Textile training and manufacturing facility to open in Beckley

It was a field trip with her Girl Scout troop in middle school that first pricked Emily Rouse’s interest in sewing.

That same year, the Wheeling native was gifted a sewing machine for Christmas by her parents, and she quickly began stitching together her new future, which centered on fashion, design and business.

On Thursday, Rouse attended a ribbon cutting for the opening of a new textile training and manufacturing center located at 412 City Avenue in Beckley.

Scheduled to open in the summer of 2025, the center was developed by the New River Gorge Regional Development Authority using $1.5 million in congressional-directed spending. It is called PATTERN, which stands for Planning and Accelerating Textile Technology and Entrepreneurship Regional Network.

Rouse, who has degrees in fashion design and business management from Virginia Commonwealth University and previously worked in fashion and clothing in New York, said she wished PATTERN had been around when she was younger and developing a love for designing and making her own clothes.

“When you have an interest in this skill set with the sewing, which is essentially a life skill, and you find out that you can turn it into a career, that’s so inspiring,” Rouse said.

Rouse said she connected with the New River Gorge Regional Development Authority and WV Hive, the development authority’s entrepreneurial arm, a few years ago while at a fashion show in Glade Springs.

As the owner of a full-service cut-and-sew apparel manufacturing company in Wheeling called Edgington Studio, Rouse said officials with the development authority were interested in using her expertise to help shape PATTERN.

“I would have loved to have this when I was growing up here in West Virginia, and I’m excited to be a part of setting it up now for future generations,” she said. “A lot of people don’t know if they like something or don’t like it until they actually try it. Just like my initial experience of trying a sewing machine as a Girl Scout is not something I ever would have known that I was excited about until I tried it. So having this facility here and having it visible to everybody, opening the doors and making a transparent process is going to attract so many more people to want to be involved in it.”

Judy Moore, executive director of the WV Hive and deputy director of the New River Gorge Regional Development Authority, said the space has been designed not only to fit the current, local needs of the textile industry but also to train its future workforce.

Moore said PATTERN will offer a 192-hour industrial sewing training curriculum licensed from ISAIC (Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center), which will be housed in the basement where an industrial sewing center is being constructed.

The main floor will house the cut-and-sew manufacturing center, which will be useful to entrepreneurs already in the industry or designers looking for a place to bring their ideas to life.

Rouse explained that a cut-and-sew manufacturing center is just as it sounds. It’s cutting and sewing the fabric for clothing items based on provided designs.

“It essentially means we make clothing from the beginning,” she said. “So emerging designers come with their idea for a design, and we turn it into an actual piece, through a muslin sample, and then through production that they can then sell.”

Moore said PATTERN will also have a focus on clothing for the outdoor industry, which is growing in the region thanks in no small part to the designation of the New River Gorge as a National Park in 2021.

“We’re working on developing a specialized outdoor gear training component to build the workforce needed to support our outdoor gear manufacturing in the region,” Moore said.

New River Gorge Regional Development Authority Executive Director Jina Belcher said PATTERN has the ability to strengthen the entire economic fabric of the region by expanding local manufacturing capabilities and supporting outdoor-focused businesses through high-quality locally made gear, apparel and sustainable products.

“By creating the connection between industry and outdoor recreation, we’re weaving together a more resilient economy and one that allows our community to thrive and better serve the visitors who come to explore and the people who stay right here at home to work,” Belcher said. “This center represents so much more than sewing machines and training programs. It symbolizes the belief that we can make things ourselves, we can learn new skills, and we can recruit competitive industry and that we can grow as individuals and a community.”

Also present at Thursday’s ribbon cutting was U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito, who aided in securing the federal funds needed to establish PATTERN.

Capito said she’s excited to see what the project will bring and what its potential is to revitalize the region.

“I’d love to see entrepreneurs, particularly in the outdoor equipment and clothing industry, be able to thrive here because it’s used here, it can be experimented with, it can be changed,” she said. “It also is great jobs once they train. I would say these are probably very in-demand jobs because not many people are doing it anymore, and it’s considered probably a skill of the past.”

Belcher said they hope to have the first cohort for the sewing training program soon after construction is completed in 2025.

In terms of cost, Belcher said they’re still working on those details but hope to offer scholarships and make the program as “low cost as possible” as they do with their other entrepreneurial programs.

West Virginia University Institute of Technology is also a partner in PATTERN.

Belcher said they are working with WVU Tech’s engineering department and looking for ways to use engineering in PATTERN’s training programs and vice versa.