Seamwork Radio: Sewing and Creativity

Is your social media algorithm showing you the same thing over and over again? We use social media and Pinterest for mindless entertainment, but it can be easy to go down a scroll-hole. If that's the only input your brain is receiving for inspiration, you can get stuck. In this week’s episode, Haley and Sarai chat about how social media algorithms are creating cultural uniformity and how you can find ways to discover your own unique taste when there is this culture of sameness.

Clothing is a really strong repository of memory. Creating your own wedding dress is the perfect opportunity to flex your sewing skills and create a true heirloom piece. In this episode, Sarai and Haley discuss the benefits and drawbacks of sewing your own wedding attire. They also share their expert tips for reducing stress and ensuring your wedding outfit turns out just as you envisioned it.

Are you new to zero-waste sewing? Are you thinking about trying a zero-waste pattern for the first time Or are you wondering if Seamwork will ever release a zero-waste pattern? This week’s podcast answers all those questions. Sarai and Haley discuss the benefits and limitations of zero-waste sewing and give eight simple steps for exploring this niche.

In this episode we discuss how sewing teaches you to want less. So we're going to cover our own relationships with consumption, how that's changed throughout our sewing journeys, and then eight ways that you can lean on sewing to help you consume less. Show Notes: Making Time How to Use the Rule of Three OutfitsDesign Your WardrobeStyle Workshop get half off an unlimited Seamwork membership when you use this linkTell us your idea for the next icebreakers for makers!

Outfit formulas help you get dressed easily and confidently each morning. In this episode, Sarai and Haley share five outfit formulas you can wear this spring. They cover what an outfit formula is, what makes a good outfit formula, and then five ideas you could incorporate into your own spring wardrobe.

When you’re getting dressed in the morning, your goal is to wear clothes, not for your clothes to wear you. And if you love vintage fashion, sometimes it can be challenging not to feel like you’re walking off a movie set or cosplaying as a character from another era. But we love vintage fashion. So, how can you incorporate vintage into a modern wardrobe? Here are 7 tips.

In this episode, Sarai and Haley talk about how to sew a wardrobe you'll still love in ten years. They cover what makes a garment long lasting—both stylewise and physically—how to choose styles that you'll love to wear for years, and practical tips for making garments that stand the test of time.

Feel like you’re in a style rut? In this episode, Sarai and Haley show you how to update your wardrobe when your lifestyle, job, body, or sense of style changes. They cover the signs you might be in a transition, give you some tools for examining that transition, and some actions you can take to evolve your style alongside your life.

Use this fashion industry trick to define your core style. Sarai and Haley talk about Style Signatures, including what they are, how they can help you better define your personal style, how to come up with your own style signatures, and then how to deploy them in your wardrobe.

In today’s podcast episode, Sarai and Haley share five lessons they’ve learned from Design Your Wardrobe, and all of these lessons point to one thing: learning how to think like a designer and edit your wardrobe is an invaluable tool for your sewing.

When a new season arises, you can feel the urge to reinvent yourself and refresh everything in your closet. But there’s a simpler way—just refresh the colors you wear! In this episode, Sarai and Haley provide a 5-step process for defining your colors and putting together a spring color palette.

Here's something you might not know about yourself: You're an editor. When you sew your own clothes, you're always making editorial decisions, from pairing fabric to a pattern to styling a final outfit. In this episode, Sarai and Haley cover why editing is so important in design, how to set constraints to make editing easier, and ideas for making tough choices a little bit easier.

If you’ve ever logged into Pinterest and stared wide-eyed at the never ending scroll of inspiration, you’ve likely run into one of two problems. Too much inspiration or none at all. In this episode, get 5 tips for finding exactly what you want on Pinterest. With these tips, you can build mood boards that truly help you with your sewing plans.

Trends are one of the most powerful forces that drive fashion. But they’re a little tricky. On one hand, trends can be really fun to play with. They bring something new into your wardrobe. But on the other hand, you don't want a closet full of really trendy things that don't really feel like you. Sarai and Haley cover eight trends for spring 2024 and some ways you can incorporate them into your sewing.

Having a real sense of your creative purpose can act as a North Star that guides you in your hobbies—or any creative part of your life. But your purpose can shift as you grow and learn different things about yourself. Uncovering what matters to you is something you have to do repeatedly. Here are 4 exercises to help you discover how you're changing and how your purpose might be changing, too.

Did you get into sewing to help reduce textile waste? A lot of people do. And it's great to go to a fabric store and get that new, beautiful fabric. But sometimes it's nice to find an alternative and really flex your creativity in a new way and help to keep that waste down. In this episode, get give tips for using thrift shop finds to create your next sewing project.

Has your creativity ever felt a little low? Today, Sarai and Haley share ten things to do when you're just not feeling very creative. They cover things you can do to come up with new ideas that get you excited again, things you can do to prepare for when creativity does strike, and things you can do to get your hands moving.

In this week’s episode, Sarai and Haley share 5 ideas to help you sew for cold weather. They cover how to make your winter sewing extra warm and cozy, and share practical tips and fabric ideas for a toasty, wearable winter wardrobe.

Listen to a recording of the patternmaker panel with 6 amazingly talented patternmakers here in Portland, moderated by Sarai. They chat about all the secrets your patternmaker wants you to know, the differences between ready-to-wear and sewing, and their favorite parts about making patterns.

In October, we hosted our very first in-person event at Seamwork HQ. Nearly 100 Seamworkers gathered for Stitchfest, and we all spent the day together later. There was a panel of local patternmakers, a sample sale, and a live recording of the Seamwork Radio podcast. In the live recording, Sarai and our patternmaker, Robin, answer the 7 most common sewing questions we get asked here at Seamwork.