Manufacturing
ManyMonths™ products are designed in Scandinavia, Finland with the underlying idea of offering products supporting an attachment parenting lifestyle, valuing the nature around us and bringing the joy and comfort only the most wonderful materials can bring to both babies and parents alike.
We are committed to ongoing product development. We engage babies and parents in all new projects, we use and wash and evaluate samples ourselves, and we listen to feedback from all the countries where our products are sold. We do it for You, and for our families. Our inspiration comes from the Scandinavian environment, the experiences of the wise women in our families, the wishes of our precious children and the need of filling the gap of the fashion industry and the urge of getting back to nature.
Our head designer Bettina Lindblom has three children of her own. She loves the creative process in all its stages and our products may start out as brief sketches on today’s newspaper drawn in the silence of the night, from which they turn into small patterns cut from kitchen towels and long written explanations or brainstorming sessions with her design team. From the early stages the route to the finalized product is long and involves many other dedicated and skilled people, all as valuable to the process of providing you with the high quality products we are proud to offer.
When the garment design is ready, the sampling process with revisions is done, and when the fabrics are in the making it is time to make the final patterns for the products. They are carefully cut by skilled hands from thick, sturdy material.
The manufacturing process
We often receive questions about the actual manufacturing process and below we have collected some pictures from a visit to the sewing facility in China where the main part of our garments are made. Bettina Lindblom and photographer Jerry Downs spent a couple of weeks following and documenting the process of fabric becoming clothing in pictures. Not showed here are all the preparations with several sets of product samples and testing, the fibres becoming yarn, the yarn becoming fabric and the fabric being dyed. But already these manufacturing stages happening at the sewing facility are highly fascinating and well worth another thought.
Our sewing facility is a GOTS-certified, eco-friendly, Scandiavian-owned company founded in 2004 leading the way in ethical textile manufacturing. We are cooperating very closely with our coordinators at the sewing facility and usually communicate with them every office day by email and Skype throughout the year. All members of the staff are 21+ years of age. The working days are eight hours long as here in Finland and the employees are paid at least 20% more than local wages. They have health insurance and 3 months of maternity leave paid by the company, no forced overtime and a minimum of six full days off each month. A nourishing lunch is served daily. The facilities are light and modern, the machinery professional and cleaning is done very frequently to keep the air fresh.
Our facility is paying special attention to safety concerns, both at the workplace and in the use of fabric dyes, and they only work with dye houses that have been tested for harmful substances. The Öko-Tex Standard 100 is followed and lab tests are frequently conducted by SGS to ensure that no harmful dyeing agents have been added during the manufacturing process.
All incoming fabric rolls are checked metre for metre on a special light table to ensure that the material that is used in production doesn’t have dying mistakes, knots, holes or other flaws.
In addition to fabric all accessories need to be decided on and ordered in time, including elastic, threads, buttons, snaps, bindings, hook-and-loop material, labels etc. A lot to keep track on!
Proceeding to cutting is a fascinating process that needs special care. In the pictures our 100% merino wool fabric is shown. It is made from tread on a circular knitting machine and when proceeding to cutting (after checking on the light table) it needs to be cut and placed by hand into a neat, flat pile.
The actual cutting is done with something that looks like a vertical saw according to the preprepared patterns and cutting plan. The cutting work needs a lot of concentration as already a small mistake can ruin a lot of fabric.
The pieces for different items are sorted, collected in piles and marked colour by colour in preparation for the sewing. Sewing is then done on specialised high-quality (mostly Japanese) machines.
All the seamstresses and sewers in our facility have at least 2 years of previous experience in the field and they are between 21 and 50 years old.
A Good Choice
When you buy a ManyMonths™ product be assured that you have made a good choice. We care. And we are happy to know that you care too. About making a difference. About making a natural choice. About supporting ethical manufacturing. About safety, and about the happiness of your child. Knowing that your baby will be comfortable, enjoying the best materials and products that are designed by a mother and tested by families. Like you. Like us. Caring for our world - together.