My time at A Gathering of Stitches

Summertime creativity with community

This summer I was very very fortunate to attend the Slow Fashion retreat in Maine. This retreat is a week organized around 3 complete days of classroom instruction plus other events and outings. This blend allowed for both deep dives and also introductory sessions. It allowed the participants to experience different teachers and learning styles for an overall vibrant immersive experience.

Stacey Taylor (@thecrookedhem) was a teacher at the retreat, check out her post which beautifully expresses the experience. It was nourishing from an individual and collective POV. Hats off to Samantha Hoyt (@agatheringoftitches), it is hugely impressive to gather all the elements to create such a special gathering.

The Schedule

Community building and empowerment was built into the schedule so beautifully it made this aspect of the retreat very organic. There were occasions for sharing personal experience, occasions to express gratitude and generosity, events to open up conversation, events to foster sharing, events for exploration solo or with others, opportunities for deep learning and introductory sessions on different topics.

I think the proof that this worked so well was that although repeat attendees make up a significant portion of participants, there was nothing cliquey about the communal experiences.

The communal events fostered a sense of genuine inclusion which is challenging to accomplish this with a group of adults who have only recently met.

This bonding enabled the participants to learn a lot from and about each other—just as much as from the teachers making it very egalitarian. People asked questions, they listened to each other with respect and empathy.

Participants (“campers”) deeply connected to each other in friendship and I absolutely adored hanging out with the entire collective of unique and wonderful individuals including a fellow Brit, Mary which was a treat. Chatting to Mary made me a bit homesick for the UK but luckily Kelly the camp nurse took me to a local delicatessen where they sell stuff like marmite which was very comforting (thank you Kelly!).

Now that I’m back home and looking at these photos I am somewhat shocked as I am a very formal person, well-known for not being a hugger and yet….. It was another side of me that hasn’t had an opportunity to come out for a long time.

The Classes

The teachers were phenomenal. It was a great experience taking an in-person class with https://www.made-by-rae.com/ with whom I had taken a virtual class through CreativeBug; she is a also a style icon and devastatingly charming.

Jessica Marquez completely blew me away with the sheer number of ideas and creativity in upcycling with a global perspective. Her class got me inspired to reactivate my dormant upcycling project. I decided that to miniaturerhino (from the instagram handle @miniaturerhino) is a verb and this class got me wanting to miniaturerhinoize all the things!

The Physical Location

I have never been to Maine and it was great to see the landscape in all its late summer glory (although I was totally unprepared for the night time temperature drop). We also got to visit Fiddlehead Artisan Supply, here I am trying one of their M&M samples.

The physical environment of the camp itself was a perfect complement to the various activities of the gathering. In the central large barn, the entire side of the barn could be opened up. This created a beautiful living picture frame for the creativity that was buzzing in the room.

Bottom line

This retreat is educational, informative and community building. Respecting makers as individuals and not just the process of making, enhances one’s practice and identity as a maker. In the era of social media we benefit so much from online which is great, but the intensity of learning is turbo-charged in-person. Every maker deserves to attend this type of retreat.

Meeting Stacey and Teaching

I also want to talk about what I learned from watching Stacey teach #TopDownCenterOut pants fitting in person.

There is a lot of info to think about when fitting pants. The way Stacey divided the topic was superb: with 6 hours of classroom instruction, 36 individuals ended up with fitted toile from about 12 different patterns but perhaps more importantly, the skills to apply the process to any design.

This deserves its own post so I can combine it with more general musings from my own pants fitting/slow fashion teaching experiences.

As readers might imagine, meeting Stacey (@thecrookedhem) in person for the first time was wonderful. I was so happy to meet her in person, I hopped into her car at our designated meeting spot and we just slid right into chatting away. Stacey is my sister from another mother.