Made in America-cute kids' clothes

[Tanuki]

Morning Joe had a guest on this morning who had started her own Facebook-based kids' clothing business. The part of the story that interested me was that with the growth of her business, she now employs about 100 people in her North Carolina production and shipping facility.

[img]?12169[/img]

http://www.lollywollydoodle.com/pages/what-a-journey
..."Since then, we’ve grown every month, putting every penny back into the business. We’ve hit milestones we never dreamed of hitting, moved into a beautiful 19,000 square foot facility (half-funded by the state of North Carolina!), and believe it or not, have become the largest business in the world transacting on Facebook – including a thriving community of over 375,000 Facebook fans. Most importantly, we’ve created jobs for more than 100 people right here in Lexington, NC. Please know that Lexington was once a thriving manufacturing and textile town but now has an unemployment rate of 10.7% (one of the highest in the country), with almost all of the manufacturing work having moved abroad. Creating meaningful work for our great LWD team of people – every one of them with an incredible and often heartbreaking story of their own – has been without a doubt one of the greatest blessings of building this company." ...

[FSogol]

1. Can kids that aren't cute wear them?

[cali]

2. a couple more

kids clothes made from recycled tee shirts. adorable.

http://www.upcyclebaby.com/gallery.html

and this:

http://www.zutano.com/

not kids clothes but oh how I love these wedding dresses

http://www.taralynnbridal.com/

[BrotherIvan]

8. thanks for sharing, I love threads like these

There's something wrong if you're ok with dressing your child in something made by child slave labor. Sometimes the cost might be an issue, but people also feel the need to have 100 of everything. Less is more.

Awesome Made in USA baby gifts that are no more expensive than the foreign made junk. So pretty too!

http://www.thesnugbug.com/

[cbdo2007]

3. Myself nor my group of parent friends can't afford any of that stuff.

Super expensive for baby clothes.

[Tanuki]

4. True, it costs more to create jobs for American workers than it does to

mass produce an item of clothing in a sweat shop in Bangladesh, and that is reflected in the price. I recently heard an interesting radio interview with Elizabeth Cline, the author of a book called "Overdressed: the shockingly high cost of cheap fashion". Food for thought, certainly.
http://www.amazon.com/Overdressed-Shockingly-High-Cheap-Fashion/dp/1591844614

[a kennedy]

5. That's why all the clothes look the same in every store under different name brands.......

ugh....boring. Love the one of a kind, and recycled ideas best.

[penultimate]

9. They for sure look higher quality and more unique....

Comparing them to Wal-Mart, they were over double the price though. It's hard to justify that price increase for baby clothes, since they will grow out of them in a few months... Older children and adult though, I think that makes more sense for the average person.

[cbdo2007]

6. I realize that...but nowhere near the average American can afford any of this stuff.

We are middle class and use mostly hand-me-downs or thrift shop clothes and still couldn't afford any of this stuff. Guess everyone's got their priorities.

[Bettie]

7. Just cruised the site and it isn't all that much more expensive than other clothing for kids.

I'm assuming better construction on these too.

But really, a few extra bucks for a US made product is worth it, at least to me.

[OneGrassRoot]

10. Did she explain the Facebook-only approach?

That puzzles me. People can't order unless they are on Facebook?

Thanks for this though.

[Tanuki]

12. You don't have to be on Facebook. You can order

from the link in the OP if you go to the home page and look at the menu. I think she started out on Facebook to get the word out about her product, via the social network.

[OneGrassRoot]

13. Gotcha. I ask because I went to the site and clicked a link on a product...

saying I wanted to purchase it (not intending to order, but trying to understand the "Facebook only" aspect), and indeed a "sign in with Facebook" prompt came up. I didn't continue from there to see if there were other options.

Thanks though.

[SoCalDem]

11. These are the clothes that Moms-of-Boomer daughters

routinely made for us. Back then the appliques were done by hand.

Gingham & calico fabrics were pennies a yard.

These are very cute clothes and best yet?..no spandex & sequins or see-through-panels

[Hekate]

14. Well spotted

My mom sewed a lot of clothes for us in the '50s-'60s, but fabric was cheap as you noted. She did it to both economize and be creative. I thought I would do the same. But between going back to work earlier than I had hoped to, and the cost of buying sewing supplies, I ended up doing very little sewing for my kids in the '70s-'80s. These days I couldn't do a buttonhole if you paid me!

LWD clothes look adorable and practical. The prices are more than I would want to spend all at once, but with quality you can use them again for the next child, and specify what you want for the baby shower, birthdays, grandma gifts, and so forth, so I think it would be doable to shop there if you wanted to. Clearly she has found a market, and more power to her!