Try It On

Stay fashion forward by looking in the back of your closet.

A A A Comments By Karen Macklin Wednesday, Jan 14 2009

...continued from page 1

Luiza Luite

MFSWAP sewing 2007

More About

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter: Our weekly feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more - minus the newsprint and sent directly to your inbox.

"If you see a really cute straight skirt for $300 to $400, you should know that you can make that for a lot less," says Karine Langard, who runs the Sewing Workshop (www.thesewingworkshop.com) on Balboa Street in the Richmond. It offers regular open houses and a plethora of sewing classes, including a five-week, 15-hour beginner's course that teaches you all the basics and sends you home with a new self-made kimono for less than $200. Langard says she had to add a second class in December, which is highly unusual for that time of year, suggesting that people are catching the sewing bug because the economy is so rough. "People want to do something creative and they also want to cut corners," she adds.

New collective Craft Haven (www.crafthaven.org), started by Kelly Williams and Hannah McDevitt, who used to teach at the recently closed Stitch Lounge, is also all about teaching folks how to make their own clothes. Craft Haven has an Über Basics course and a hemming course, as well as a range of modern classes on making utility belts, yoga mat bags, and hoodies. Craft Haven's first classes in December drew a surprising level of interest and enrollment. Williams attributes it to a renewed thrifty fashion sense amongst those precariously positioned in the current economy. "Sewing is actually a minimum investment with a maximum result," she says. "Once people have the realization that they can do this on their own, they're not so tied into the retail industry."

Check out this week's featured ad for News