Time Lapse Video: Sewing an Upcycled Leather Pouch

I've been working on my second design collaboration with Crown Nine, and decided to film a video of me sewing one of my upcycled leather pouches from start to finish.

This is a pattern I created myself. I made a lot of the design decisions based on the fact that I don't have any tools or machines that are made for leather work; these are all sewn on my Singer Featherweight sewing machine from 1947. I designed the pattern for durability, usefulness, uniqueness and of course I wanted to make the final product beautiful and stylish.  You can't necessarily tell from the video, but I pay special attention to tying good, hidden knots.

For those of you who don't know, the leather is considered upcycled because I sourced it from a pre-existing garment, but I manipulated the material to add value.  Basically I'm putting some hideous 90's leather garments out of their misery, while not contributing to the waste stream and environmental hazards of using new leather.  Check out all the UPCYCLED items in my web shop.

I wish I could work this quickly in real life!

Repairing & Embellishing Shirts for Davíd Garza

My dear friend, musician & artist Davíd Garza, called me a week ago and told me he was mailing me three shirts to repair and embellish, just days before he was coming to my town on tour with Sara Watkins.  I used to do alterations & repairs, but I stopped doing it because I prefer the creativity of embellishing, rather than utilitarian repairs.  Knowing that Davíd is an artist and a free spirit, I knew these repairs didn't have to be boring, and that I could get a little weird with my embellishments.

When I opened the box he sent me, I was shocked at the state of the shirts.  I should have taken "before" shots so you could see what I mean.  I was *this close* to calling him and suggesting he retire the shirts.  One cream-colored button down was riddled with black mildew spots on over half of the shirt.  The sweatshirt was stretched out and had varying sizes of holes throughout.  A gauzy black pullover was faded, stretched, and looked like something had been chewing on it.  The fabric was so thin that I had a hard time picturing how to repair it.

I spent several hours repairing and embellishing the shirts, and here's how they came out:

This was the shirt that was half-covered in black mold dots.  It's a Mister Freedom shirt, which retails for a few hundred dollars when it's in good condition. I bleached the hell out of the mold stains, going through three treatments and washes until they came out to my satisfaction. Then I patched a big red stain on the front with some fabric that Davíd had sent.  I sewed some arrows on the top of the patch to add some subtle interest, and then I sewed an arrow on the opposite pocket. He mentioned wearing this shirt "at a nice dinner" so I kept the embellishments somewhat subtle.

Davíd wore this shirt on stage the night that I gave it to him, which made me really happy.  

This gauzy black pullover was the biggest challenge, so I got really creative with the patching.  The green patches on the side and elbows were already there, so I chose two fabrics that complemented those & added some + increase + symbols.

This shirt was never going to be fully restored & perfect, so I went more for a more mysterious soulful vibe.  I used two fabrics to create large patches over several larger holes.  The fabrics each had linear visual elements and some texture, so they fit right in with the textured, gridded main fabric of the shirt.  I added increase symbols via a large back patch, with subtle stitching over the square patches & also with some metallic paint.  The paint was another method of reinforcing a few holes, because it added strength to the fabric.

The final shirt is a Free City sweatshirt that had seen better days.  I patched a handful of holes, then painted two of my gold arrows on it, per Davíd's request.

I've never patched a knit garment before.  I found a knit fabric in my stash (all these fabrics were in my stash) that added some contrast and interest, then used an accent color (maroon) and a zigzag stitch to create the patches. For a few of the holes near the collar, I hand-stitched them with the maroon thread to reinforce them, using a bit of a darning technique.  Then I painted on the gold arrows, just two.

Davíd changed into this sweatshirt immediately after the gig.  It looked great on him.  You might catch him wearing one of these shirts on tour with Sara Watkins.

It's funny that two of the brands have the word FREE in them, as freedom is one of my biggest values.  These shirts were a challenge but I love the way they came out!

Making a Stage Banner from Scratch

As I was designing & producing merch for John Doe's June/July tour, during one of our conversations we somehow came up with the idea of me making a stage banner for him. 

I've never made a stage banner before, but I love making new stuff.

I purchased some black canvas, thread, grommets & paint.  We decided the dimensions of the final banner and I set out to sew it up.  I just made the pattern up as I went along.  This was the only sketch I made, the rest was made up in my head or on the fly.

It took a lot of measuring and ironing but it's really just a bunch of straight stitching.  Two features that I added in that I'm proud of are a channel along the top where he can add in a dowel to stabilize it (if he needs to) and four pockets along the bottom where he can add in weights/washers to weigh it down. He probably won't need to do that for indoor gigs, but it might come in handy for outdoor gigs, and if I'm going to make a banner I might as well make it deluxe.

I mitred the corners and gave each border a double stitch for durability. This banner is going to be transported back and forth in and out of dark rock clubs, in and out of the tour van, and it'll spend a lot of time rolled, folded or wadded up, so durability is key.

Then it was time to paint the thing. I knew the design I wanted to paint on it, arrows, but I needed to make them straight and large enough to fit the scale of the banner.  A projector would have helped at this point, but since I don't have one I just had to hack it out.  I laid the banner on the floor and used several different types of rulers, pins and painters tape to block out the design. This was time-consuming and I did have to walk away from it for a little bit before I finally got the right dimensions.

By the time I got the design right, laying in the metallic gold paint was almost easy. Mind you, this is all done on the floor on my hands & knees, trying not to mess anything up.  Fun!  

I'm really happy with how it turned out.  

Featherweight Studio custom banner for John Doe

I can't wait to see it onstage! I hope the metallic gold shimmers in the stage lights. The design is flexible to be hung vertically or horizontally. This banner will be showing up in a lot of photos this summer, and when the tour is over I'll be using it at Featherweight events & in photo shoots.

New T-shirt for the John Doe Tour

Continuing on the arrow theme, I designed a new T-shirt for John Doe's June & July 2016 tour.

It's the same design I created for the exclusive baseball tee he sold as part Pledge music campaign for his new album The Westerner.

I like my designs to be flexible enough to work in different color ways.  I love the navy & gray color combination.

This tee is 100% cotton, made in the USA and super soft.  Both the men's and the women's cuts are a classic tee that's actually true-to-size (which is rare; usually women's tees run at least a size small).

I'm really happy with the way this turned out.  Get yours at a John Doe show near you.