Sew Thus is Life...

Recently an old girlfriend of mine reached out to me and asked me to make a video for her kids through Teach for America (shes a Physics teacher in Jackson, MS-- a LONG cry from Gettysburg or Philadelphia). In it she wanted me to profile how I got interested in fashion design, what my job is like, the ups and downs of the field, my educational background and quick advice. Whatever I could cram into 5 minutes or less. Naturally I obliged, but with my nutso schedule what was supposed to be delivered in  a couple days took 2 weeks. (oops!) Anyhow I got a spark and got it turned around and finally made and edited yesterday. So I present: Le Video. If you are interested in broadening the horizons of high school students, my friends name is Veronica Keefer and she is always looking for new material for her students. Email me or her if interested, This is a great way to expose kids to professions they ordinarily wouldn't know about, or may not understand. Shes also looking for more...

Dying the ground color of my fabric. The sateen was stark white and my professor wasn't super excited about the shade. So I coffee dyed it, 3 pots and a million and a half grounds later I got a shade I like but unfortunately I followed ill advice (durn internet) and put the grounds in with the dye solution, so it could continue to "steep" or "brew" if you will. Bad, BAD idea. I had to put the fabric in the washing machine and hope the spin cycle can toss the few straggling grains out of the fabric. I'm a little concerned too now that the finish wasn't quite strong enough and since I hadn't dried (aka heat set) it yet the color will continue to leech out. That's the problem with using homemade and natural dyes. I'll post pictures of the painting process as I go through it tomorrow. You can see the color (before the 4th wash) below. WELL. That was sometime last week. FAIL . However, I made up for lost posting time by being super productive. ...