SUSTAINABLE SEWING: Zadie jumpsuit

In my SUSTAINABLE SEWING online course, I talk about supporting indie pattern designers. Here are some photos of my Zadie jumpsuit by Paper Theory Patterns.

Sewing as self-care. We are all navigating multiple streams of 💩 right now. Sewing has felt therapeutic for me. 

I finished this #ZadieJumpsuit by indie pattern maker Paper Theory & I’m digging it! The fabric was a bunch of leftover scraps given to me by Tony of Tellason (they’d made some men’s shirts out of it). It‘s a beautiful Japanese fabric & a great choice for this jumpsuit.

I took a bunch of self-timer photos so I could share the finished jumpsuit, but when I looked at the first batch all I could see was sadness & anxiety in my face. 😟Then I had the idea that I should go pose with one of the trees outside my art studio. Trees soothe me, nature soothes me. And it worked! I felt better taking photos with the big beautiful tree. I even smiled for a second. 

The reason I (re)use secondhand materials in my art is because of my deep love for the earth. 🌎 So posing with a tree is actually appropriate & I think I’ll do it more often.

Thank you for stopping by, and please check out my SUSTAINABLE SEWING online course if you’re interested in inspiring ideas for making your own sewing practice more sustainable!

SUSTAINABLE SEWING: Notes on my Zadie jumpsuit construction

In my SUSTAINABLE SEWING online course, I cover dozens of topics including sewing with indie patterns and using secondhand fabric. Here’s an example of both, in a recent project of mine.

A few notes on my process of sewing a Zadie jumpsuit out of scraps of beautiful fabric given to me by Tellason.

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This Japanese fabric had a nice selvedge with that desired red thread running through it, and at some point that selvedge was cut from the yardage I was given. Translation: I had a few yards of fabric with a narrow width. This meant I had to be VERY strategic in cutting each piece. 

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To make it work I:

1. Shortened the leg length before cutting

2. Cut the hidden part of the pockets from a different material

3. Pieced together the bias tape & belt from MANY little pieces

4. Patched one hole to place near the crotch where it wouldn’t be visible.

For the visible part of the pockets, I cut them so the stripe would run perpendicular to the stripe on the body - that was just a design choice. ☺️ This took a lot of extra planning but it felt so good to not waste the material & I think it’s well-suited to the pattern. 

This jumpsuit connects me to two other small businesses, so that if anyone ever compliments me on it, I can talk about Paper Theory patterns and my pals at Tellason. I also downloaded & printed the PDF pattern at home, eliminating travel or shipping.

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CONCLUSION: I love making stuff & I love the earth. [**If you’re thinking of making this pattern yourself, I sized down. Contact me with any questions!]

Thank you for stopping by! For more tips and tricks on how to make your sewing practice more sustainable, please check out my SUSTAINABLE SEWING online course!

"This Is Something"

Last year one of my dearest friends Dave Doobinin flew from his home in New York to my house in California to stay with me while he was doing some work.  While he was there, he made a short film about Featherweight. Actually he said he was going to make a film, and I figured he wouldn't have the time so I didn't prepare, or clean, or even think about it until the morning he said "OK let's do this." Normally I would never have wanted to be on camera, but I trust and love Dave so I went for it.

I think Dave is wonderfully talented, but after nearly a year I have been too mortified to share the film publicly. It's really hard to look at myself and hear myself talk, and I've honestly been embarrassed that my studio didn't look like the spacious, spartan, gleaming white studio spaces you see on Instagram. But now that I don't have studio space anymore, I miss my old messy studio (and it was really dark because he told me to turn the lights off!)

I've been thinking a lot lately about how far I've come with my own creative confidence -- basically from zero confidence to a little bit of confidence -- and how much inner work I had to do to get this far.  It hasn't been easy but it has been so worthwhile, not in what I've made or sold but in how it has helped me increase my self-worth, how much more centered I sometimes feel inside myself. After a lifetime of self-doubt, finding even a little confidence has been an enormous relief.  If I could ever help anyone else feel a little better inside themselves then this might be worth sharing. 

After nearly a year, without further ado "This Is Something":

P.S. Dave is amazing, please hire him to photograph you or make a short film about something important to you.  And if you want to talk about creative confidence, talk to me because I have a lot of thoughts on the subject!