Vanlentine’s Dress
Happy 2026. Can you believe it is already 2026? As I sit here eating chili in my studio, it is 19 degrees in Dayton, Ohio. Staying motivated with goals feels hard in this cold, and staying on track feels even harder. Still, I am happy to be back to work doing alterations and making time […]
Easy Pants Fitting Tips and Help
Every five years, I decide I am going to try to love pants again. Here’s the thing: pants may have easy construction but they’re the hardest to get the fit right. I can not tell you how many times I’ve made pants that ended up in a donation pile. I understand the saying, “pants are […]
Alien Twinning Dress
I started drafting flat pattern blocks so I wouldn’t have to fiddle with the fit on commercial garments. With this, I have truly been challenged and had the opportunity to make one garment, including muslins, up to seven times before I got the fitting right. I have learned even more about my body shape and […]
Glow in the Dark Cowgirl Dress
I’m still spending the year revisiting old skills by reworking the collared, button-down shirt into a dress. Twenty-five years of making my own clothes, followed by years of weekly production of these collared, button-downs for Carillon Park definitely contributed to my overall skill growth. Back then, Carillon gave me a single shirt that I was […]
First Dress – 25 Years Later
This is my 25th year of making garments from the ground up and I’m celebrating by revisiting all I have learned! Things do indeed get easier with time. I hope you enjoy the changes; they sure surprised me and even made me sentimental.
I started making dresses from scratch in my late 20s because I wanted […]
Walk With Me Free-Motion Embroidery Dress
I use a regular sewing machine to do free-motion embroidery. Most people don’t realize this and when they hear “embroidery,” their immediate ask is what kind of embroidery machine do I have. “I don’t,” I say excitedly, “I am painting with thread on my sewing machine!”
I was gifted a half-finished wrap skirt with beautiful artwork […]
The One Hour Dress, Take Two
Oh, man! One of my goals this year is to revisit all of the textile skills I have learned, bought a ton of supplies for, and then quit as soon as I started blossoming. These include quilting, free motion applique and embroidery, heirloom sewing, flat pattern drafting, activewear, surface textile design, and so much more.
This […]
Regalia Ribbon Dress For Ruby Redfox
If you’ve followed my work for the last two decades, you’re familiar with Ruby Redfox. She is an amazing model, animal lover, professional make-up artist, fashion expert, and even more recently, a fashion show event organizer. We’ve shared a great relationship both personally and professionally, including trading a custom dress in exchange for modeling. In […]
Measuring Up – A Dressmaker’s Year in Review
A conversation with a friend last week about what made a year good or bad got me looking deeper at how we define ourselves and what is important. It provoked a renewed check-in on my self-awareness, which got me thinking about what it is that I really do with my time. I mean, what am […]