THE BOSTON SUNDAY GLOBE - DECEMBER 26, 1999

Have needle, thread, designs, fabric
by Vanessa Parks

When Cindy Walsh dressed her children in clothes she had made from fleece, she was showered with compliments. And eager, salivating questions: "Where did you get that?"

"Eventually something goes off in your brain," Walsh said. "It has to sort of hit you over the head."

When it did, she realized she should do this for a living. Now Walsh is owner of Red Rover Clothing in Framingham Centre, where she has a small shop, and the base for her wholesale operations.

It's not as though Walsh had been unequipped to venture into this territory. After graduating from the Rhode Island School fo Design, she did freelance textile design work in New York. She and her husband, Chris, and their two children (Kate, now 14, and Jamie, 12) lived in Dallas for six years, during which she "did the mom thing" and worked in a friend's boutique, giving her a taste of things to come.

Back in Massachusetts, she started Red Rover Clothing Company in 1993, doing craft shows and special orders. She branched out from infants' and children's items to include women's and men's. A lot of her designs feature bright and colorful combinations of fabric. Some have appliques or fabric trim.

The combinations, she said, depend on "the whim of the moment, the whim of the day."

For the women's line, she has moved from active wear to fashion statement, using more sophisticated trims and ornamental buttons. Her women's designs have been included in juried American Craft Council shows and exhibited as wearable art at museum-sponsored art shows. And this year, they were selected for inclusion in Fiberarts Design Book Six.

Walsh said she loves the feeling that comes from watching customers fall in love with her work and buy her creations.

"Who can beat that?" she said. "What's even nicer is when they come back to buy something else. Especially the women's stuff. They'll tell me their friends are raving about it."

Today she sells to almost 30 retail stores (including Aunties Green Store in Weston), she still does countless craft shows (including the Holliston Newcomers Fair and Wellesley Marketplace), and she takes special orders.

She also sells from her shop at 9 Vernon St., in an Italianate-Gothic revival house built just after the Civil War. She shares the space with her husband's architectural firm, Chris Walsh & Co.

Last year was the first year she ran the shop, which is open from September through March. At craft shows, people had asked if they could come to her studio to see more of her offerings.

"The studio is kind of a disaster and a liability," she said. "The store has allowed me to not have to be on the road so much. This year I probably did a third less shows. That's nice. It gives me a little more family time."

She still works seven days a week most of the year, but with home just a few blocks away, and extended family around to help, it's manageable. Walsh does more sewing "than I would like" in her studio upstairs from the shop. But she has contract stitchers and an assistant who helps, especially with the children's items. Walsh does all the special orders and applique work.

The shop also gives her the room to work with people on special orders, which are the same price as ready-made items. For high-end women's items, especially, people are fitted. After all, it should fit perfectly if people are paying $200 or $300  for a coat, Walsh said.

Red Rover prices are comparable to those of stores selling fleece clothing, and the children's prices, in particular, are quite reasonable.

"Especially with children's things, I have to watch what the market will bear," she said. "I have low overhead, so I can do that."

Walsh has been sewing she was a child. She grew up in Andover, next to Lawrence, home of Malden Mills, the company that has perfected polar fleece with their brand, Polarfleece. Today she uses only Polarfleece and textured Berber fleece from Glenoit.

"We traipsed around for different fabrics and remnants and saying, 'Gee, what can I do with this?'" Walsh said. "Even now, I hyperventilate. I have to hold myself back, remind myself, 'I'm here to buy fabric.'"

Although she had a mailing list of 10,000, Walsh decided against printing a catalog this year, opting instead to go online (www.redroverclothing.com). A web site is much more cost effective than a catalog, and once people have seen her items, a web site is a good way to let them see the latest fabric and design choices. Orders are not taken on line. At least not yet.

"We'd like to revamp it and have it be a secure site and go after the rest of the world," she says, laughing. "But one thing at a time."

© Red Rover Clothing Company 2008

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