Slow Fashion July
July 7-13, 2025
Medomak Retreat Center, Washington, Maine
with Stacey Taylor & Ruth Collins, Christine Haynes, and Jessica Marquez
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.
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 up-to-date vaccinations for participation, and test upon arrival. 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 Stacey Taylor, Ruth Collins, Christine Haynes, and Jessica Marquez to make that time and space for yourself.
Join Stacey, Ruth, Christine, Jessica, 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 Stacey & Ruth, Christine, and Jessica 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....
This particular week differs from the others in that we will use some of our usual downtime to focus on fully integrating the foundations of Top Down Center Out fitting.
~Stacey & Ruth Ruth and Stacey will introduce you to the Top Down Center Out method, a design-driven and body neutral approach for custom fitted pants. In the one day fitting workshop, Stacey and Ruth will guide you through the method using the Freemantle pants pattern from Elbe textiles. This popular pattern is a unisex design with an elastic waist and a tapered hem. We will also cover the unique philosophies behind this fitting method, including how it differs from conventional fitting approaches, and why those differences matter for how we perceive ourselves and our bodies as we fit. As you construct and fit your own toile, Stacey and Ruth will offer individual coaching as you explore your fit preferences and adjustment options. We will also discuss strategies for making fitting decisions and setting yourself up for success with other pants making projects once you return home. You will come away from the workshop with a fitted toile and the adjusted pattern pieces for the final garment. You will also have a new framework for understanding how pants fit the body and a skillset for how to customize any design to fit you.
~Christine returns this year to complement the process of fitting pants with instruction on closures! You’ll fit and sew your pants, and then learn to sew in the zipper, make buttonholes, and install the hardware! You will cover the ins and out of zipper installation, learn how to make buttonholes, and practice sewing on regular buttons and jeans buttons.
~Jessica returns to share her wealth of information and inspiration around re-fashioning items in your closet. Refashioning is all about imaging the possibilities of our textiles. Lets alter our thrifted, handmade, vintage, and unused clothes to make them something different, something that fits our body and style better. These revisions can be simple to complex, from hemming, changing a neckline, adding or removing parts of the garment, including patchwork or altogether scrapping it into something completely different. Who knows where the inspiration will take you! Class begins by looking at a variety of sample garments, then sharing your own garments to discuss the possible creative approaches. It's an amazing experience to be in a room full of creative sewists eager to encourage and offer up unique solutions to unique dilemmas. There's no one right way and each refashioning is a fun experience to puzzle out. After demos, you will work in community on your individual projects and share your progress at the end of class. In this workshop you will explore several techniques to rework and re-imagine your textiles including, hand stitching, mending, machine sewing, and even block printing.
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!
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....
Stacey Taylor & Ruth Collins PhD
Stacey is a scientist, educator, and life-long sewist. She grew up in a family of eccentric makers, and her mother taught her how to sew at age 10. As a young sewist, Stacey kept a sketchbook of outfit ideas and proudly wore her self-drafted creations to school every day.
Today, Stacey’s sewing practice is rooted in her background as a scientist; she has a Ph.D. in cancer biology and her research spans oncology, genetics, and neuroscience. Her work has taught her to be a close observer of detail and a determined problem solver, both in the lab and at the sewing machine.
As a sewist, Stacey enjoys the fitting process and the many approaches for turning a 2D shape into a 3D garment. Stacey spent several years as a student of the Top Down Center Out method and has collaborated closely with its creator, Ruth Collins, to develop a variety of fitting resources for home sewists.
As an educator, Stacey has created over a dozen courses and hundreds of class modules for all ages. She loves teaching and finding new ways to engage with students, either in-person or online. In her latest project, she filmed a popular Youtube video series demonstrating the fundamentals of the Top Down Center Out fitting method.
Ruth Collins is a scientist who became interested in exploring the similarities between clothing design and biological structures. In both cases, the challenge lies in transitioning the flat surface of membranes or cloth into the three-dimensional forms of cellular shape and wearable design. This investigation evolved into a practical and inclusive method for fitting pants that accommodates all body types and gender identities. Ruth lives in the beautiful rural Finger Lakes region of New York where she enjoys fermenting vegetables in addition to revolutions. Find out more about Ruth on her IG account @ithacamaven and online ithacamaven.substack.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.
Christine Haynes
Christine Haynes is a sewing author, teacher, and pattern designer. She attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in the department of Film, Video, and New Media. After college, Christine moved to Los Angeles, CA and sold ready-to-wear garments for many years. When Random House approached Christine to write her first book, she left ready-to-wear, and turned her focus to teaching others to experience the joy of making clothing for themselves, through her patterns, books, and workshops. While in Los Angeles, she was also the shop manager at Sew LA. Following more than a decade in Los Angeles, Christine relocated to New York, NY, where she became the shop manager of Purl Soho. After managing Purl Soho for a few years, Christine returned to patternmaking and teaching, which she now does from her studio in San Francisco, CA.
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 four 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. This guideline may vary depending on the current political status. I will stay apprised of those recommendations and share them with all who register. Please assume that you will need to have been vaccinated up to the last valid CDC statements.
I will ask all who are traveling to be diligent in their masking protocol. We will test upon arrival. 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 2nd 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.]