Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Spool Sewing

A great interview was done by Spool Sewing! (If only I knew how to use the Internet better I would have found this much sooner!) Spool is a fantastic store in Philadelphia where I would be shopping right now were I an East Coaster. Following are questions and answers between Laura of Spool's blog and Lorraine Torrence.

 

Introducing: Sewn. Square One for Your Style



I can’t wait to stitch up and wear these designs from new pattern company Sewn. Square One for Your Style! When I went to Quilt Market, our industry’s trade show, in October, the Sewn booth was looked amazing. Designed with the novice seamstress in mind, these pattern are stylish and have an eye for detail. They look unlike any other currently on the market. I could see myself and my fellow crafty ladies wearing these garments all time!
Since I was so excited about these designs, I contacted designer Lorraine Torrence to learn more about her and her inspiration. She agreed to an email interview, and I’m so glad she did. It’s so fun to get to know more about the people behind the patterns we sew! Stay tuned this week for posts featuring the Sewn patterns we’ve sampled here at the shop, so be sure to check back to see what we’ve made!

I read in your website bio that you have a BFA and an MFA in Sculpture, and have been teaching, sewing & designing for over 30 years. Amazing! Obviously, you are a woman that loves to make things! How did you get started sewing, and how did that translate into your own wearable art design company?
I have always loved to make things with my hands and decided at the age of 7 that I wanted to be an artist. At that time, of course, being an artist meant drawing. I learned to sew as an adolescent, with teen sewing classes at the local Singer dealership where my mother signed me up, 4-H sewing and mandatory sewing and cooking in High School back in the 50′s. As a junior in High School, I announced that I wanted to pursue a career in fashion design, but by the time I was a senior, I was applying to colleges as an art major. I spent 4 years in college as an art major, concentrating on drawing and painting, but actually worked my way through college (with the help of a scholarship) sewing for people. The drama department hired me to do costumes the costume crews couldn’t handle and I made winter coats and even wedding dresses for graduating seniors who were getting married.
After spending 5 years working and traveling after college (all the while sewing and making art in one form or another) I went back to school to get an MFA in sculpture. I was the lone female in the graduate sculpture department at the University of Washington those three years doing bronze casting and welded steel sculpture. I continued to sew my own clothes and 6 months before I graduated, I made a quilt from my scrap bag as a wedding gift for the foreman of the metal arts facility. I didn’t know anything about making quilts but needed to give a wedding gift without spending money that I didn’t have. My scrap bag was full of solid color garment fabrics in the early 70′s (polyester double knits, synthetic silks and linens, corduroy and velveteen) so I naively, but confidently (how hard could it be?), made what I now know was a machine pieced crazy quilt. I sewed the top and back together like a pillow case and then stuffed the batting inside (!), stitched up the opening and tied it with embroidery thread.
After delivering the quilt to the groom at the U of W metal arts facility, he took the gift home to his bride, whom I had never met, and came back the next day with a message from her. (I found out that she was a grad student in textiles!) She proposed that we share a booth that summer at the Pacific Northwest Arts and Crafts Fair with quilts and quilted items. We juried in April, I graduated in June and immediately stopped making sculpture to finish producing the quilts that were to be in the booth at the Arts and Crafts Fair six weeks later that summer of 1971.
The Quilt Revival had begun in 1970 with the quilt show at the Whitney Museum in New York and several other coinciding quilt events and interest had slowly spread across the country reaching the West Coast the next year. Our quilt booth was enthusiastically received and we sold quilts, got commissions and I was asked to teach a quilting class at a local Park Department Recreation center. I agreed, (how hard could it be?) and started teaching the following spring. I have never made another piece of sculpture since I got my MFA in 1971, but have taught quilting since the spring of 1972. Making art in fabric at home was easier and more intuitive than pouring bronze with a baby in a backpack, since my husband and I had two children within 3 years of my graduation.
As I learned more and more about quilt making, I quickly found myself incorporating quilting skills into garments and once again found my self vending at the Pacific Northwest Arts and Crafts Fair with wearable art. After 5 years of doing production wearables and commission work in wearables, I gave up on trying to make money this way but continued teaching quilting. In 1996 I started publishing a garment pattern line, Lorraine Torrence Designs. My business grew and in 2000 I bought another pattern company, Grainline Gear, from another designer. The seven patterns I’ve added to Grainline Gear have been designed by two other designers to whom I pay royalties.

The Sewn Patterns booth was a total stand out at Quilt Market! It looked wonderful. What made you start Sewn? What was your inspiration for these designs?
In 2008 I enlisted the help of one of my design students who works in marketing to give me some business advice about marketing my two lines of garment patterns. One of her first questions to me was “What market are you not serving?” I had to say it was young people. I had been designing and publishing patterns for middle aged women. It was then I decided to join the industry-wide movement to introduce sewing to the younger generation by introducing a new garment pattern line with younger, hipper style and “learn-to-sew” instructions.
Knowing that I could not wrap my head around what young women liked to wear, I took on an intern, Elizabeth Pursley, a 25 year old young woman with a degree in Fashion Design, to help me with designs for the new line and give me her opinion about the other designs I was considering adding from my Grainline Gear designer, Ruth Vincent. Elizabeth’s friend, Gina Moorhead, also a graduate in Fashion Design, joined the design team and Sewn…square one for your style was born.
My son, Ben Torrence, a graphic designer, was instrumental in coming up with the name and all the graphics for the line including the website design. I asked Elizabeth and Gina to go to Houston with me for Market and run the Sewn booth. I wanted a young face on everything Sewn. (No gray hair in the booth!) The girls did a fabulous job and Elizabeth is helping me with launching all the social media that needs to go with the new line.

At the moment, I am in love with the Go Anywhere Dress. What’s your favorite Sewn Pattern?
Go Anywhere Dress is a great and versatile pattern! Gina designed this one with three sleeve options (sleeveless, short and long sleeves) and three body lengths (T-top, tunic and dress) and a pleated, patch pocket option too. There are lots of ways to combine all of those variables.
I love all six of the patterns but the two that would work best for my body type and age are Small Change (the long view) and Upline Jacket. I think these two are the most “cross-generational!” I made Small Change in a beautiful hand clamped silk by Elin Noble to wear in the Lorraine Torrence Designs booth at Quilt Festival and felt so elegant.

Many of our customers are novice stitchers, and are eager to learn everything about sewing. Any advice for new garment sewers just getting started? What Sewn Pattern should they start with?
There are several great books out there to help people learn to sew and many are geared toward young sewers. A basic sewing class is always helpful, too, especially when there is a good teacher or facilitator. As always, READ THE DIRECTIONS! The easiest of the Sewn patterns is Small Change. It’s just one pattern piece and is very simple to make. I did a sample for the show that had two different sides which I put together (right sides together) and stitched the edges together with raw edges showing. Very simple, quick and so cute! Elizabeth likes it belted.

I realize that Sewn Patterns just launched this month, but what are your plans for the line going forward, if you can share them?
Our first goal is to get the website finished and looking like we want it. We are hoping to get at least a few of our How-To videos on the website before the end of the year. These will be 3-5 minute videos with topics that include “How To Read Your Tissue Pattern,” “How to Adjust the Size of Your Tissue Pattern to Fit You”, “Selecting Fabric that is Appropriate for Your Pattern,” “Seam Finishes – Do I Have To?” and others with specific helps for making the individual patterns. I have already asked Elizabeth and Gina to start working on another pattern each. I’d love to get two more patterns in the line by Summer 2011.

Thanks so much, Lorraine! I have a feeling that Sewn Patterns will be a big hit here at Spool!


Posted by Laura at www.spoolsewing.com/blog

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