05/06/2026
Our student Kelila kindly shared a bit of her sewing story with us this week. It's one of the clearest examples I've seen of where a bit of practical alteration work can take you.
She started during covid, made some masks, didn't touch the machine for a couple of years. Came back to it to alter her wardrobe - she'd been rapidly losing weight and didn't want to start her wardrobe over from scratch.
One of her early alterations was a dress that turned out to be fully lined, with darts, a gathered skirt, and a zipper - basically had to take the whole thing apart and put it back together. That kind of pulled-apart-and-rebuilt work is exactly how a lot of people learn the most. Construction, sequencing, how garments are actually put together.
Fast forward and Kelila has just finished a fully-lined bomber jacket with welt pockets and magnetic closures, plus four pairs of chef pants because she couldn't find ones she liked.
In her own words: "I now think of making a pair of trousers as a quick and easy project, where I would have found even the simplest garment daunting a few years ago."
Mending and alterations open up a whole world. And we love watching it happen.
