Slow Fashion July
July 13-19, 2026
Medomak Retreat Center, Washington, Maine
with Grace Jones, Louisa Owen Sonstroem & Kristin Arzt
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....
• Single cabin, $2,250.
• Double Cabin, $2,050.
• Triple Cabin, $1,850.
Registration opens to all on Sunday, March 1St at 3:00PM EST
IMPORTANT NOTE: For the best experience of all involved, I will continue to engage Covid protocols. While the danger of contracting the virus is less, it still holds risks for many. I will require first time Campers to provide vaccine records that show up-to-date vaccinations prior to the current CDC administration for participation. (That means records that show vaccines from the inception in early 2021 to 2024 recommendations.) If you have participated in the past I will not require new records, though will be happy to know that you have gotten them if you choose to share. I will also ask that all Campers take precautions in the week leading up to their visit. More details will be shared once you have registered.
Are you seeking the time and space to slow down and connect with your skills, your agency, your creative practice in community? In these challenging chaotic, isolating digital 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 with your peers with needle, thread, and cloth. This July, I invite you to join Grace Jones, Louisa Owen Sonstroem, and Kristin Arzt to make that time and space for yourself.
Join Grace, Louisa, Kristin, and me 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 Grace, Louisa, and Kristin learning their techniques and tips, and practicing new skills or sharpening old ones. In addition there is 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....
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:
~Grace is returning to help you focus on fitting woven garments. You will choose a woven pattern you would like to work on for improving fit. Grace’s recommendations for woven styles should have broad application for future self-lead projects such as:
Blouse/Shirt with sleeves. Focus on fit around the armholes and chest/bust and waist.
Dress with shaping darts or princess seams. Focus on fitting the chest, waist and hip for preferred silhouette, style and comfort.
Trousers, slacks, pants with a fitted waistband and back darts. Focus on fitting the waistband at the preferred location and perfecting the crotch shape and balance of the legs.
During the workshop, you’ll receive demonstrations and individual guidance as appropriate to your project, such as;
Fit analysis of a 1 st muslin and recommendations for alterations.
How to efficiently make pattern alterations on the muslin and on pattern paper.
Fit analysis of a 2nd muslin and suggestions for further pattern corrections.
And additionally if relevant and as time permits:
How to check the pattern for drafting errors and quirks of grading; walking the pattern and checking notches. Checking the “Flow” across seams junctions.
Demonstration of quick muslin making techniques. (altering while tracing)
Checking and re-measuring personal measurements.
You will have homework! (Yeah, we know it’s Camp, but this is fun homework…!) : You’ll need to arrive with a 1st muslin sewn and ready to fit. You’ll also bring an un-altered copy of your pattern to the workshop and any traced or modified pattern piece copies. You will receive a Muslin Prep document in advance of Camp for details.
~Louisa joins us for the first time to explore the world of hand sewing garments! You’ll learn a variety of handy stitches and techniques for hand-constructing garments. As you stitch, you’ll study the strengths and limitations of each technique. Partway through class, you’ll be ready to start planning how to apply the techniques to actual garment projects, even with patterns designed for machine-sewn construction. Annotated sketches, swatching, and other tools will be used. The group will workshop these plans together. By the end of this one-day class, you’ll have the confidence and skills to hand sew pretty much anything!
~Kristin, our color maven, returns again! Explore rainbows, surface design, and patterns using natural dyes! Your dyeing day will start with indigo dyeing and making patterns on cloth using resist paste. In the afternoon, we will move into yellows, reds, and beyond. We will mix mordant print pastes and print directly with thickened mordants on natural fibers. We will go over mixing an aluminum (bright) print paste and an iron (dark) print paste, and many values in between. We will paint, screen print, and block print with these pastes, creating varied values and patterns on a single piece of cloth dyed in immersion dye baths.
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 will make a small field trip to the coast, 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 garment, the day is yours!
OTHER FUN STUFF:
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, yarn, and other craft supplies, are ALWAYS welcome 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. 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....
INSTRUCTORS:
Grace Jones
Grace obtained her patternmaking certificate from the Fashion Institute of Technology after earning her master’s degree in apparel design from Florida State University. As a technical designer in the New York garment industry with 20 years’ experience, Grace works for a garment manufacturer of women’s ready-to-wear and has the opportunity to fit twice weekly on missy and plus live fit models. This experience has enabled her to develop the skill of assessing fit, identifying issues and communicating pattern corrections to factory agents.
As a lifelong hobby sewist, Grace is an enthusiastic consumer of commercial sewing patterns (big four and indie patterns). She regularly shares her personal sewing process and pattern analysis in her Instagram stories (@wzrdreams). Over time, she has come to realize that all patterns have quirks or errors, and has become adamant about the need to carefully review and check patterns early in the sewing process, and fitting a muslin (or toile) whenever there is any doubt about the fit. When not sewing, Grace loves to thrift and knit, and recently picked up cross stitching. She lives with her husband and cat in Brooklyn New York.
Louisa Owen Sonstroem
Louisa considers garment-making skills to be deeply empowering. Louisa writes and teaches about patternmaking and hand stitching clothing. For most of a decade, she worked in technical design and patternmaking, most recently for Macy's and Eileen Fisher. Previous projects have included a self-published book called Hand Sewing Clothing: A Guide, as well as two seasons of “Patternmaking in Public Places,” an outreach project she started to democratize access to patternmaking skills. In 2025, Louisa celebrated the release of her newest book, The Handsewn Wardrobe: A Complete Guide to Making Your Own Clothes, from Patternmaking to the Finishing Stitches, in collaboration with Storey Publishing. Learn more on her website, Instagram, or through her newsletter.
Kristin Arzt
Kristin is a natural dyer, educator, gardener, and designer based in Maryland. She has taught workshops and led retreats all over the country, served on the board of Local Cloth, and been involved in Fibersheds from Northern California, to the Mid-Atlantic, to the Blue Ridge Mountains. By exploring the collision of textiles, plants, and sustainability, her goal is to help make the study of natural dyes accessible to everyone through education and enthusiasm. Kristin is a lifelong learner, a student and teacher of yoga (RYT 200), and is currently enrolled in her third Yoga Teacher Training program, often combining elements from these teachings into her creative workshops.
LOGISTICS:
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. I will assign you an appropriate cabin. 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…
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.
After five years of working with Covid as a complication I continue to take it seriously. I require everyone to be vaccinated as recommended by the CDC in the Fall of 2024. I do not hold any stock in the current DHHS/CDC guidelines. If you have attended in previous years I know you have been responsible up to the last valid recommendation. I will not ask for your records this year. For anyone attending for the first time this year (’26) I will need to see your records from the inception of the vaccines in 2021 to the last reliable advice from the CDC in Fall of 2024. There are no exceptions to this policy. Please be sure you know where your records are before you register. If you have chosen to be vaxxed in the Fall of 2025 I will be extra happy, and we will be that much safer as a community.
I will ask all who are traveling to be diligent in their masking protocol. All should be extra careful a week in advance of Camp. These measures are taken to keep us all safe, and allow us to relax into our Making practice. I will have protocols in place in case of a positive test. That protocol will be shared in advance of gathering.
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.
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 1st 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 of $400 to register, and then arrangements can be made for how to pay your balance.
[Deposits are non refundable, but registrations are transferable. All efforts will be taken to accommodate Covid changes, but the virus moves in mysterious ways, and is good at outmaneuvering me. I ask for your patience and forbearance in dealing with these changes.]