Slow FASHION 2.0, July 17-23, 2023 SOLD OUT
with Christine Haynes, Grace Jones & Jessica Marquez
Monday afternoon, July 17th through Sunday late morning, July 23rd
Medomak Retreat Center, Washington, Maine
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....
Tiered pricing again this year:
Solo cabin for $2100
One roommate for $1900
Two roommates for $1700
We successfully gathered the last two years, with care and consideration. We intend to do the same this year.
I continue to take Covid seriously. All possible precautions will be observed. Proof of vaccine and whatever boosters are readily available will be required for participation. There will be no exceptions to this requirement. Testing will be required upon arrival.
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 Christine Haynes, Grace Jones, and Jessica Marquez to make that time and space for yourself.
Join Christine, Grace, Jessica, 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 Christine, Jessica, or Grace, learning their techniques and tips, 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....
~Christine will lead you through the nuts and bolts of different garment techniques. Instead of producing a wearable item in this workshop, you will learn common techniques to apply to your future projects. She will guide you through working with different ways to handle volume, teach you a variety of garment stitches, some beautiful seam finishing, using closures, sewing pockets, and more! You will watch Christine demo each skill, then sew each technique for yourself, leaving with a full notebook of samples and instruction.
~Grace will share her comprehensive approach to getting a flat pattern to fit Your body.
You will have the choice to bring a pattern for a woven garment that you would like to work on the fit for. Recommended woven styles should have broad application for future self-lead projects such as:
A Blouse or Shirt with sleeves. So you can focus on fit around the armholes and chest/bust and waist.
A Dress with shaping darts or princess seams. So you can focus on fitting the chest, waist and hip for your preferred silhouette, style and comfort.
Trousers, slacks, or pants with a fitted waistband and back darts. So you can focus on fitting the waistband at the preferred location and perfecting the crotch shape and balance of the legs.
There will be homework! You will need to bring a 1st muslin sewn and ready to fit. During the workshop, Grace will lead demonstrations and individual guidance as appropriate to your project;
Fit analysis of a 1st 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 (as time permits).
~Jessica is returning with a new spin on her mending techniques, Altered Garments as Repair Work. She says, “When I look through my mending pile many of the garments included don’t need a patch or button replaced, but a re-imagining. What if I cropped this men’s button up or created pleats to take it in? What if this ill-fitting long sleeve top became a tank or if a sweater speckled with holes became a constellation with appliqued stars? What could I make from a beloved hand-me-down from my grandmother?” Our textiles carry so many possibilities! Clothes can transform us and we can transform our clothing to suit our bodies and style. In this workshop you will explore hand stitching techniques to rework and re-imagine your textiles. You will begin class by looking at a variety of stitched samples and sharing your garments to discuss the possible creative approaches. After demos, you will work in community on your individual projects and share your progress at the end of class.
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 take 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, sew up another muslin, 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 don’t have garments to swap, yardage and patterns are always welcome! 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. 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....
Christine Haynes
Christine Haynes is a sewing author, teacher, and pattern designer. Christine grew up in Saugatuck, MI, a small beach community on the southwestern coast of Lake Michigan, where the arts were part of her daily life. Her mother taught her to sew around the age of 10, and it grew from a personal hobby, until it became her main artistic outlet, many years later. 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 graduating college in Chicago, 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, in addition to teaching, patternmaking, and writing, she was 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 vintage bungalow in the small beach town of Grand Haven, MI. Christine has written four books, How to Speak Fluent Sewing (2015, C&T), Skirts & Dresses for First Time Sewers (2015, Barron’s), The Complete Photo Guide to Clothing Construction (2014, CPI), and Chic & Simple Sewing (2009, Potter Craft), and her articles have been published in many magazines. She teaches sewing classes in-person, as well as virtual & video workshops on-line. You can find Christine at her site here: ChristineHaynes.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.
Grace Jones
Grace Jones obtained her pattern making certificate from the Fashion Institute of Technology after receiving her master’s degree in apparel design from Florida State University.
As a technical designer in the New York garment industry with over 15 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 vendors overseas.
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.
When not sewing, Grace loves to thrift and knit, and recently picked up roller-skating during the pandemic. She lives with her husband and cat in Brooklyn New York.
If your time in Maine opens up even more pathways to creativity, our good friend, and my right hand at the retreats, 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.
If making is a practice of paying attention, what can we learn about ourselves, and the world, by tuning in to the layers of meaning and metaphor embedded in every thread of our lives as makers? How is making its own kind of making sense? How does what we make in turn make us? This workshop is one part making, one part meditation, and one part contemplative/ creative writing. We’ll begin with some quiet, meditative handwork, (sewing, stitching, spinning knitting, drawing, etc) each tending to our own work. From this place of deep listening and connection, we’ll work with a variety of writing prompts that will act as invitations into memory, metaphor, and meaning. Absolutely no formal writing experience is required. Please bring some handwork and a journal. It’s best to bring something you can work on without concentrating too much, so that your hands can be steadily working, leaving your thoughts to drift into the rich realms of memory and meaning.
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. I will put you in a suitable 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…
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. We will also test upon arrival. These measures are taken to keep us all safe, and allow us to relax into our Making practice.
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 12th 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.
[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 able to out maneuver me. I ask for your patience and forbearance in dealing with these changes.]