Sheep farmer builds national reputation

Sheep farmer builds national reputation

Deborah Abbott knows the wool trade, from sheep to fabrics

by Steve Taylor
November 1983

A lifelong interest in fashion and a desire for a rural lifestyle have been woven by Deborah Abbott into a bustling and profitable yarn, textile, and custom clothing business. From her base on a sheep farm in Chesham, New Hampshire, Abbott sends woolen products all over the country, while developing a growing reputation in the textile and fashion trades for the quality and imagination of her designs.

Deborah and her husband, David Kennard, moved to Chesham, a village in the “Currier & Ives” section of southwestern New Hampshire in 1973. They were both raised in the metropolitan Boston area and knew very little about farming or livestock when they obtained two sheep for their 30 acre farm.

She taught weaving at nearby Franklin Pierce College for several years, while David worked as a contractor and slowly added to their small flock of sheep. In 1978, she decided she wanted to blend her weaving, her interest in fashion, and the farm’s wool crop into a commercial enterprise, so she incorporated as Aurora Designs.

Fifty fabrics

Her looms were located at the farm, and a fabric showroom and yarn boutique were established in a loft in Keene, the area’s major retail center. She has since created some 50 different fabrics, some of which have been used by major pattern companies such as Vogue, McCall’s, and Simplicity and by various New York City garment
makers.

She holds a master’s degree in textiles and does both the designing and the weaving of fabrics herself, operating both hand and power looms.

Besides designing and manufacturing a variety of fabrics, she designs and makes a collection of finished fashions each year, largely from wool raised on her farm and woven on her looms.

Each years collection is presented at shows in the area, which generate both outright sales of the originals and sales of copies. These garments are cut and basted, fitted on the customer at the Aurora Designs shop, and then sewn by one of a half-dozen seamstresses Deborah retains.

“l try for a big showing every Fall. l specialize in woolens, but I work in all natural fabrics,” she explains.

For her co1lections she tries for an all-around wardrobe, including day wear, sportswear, and suits. Virtually all creations are for women now; although in the past she has created a few pieces for men.

Prices competitive

Her prices are very competitive with commercial off-the-rack prices, so long as fabrics are the same, but since few commercial garments are made with fabric as high in quality as hers, she finds her prices commonly are higher. But price isn’t a major problem for her widening group of customers, many of whom are willing to pay extra for the long-wearing characteristics of her fabrics, not that her clientele is an especially affluent one, she says. Rather, most of her buyers are the sort who prefer to spend somewhat more on a few classic, long-wearing items each year.

Her yarn boutique complements the line of fabrics she creates and is managed to sell fashion, not just yarn. Many of the yarns are chosen to coordinate with the garments she designs and makes and the material she sells. Various accessories are produced on the four hand looms in the Aurora shop, including stoles and scarves, some of which are wholesaled through an accessories representative. She recently sold 64 scarves to Bergdorf Goodman in New York. ·

Produce 1,300 lbs. of wool

Her lines of yarn have been selling well, including those yarns manufactured from the 1,300 pounds of wool her farm’s 200 sheep produce each year. Her yarn is marketed outside the shop by a yarn representative. Fabric sales have been slow during the current economic recession, reflecting retailers’ reluctance to carry costly inventory.

The farm flock has a large number of black Dorset sheep, which provide a long-fibered black wool, ideal for the kinds of yarn Deborah likes to create. The grease wool is scoured at a Massachusetts plant and then is custom spun at Harrisville Designs, a firm near her farm which can handle small lot and custom spinning orders.

The yarns are colored at a Massachusetts dye house, and then are skeined and plyed back at Harrisville.

Deborah Abbott characterizes her business as being one which ties up considerable amounts of capital and requires having a strong working relationship with her banker.

“Yarn is becoming more and more competitive. You have to read the market very accurately,” she says. “You have to guess what will sell, and you need to keep up a good inventory because the public relations side of it is so important. If people want more of a certain color, you’ve got to have it on hand when they order it.”

One of 24

Deborah and David have been applying the latest in technology to the management of their sheep farm. They are part of a 24-farm group participating in the New England Sheep Industry Development Project which aims to improve the profitability of commercial sheep raising through introduction of improved feeding, breeding, management, and marketing strategies.

The project is sponsored by Rural Ventures Inc. of Minneapolis, a consortium of corporate, agricultural and religious organizations seeking to strengthen rural America and small family farms by providing know-how and technical support to small-scale farm enterprises.

Using ideas and recommendations generated by the project’s staff, Deborah’s and David’s Wellscroft Farm has been able to expand sheep numbers to 200 with little additional labor. And the farm now has sufficient forage production capability to enable it to eventually expand to 400 ewes.

The tie between the sheep on the farm and the finished fabric has attracted the interest of a number of well-known designers and buyers, who are intrigued to meet someone who actually carries her products from the animal’s back all the way to the showing of finished fabrics in the salons of New York.

The backbone of her fabric sales, however, is the over-the-counter trade. Most of her fabrics sell to the consumer by the yard from her own shop and from retail shops in some 30 states. Most of her fabrics retail in the $38 to $40 range.

UPDATE

Steve Taylor reports that Deborah and David divorced a long time ago but both still live in the Chesham area. David now operates Wellscroft Fence Co. that sells fencing nationally. Steve doesn’t know what Deborah does today, but the sheep operation is still going and is probably the biggest sheep farm in New Hampshire.