It's August and we've "Gone Sewin"

This is what arrived prior to my first summer show and now that I'm home for a while, I have about half of this fabric left to play with. A sea change is coming, I can feel it. Tré Lilli is ready to evolve. Over the summer, we collected approximately twenty orders for made-to-order garments. We've held our first-ever Etsy sale and everything is moving along nicely. An incredibly outrageous collaboration is in the works for December...but...I'm not at liberty to divulge at the moment. What I can tell you is this: if you will be anywhere near Miami during the weekend of December 7th, we will see you there!


For now, it is important to move around and make some needed changes. I love working with all of these new materials and hope to create some garments to complement their personalities - cotton voile and cotton silk being two of my favorites. August is our dream-big time and I've got lots of time booked specifically for the studio. Come September, I hope to have new fabric designs ready to unveil. Until then, happy sewing, y'all.

Shooting star

Time to brag, or gush, since I claim no right to the following praise:

Miss Sarah, my high-school sewing student has completed the first draft of her portfolio for FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC) and will be attending a four-day class at the school in a week. She leaves for NYC soon and we met on Monday to go over the final details of her first-draft and to talk excitedly about the future (I did more listening than talking on this particular day).

Sarah has worked tirelessly and efficiently to achieve a great deal prior to her trip. She wanted to have something - something, indeed! - to show her professor this summer in order to get some concrete feedback before submitting her final portfolio for review.

I've enjoyed working with Sarah because her vision is singular and she is so dedicated to the craft of garment design. It isn't only that she wants to design, but she wants to sew and have the ability to make her designs as well. This is such a breath of fresh air, given that sewing seems to be a lost art.

What has been most exciting for me is watching her process. Sarah has many influences that are edgy and will be well-received in New York, but it is really encouraging to see her translate these influences into designs that are then implemented into garment construction. She works fast and furious and there is a roughness to her work, but at the same time, she perseveres and completes everything she begins.

I have given her several homework assignments and every time we meet, she surprises me with her follow through. I taught her about paper-piecing and piecing in general and she utilized this technique to make some truly original harem pants that I'd love to show....Sarah wants that her images be kept under wraps until after she has submitted her portfolio.

Sarah adding some final touches to a sketch. In the fore-ground is a garment that she made from muslin - dyeing and manipulating the fabric so that it is hardly recognizable as such.

Twelve years ago, I was somewhere in Europe right about now and had just found out that I had been accepted to the Industrial Design screening class at the UW after having submitted my portfolio, essay and resume. I know just how Sarah feels and am really enjoying re-living this kind of excitement and work. It is truly wonderful to have a vision of what you want to do and to commit wholly to that vision. Keep dreaming, y'all, and keep working. Everyone should experience the light and energy of a shooting star at least once in life...

In the studio: let no scrap go unused

I've always been keen on recycling, reusing, re-purposing...reinventing...and I've always, always been a bit of a hoarder. A few months back, the bags of Tré Lilli scraps were beginning to trip me up as I moved from room to room and after a major brainstorming session, these colorful little necklaces were born.

I like them especially because for now, they chronicle the evolution of Tré Lilli fabric design. Having completed three art festivals in the last month, I managed to move several necklaces and customers enjoyed seeing similar color palettes in the necklaces and the garments for sale in my booth.

Always a fan of image research, I recently became obsessed with all things "Ballets Russes" and feel that the necklaces are an extension of that inspiration. The Ballets Russes, with Sergei Diaghilev as artistic director, became the kind of cultural phenomenon that reaches mythic proportions. At times the directors, choreographers, costumers and designers made incredible beauty from meager resources and this simplicity is what Tré Lilli aspires to, beginning with Ballets Russes necklaces. Furthermore, we are partial to one-of-a-kind creations and these necklaces are no exception.