Merrow Edge hem from Lew Magram

a quick shot of the skirt

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Merrow edged Pashima shawl

for sale on etsy, a Merrow Edged shawl

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Curiosity

As we roll into another 12/25, a quick reminder of the enthusiastic curiosity of one Dr. Feynman

merrow (plantable) shirt from Etsy

i posted this, and then did a double take.

this shirt can be planted. it will then grow. into something.

yup. after it was posted Robyn read the description out loud .... i quote:

Our hangtag includes an insert that can be planted into the ground to grow beautiful flowers.

mark this -- the first piece of clothing i've ever seen that can be worn, washed, and grown into something beautiful. will wonders never cease.

....



courtesy of etsy -- a merrow edged shirt

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Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

the smart stitch

Apparently we've missed the best thing to happen to sewing machines in years. However, feeling an obligation to reward success when it's warranted, we've decided to re-publish the essay describing this newest of innovations in our field.

Congratulations Mahmood Inc., hat's off. Wish we'd been there first....


New Portable Sewing Machine Lets Sweatshop Employees Work On The Go

blog with Merrow machines

today i was emailed a blog that discusses the merrow pearl stitch machine

jump to the joys of industrial machines here

merrow stitch tee-shirt

we're a couple weeks from showcasing the new offices. in the mean time here's a bit of merrow stitched goodness from Stewart+Brown

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the move

What a day!

we've moved. and what a place we've moved to....


A long time ago Fall River, MA was the epicenter of fabric production. Out of our new south facing windows we look at the Durfee Buffington building; once the largest textile mill in the world.


Today we are residents of 502 Bedford St., and take up the top floor of a 132 year old Mill Building. Merrow is spread across 30,000 sq. feet with terrific views of a half dozen other mills, and most of Fall River.


It will take us another six to eight weeks to finish the renovation. But as of right now, we've got new digs. And it feels great.

the off season Merrow Stitched bathing suit

 for todays eye-catching Merrow Stitched wonderwork we've chosen something that will keep the cold at bay --- well, kind of.


jump to the suit here: http://www.newport-news.com/

A Dolce Coat with Merrow Pearl Stitching

It's been a busy week -- we keep building things.

While i'll remain coy about the latest project, it's high time for a Merrow Stitched Product update. And we've found a great one today.

Here is a Dolce & Gabbana coat available at the Fashion Boudoir

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a close up of the coat:

Merrow edged napkins from Wasserstrom

For a long time a napkin edge was our domain. A delicate edge on a napkin is hard to do and adds a bit of the je ne sais quois. Today most napkins are mass produced and work towards the cheap...

so when someone goes ahead and makes something of quality we're primed, ready and willing to endorse said thing of quality -- here is your napkin of the day:

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Evilness

buy some evil stitching

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latest merrowed edge find...

the peter nyguård collection posts this:

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Another Great Museum

Harry Berzack has a great sewing machine museum. It's really, really, good.



If you want to see a great history of the sewing machine, harry's soldiers are lined up quietly in a small office in Charlotte NC.

IFAI wrap up

here are some pictures-- i should have time to label them later. included are david zwicker, lonnie schwartz (both from superior sewing). Jason from Dunlap Sunbrand (talking with dave). A heroic shot of murray feit from consew and some bad pics of the party afterwards and the show through a window. Not the best photography (grimacing...) but should give a feel for what was what.

and did i mention,
it's over.

From IFAI show 10/22/08

Day one wrap up ifai

Not bad.

The show is not well attended but there were some good customers here.
And this was time well spent.

The trade show itself is archaic...the concept that is. Companies that
spend this kind of money should be interacting more.. And most of the
time most of the people are just standing around

On to dinner in charlotte ..

merrow.com

Germany

The Germans are here.

Ifai update

The picture is harry berzak in front of a merrow display.

So far the show seems slow. It doesn't help that there is no wifi or
cell signal in the hall.

I've met with 4 merrow customers. More on this later...

Merrow stitch @ ifai

a list of the world's oldest companies

Merrow is an old company....how old?

to put a fine point on it, it appears that Merrow is the 1356 oldest company still in business in the modern world. This is tracked back to 587 AD !

ok -- before i doubt on the data -- out of all of the companies that have ever existed... AND made it to today, there are only one thousand three hundred and fifty odd older than Merrow. wooohooo!

this according to the NationMaster encyclopedia

sometimes you don't want to be reminded of your age -- at 170 we're kinda past that. And, as I was emailed a link yesterday to a list of the world's oldest companies, i couldn't really help posting...

This list of the oldest companies includes brands and companies excluding associations, educational, government or religious organizations. To be listed; a Brand, Family Business or Company name must remain, either whole or in part, since inception. If the original name has since changed due to acquisitions or renaming, this must be verifiable on their website.

If you didn't click above, here is the list.

Ok. no one here is taking this seriously (not sure what about it would be serious anyway...) I mean who has business records back to 587AD. And what happened to the poor smithy who put out a shingle in 586? Big questions, little answers. In the mean time we should have shirts made up.... ;)

Stewart Brown, great design and Merrow Stitching...

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We've been looking through the Stewart+Brown catalog, and I've got to tell you -- it's worth another look. Fantastic designs, a great ethic

Stewart+Brown believes in optimizing their designs and lives to attain the highest standards of quality and functional style while extracting the bare minimum from Earth's precious capital.

and lots of Merrow stitched clothing. Beautiful stuff.

Merrowed Ribbon

we've had some cool ribbon samples in the building or a while. sewn ribbon.... the merrow edged ribbon often has wire fed into the stitch. The effect is pliable and i'm going to guess, long lasting ribbon. The ribbon bizaar sells it here

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Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

overlock needles (the merrow brand)

quickly: Merrow needles are overlock sewing needles -- for those inclined to wonder?..? and as the top selling item here at the new merrow i've rewritten the pages to include the configurator, stitch samples and other niceness.

take a look. let me know what you think

note the merrow kooltorr needles -- black and heat proof. enjoy.

Dolce Gabbana with Merrow Stitching

the folks at Dolce Gabbana have designed a dress with Merrow purl (pearl) stitching... and it's a trip...

wow! (for a cool $2,650)

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the windham textile museum

On saturday I drove to Willimantic CT to the Windham Textile Museum.

We have loaned 6 Merrow Machines to the museum for their terrific sewing machine retrospective. Among them are: the oldest Merrow Machine known to us, one of the most interesting, and a couple that did a great deal of the heavy lifting in the industry for much of the 20th century.

Thank you Michelle et al. for the opportunity to participate. I would encourage anyone who is interested to take time this fall to visit.

If you're feeling reluctant give me a call, i'll talk you into it... ;)

anticipating a line of merrow refurbished machines

Ever wonder who builds sewing machines? This is a two minute video where we interview Spencer Barros and Justin Monteiro about the new line of refurbished machines built by Merrow


Merrow building Program for refurbished machines from Merrow SMC on Vimeo.

We expect to have limited stock of Merrow refurbished machines available on 11/1/08

Merrow on display at the Windham Textile Museum

Our history, which dates back to 1838, is being partially profiled in CT through December 28th.

We're still working on what machines to display, but it's possible that the rare 'Fascinator' and one of the worlds first overlock sewing machines could make an appearance.

For more information contact

Michele Palmer
Curator
Windham Textile & History Museum
www.millmuseum.org

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Update to the support pages

We toyed around with some lightweight javascript to make it easier to view the technical drawings for the machines.

This is what we've come up with -- you get here by clicking on 'support' and then on 'parts book' and then on a specific model of machine

or just click on the picture....

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the community

Merrow has been around a long time -- but in the industrial markets. As we begin the process of reaching out beyond the mills and production plants, we feel a little out of our element (but not much... ;)

So when someone takes the time to make us feel at home -- we thank you.

And after reading through the sewingwithstyle website i'd direct anyones attention

here -- history of cotton fabrics

or here-- some sewing insight

the soft launch.... update

so the soft launch (of the new merrow website) on the 19th of sept. has been a success -- to the degree that most everything is working and we're uncovering problems as helpful people browse the site and find errors. (send them to me, charlie at merrow dotcom)

So far this is what we expected would happen. Sort of.

In order to get the site up we're holding back a couple of cool features -- these we'll bake until ready hopefully around the new year. In the mean time we expected most people to be excited about things like the stitch viewer, which has at our last count a lot more examples of stitching than you can find most places....

and the video section. Seriously, i'd thought that this would be just, well, beyond.

but no. apparently not.

people love the store, the support pages (which still need to be fixed...working on that today...) and

--the merrow community now merrowing.com--

(which is, admittedly really cool) -- but not the Videos?!? or the Stitch Samples?!?

---
there is a lot to love -- and the point of the soft launch was to see what works and what doesn't.

we'll tune, repair and rework things to make it resonate on 11/1.

Which is the launch date.
--

Send us your feedback. Tell me what you like and don't. We'll do everything make merrow.com work for you