Me Made May 2017 #MMM2017 - Week One Round Up!

Are you designing a handmade wardrobe? Here's a peek at how I built mine. Now that my wardrobe is 90% self sewn, I think of it as a work of art, a portfolio that I accomplished over the course of last year. In this first post in a series for Me Made May 2017, I am sharing a daily look at my self sewn wardrobes and the custom pieces I've made this last year. 

Sweating Your Sewing? Break These 5 Rules and Get Back to Making!

Don't get me wrong, there are definitely fundamentals to sewing that you really must learn, practice, and master to get great results with your sewing and work with sewing patterns. But honestly, if enough people complain, and ask why something is done in that certain way, you have to start considering is this rule really necessary? In this post, we will explore why the rules exist, when not to sweat it, and when they really matter. 

Find Your Best Colors: How to Use Color Draping to Create a Custom Color Palate

Are you at a loss when it comes to color? Check out this color process and workbook to discover and create a customized palate for your wardrobe, sewing, or fashion collections. This color tutorial will introduce you to colors you may have never considered. I’m going to use what I made for my wardrobe sewing practice and you might find it helpful too! 

Creating a Fashion Collaboration: Introducing my Fair Fit Pattern

As I hinted at last week, I have decided to release my Fair Fit Dress as a sewing pattern and online workshop. The pattern actually goes beyond just a dress, because it is a customizable system of components and pattern pieces that build upon each other to make infinite variations.  If the first dress is well received, then throughout the year I plan on releasing each of the components that allow you to further customize the parts into tops, skirts, and other styles of dresses. In this post, you will get a first look at the project!

Finding New Ways to Appreciate Fashion, through Fair Fashion

In this series, I have explained the name Fair Fit and what it means to me from many different perspectives that have been shaped by my own experience, and where I’m taking my design and education practice to create an opening for students and fashion sewists who do want choice, and more of a voice in how they experience fashion design and the clothes they choose to wear. 

Fair Relationships in Fashion Professions

Have you ever had to create your own job? I once did as part of my professional growth, and in this post I share how my student loan debt taught me about creating income and helped me to find a way to make my own job and pay it off. I’ll share with you the steps I took and questions I asked to pay it off. Read along and learn how I turned this big problem into a path to grow professionally.

Why teaching is so important to create a "Fair Fit."

Last week, I shared with you the story as to how my projects developed in the academic art world in Chicago, and then continued to grow into new areas of presentation when I took the art project I made to the runway in New Orleans. I also shared how the two world conflicted, and how at that time, I didn't know how to resolve it, so I took a leave from creating fashion collections. Today, I want to pick up where I left off, and share with you what happened during this sabbatical, and how the key takeaways came to prosper me, and show me new ways of operating in the profession of fashion design. There are some laws of creation I learned and I hope the lessons inspire and encourage you creatively too!