My cottage business is a fiber and needle arts studio. I love fiber -- cloth, yarn, raw fiber, roving, decorative stitching, the whole nine yards (literally). I love clothes that suit the wearer's personality, that move and flow with every step taken, garments that have soul. And I love to create beautiful things to wear.
I've been sewing since I was 14, and I'm 51 now. I've made skirts, dresses, pants, blouses, coats, and costume pieces. My favorite dress was a tapestry fabric I made into a drop-waisted princess line bodice, with dolman sleeves and a near-circle skirt. I sewed it in 1987, and finally decided it had been worn to death in 2002. When I make something, I don't mess around.
I think I've tried most pattern makes: Simplicity, Butterick, New Look, McCall's, Vogue, Burda. My favorite is Folkwear. I've also scaled up patterns from Janet Arnold's books, and used minimal wastage cutting techniques to create garments.
On the costume front, I've made something from most periods between 700-1600 CE. It was during the years of being a history reenactor that I really refined my techniques and learned new tricks, like draping a muslin pattern. I learned that there are times when the machine cannot accomplish the near-invisible detailing you want -- you have to hand-sew some things. My hand-sewn hems don't come out very easily, as opposed to the machined hems in most ready-to-wear at the discount stores.
I will happily make clothes for anyone. I'll restyle old favorites, or vintage pieces that are gorgeous but don't fit quite right. If something is truly gorgeous and completely tiny, I'll do my best to recreate the piece in your size. I will also do alterations and repairs. For those in the Mid-Atlantic, if we're within a half day's drive, I'll be delighted to do some work for you.
So I do know what I'm doing. More importantly, I know where I want this to go. Here are my creative dreams:
I'm also a handspinner, weaver and embroiderer as well as a seamstress. I have a spinning wheel, and a loom. My embroidery thus far is done by hand, but I have my eye on this machine. In addition to my graduate education in history, I have an arts background. I've taken a lot of art classes over the years, using watercolor, pastels, gouaches and various colored papers to produce pieces I've squirreled away. I plan on slowly building up a collection of fabric dyes and paints for application to cut fabric. My ultimate dream is to incorporate all of my various art forms into garment design and construction. And by this I mean my own designs.
I love full, sweeping skirts, slim-fitting blouses, floaty layers of shawls and scarves over unstructured jackets. I have ideas for layer upon layer of fabric embellishment -- dyed, painted, tucked, pleated, overlain with lace or voile, with piping and cording, then embroidered and beaded. When I dream, I go all-out. And eventually, I'll get to make the garments I dream of creating.
In the meantime, I'm happy to make something from commercially-produced patterns on commission for people. Need a really pretty baby dress for your new granddaughter? I love to make such things. Have a terrific wool sweater that somehow wound up in the wash and got hopelessly felted? Send it, and outlines of your feet and I'll turn them into warm slippers for you. Lost 30 lbs and your favorite skirt no longer fits? Don't get rid of it, send it to me with your new measurements, and I'll remake it for you so it fits. Got downsized/outsourced out of that office job a few years ago and now you have this collection of ties you don't know what to do with? Bring them over, I'll make you a really cool vest or two, or maybe even a jacket for your wife if your collection is that big. Your grandmother gave you her vintage wedding sari, but you can't fit into her old choli? I can make a choli for you, any length sleeve... after all, I made mine.
You can reach me at peregrine.spirit.heartworks@gmail.com
Right now, I'm doing the small things: the odd dog coat for friends, hemming and alterations, and the occasional custom garment (a jacket, a skirt). If it brings in some money, and helps keep me sewing, I'm thrilled to do it. Email me. Let's talk.