Slow FASHION 1.0, July 18-24, 2022, with CAL PATCH, Jessica Marquez, & Sarah Woodyard
Monday afternoon, July 18th through Sunday late morning, July 24th
Medomak Retreat Center, Washington, Maine
Tiered pricing this year:
A small group of just thirty six Makers will spend five full days in exploration of line, color, and stitch at a contemplative pace. Surrounded by the woods, on the edge of a lake, with the rustic beauty and charm of Maine as the backdrop. Small groups, individual pacing, natural inspiration-this will be a week for unwinding and exploring....
Expanded from the original pre-pandemic length of five days total, this updated retreat offers a full week to dive deeply into the subject. We have even more time to unwind, connect, and stitch…
All possible precautions regarding Covid will be taken. Proof of vaccine and whatever boosters are readily available will be required for participation. There will be no exceptions to this requirement.
Are you seeking the time and space to slow down and connect with your skills, your agency, your creative practice? In these challenging chaotic, isolated pandemic days, we crave connection and community with other Makers. Maine is a good place to retreat, step back from the daily pace, and spend some time in community with needle, thread, and cloth. This July, I invite you to join Cal Patch, Jessica Marquez, and Sarah Woodyard to make that time and space for yourself.
Join Cal, Jessica, Sarah, Katherine, and I at the Medomak Retreat Center in Washington, ME where you can relax, unwind, and dive into your stitching practice. You will sleep in a modern yet rustic cabin, eat three meals a day with the community, and spend as much time as you like with cloth, needle, and thread. Each day will be spent with Cal, Jessica, or Sarah, learning their techniques and tips, and practicing new skills or sharpening old ones. In addition there are two days of time for musings, wanderings, exploration, and epiphany, both of the textile and human variety. The emphasis here is on settling into your Making practice and letting the rest of it float away....
~Cal is an integral part of our Slow Fashion retreats, having been a founding instructor. She joins us this year to expand on her Boxy/Drapy top or tunic with a Hacking workshop. HACK IT! Once you have a sewing pattern you like, it can become the foundation for infinite variations by using pattern "hacks". a simple pattern for a pullover top can become a hoodie, a jacket, a dress, a sweatshirt, a tunic, a jumper, a t-shirt, a smock... whatever you envision. Add seams, gathers, flare, pleats, collars, cowls, hoods, cuffs, plackets, yokes, facings or other design details, and you'll see that there really are no limits!
You may have drafted your own boxy top pattern in a previous class with Cal, or one of her online workshops, or you can bring a purchased pattern (shared after registration) to use as your starting point. We suggest that you have made at least one muslin or test garment from the pattern in advance, to confirm you are happy with the fit or size chosen. Cal will demonstrate a variety of pattern manipulation techniques, and then you can apply some of them to design one or more variations. Before you know it you'll have a closet full of handmade clothes!
~Jessica will guide you in learning artful and practical skills to repair and embellish textiles inspired by time honored techniques like Japanese sashiko, traditional quilting, and historical mending. You’ll learn various approaches to mending tailored to your own textiles and style. Throughout the day-long workshop she will cover various methods of patching, darning, and stitching and you’ll see many inspiring examples of both embellishment and functional visible mending.
The basics and beyond are covered from tools and materials to preparing and finishing a repair. Stitching on clothing can be tricky since it’s cut to be three-dimensional, has hardware like zippers and buttons, often doesn’t lay flat or have easy access points for hand stitching, so we’ll go over many practical, useful tips to make stitching on clothing easier. One of the goals of this workshop is to help make mending a joy, not a chore, that can be practiced and enjoyed beyond class.
Throughout class you’ll work on your own personal projects. Please bring several articles of clothing you’d like to repair or embellish so that you’ll have some options to choose from and can try out different techniques. Garments and textiles that are woven and knit are great for working on. While these techniques can be applied to all kinds of garments and textiles, sturdier materials are recommended, like denim, canvas, twill, as well as thicker linen, cotton, and even thick jersey knits fabrics. Lightweight materials are trickier to work with.
Each mend or embellishment will be different, so each of you will receive individual feedback and guidance throughout the process. You can also practice the techniques on provided fabric swatches before jumping into working on your clothing. A variety of upcycled fabrics will be provided for you to experiment with and to use in your projects.
~Sarah shares her diverse skills with one of the oldest techniques in the civilized world, stitching by hand! "A Hand-Sewn Linen Apron For Creative Messes" Creating and making can be messy! Join Sarah to make a hand-sewn linen apron to protect you from your creative messes. In this workshop you will cut out a linen apron without a pattern and stitch it together with needle and thread. No sewing machines here! You will learn felling, basting, and backstitching as you hand-sew your new apron. Dream up your next project as you calmly stitch next to the lake.
You will spend a day with each teacher, with plenty of time for inspirational wanderings. Two back-to-back, then a break. On the third day we hope to have a small field trip to the coast (depending on virus safety protocols), and a fabulous local fabric store. Or if you prefer, you can go for a swim, take a hike, do some stitching, some reading, or whatever your heart desires. The last day of instruction on Friday. Then Saturday is entirely for you to do with as you please. Check in with one of the instructors on a technique you need clarification on, take a nap, draft out a new hack, the day is yours!
We will have a clothing swap, so bring any and all wearable items that no longer sing to you, and watch them leave with another, while perhaps bringing something new and thoughtful into your closet. If you have no clothes to swap, yardage and patterns are also good for swapping. The swap nights are always tons of fun! We will also have an evening for Garment Stories. Bring a beloved item of clothing that has a story behind it. We will share our stories and our thoughts about the lives of our garments. This evening is always engaging, even if you can’t imagine it. Our garments hold so many untold stories and memories, it is fascinating to hear them. So much emotion, so much history, culture, identity in our closets. Let’s share our stories.
The primary focus for the week will be on slowing down, taking time, connecting to your practice, the community, and your inner voice. Evenings will be open for more stitching, conversing, knitting, star gazing, cricket concerts, Loon appreciation, and anything else you might like to do in Maine in July....
CAL PATCH
Cal has been a maker since she was a Girl Scout in the seventies. She sews, crochets, spins, embroiders, knits, prints, drafts patterns, dyes… hence the name of her label: Hodge Podge. Cal has been teaching textile arts for over 15 years, and loves showing people new skills. She designed clothes for several big names in the fashion industry before leaving to forge her own path as an independent artisan and create one-off handmade pieces. Cal owned a boutique in Manhattan and later opened one of the first indie craft schools in 2002. After seventeen years of designing clothes in New York City, she recently relocated to the Catskills, where she is becoming a crafty farmer. Her book on drafting sewing patterns, Design-It-Yourself Clothes, was published in 2009. Currently she teaches at various shops, studios and retreats around the country and sells her work at craft fairs and online in her Etsy shop. You can see what she's up to at calpatch.com.
Jessica Marquez
Jessica is a life long maker who found her way back to textiles while working on an MFA in Photography from Rochester Institute of Technology. After countless hours working digitally, retouching images and staring at a computer screen she longed for hands-on analog making. She taught herself embroidery and then never stopped stitching. In 2008 she started a creative handmade business, Miniature Rhino, named after a young cousin's imaginary friend, a dentist she called Dr. Rhino. Miniature Rhino became a symbol of creativity and imagination and seeks to inspire and teach hands-on skills through a line of embroidery kits, patterns, classes and books. She's taught through out the country, internationally and online through Craftsy classes in embroidery and photography. Her work has been featured in publications including, Grace Bonney's bestselling book, In the Company of Women, Real Simple, Bust, Country Living, and InStyle magazine. She's written two books Make and Mend (Ten Speed, 2018) and Stitched Gifts (Chronicle, 2012), and a regular contributor to online and print publications such as Mollie Makes and Design*Sponge.
Sarah Woodyard
Sarah E. Woodyard (SEW) is passionate about preserving the skills and stories of hand sewing, through research, design and education. Through her business, Sewn Company, she makes hand-sewn clothing and teaches others to "remember what their hands can do." Inspired by the labor of historical dressmakers, Sarah spent seven years apprenticing at the Margaret Hunter Millinery Shop in Colonial Williamsburg to learn eighteenth-century mantua-making (dressmaking) and millinery (accessories). After completing her apprenticeship she became a Journeywoman mantua-maker and milliner. Sarah also holds her M.A. in Material Culture from the University of Alberta. She hopes you will pick up a needle and thread to join her in preserving the legacy of hand-sewing and honor hand-sewists past and present.
If your time in Maine opens up even more pathways to creativity, our good friend, Katherine Ferrier will offer up her workshop, Making, Being, and Being Made, Contemplative Writing for Makers, again this year. Folks who are interested can sign up for this two hour workshop on site.
Katherine Ferrier is familiar to those who have spent any time at an AGOS event, but for those new to this forum, she is a poet, dancer, maker, teacher, curator, and community organizer. Her research grows out of a deep practice of paying poetic attention to the world, and lives in the intersecting communities of movers, makers, writers and activists. A self-taught quilter, she has improvisationally designed and constructed nearly 100 quilts, drawing on her studies, both formal and independent, of movement, poetics, painting, and architecture, among other forms. She is the Director of the Medomak Fiberarts Retreat in Washington, Maine, and has recently expanded her fluency as a maker by embracing felting, weaving, and natural dyeing. She regularly teaches and performs throughout the US and abroad, and believes in patchwork as a radical practice of being patient, saying yes, and making space for everyone at the table.
Registration includes lodging in a cabin (shared, or otherwise), all meals, and all instruction for six days. The cabins are rustic and spare, but modern and comfortable. Please do note that many of the cabins are in the woods, and require an uphill walk. If mobility is an issue for you, please contact me when you register. We can accommodate most dietary restrictions within reason, just alert us to your needs in advance.
There are ten private cabins available. You can make this choice at registration. However if you do not get a private cabin, I can assure you there is plenty of room in each cabin for two or three adults.
A supply list will be sent out at least a month in advance of your arrival in Maine.
Otherwise, all you have to do is get yourself here, I'll take care of the rest. I will send out recommendations for what to wear and bring in advance. I send very detailed emails about how to get here, what to bring, how to prepare. Read them when they show up, most everything you could need will be in there…
The food at camp is fresh, simple, wholesome, and satisfying. Please notify me of food allergies, or if you are Vegetarian (specify if you do/do not eat dairy, eggs, fish, etc…) , but we suggest that unless you have a specific medical condition, you will find plenty to nourish you during your time at camp.
Medomak Retreat Center is in Washington, Maine, about 80 minutes from the Portland airport, 3 hours drive from Boston, 7 hours drive from NYC. Washington is only 30 minutes inland from Camden. The campus has 250 acres of blueberry fields and forest, with trails for hiking, tennis courts, and lakefront where canoes and kayaks are available. The cabins are clean and spare and perfectly comfortable. Medomak is going to great lengths to secure our safety as regards Covid. We will be conferring with them up till arrival about best practices to keep all safe. You will be required to be fully vaccinated and boostered as advised by the CDC before coming to camp. No exceptions. We will require written proof of your vaccination before arriving. These measures are taken to keep us all safe.
In order to give you some time to check, and double check, your schedule, and confer with partners, bosses, children, parents, and pets, to make sure this will work for you, I delay the opening of registration. This year registration will open Sunday March 6th at 3:00pm EST. I will send an email to my newsletter group when registration opens. If you want to be notified when registration is open, you should sign up for the newsletter, spots have gone quickly in the past….. You will need to pay a non-refundable deposit to register, and then arrangements can be made for how to pay your balance.
[If a pandemic lockdown forces me to cancel the retreat, all deposits will be returned, otherwise the deposit will be non-refundable.]