I can’t resist a good ‘behind the scenes look’ of well…. anything. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity to take a tour of a denim production facility in Chicago, called Dearborn Denim.
The factory is located on the west side of the city in a space used to be a laundry facility.
The first main room has all of the sewing equipment and cutting table/machine. The second, smaller room has all of the finished jeans and some pressing equipment.
This is the large cutting table (or should I say tables). Talk about my dream work space.
I dream of having a large cutting table in my sewing room but in reality my dream table would probably take up the whole room. heh
They cut multiple layers of material at a time and each pattern piece is printed on the long strip of paper (above) and held down with those heavy pattern weights.
They have a plethora of industrial sewing machines, each with their own purpose.
Tool and pattern storage:
It’s fun to see how these startups’ function. I’m always viewing these spaces through a lens of a home seamstress. I notice some similarities as well as many, major differences.
Dearborn Denim is a 100% US company that sources their stretch denim from Georgia, if I recall correctly.
A whole bin of pre-sewn fly shields:
There were TONS of measuring tapes, all over the shop. I really have no idea why they need so many…
The branding:
Comfy chair to sew in. :)
While I don’t have any pictures of the jeans themselves, I did go home with a well-fitting pair for myself. The slim, high-waisted style was pretty close to perfect for me. Being short-waisted, the waist of these fall juuuust below my true waist. And the back pocket placement was perfect for my pear-shaped figure.
What was a major selling point for me was they hemmed them right on the spot. I hate hemming.
I’m hoping to take Felix back here to try on the men’s Tailored style – and again they’ll hem on the spot. :D Yay to no hemming for meeee. :D
The denim is a light-weight style, more of fashion jeans than a thicker denim. While I’d wear these all season long, they would probably be considered too light in weight for deep winter. Just an FYI.
Cheers & happy sewing.
In: Miscellaneous Sewing
Wow, I’m in Chicago so I’ll have to go and check them out! Sounds good.
I’ve been so curious about them! Good to see you had a tour…I’ve been meaning to email the company to investigate their labor practices, but this certainly doesn’t look like a sweatshop to me! I wonder how they keep the jeans so affordable though…did they mention anything about it when you were there?
Hi Elle. If I recall correctly, I believe the workers are in a union. But I would certainly reach out to them via email – the owner was very forthcoming with information and is running a transparent business.
Dearborn Denim is open to visit and to try on jeans in person – you just need to set up a time with the owner that you will be stopping by. Unfortunately it was M-F, and did not include any weekend days. But again, reach out to them directly. They were very nice and helpful.
I do remember hearing that they are able to keep prices so low because they are not retail prices – as they do not have any partnerships with other companies.
Oh man oh man. I’m gonna look them up, I need some new denim jeans. And that’s good the owner runs such a transparent business. I had a course on my fashion dept where we toured local fashion companies, and a wholesale sewist shop looked just like this.
This is fabulous. I taught fashion design in Chicago. Jeans were one of the projects I had my student do. They loved it. Had I known this was around, I would have brought students in for a tour. Thank you for posting this. This is a great thing to have in Chicago.