DICKSON, Alta. – Alberta is a long way from the catwalks of New York or Paris, but Anna Jensen’s fashions have one distinct advantage for farm women.
Her overalls are made with nylon that doesn’t stain so manure comes off without a mark.
Jensen holds an accounting job with flexible hours so she can spend time designing, sewing and selling the unique overalls that do duty anywhere on the farm.
Promoted as calving overalls made of 100 percent lightweight nylon, she’s named the outfit, Dewalls.
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“They do everything and they’re water resistant,” she said from her studio in a remodeled farmhouse shared with fiancŽ Raymond Rasmussen on a central Alberta farm. Oil, however, will mar the fabric, she said.
After completing a business administration diploma at Lethbridge Community College two years ago, Jensen found full-time jobs were scarce. Before going to Lethbridge, she studied fashion design and retailing at Olds College. Rather than hope somebody would give her a job, she assessed her skills.
Few garments fit properly
From her experience on the farm and in the show ring, she noticed there weren’t enough practical coveralls that fit properly and resisted the wear and tear of farm work, especially for women.
For women, most overalls are too tight across the seat and the crotches are too short.
With her mother’s encouragement she reworked an old overall pattern into an all-in-one outfit with an optional calving shirt. The calving shirt has short elasticized sleeves and closes up the back. Jackets are also available.
Using a computerized sewing machine, she can attach a scanner to copy logos or monograms and transfer the embroidered pattern to garments. Every customer gets a made-to-measure outfit including the inseam, hips, waist and nape to crotch length.
The fabric is wind and water resistant so the overalls can go into show barns looking clean and can stand water sprays at the wash racks.
About 100 sets of overalls have been sold for $65 each since last summer and as orders started to pour in she realized she couldn’t do it alone. Her fiancŽ helped sell at trade shows but in order to build up her inventory she needed people to sew.
“The only way I can make it pay is if I get out and do the marketing,” she said.
The home sewers are paid by the piece.
“The thing they like about it is they can do it at home, around their kids, without a boss looking over their shoulder all the time.”
Regular sewing machines are used and each garment takes about five hours to complete from cutting to finishing.
“They do a better job than I can,” she said after confessing her poorest mark was a “B” in her sewing classes at Olds.
Jensen cuts out all the patterns using a roller. Each set of overalls takes 2.3 metres. She sews about 10 hours a week herself, finishes the pockets and puts the snaps on with a special tool.
Her garments were on display at Regina’s Agribition fashion show last year and she hopes to have a booth there this fall because the event is just before Christmas and lures a lot of people.
She needs about three weeks to complete and deliver an order.
Jensen is also a skilled potter and hopes to start a second business carrying pottery with agriculture designs.
