call as I had promised I would. This made a little angry because I had my phone set up to handle international calls before I left.

We followed the crowd through the airport, not exactly sure where we were going. First we made our way through customs. It went very smoothly. Then we found our way to baggage claim and were thankful to find both bags coming around the conveyor. Now where were we to go?

We had to get to a train station in Hong Kong that was about 30 minutes from the airport. Our next challenge was to find a taxi to get us there. Then Jillian remembered we needed to exchange our American dollars so we looked for somewhere to find Hong Kong money. We found an ATM machine and thought we got $100.00 but in reality, we got 100 Hong Kong dollars which was not worth very much. The taxi driver was very nice and took our American money. The actual cost was only 40 dollars and a tip!

It was pouring down rain when we arrived at the train station. Once at the station, there was a place to exchange money. Next I purchased two tickets to Guangzhou, China. We had about an hour to wait. Since my phone didn’t work I needed to use a pay phone. Calling Guangzhou from Hong Kong was not so easy. Nothing we tried worked. Luckily, there was a very nice lady at the phone booth who spoke English. She was able to make a successful call to Yuan for us and told him we were okay and would arrive at Guangzhou at 6:30 pm. Luckily for us she was taking the same train. We stuck to her like glue and she led us in the right direction.

The train took 2 hours and I felt very sad during this time. The train was full of very typical people who, for reasons of their own, were coming or going. Some had luggage and others had shopping bags. It was a quiet ride and the sound of the “clickity clack” should have put us to sleep. But I couldn’t stop looking out the window. Poverty was everywhere. People lived in huge, tall buildings in very small apartments. Laundry hung outside on their little balconies in every unit. You could tell air pollution was not controlled, the buildings were very dirty. It made me feel very sorry for these people. As we traveled through the countryside, I saw shacks that people lived in that were right next to their rice patties and gardens. It was raining very hard, but people still kept working. It looked like a picture from a magazine. They wore their large straw hats and rode bicycles everywhere.

We finally arrived at the train station in Guangzhou, China. I knew Yuan would be there waiting for us. I was so excited to finally meet him after all these months of communicating. But first we had to go through customs again in China…the lines were very long. It took about 30 or 40 minutes but finally it was over! As we walked toward the exit, there he was…just as I had pictured him.

First, I should tell you how I met this young man and how he has become such an important part of Downs Designs. Yuan is 27 years old and the general manager for the jeans manufacturer that is making our jeans. After attempting to find an American company failed due to their high costs, I was forced to seek a factory outside of the United States. I had help with this by a fellow who was making golf shirts overseas. He explained the ways of finding an overseas manufacturer and guided me through the process.

I joined a website that was set up for finding international businesses. All I needed to do was post what I wanted to manufacturer. My request read something like this: “I am looking for a manufacturer to make jeans for people with Down syndrome. They require a special size.” Immediately, people from all over the world began to contact me. I was overwhelmed with companies seeking my business. How could I possibly know who these people were? Communication was by instant messaging and I got many pictures of “skinny jeans”. I knew they had no idea what I was talking about.

Then I was contacted by Andy Yen who introduced himself to me. This is the name that Yuan goes by for business purposes. I could tell he spoke very good English by his writing and I felt something through our communication that was different from the others. It was more of an instinct than anything else. I explained that I would need to make a size that was not standard and would require special sizing. I told him that these jeans would be for people with Down syndrome. I couldn’t believe what happened next…he sent me a picture of a fellow named “Tom Weggie”. In the picture, Tom Weggie was directing a symphony…and he had Down syndrome! I knew then that Yuan understood. I knew I had found the factory that was going to make our jeans. Without his help all these months, none of this would have been possible. Yuan has become an important part of Downs Designs and also my dearest friend. I’m not exactly sure what I would have done without him.

Now that I have explained how I came to know our contact in China, I can get back to our journey.

We left the train station by taxi and Yuan told us the hotel was not far away, but it took us over 30 minutes. I cannot put into words what that experience was like…OMG! It was dark by this time, now after 7:00 pm. Road construction was everywhere, people were everywhere and traffic was insane. Everyone in China drives like a crazy person. People were on bicycles, people were walking everywhere in the streets and sidewalks, cars swerved in and out, and scooters zipped between the cars with no regard for anyone else on the road. I don’t know how anyone could survive on these roads, but this chaos all seemed normal to them. When I tell you their horns worked…I mean that was their main means of communicating.

Yuan described to us how long it takes to get a driver’s license in China. He explained that it was very difficult and expensive, and that it required a long schooling period. I wondered why if everyone had to take a lot of driving classes, why didn’t any of them know how to drive? I think they must have skipped the class on tail-gating and the one where the pedestrian has the right of way was not even on the curriculum! Another interesting factor was that they could only drive on certain days of the week. I thought about what the traffic would have been like if everyone had been able to drive on the same day…I can only imagine.

We finally arrived at our hotel; it was right in the middle of this huge, enormous city. Tall skyscrapers were everywhere. I had made reservations at a Hyatt Hotel and couldn’t wait to finally get to our room. The two-day journey had taken its toll. We figured we hadn’t slept in almost 35 hours but I was surprisingly not tired at all. Adrenaline was still flowing through my veins.

Our hotel was like any other Hyatt in United States. The people were extremely friendly and courteous and our room was beautiful. We dropped our luggage off in the room, brushed our teeth, changed our clothes and headed for the restaurant. By this time it was about 8:30 pm and we were hungry. After dinner, we said goodbye to Yuan. He lived about an hour outside Guangzhou and still had to find transportation home, which apparently would not be a problem.

Jillian and I headed back to our room, praying that we could finally sleep. We sat up for a while trying to absorb what had just happened over the last 2 days and couldn’t believe the journey we had just experienced. But we were here safe and sound and ready for a good night’s sleep. After a while of restlessness, I was finally able to sleep. But at 4:30 am….I’m up and wide awake!!!! I couldn’t believe it, how could that be.

This explains our first two days which were all travel time.

Returning from the Conference

2011-01-20T17:34:00.000-05:00

We returned home from the conference filled with excitement. The experience was amazing and we learned so much more about our clients and what they wanted and needed. I think this conference was a major turning point for us in what we were doing. It was important to see so many different shapes and sizes. It was really important to speak with so many parents and hear their struggles. It gave us ideas for change and improvement and motivated us to work even harder because the need for appropriate fitting clothes was even greater than we had realized.

Returning home we knew we had more work to do. We took our jeans back to the drawing board. We needed to make improvements to them. Our shirts needed some small changes too. It was our most important task to complete these two items, because it would be impossible to move forward with any other clothing items without a basic pair of pants and a T shirt that fit.

Changing the waistband was our top priority. We needed to get rid of ribbing and make the waistband out of denim. I knew we needed to have elastic in some way, but I didn’t want them to look like sweatpants waistbands. I wanted them to look like a regular pair of jeans. Well, as usual when I need an answer to something, it just appears! I was shopping one day at the mall and saw the perfect type band. It was about 2 inches wide and the crinkles were pressed into the band which gave it a completely different look. It didn’t look so gathered and looked so much better than the heavily gathered elastic bands. We would also include a working zipper and an easy hook fastener, but with the elastic, most could actually get them on and off without using the zipper. We’d only make the elastic three quarters of the way around as well. Most of the front would not be gathered which would make them look so much better.

Now about the “Dip Downs”? We really needed to come up with something for the many who didn’t like to wear anything around their waists. It would have to be a full elastic band though in order for it to stay up. We worked on this one for quite some time. When we finished the pattern, we sent it off to the factory for a test sample. Actually, there would be many attempts to get this waistband to work. We would have to wait to see how our theory would play out.

The shirts needed a little “tweaking”, too, but they basically fit pretty well. We needed to shorten the length and make more room in the upper arm. We didn’t like the stretchy fabric either, so we decided to use a cotton fabric and, of course, we would pick some cool colors.

Before we left for the conference I had decided that a trip to China was vital. I had booked a flight August 23, for both of us. I felt very strongly about seeing the factories where our clothes were being made. Even though I had a great relationship with my contact in China, I wanted to see for myself where our clothes were actually produced. It was also important to choose the fabric ourselves for the jeans and shirts. I wanted to touch and feel the fabric. I wanted our jeans and shirts to be soft and comfortable. But I couldn’t do it myself; I would need Jillian to be with me and she didn’t have a passport, so before we left for the conference, she had applied for one and we hoped when we got home, it would be there by then.

Well, it was not. We were leaving for China soon and still needed to get our visas after she got her passport. But as everything else seems to work out for us, a few days later her passport arrived. We immediately sent them off to New York City for our visas. Time was getting close and we needed our passports and visas in order to get on the plane. But, the visas arrived just before we left…the timing couldn’t have been planned more perfectly…another divine intervention for sure!

The Conference Begins

2010-12-21T13:09:00.000-05:00

At last the doors open and slowly people start to wander into the exhibitor’s hall. Finally, people began to stop by our table. We would explain about our clothing line and show them our jeans and shirts. We explained that we were here only for testing purposes and that we were not selling our jeans at this point. The response was overwhelming. Parents were so excited and couldn’t wait for us to have our jeans available.

Our first jeans and shirts were strictly for adults. Most of our conversations were with the parents but many of the adults with Down syndrome were also excited to hear about our clothes. The parents would tell us about their struggles to find clothes for their children and we explained that, in time, we would eventually have a full line.

We finally started to get some volunteers to try on our jeans and some even tried on a shirt. Sometimes we were met with resistance and a little stubbornness and the parents would have to talk a few of their children into trying on our jeans. But after they changed their clothes, I would ask if I could take their pictures and they immediately turned into America’s Next Top Model. They posed for me every time like a pro.

We were amazed at the transformations. Some of the parents wanted to take our samples home and were ready to order from us right there. But, at this point, we were not prepared to sell anything. This trip was only an opportunity for us to see how our jeans and shirts fit. Not everyone tried on the shirts, but our main focus was on the jeans. Our sizing was very successful for almost everyone, although there were a few that the fit was just not good.

We listened to the comments by the parents; we heard what they had to say about the challenges of finding clothes. We listened to what they didn’t like about our jeans, too. The one thing we noticed a lot was how some of our volunteers pushed the waistbands down under their bellies when they put on the jeans and their parents told us that they wore all their pants like that.

Seeing how often this happened, we thought this might be a sensory issue, that some of these people didn’t like having anything around their waists. So Jillian and I decided to try to create a style just for them. We decided to call them our “Dip Downs”. We thought we could design a pair of jeans with a full elastic waistband that would cover the hips in the back but come done slightly under the belly in the front. When we got home, we would have to see how we could create this style.

The other major change we decided to make was the waistband itself. The ribbed band that we originally used just didn’t make the jeans look like jeans. It made them appear more childish. Even though they were comfortable, we wanted our jeans to look like every other pair of jeans you buy in the store, accept that ours would fit a person with Down syndrome.

The next changes we would have to make were some adjustments to the T shirts. We decided we couldn’t have a man’s and woman’s shirt. We saw a need to create a shirt just for the ladies with a fuller figure and make a unisex shirt for men of all sizes and for smaller ladies who did not need the extra width across the bottom. Other small changes also needed to be made as well.

After three days of spending time with so many wonderful people, it was time to pack up and head home. We knew we had more work to do on our adult sizes once we got back but we even found a little time to relax by the pool.

The NDSC Conference – our first event

2010-12-01T20:31:00.000-05:00

At last Jillian and I are ready to leave for the conference. I am so relieved that our last shipment arrived in the nick of time and the weather is perfect. We leave Cleveland without a hitch and arrive in Orlando as scheduled. A short ride to the hotel and we’re ready to check in.

After we settle in and unpack our clothes, we take a walk around the hotel grounds. It’s a huge resort and there are people everywhere with Down syndrome. They are every age, size and shape. I look at all the body shapes and wonder how our jeans and shirts will fit them. I hope we get lots of people to stop by our booth and try them on. We’re just here to see how they fit, we have nothing to sell. This is it, the big test!

We’re a little nervous about the next few days but we’re excited at the same time. Here we are at last with a year’s worth of work behind us and have we no idea what the outcome will be. We head to the registration booth and find out what the procedure is for the exhibitors. I’ve never done anything like this before, so I must learn the “ropes”. We get our instructions and pray that the package with our dressing room and half our clothes arrived here safe and sound.

Finally, we’re allowed into the exhibitors’ hall to prepare our booth. There it is, the huge box containing our dressing room. We breathe a sigh of relief. We start unpacking and realize we’ve forgotten the instructions on how to assemble all the pieces. Well, Jillian and I make a great team. In no time at all (and lots of laughs) it’s assembled, we figured it out! We hang the curtains, unpack all our jeans and shirts and prepare our display table. We’re ready to go.

The room is filled with all kinds of displays. We wander around the room for a while and meet some of the other exhibitors. There is such a variety of vendors such as educational material for new parents, special toys, jewelry made by people with Down syndrome who have started their own small business, books, even special glasses frames made for people with Down syndrome; there must be more than one hundred exhibitors.

Just across from us, there is a young man with Down syndrome setting up an unusual display. We watch with interest as he and another man, who appears to be his father, put up a huge net. We also see a set of golf clubs sitting there that look like they may be for children. The young man looks like he may be in his twenties and is dressed in shorts and a golf shirt. His stature is not like a person with Down syndrome at all. He’s very tall and looks like an athlete. When they are done setting up their display, I finally ask the father about what they do. He tells me his son is a golf pro for people with Down syndrome and they sell specially made golf clubs as well. His son travels the country giving lectures and teaching golf. I was so impressed by this young man’s special gift. He was also one of the speakers at the conference.

There are no limits that I can see for people who have Down syndrome. Being at this conference and seeing all the people in attendance made me realize how much opportunity and support there is available and the endless possibilities for people with Down syndrome.

My Special Angel

2010-11-23T16:48:00.000-05:00

My first experience with Down syndrome didn’t begin with Maggie. It really began on September 17, 2002, when my daughter gave birth to her premature twins, Bridget and Brendan. They were about 3 months early and were very tiny. Bridget only weighed 3 pounds and, unbelievably, didn’t need any life support; but Brendan was not so lucky. He was even smaller yet, weighing only 2 pounds, but had to be intubated immediately. Brendan also had Down syndrome.

As Bridget grew and got stronger, Brendan struggled for life. He remained in the NICU on life support for weeks and went through some very traumatic times. Bridget continued to thrive and came home from the hospital but little Brendan had to stay behind. By January, he was finally released from the hospital but still remained on oxygen. He was the most beautiful child and, somehow, always managed to find a smile.

Our family did all we could to help my daughter and her husband. Even my parents, who were in their late 70’s, were amazing. I remember how they spent every day at the hospital sitting in the waiting room after Bridget was released. My dad would hold Bridget for hours while my daughter would tend to Brendan. She also had two other children at home that needed her attention but was the most amazing mother to all of her children that I had ever seen. My son-in-law's love and devotion for his family cannot be compared: and even though he was a busy physician, his family always came first. The times were very difficult for all of us, but for my daughter and son-in-law, I just don’t know how they did it! I believe their strong faith in God held them together during these exhausting and worrisome times.

We thought things would get better once Brendan got home, but his time at home would be short lived. His lungs were very weak and a sniffle from a sibling would soon turn into pneumonia and he would be back in intensive care. This went on for months and on June 1, 2003, he lost his battle for life. Our family was devastated to say the least. This is very painful for me talk about even now, but I feel that without knowing about Brendan, my story is not complete.

My amazing daughter and her husband did not let Brendan’s life pass without giving his life an even bigger purpose. Two years later they adopted a child with Down syndrome. Maggie is that special child who was blessed to be given two of the most wonderful parents any child could ever have. She was born March 29, 2005, and they brought her home just a few days later. From the moment I held her in my arms, my heart began to heal. My love for her was instant and she has continued to bring us so much joy that words cannot express.

All the wonderful things that have happened since I began my journey with Downs Designs are because I have a guardian angel watching over me. I know there have been no coincidences and I could never have planned for things to work out so well. It seems that whenever I have a problem, there is an immediate solution. If I need to know something, the answer finds its way. If I need help with something, just the right person comes along.

Brendan was only here for a short time, but he touched our lives in so many ways. I think he will continue to touch many more lives as he watches over me during my efforts to build this business. At age 62, most people are thinking about retiring but I feel that I've just begun my true life's purpose. With a little help from my special angel, I hope to continue to find a way to develop this clothing line for people with Down syndrome. Little Maggie faces many challenges in her life ahead, I hope that as she grows up, her wardrobe won't be one of them.

Preparing for the Conference

2010-11-22T21:20:00.000-05:00

As the weeks pass, we really learned a lot about our models. We enjoyed our visits with them and actually had became good friends. Our desire to create these clothes becomes more important as we see the struggles of their wardrobe challenges on a daily basis. There is so much work to be done in just a few short months.

Our first jeans and shirt

Our first pants and shirts were purely experimental. We finally complete our patterns and send them off to our factories in China. I had the jeans factory make one of each size jeans in all the styles and the shirt factory make a white T shirt for men and woman in all the our shirt sizes. We have a deadline to get these completed by mid-July. When we designed the first jeans, we used a ribbing material for the waistband not denim. It was very soft and comfortable, but didn’t quite look like jeans. We used a full elastic band for the woman and a partial elastic band for the men with a full zipper.

We made many mistakes along the way. I can’t tell you how helpful the pattern maker was at our jeans factory in China. He had 20 years’ experience in the industry and really worked with us as we created our first pair of jeans. The shirts were not that complicated and the shirt factory didn’t have as many problems. At this point I knew Jillian and I would need to make a trip China before we actually placed our first order. We would have to pick our fabrics that we would be using. I knew that seeing, feeling and touching the fabrics would be important to our selections.

Our portable dressing room

Next, we would need a place for people to try on the jeans and shirts. I reserved a larger, corner booth knowing I would need some sort of dressing room. I knew just the right person who could create a dressing room for us that we could transport. Wow, next thing you know we have 6’ x 6’ x 6’ dressing room made out of PVC pipe that we could assemble and disassemble with ease. It worked beautifully and Jillian finished it off with black curtains. All I needed now were the jeans and shirts and we would be ready for the conference.

The factory had our patterns and they are unlike anything they had ever seen before. (Remember these factories are used to making “skinny” jeans!) They have nothing in their designing system to relate to this type of garment. My contact there is so helpful and is committed to getting this order to us on time. (I’ll to tell you all about him in another chapter.) By now, we’re running right down to the wire for completion of these clothes. Time is drawing near and the jeans are not completed. The jeans and shirts are going to be shipped together. The conference starts FRiday, July 23 so I'm hoping to receive the shipment by Monday, July 19, 2010. If they arrive Monday I can have UPS ship them via truck to the hotel in Florida and the cost would be fairly inexpensive. If they arrive Tuesday, I’ll have to pay extra for faster shipping. If they arrive Wednesday, they can still be overnighted and get to the conference by Thursday, but that would have been very costly.

Good news, half the order arrived the week before and I ship the partial order and our dressing room down to the conference center in Florida in plenty of time. But the other half of the order is still not here yet. Here’s what happened next…My contact in China shipped the remaining order on Thursday, July 15 by express delivery and it should arrive by Monday. I breathe a sigh of relief! But my relief is short lived. Tuesday comes and my package hasn’t arrived yet so I start tracking the package and find out its flying all over Europe. Then I find out the shipper sent the package by economy class by mistake.

I’m trying to remain calm and not panic, but I must admit, I was a little nervous. If I don’t have the entire order, there would not be much point in attending the conference with only half of our pants and shirts. But I stayed focused on good thoughts and visualized the package arriving on my doorstep sometime on Wednesday. I refused to belief anything bad was going to happen.

My most important "Special Delivery"

I contacted the carrier, which was DHL, as soon as I realized what had gone wrong. The customer service people couldn’t have been more helpful. I told them how important this package was and they said they would do all they could to get it to me on time. The plane carrying my package finally lands in Cincinnati on Wednesday morning about 5:30 am. It had to clear customs, fly to Cleveland Hopkins International and then be trucked over to the DHL distribution center in Strongsville. By the time it reached the DHL center, all the trucks had already left for the day with their deliveries, but they made a special delivery to my doorstep anyway…the package arrived Wednesday afternoon…just as I had visualized it would. I knew this shipment had flown in on the wings of an angel.

Why Downs Designs clothes are so different

2010-11-19T20:37:00.000-05:00

After months of working with our models, here is our basic conclusion about the many differences in their body shapes that makes wearing clothes made for typical body shapes almost impossible for most people with Down syndrome. The upper leg bone is much shorter in a person with Down syndrome (about 5-7 inches). In pants, this makes where they taper in a completely different place. In typical pants, the knee tapers below the knee of a person with Down syndrome so the fit is very inappropriate. This is why just hemming a pair of pants doesn’t make them fit well. It creates a “stove pipe” look in the pant leg. This also creates the big difference in the inseam length. In just the people we worked with, we found the average inseam to be between 20” and 26”. This is why just hemming a pair of pants doesn’t make them fit well at all. Pants made by Downs Designs have been designed with these issues in mind. We may not be able to fit every single person perfectly, but I think our pants will be the best fit they have ever had. And by offering to hem each pair per order, the length should be a perfect fit.

Regarding the shirts, there are many differences in them as well. The upper arm bone is much shorter in a person with Down syndrome, so the taper at the elbow on typical clothes is not in the right place. Shoulders are usually very small which also adds to the poor fit at the wrist. Most long-sleeved shirts are way too long and need rolled at least 3 or 4 times. Necks can be a little bigger around and we find that most do not like tight fitting collars. Also, we find that as we scale up the size around the mid-section, we have to keep the shoulder size smaller. Creating these shirts around these particular issues is important for a proper fit and using a raglan sleeve solves the problems where the sleeves hang on the shoulders. My goal is to make sure that rolling up long sleeve shirts will be a thing of the past.

I call our special sizing, “downsizing”. The name of our styles and sizes has to be different from typical size clothes. We must distinguish our pants and shirts sizes from typical ones? The first jeans we designed we simply called them small men and large men for the style names and the sizes we use letters A,B,C,D, etc. We did the same for the women. The shirts we merely named them men’s and women’s and used S,M,L,XL,etc. Later we had to change the name of the shirts because the men's shirts were actually for both men and woman but the women's shirts were only for the full-figured women. We also changed the name of our jeans, too. I decided to name them after our models. It was one way to show how much I appreciated all their help.

Jillian Meets the Models

2010-11-07T07:26:00.000-05:00

Appointments are in place and we start to meet with our models one by one. Jillian is fantastic with everyone; her kind heart radiates. She loves working with our models and begins to understand the purpose of her new job. She first starts with muslin fabric to use for the fittings. It’s inexpensive and she’ll go through a lot of it as the weeks go by. When making the pants for each fitting she makes a pair out of muslin, then adjustments are made to that pair of muslin pants and then she makes another a pair based on the corrections of the last pair.

This goes on for many weeks and when she is satisfied with the fit, she makes a pair out of denim. She explains to me that designing an article of clothing for a person in not that easy. Sometimes it takes several attempts to get a good fit and maybe even more after that. But creating a size of clothing for these unique body shapes is like being Christopher Columbus; she is discovering a new world in unchartered waters. As we return to our models, the fittings are not always very good. A change in one place, changes how it fits in another. Also, some of our models are more difficult to fit than others. The unique shape of a person with Down syndrome definitely becomes apparent. What an awakening for us both. By the time Jillian and I are satisfied with the fit for our models, she will have made over 80 pairs of pants.

During this fitting process, I realize that just a pair of jeans in not enough. We would at least need a T-shirt. How I could possibly have a picture on our website of our models wearing a pair of our jeans with an inappropriately fitting shirt. We must have a basic shirt for sure! What pair of jeans doesn’t need a T-shirt? So, not only does Jillian have to create a pair of jeans, but also a T-shirt like no other. What has she gotten herself into?

But the next problem with this overwhelming task is that these pants she has created only fit our models. We must create a pair of pants that will generically fit a mass of people that are all so uniquely different. If we are the only source of clothes for people with Down syndrome, we will have to create several different styles to fit several different body shapes. The next big issue is creating a size for each of our styles. We cannot use typical sizes; we already know they don’t fit. So we have to invent a size, I named our sizing “Downsizing”. We have to come up with a way to label our clothes with a size that is unique to our clothing line. Even after that, how do we know they will fit a population of people with Down syndrome?

As luck would have it (but for me I think it’s more than luck) I learned about the National Down Syndrome Congress Convention being held in Orlando, Florida in July. What an opportunity! This could be the perfect venue to test the fit of our jeans. So I purchased an exhibitor’s booth. I felt if we could complete a pair of jeans in several styles and various sizes for adult men and woman, and finish a simple long-sleeved T-shirt, we could use this event to see how a variety of different people would look in our jeans and shirts. We already knew how much better our models looked in proper fitting clothes; but what a way to see how they might fit many others.

This gave us a target date to finish designing a pair of jeans and a simple T-shirt. Now, we must complete these patterns, get all samples of each style and size manufactured, have them shipped here from our manufacturer in China and then ship them to Orlando by the end of July…no pressure here! Am I out of my mind; what was I thinking.

Finding Jillian

2010-10-24T18:13:00.000-04:00

After Carrie told me she would not be able to help me with the designing, I didn’t get upset at all, I just knew I hadn’t found the right person yet. So the next day I called back to the design school and spoke with the person in charge of job placement. Carrie had been kind enough to call the school as well, and told them what I needed. The woman at the school already had a name for me. She told me about a girl that had graduated the previous year and still had not been working in her profession. She said she might be available. Her name was Jillian.

Jillian

I called Jillian right away and it was truly my lucky day. I spoke with her for quite some time and knew immediately that I had found my designer. She was very kind and sweet and was not working at the time; she was certainly available to start working right away. We set up an appointment the very next day and I couldn’t wait to meet her in person.

We set up a meeting the very next day. She was not only very sweet but very beautiful as well. She was tall and dressed like a designer. She came prepared and brought some of her work to show me. She had graduated at the top of her class and, as an extra bonus, her mother was a seamstress. She was ready to start anytime. She did live quite far, but she didn’t mind driving at all. It looked like I’d had another divine intervention. As I realized later, Carrie had made the right decision not to get involved because she worked a full-time job. The job for me became full time right away. Once I found Jillian, she began working everyday and Downs Designs was moving forward!

Together we agreed to meet with the models. I told her I had taken the measurements already, but now that I had her, I wanted her to start from scratch. She knew what she was doing, and I was not the expert in this field. So now that I had her available to work full time, I thought we could start from the beginning.

So it began, we called all our models and set up a time to meet. I decided that I would take pictures of our progress. I wanted to start documenting our work. What I was doing seemed to be going too well to be just a coincidence. I thought maybe that five years from now I would have wished I had kept good records and pictures and by that time it would be too late. Downs Designs is like a baby in the womb. Right now it’s just beginning to develop. The DNA is in place and it’s starting to take form. Soon the arms and legs would begin to take shape. I didn’t want to miss a thing!

Taking Measurements

2010-10-12T18:59:00.000-04:00

Well, this next chapter is a bit of a challenge! I have now made appointments with several parents and their adult children to take measurements…but to tell you the truth; I’m really clueless about this next step. So, I set up another meeting with Carrie about how to take measurements. I thought a little tape measure wrapped around someone’s hips was probably going to be very easy…little did know!

Carrie and I met again at my office after she finished work one day. She brought me a little bag of accessories that I would need to use for taking proper fitting measurements…OMG! She started to explain the procedures of how to wrap elastic around certain parts of the body, and then showed me how to mark various spots with tape and from those markers, hang a weight on string to get a straight line down from one point to another.

It took about two hours for her to explain this procedure and I was really nervous. So I decided I would practice on my mother a few times. After several tries I actually got more and more comfortable with wrapping and taping and taking lots of different measurements to areas of the body that had many different names. Okay…what does Petite Hip mean?

My first appointment was with Rae Kinnaird’s daughter, Kelleen. What a delightful and beautiful girl she was. I really enjoyed my visit and felt very confident about my measurements. I took pictures of everything and the position of the markings. I thought it would be helpful to show them to Carrie. It actually turned out to be a wonderful experience. I couldn’t wait to meet more of my models. After about 3 weeks, I had gotten measurements from all of the them.

Shortly after I finished measuring, Carrie calls me with some shocking news. She told me that she didn’t feel she would have enough time to help me; she had been offered a job at the design school teaching a few nights a week. What was she saying? She was quitting before we had even gotten started. Now what was I to do?

I couldn’t believe how calm I was. I told myself that Carrie must not be the person that I was supposed to be working with, there must be someone else out there that I just hadn’t met yet!