Penny Forward Podcast: Rightfully Sewn Pre-episode Intro Tyler: We have a extremely diverse group, in abilities, we have a diverse group in race, religion, gender, everything. And, but because that is our mission, to educate and employ and equip and empower all of these individuals, I think we get to do DEI and be a little better. Instead of ignoring our differences and just getting along, we celebrate them. Chris: This is the Penny Forward podcast. A show about blind people building bright futures one penny at a time. I'm Chris Peterson, ... MOe: I'm MOe Carpenter, ... Chris: And today, our guest is Tyler Bennett from Rightfully Sewn. MOe found out about Rightfully Sewn recently because they were acquired by an organization called Alpha Point, and we wanted to learn more about them, uh, particularly MOe, because she is a crafter and a sewer and was very, very intrigued by this. So, Tyler, thanks for being here, and we're excited to meet you, and learn more about Rightfully Sewn. Tyler: Yeah. I'm very happy to be here. Thank you for having me. Chris: So, start out by telling us if you would, what is Rightfully Sewn? Tyler: Well, Rightfully Sewn is a Kansas City based, nonprofit organization, and we have a couple tiers to us, but our core mission is to provide education and employment opportunities for people with barriers to employment. Uh, we see a lot that are more along the lines of refugee and immigrants, uh, but others that might have, from a shelter, or a history, or an impairment. A, a physical, um, impairment that might create an obstacle to employment. And we want to work through those, and we do that in the field of sewn goods, and garments, and fashion. MOe: So, I'm taking it your barriers to employment and the physical disabilities is kind of how you've, come attached to the blind community? Tyler: It is. We started our organization in 2015, uh, it was started by a lady by the name of Jennifer Labka, and she wanted to do a couple things. She wanted to, obviously be this educator, and employer, but she also wanted to revitalize the fashion district in Kansas City, and before you, you know, roll your eyes collectively at that, there was a period in time when Nelly Dawn were dresses made in Kansas City, and the statistics are something like better than twenty-five percent of the women had a Nelly Dawn dress in their possession that they owned during that period in the, the early to mid-1900's. And she wanted to revitalize that in Kansas City, and so we work alongside local entrepreneurs and fashion designers, and that's a mechanism to employ and, and, you know, educate people as well. Chris: I did not know that. That's really cool. So, you talked about being located in Kansas City, could you talk a little bit more about the environment that you operate out of? Is there an office or a facility that people go to, and what's that like? Tyler: Yes. And, and you mentioned Alpha Point, and, and I'll kind of tie that back in here. Most of the world, here comes Covid, and a lot of the organizations that were relying so heavily on donations and community support, it just, you know, wasn't there. Whether financially they weren't able, or the uncertainty, or just not being able to be out among the people, and that gave an opportunity for Alpha Point, a nonprofit organization in Kansas City, which works with the blind, along the same way, to educate, employ, and, and also give them mobility and other aspects of their daily life, and they were able to purchase Rightfully Sewn, because the mission was similar, and we could become a trainer as well for those who were visually disabled. And so we moved out of a very beautiful of Kansas City we were in the Crossroads, it's an arts district. Very beautiful, very expensive, um, and had an opportunity to move into the really nice headquarters building of Alpha Point, which includes their life skills campus. Where, uh, individuals who have visual impairments can learn life skills, like working around a, an apartment, or navigating, uh, a street. And things like that, and, and work force skills. And they had a, a large space in the building where we could just easily slip into and become part of the family. MOe: You mentioned that you moved into the Alpha Point building. Are there some other changes that happened when you moved? Tyler: Not missionally, no. Our mission has always stayed true to what it is. You know, some things were able to change. I think most interesting probably to your listeners is, now we're in a facility where as much as seventy-five percent of the people that we are working in and around have a visual disability. And it's been really interesting in a lot of aspects. Number one, being in that environment, really the, the net positive is, seeing how they navigate, and work, and interact. Just out of ignorance, so many of the people on our team just were not really aware of, of that. And, and, you know, here we are in the same building, neighbors in, in the hallway. Chris: I'm sure that that's a little bit of a culture shock, and, and probably good for both sides to learn a little bit about. I'm curious to know more about the job market in sewing. I don't think that many of us think very much about sewing as being something that you can do as a job or a career in this country, though, many people do do it, and make a living, and, uh, can you talk a little bit more about what some of the types of jobs people might be prepared for after going through your program would be? Tyler: Sure. When they come out of our program, they have the fundamentals. You know, as far as able to work on a home machine, but also, many of the industrial machines that would allow them to work, you know, in a work force. In a production environment. I'm like you. I, I don't give much thought to the clothes that I'm taking off the hanger and putting on each day, but there's a lot of steps into it. In fact, some of what we do is not clothing based, but more medical. And watching the amount of detail that's required to complete these items, to sew it, and the skill level, you know, uh, I think we all took, they call it Family Consumer Science now, it was Home Ec. when I took it, and we all made the throw pillows and the, the aprons. My mom still actually wore hers, the one I made for her the other day when I was in seventh grade, and, and we all have those, but I don't know that my children know how to sew, or, or spent a lot of time in that. And there's so many aspects of sewing not just clothing. One of the more interesting things to me, coming from outside of, of fashion, is the amount of entrepreneurial and inventive items that have sewn aspects to them. How these things are put together. Um, and, and it's honestly, it's a skill set not just because it's not broadly taught, but there's some really specific things in fine tailoring and alterations, and the way things are cut and shaped and, and all that, that really requires a, a, quite a good amount of specialized skill. And we're able to employ people, and train them, but also keep some of those jobs here, you know, locally. Domestically for sure. Chris: You mentioned medical items, and other entrepreneurial type items. Could you be more specific and talk about maybe some of the types of items, including garments, that people might learn to sew with you? Tyler: Yes. So, the ones that most people think of, obviously, are the dresses and stuff. And then, you know, at the other end of that spectrum, are the tote bags and the, and the pillows, but in between are all these aspects. And this is something that we really have a niche for. And that is, you know, some of the design aspects. Some of the fitting. Some of the sizing. We actually offered a class to, uh, individuals last summer, and it was over a course of several weekends, and they would come up with an idea, illustrate it, design it, pattern it, size it, sew it, and model a swimsuit. Now that's a lot of work for something can go pull off the rack at, at your local, um, department store pretty easily, but they got to learn that and make something that was truly their own. MOe: Have there been challenges that you've come across since you've been working with the blind community and not just otherwise disabled or disadvantaged community? Tyler: No, I think, I think some of the di, the disadvantage or surprises come from our own barriers to understanding. You know, if, when I tell people that in this building, um, as much as seventy-five percent of the, the people that are working, whether they're working for Rightfully Sewn sewing, or for Alpha Point, either sewing or doing another aspect of their job, that seventy-five percent are, are visually disabled in some capacity, legally blind, I think they, they think that they must be doing, you know, some type of work that is, meaningless, you know, uh, just repetitive, and it's not at all. It's not at all. And I think that was really the coolest revelation, is, with some amount of accommodations, you know, you remove those barriers. MOe: Can you speak about any of those accommodations that you've made? Tyler: Most of the accommodations that we've been able to make are, are simple ones. Because of so much of the work is fine tune and very specific, and, and there's some minimal tolerances, a lot of the accommodations can be made by using templates, and things like that that allow someone who's holding a piece of fabric, or this being sewn at a certain spot on the machine, and a lot of the automated machines are operated with foot petals. So as long as everything's lined up, and the, and the computer on the sewing machine is programmed correctly, you know, the step is taken care of. Um, so making sure that there's those templates, those, those forms and things that someone could easily use, and it lines up perfectly, honestly, uh, in a lot of ways, it produces better quality work. Chris: Can you describe, in some detail if you could, the process that you go through when you're taking in a new product? Tyler: Yes, so it really depends on the project. Um, we have a great staff here that comes from a background of costume design and such, and they will work with Individual to discover what they're trying to do, and they'll take it all the way from, "This is the thought you have in your head," all the way to, uh, the finished product. And that includes doing multiple kinds of samples. We have really good equipment that allows us to minimize scrap and waste, because a lot of our customers, they want things made here, they want the, uh, employees to be, you know, paid fair wages, and they want us to be environmentally conscious. And so, we're able to accommodate that. And, and it will go from, uh, a thought in someone's head, to multiple steps, and multiple tier, iterations before we get to the final product, and that could take weeks or months. Some of the ones that are, are really interesting are these inventors. That come in with their ideas, "I want to create something that '''" Um, and we're really taking our knowledge of fabrics, and, and, and the notions, and converting it into something tangible that's never been done before. And that's a lot of fun. Now it takes a lot longer to do that, but we've had a lot of fun with that, and it allows, uh, our, our seamstresses and sewers to be very creative. Like they, I think they like that as well. Chris: So, what has been, uh, maybe one of your favorite projects to have worked on? Tyler: So, this was not too terribly long ago. I believe it was, about last summer. The phone rang, and, and we get a lot of people calling. They're, some of them are wanting to sign up for classes, some of them are, are, you know, they have got this great idea and they want someone to work with, but I got this call from a gentleman, and, and he had a, a, a British accent, which I won't do, and he said he's a, his name is Marcos. And he is an artist, he had been commissioned by the World Health Organization to create a memorial, a, a ''' artistic memorial that he was going to display at the United Nations building, for the summit that was, uh, just in early Spring, or early fall, um, and then he was gonna travel the world. And his, part of this vision was this giant, quilted, Earth, using recycled and medical fabrics. And out of this, if you looked through your phone, would be an app, kind of like, um, Pok mon Go, where flowers, and memorial images of people who've lost their lives to Covid would kind of be spiraling out of this thing. Now, I'll be honest with you, I thought it sounded cool, but I also thought I was being pumped. Um, and it turned out, it was a legitimate project. And here's what we were able to do. We had twenty different individuals, worked on this, sixty percent of them had refugee or immigrant status. Uh, there were eight different languages spoken by the team that worked on this project. And what we produced was a four hundred square foot map of the earth done with, um, I'll call it "reclaimed," 'cause they aren't recycled. Reclaimed medical fabric. We had the NFL draft here in Kansas City last year. And there was two and a half miles of fabric used for curtains and, and railings and things like that, and we used that and sewed it into the, the product. And when we finished, we had this beautiful thing, and three days after we finished, it was hanging in front of the United Nations building for the world to see. Two days after that, it was on display in the Kennedy Center, uh, for all the world to see, and, and you can track this thing, through the artist and, and find out where it's at today. It, it's an amazing project. Uh, not that, that we haven't done really cool things, and, and interesting things, but this was completely different from anything we'd ever done before, and everybody had a part in it. I thought that was pretty amazing. MOe: That does sound really fun and amazing. Can you kind of talk about some of the machines and things that you use? 'cause I know it's not just, um, the sewing machine, but even ... Tyler: Mmm. MOe: To the cutting and all that part of the process. Tyler: Yeah. So, we have the traditional, commercial sewing machines. The, the ones you'd see that, uh, you'd probably imagine. And, and they all have different aspects of what they do. Some of them are kind of programmed, so, you know, you, you step on a petal and it does a certain task, and it makes this box shape and puts an X in the box, and attaches a handle or something, and some are, are much more manual than that, but in addition to that kind of things, we have a lot of technology that helps us be more efficient, and better stewards of the environment. If you're familiar with the Cricket cutting machine, we have what I call the Giant Cricket. I'm sure the manufacturer hates it when I say that, but it is like an eleven-foot wide, twenty-some foot long, table. And it rolls out the fabric on to this table, and it holds it tight to the table, and it basically has a, a little mechanical arm, that cuts out the fabric. And if you're familiar with a, a Cricket, it, it lays it out just perfectly so there's minimal waste. Um, that's something we can offer because cutting obviously needs to be precise, but it also can take a lot of time to lay things out. So, we can do quite a bit of work with that machine. And that allows us to be competitive price wise and keep people employed. Uh, we've got other machines that digitize things, and, and large printers, all kinds of hand tools, but so much of sewing is fairly manual. Even though it might be, uh, computer operated to sew the stitches, someone has to fit, pick up the item, and put it, you know, in the right spot of the machine, and that's where those, those templates and guides come in, to help us with those, uh, who may have a, an impairment visually. Chris: Towards the end of every interview, we always ask, "What didn't we ask?" So, is there anything that you think that our listeners might want to know that we didn't think to ask you about? Tyler: You know, I think one thing that I really enjoy about what we do, uh, you know, a lot of organizations, a lot of companies talk about DEI and B. And, and that s, it s such an important initiative. And, and certainly, is something we're sensitive to, but we have a extremely diverse group. In abilities, we have a diverse group in race, religion, gender, everything. And, but because that is our mission, to educate and employ and equip and empower all of these individuals, I think we get to do DEI and B a little better. Instead of ignoring our differences and just getting along, we celebrate them. You know, it's not uncommon for, for our, our Muslim, um, seamstresses to celebrate Rom Adon. And we acknowledge that as a group. And we celebrate various things of that. We have, you know, Easter coming up. We have, uh, individuals various other beliefs, and, and, uh, sexuality, and, you know what, we don't just ignore it. We celebrate it. We're a diverse group of individuals, and we don't have to act like we're anything but that. And that's, that's really fun and refreshing. MOe: I really love hearing about how you just, all come together as a unit, in creativity, and how it doesn't really matter what people's individual restrictions may be. You seem to find a way around it, and really work to make everything work for everyone, where a lot of things just want to shut people down and say, "Well, you can't do it our way, so you're not welcome here." But you seem so open minded and so willing to figure out a way for things to work for everybody, so I really appreciate that about how you guys have come to be. Tyler: Yeah. I think we're all called to do that. There might be a specific way that something, how it needs to end up. But sometimes we have to make adjustments to how we get there. Right? Based on someone's skill, or, or need. And, to the extent that we can do it, I think we have an obligation to do it. Whether it's a language barrier or a physical barrier, or something else. MOe: Tyler, could you tell us, how do you guys kind of get around the labeling, and identifying fabrics and probably different tools and things for those in the blind community? Tyler: Sure. The, most of the operations we do are relatively stationary, so, you know, the step is tied to the machine, so once you're there, in your seat in the right position, uh, everything else kind of comes to you. Fabrics and such, you know, you're, you're trusting the person that bring it to you that that is what's coming, but the way things are labeled, it might be a tag with braille on it, uh, it might be someone with a little more, um, visual acuity that is, that is bringing that to the production area, and then the machines themselves are very unique, and have their own unique feel, and as a part of the training, and the templates and the, and the things that we, layouts we have for them, they're able to get comfortable with, and navigate, that work space directly in front of them. Chris: Well, we're running out of time, Tyler, but we wanted to thank you for being here again, and uh, before we go, do you want to give out any contact information, or maybe the web site where people can learn more? Tyler: Yeah. If you go to our web site, www.rightfullysewn, so make sure you put the N on there, rightfullysewn.org, there's all kinds of information. If you're in Kansas City and would love to see our operation, we'd love to introduce you to our people. Uh, we teach classes that are everything from college level down to just some basic fun classes, and um, we work with people all across the country on their projects and would be happy to share our story. Which is, honestly the best part. Is sharing some of the, the stories of the wonderful things that are happening here, and, and have been happening even, even before I got here. So, thank you very much for sharing that. Chris: Well thanks again. It is a fascinating story, and we really appreciate being able to share it on our podcast. The Penny Forward podcast is produced by Chris Peterson and Liz Bottner, with help from MOe Carpenter. Audio editing and postproduction is provided by Brynn Lee at superblink.org text transcription is provided by Anne Verduin, and the music is composed and performed by Andre Louis. And all those people are blind, by the way. If you'd like to learn more about Penny Forward, a nonprofit organization founded and led by blind people, that, together, help each other navigate the complicated landscape of personal finance through education, mentoring, and mutual support, please visit our web site at www.pennyforward.com Now, for all of us in the Penny Forward community, I'm Chris Peterson, ... MOe: I'm MOe Carpenter, Chris: And thank you for listening and have a great week.