'Gertie' Hirsch, Creater Of The Popular Blog - 'Gertie's New Blog For Better Sewing'

Thu, 04/09/2009 - 12:12pm

When: January 27, 2013 at the Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

Nationally-known sewing expert Gretchen "Gertie" Hirsch is a passionate home seamstress, a sought-after sewing teacher, and the creator of one of the most popular sewing blogs on the web - Gertie's New Blog For Better Sewing - a place to share tutorials and lively posts about sewing as it relates to fashion history, pop culture, body image, and gender. A sewing enthusiast from Beacon, New York, Gertie has a love of all things retro. Now - meet Gertie in person, right here at AADL!! Hear about her blog, her craft and her book "Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing: A Modern Guide to Couture-Style Sewing Using Basic Vintage Techniques." An extension of her blog, this brand-new book is packed with lessons on couture techniques, customization and Gertie's spirited, modern style. The event includes a book signing and books will be for sale.This event is for adults and teens (grade 6 and up).

Transcript

• [00:00:24.81] SPEAKER 1: To welcome our special guest today, I'd like to introduce Jackie Sasaki, librarian here at the Ann Arbor District Library.
• [00:00:33.03] [APPLAUSE]
• [00:00:37.64] JACKIE SASAKI: Well again, welcome to the Ann Arbor District Library. We're very pleased to have with us today Gretchen Hirsch. Her book, Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing, a Modern Guide to Couture-Style Sewing Using Basic Vintage Techniques was published in 2002 to glowing reviews. And I see some of your have already gotten your copy. And she will indeed sign at the end.
• [00:01:05.78] But I'm not going to take up a lot of your time. The fact that you're here means you know who Gretchen and Gertie is. So I am just going to go ahead and have you help me welcome Gretchen Hirsch.
• [00:01:19.64] [APPLAUSE]
• [00:00:00.00]
• [00:01:31.53] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: So how's everyone doing? Good. Is anyone wearing a handmade dress today? I see. Oh, is that a jumper? Very cute. Very cute. Oh, love yours. Adorable.
• [00:01:47.58] AUDIENCE: I saw your airplane come in.
• [00:01:50.36] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Yeah, had a very exciting flight yesterday. So I flew in from Newburgh. It's a small regional airport close to Beacon where I live. And it happens to have direct flight to Detroit. So I was so happy I didn't have to go down to the city or anything.
• [00:02:07.33] And so everything went perfectly. There was no one in line at security. There were eight people working there. And I went up, and they were all like whisking me through and taking my coat. And it was marvelous. I was like, this is the best airport experience ever.
• [00:02:22.37] So anyway, we get on the plane. And I really wanted to get out my laptop and start working on my PowerPoint. Well, finish working on my PowerPoint. I didn't do it all yesterday, I promise.
• [00:02:32.22] And I noticed that we kind of weren't really ascending that much. We had been up for like half an hour, and they never said you can pull out your electronics or whatever. So I'm like, that's kind of weird. And then I noticed we were going in circles.
• [00:02:46.61] And so the captain gets on, and he says that the landing gear isn't working. So I panicked. I used to have a really bad fear of flying, which I've worked through over the years. But it was definitely coming back yesterday. I was worried that it was that thing where they can't get the landing gear down, because that's really bad. But apparently, they couldn't get it to go back up. But that's also not a good thing.
• [00:03:14.47] I was like, well, let's just go. Let's just keep going. We'll keep it down, and then we'll land in Detroit. But they can't do that, because they had to land at the nearest airport. But then we had to burn off fuel, because the plane was too heavy. So we flew in circles for an hour.
• [00:03:31.48] And by then, I would've been in Detroit anyway, because it's an hour and a half flight. And then the captain comes on and say OK, we finally burned off enough fuel. We're going to have to make an emergency landing. And this is where I'm kind of like hyperventilating.
• [00:03:45.93] And he mentions that he's lost steering control of the plane. [LAUGHS] I'm like, why would you tell us that? Why? And so they had to land us in like a remote runway, just in case the plane exploded or something. I don't know.
• [00:04:05.25] And then there were like fire trucks, and flashing lights, and the whole thing. There were like three fire trucks. And they had to tow us all the way back to the gate at about two miles an hour, I swear to God. We were just sort of chugging along down this long runway.
• [00:04:21.97] And I completely lost my sense of humor. Oh, there I am. I'm usually a pretty good traveler, and I can take things as they come. But I was like, I'm never travelling again, ever. And I really wanted to go right home. I called my husband. I was like, I had a near death experience.
• [00:04:37.52] [LAUGHTER]
• [00:04:39.81] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: I just wanted to come home. And I was trying to work out if I can a flight this morning. And then they got us back on another plane by like 4:00. And it was totally fine. And everyone else was totally cool about it, except for me. And I was inwardly freaking out and had to go the bathroom and cry a little bit.
• [00:04:56.20] I'm fine. Everything's fine. I made it. It's all good. All right, PowerPoint. Let me hydrate again. That story wore me out a little bit.
• [00:05:09.67] So I wanted to-- this is going to sound terrible-- but I'm going to talk a lot about myself. Because when I was talking to Jackie, she said people really want to hear about you. And I kind of tend to shy away from talking a lot about my childhood and how I learned to sew and people always want to know. So I'm really kind of going back to the beginning. And I have a lot of embarrassing photos for you.
• [00:05:33.14] Now where do I point? Did we decide that? Point to the back. Oh, my crafty childhood.
• [00:05:39.99] So might have seen this post that I did. That's my mom in 1967, I think. She made all of her own clothes. She made her prom dresses. This is a dress she made. She swears it's from a Vogue pattern. I haven't been able to find it, but I've been trying to track it down forever.
• [00:06:01.31] So I always loved going through her old photos and looking at the stuff she used to make. And when we were little, my brother and I, she made us clothes, and especially Halloween costumes. That was the big holiday in my house. And before Halloween every year, we would go to the fabric store, and I could go through the pattern catalogs and choose what I wanted to be for Halloween, then pick out my fabric.
• [00:06:22.85] And that's kind of where I fell in love with fabric stores and the idea of sewing, I think. I always loved sitting at that table, flipping through the pattern books. And I loved picking out what she was going to make for me.
• [00:06:37.51] So that's me on the right. That's one of my handmade outfits by my mom. It was like a little jumpsuit that zips up with a big heart in the middle and a little Peter Pan collar. I was really cute at this point. You're going to see I went through a really bad awkward phase.
• [00:06:52.97] That's the year I was in angel for Halloween. So appropriate. That's my brother, the wizard. I was a mouse that year. Mom made that, too.
• [00:07:03.21] She was also a big knitter. And I loved unicorns. Do you guys remember Lisa Frank? I guess she's kind of having a comeback right now, but she did unicorns and rainbows. And I just thought it was fabulous. And so I begged my mom to knit me this sweater. And I still have it and it still fits. So I break it out every now and then. Because in the '80s, that was kind of the style was like a bigger fit. So, yep, fits perfectly.
• [00:07:33.71] My ill-fated entree into fashion sewing. When I was about 10, my friend Ginger who I idealized signed up for a sewing class. And I was like, oh, if Ginger sews, I want to sew. And so my mom signed me up for the class. And we all made the same outfit. And it was 1991. And the outfit was a pair of harem type Hammer pants and a vest.
• [00:08:03.52] And I want you to know that when I said I went through an awkward phase, I really was not kidding. So here I am in my outfit. That's me.
• [00:08:12.33] [LAUGHTER]
• [00:08:16.12] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: I think I kind of look like Matt Damon in the face right there, right? I just saw The Talented Mr. Ripley the other night. I was like ah, I kind of bear a resemblance to him. This was the phase when I wanted to look exactly like my mom. She had like a short hair cut and she had these Sally Jesse Raphael classes, and I thought they were fabulous. So anything she did, I did.
• [00:08:33.61] Anyway, so I had to model this thing. Here I am on stage. That's Ginger. She had the bangs.
• [00:08:43.91] So at this point, I was like, sewing sucks. I hate this. This is what I got myself into? And I didn't pick up a sewing machine again until I was in my '20s, pretty much. I have to put this off, because it's really embarrassing me.
• [00:09:00.45] So I went to college for theater. I went to NYU. I got very into the design aspect of theater. And I started doing costumes. So that was kind of when I started creating things again. I would use the term sewing very loosely, because I remember I got really into puppet theater, too. I've had a lot of really weird interests over the years.
• [00:09:19.45] But at the time, I was really into puppetry. And I remember making a three-piece suit for a puppet and just kind of slapping it together. And my one college internship I did was at this like communist hippie puppet theater in Vermont. My parents have been continually shocked at my career choices.
• [00:09:41.24] So after college, I decided to go to grad school. I was going to get my PhD in theater history. And so I kind of did a little bit of that, but that wasn't working for me. So I dropped out of grad school, which my parents hated, too.
• [00:09:58.45] And then I started working at a bookstore. So I've always been a huge reader. I started working at the bookstore, and I just stayed there, and I became a manager. It was a Book Star. Did you guys ever have Book Star here? It became owned by Barnes & Noble.
• [00:10:13.30] And at that point, I decided I wanted to pursue a more adult career than working in a bookstore. I don't know. And there was an editorial assistant position open at Harcourt Books. I was in San Diego at the time. I went to UCSD. And that's where I met my husband, who is also a writer.
• [00:10:32.01] So I got into publishing, which is very exciting. And I spent about seven years as a children's book editor. So this was around the time that my interest in vintage clothing really took off. I've always loved vintage looks. I've written before about like loving the movie Annie as a kid and the really Hollywood glamour of that. And also Dirty Dancing, which is like the worst example of '50s fashion ever, because it's like faux '50s.
• [00:11:02.69] But something about those movies that I loved as a kid. I'm not the type who watched the old glamorous movies. I like the stupid pop culture stuff. But that turned me on. And it was sort of a lifelong love.
• [00:11:14.98] And when I first started working at an office, I really wanted to wear vintage. But I could never find what I wanted. Or if I found what I wanted, it didn't fit, and it was expensive. And I just could never get into the process of seeking out vintage. For some people, it's really exciting, and it's about the hunt. For me, I just wanted the perfect pencil skirt in my size.
• [00:11:38.40] And so that's when I kind of remembered that I had some sewing skills in my arsenal from way back. So I started. Jeff and I moved back to New York. I continued working in publishing. I started making my own clothes at that time.
• [00:11:54.63] Oh, I had to include pictures of my cats, because I was like, and then I started a family. This is Pip. She loves to sit on expensive fabric. That's Henry, my little boy.
• [00:12:08.32] And then this is the first skirt I made. And you'll see it's really similar to the skirt pattern in my book, so it definitely inspired me. So at this point, I started sewing all the curtains for our apartment. And then I was like, you know, I really want a hot pink pencil skirt. I just wanted a hot pink pencil skirt, and I want it to have a high waist, and I wanted it to be my size.
• [00:12:31.81] And that was not happening for me. So I was like, you know what? I can sew curtains. I'm sure I can sew a skirt. And so I went to Mood. I got some hot pink wool crepe. I got a [? Berta ?] pattern.
• [00:12:44.41] And at that point, it all just kind of came back. I remembered what my mom had taught me when I was little. And she really gave me a good basic education that stuck with me. So when I started sewing again, a lot of people are afraid of the sewing machine when they first start. I had none of that. I knew how to wind everything. I knew what fabric grain was. So I had a really good foundation.
• [00:13:06.66] But I didn't know a lot about quality garment sewing, which is what I became obsessed with. And particularly vintage and how it's made and what's the right way to make a jacket. So what's the right way to put boning into a dress? All that stuff. I wanted to know everything.
• [00:13:25.43] I ordered the entire backlog of Threads magazine on eBay. I have them all on paper. And I'd just sit and read them like novels. Take them to the bathtub. I'd read them in bed. I lived and breathed sewing for the next, well, still. So just continued to do that.
• [00:13:44.51] This was one of my earlier dresses that I made when I started feeling like I was getting some good techniques under my belt. I entered this in a competition for So Stylish. It was like a summer dress competition. And I came in second place. I was super happy.
• [00:14:02.10] And this was sort of my entree into the world of the sewing internet, I guess. It was actually pretty horrible. People were commenting on the dresses that were entered in the contest, and it turned into this terrible flame war about my tattoos. So someone was like, what prison did you get those in? And it just kind of like snowballed from there.
• [00:14:28.85] And for some reason, I decided after that to start a blog and become more open on the internet. I don't know why. But there was something about it. I wanted to have a space where I felt like it was my voice, not So Stylish's voice. And the people who commented I hoped would be more my kind of people rather than people who asked if I got my tattoos in a prison or stuff like that. I just really wanted to find my sewing people. So that's kind of when the idea of the blog started.
• [00:15:01.18] And it was sort of a perfect storm of unemployment and boredom and an obsession with this book. So I worked for HarperCollins for a while. And this was sort of like the beginning of the-- well, it was sort of the high point of the recession in publishing. And there was a day called Black Tuesday, as it became known in publishing, where everyone was fired. And I was one of them. So I lost my job at HarperCollins. And I was unemployed for about six months.
• [00:15:30.91] And at first, I was like, well, this is great. I'm going to sew all day long. And then I just felt directionless. And I wanted a greater structure to it all, like a bigger mean to my sewing projects. And at the time, I found this book on a used book site. And they had some of the artwork scans put up. And I just loved the whole look of it. I love the aesthetic of it. It was more almost like the graphic design that appealed to me, not necessarily the clothing to start out with.
• [00:16:02.72] But I got this book. And I just became obsessed with it. And I became obsessed with the idea of learning everything in it. Because what they promise was if you make these 14 fashions, you'll become an expert seamstress. So I was like, well, I want to be an expert seamstress. And I need a project.
• [00:16:22.36] So that's how the blog started. Everyone asked me why I called it Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing, because I always ask everyone to call me Gretchen. And it is just sort of a silly nickname that my husband gave me. And it became my internet-- you know when you have to make a username for [? Berta style ?] or whatever. So I was just Gertie.
• [00:16:42.80] And I have to admit that Gretchen's New Blog for Better Sewing doesn't have the same ring. So it became Gerite's New Blog for Better Sewing. And it all came from this book.
• [00:16:53.64] So I just wanted to show you a few images. This model is frighteningly thin, I know. Everyone's like, Jesus. She was actually a pretty famous model. I forgot her name. But you'll see her in Vogue magazine and all that stuff around this time.
• [00:17:10.97] So this was the chemise dress. It's basically like a sack that you put a belt on. That was the first project.
• [00:17:18.61] This is a portrait blouse and dirndl gathered skirt. These are three of the pieces. You'll recognize the design from the blouse I'm wearing. It's called the bow tied blouse, the bolero, and they called it the slim supple skirt. It did not look like that on me, by the way.
• [00:17:41.40] This was the evening sheath in satin. The ball gown. The background dress, which is a really cool long sleeved dress. Very basic design. It had a high collar that came down into a slit like this. And you put a bound buttonhole on either side of the collar so that you could wrap a scarf through the buttonholes in various ways. And actually, I'll show you the cover of the pattern envelop.
• [00:18:07.87] This is the raglan sleeved coat, which just looked huge. I was like, why would anyone want to wear a style like that? But I've come to love this style over the years.
• [00:18:15.80] Here's one of the pages. I wanted to talk about the art in this book, because it's very of the moment, of its moment. There's something about the monochromatic illustrations, the sort of like two tones, that I just thought was like genius graphic design for whatever reason. And so I spent a lot of time just admiring the illustrations and how-to's in this book.
• [00:18:39.81] So the challenge was I was going to make all 14 of these patterns. The thing is, in my book and modern sewing books, you get the patterns with the book, right? Vogue did not do that. You had to seek out the patterns on your own. And they were 14 of their most popular patterns, so it would have been easy.
• [00:18:57.72] And sewing patterns at that time were sold in a lot more places than they're sold now. You could go to Macy's and get sewing patterns. You could go to your department store. Yeah, your options weren't just Walmart, Joann, or online. So it would have been a lot easier to source these things.
• [00:19:14.32] So I've spent a lot of time Google searching for these patterns. And I found all of them except for one, which I'm still working on. And I still haven't completed this challenge. A lot of people are like, when are you going to finish that thing that you started your blog for? I'm like, yeah, I'm working on it.
• [00:19:31.77] I became interested in a lot of other things along the way. I always get back to this challenge, but it isn't the primary purpose of the blog for me anymore, to be quite honest. But I'll show you some of the things that I made from it.
• [00:19:44.59] This was my first post. And I said, hello, darlings, which I think is so funny now, because I would never say that in life or anywhere. But it seemed like the thing to do on the internet. And it took me a lot of time to find my actual writing voice as a blogger, and I'm going to talk more about that.
• [00:20:00.81] So this is how I introduced my blog. I had like one reader. And I think it was my husband. This is the cover of the background dress. I just wanted to show you the different ways they show you that you can tie the little thing there. Oh, and it had instructions-- see in the upper left, there's like that little brooch kind of thing threaded through there? They show you how to make that with two rhinestone buttons and then stitching in between. That was a cool project.
• [00:20:32.63] Sorry, that's blurry. I pretty much stole this designed exactly for my book, to be honest. Because it was one of my absolute favorite things. And Vogue has no intention of ever re-releasing these patterns. And I really wanted the designs to be out there.
• [00:20:51.29] So this is one that has a very clever design. It has like a little kind of buttonhole thing that you thread the tie through, so you get a nice bow rather than a weird looking bow. So I definitely drew pretty directly from that.
• [00:21:06.58] This was the gathered skirt that also had a backless halter, which isn't something I would normally wear. But I made this, too.
• [00:21:15.02] There's my first project. I feel like I look so young. This was three and a half years ago. Yeah, I've gone through some hair changes. So yeah, this is the chemise dress, which I made in a four-ply silk, which was a terrible mistake, because it was a nightmare to hem. But that was the basic look.
• [00:21:34.70] It was supposed to be the most easy dress project you could possibly make. And at that point, I realized that the 1950s idea of what was easy sewing was so different from what my idea of easy sewing would be. Because it had these complicated cuffs with facings and a Mandarin collar. And you had to make a little button loop by hand with buttonhole stitches, that kind of thing. And then a facing to finish the edges of the slit. And of course, like I said, I did the whole thing in four-ply silk, which is an amazing fabric, but it's not for beginners. It still gives me some trouble.
• [00:22:16.54] So this is the bow tie blouse when I first made it. Yeah, it's one of my favorites.
• [00:22:20.88] AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
• [00:22:22.34] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Oh yeah, I have four of this blouse, I think. So the first one I made in a wool jersey, which is something that I was always reading about in '50s sewing books, but you don't really see a lot. Well, you're never going to find it in Joann's or whatever.
• [00:22:36.08] At the time, I lived in Queens. So I was always in the garment district. And I could source all of these amazing fabrics. And so I was able to find really similar qualities to the actual fabrics that would have been used at the time. And so wool jersey is a good example of that. It had some angora in it too, so it had a little fluffiness.
• [00:22:55.96] That was the gathered skirt. I made that in gingham taffeta, which is a lovely fabric too. And this was kind of the first project that people started taking notice of for whatever reason. I started getting more followers around this time. For whatever reason, people were like, [GASP], I wish I had that pattern. I would love to make that. And I was like, well, it's just a rectangle sewed into another rectangle. Seriously, it's really easy.
• [00:23:23.97] And I did a two-part tutorial on how to make your own pattern for a dirndl skirt with a waistband. And it's still my most popular post. It's amazing. If I look at my stats, that's the post that people are coming to my blog for. So it's super simple.
• [00:23:42.01] Finding my voice as a blogger. Around this time, I got an interesting comment on my blog that really fascinated me. And it's down here. This woman said, Gertie, the look is fabulous, but I've got to say, I'm uncomfortable about the return to '50s fashion. This was a terrible time for women, and the wiggle skirt is a symbol of just how unemancipated women were. Why do women want to wear a symbol of our oppression? Are you like my daughter, born in the post-feminist era and thinking I should just get over it?
• [00:24:11.89] And I was like, whoa, that's a lot to think about. And it kind of wounded me, because I am a staunch feminist, not a post-feminist. When I was eight years old, I was like, I am a feminist. And my mom was like, OK, do you even know what that means?
• [00:24:32.69] I've always said I'm not like second wave feminist, third wave feminist. I'm just feminist in the traditional sense. So this question really got me thinking and kind of bothered me about, was I sort of like participating in some sort of oppression by making clothes from this era?
• [00:24:48.00] So I started thinking a lot about this stuff. And I remember having some feelings like, should I blog about this? Would people be interested in this? And it turns out they were really interested in it.
• [00:24:58.34] So around this time, I realized that having sort of feelings of uncertainty or self-doubt about what I want to write about actually can be a good thing, because it sort of led me to push myself and post about things were a little controversial but also got people interested in what I was writing about. It made me think about fashion and sewing in a way that wasn't just in a shallow surface level, I guess.
• [00:25:25.79] So this was my first post that kind of went into gender issues, feminism. I don't know if the woman who wrote that comment really expected me to put this much time into thinking about the question. But I made a whole list of questions in response to her question. And we had this amazing-- that was my first post that I had over 100 comments on. And I remember thinking, 100 comments. That's amazing.
• [00:25:51.51] And I just felt like that was sort of the moment when I come into my own as a blogger. And from that point on, I felt much more confident it what I was writing and what I wanted to write about. And the fact that people actually wanted to read all this stuff I was thinking about was pretty amazing to me.
• [00:26:07.01] So body image has always been a really interesting topic to me. I'm like a yo-yo dieter from way back. And so fashion ties into body image so much in how we feel about our bodies as women. And sewing is really complicated, because you have to take your measurements and stuff. And it really freaks people out. And there are so many body images, body issues wrapped up in sewing.
• [00:26:30.05] So I started to write about that, too. And I got a really good response to that.
• [00:26:36.31] So the other thing I want to talk about is, like I said before, I became obsessed with technique. And this is my serious sewing nerd phase. I wanted to know everything about couture and tailoring specifically. So I started to study these things beyond the Vogue book. Because what I realized as I was going through the Vogue book, that while it was a vintage style of sewing, it wasn't necessarily couture sewing. Because you wouldn't find anything like boning in it.
• [00:27:09.17] The jackets were pretty tailored. That's where I learned pad stitching and all the stuff that goes into a traditionally tailored jacket. But I realized I needed to go beyond the Vogue book to learn what I wanted to learn.
• [00:27:19.08] So started taking classes at FITE and basically just researching. I'm self-taught in a lot, a lot of ways.
• [00:27:27.65] One of things I've always been really interested in is the New Look, which was Christian Dior's collection in 1947. And it sort of encompasses everything I love about sewing. He was basically an architect. He was like a sculptor in some ways, because all of his designs from this period are so structured.
• [00:27:49.45] This is the bar suit. It's one of the most famous designs from this time. And it would have had lots of padding around the shoulders, lots of tailoring in the collar and lapels. And then also padding on the hips, which I think people now think, I don't want to pad my hips. But at the time, it was sort a way of creating an hourglass figure that's really interesting.
• [00:28:08.31] So I wish I could look inside this suit so badly. But I started to do a lot of research on to how the suit would have been made. I found a Vogue pattern that has hip padding-- if you look at the lower left hand corner there-- to learn how this would have been made.
• [00:28:27.15] So it used a layer of buckram. Heavy buckram they called for, which is actually what you use to make hats. So really, really sculptural. A layer of heavy canvas and a layer of heavy muslin. And then the whole thing would have been pad stitched together, kind of like you do pad stitching on the collar and stuff.
• [00:28:48.89] And so I started piecing together and researching things like this. I also got really into tailoring. I made this coat that year. I think this was 2009 or '10. And I vlogged. I got into video at this point. I bought myself a little Flip cam. And I made a series of 10 videos on how to make a tailored coat, which I didn't know how to make a tailored coat is the funny thing. I was teaching myself as I was making the videos.
• [00:29:18.32] So it's kind of funny to me sometimes when people say, oh, she's an expert on tailoring, or she's a sewing expert. Because I'm really just a self-taught sewer. And what I was doing was teaching myself. But I was so excited about it that I wanted to share it. So that's how I became to be known as an expert. It's always very strange to me.
• [00:29:39.55] At this time, I got a book deal. Very exciting. I was contacted by a literary agent at the time. And she had done a lot of craft book deals and thought that my blog had good potential to be a book. And I was over the moon. I was so excited. I kind of dreamed about it becoming a book at some point, but I didn't really expect it to happen that soon.
• [00:30:02.91] So we spent a long, long time working on a proposal. We did a 40-page proposal. At the time, it was called Sewing Vintage. My editor, Melanie Falick, she changed the name to Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing. She was like, I don't understand why we don't just call it Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing. I was like, OK.
• [00:30:22.96] So from this point on, life became very complicated, because I wanted to keep logging as much as I had been, but it became impossible. I was still working full time. After my period of unemployment, I was hired at Simon & Schuster as a children's book editor. So I was working full time. I was still trying to blog every day. And now I got a teaching job at the Sewing Studio in New York. I was writing some sewing articles for magazines. And now I had to write a book.
• [00:30:52.67] And around this time, stress was really a big issue in my life. So I'm going to talk a little bit more about that and managing things and how I eventually became freelance and made a complete career switch to doing this.
• [00:31:08.35] This was my first sewing article. I was really excited. I did an article on how to draft circle skirts for a magazine called Quick Stuff to Sew. Which I was like, oh, because that's so not my thing. But circle skirts are actually pretty easy to make and very vintage. Everyone loves them. So that was my first article. I was so excited.
• [00:31:29.44] So making the freelance leap. Around this time, like I said, I had the teaching job. I had the book. I had gigs writing for magazines. I became a contributing editor for Stitch magazine. And my job was really, really suffering.
• [00:31:46.31] If you know any book editors, they're really passionate. And people at Simon & Schuster, I loved working there. I was only there for a year. But you really have to commit your whole life to it. And I felt like I was basically kind of like phoning it into this job that people would kill for.
• [00:32:03.18] So I started thinking about how I could make the leap to doing this, because I was feeling completely unbalanced. So luckily, I got some freelance editing work from my editor doing craft books at that time.
• [00:32:15.86] So I built up sort of like a base of jobs. It's really complicated when people ask me what I do, because there's really no one answer. I do a lot of different things. They all relate to sewing, which is great.
• [00:32:28.31] But what I had to do is make sure that I had that foundation before I could actually make the leap. So it was really exciting. I quit my job. It was a fabulous day.
• [00:32:39.11] And around this time, another thing that happened was that I was thinking, OK, well I got a book. I got the blog. I'd love to do patterns. I want to have my own pattern line. There's like Colette Patterns and Sewaholic and all these cool independent companies. I was like, I want to have an independent pattern company.
• [00:32:53.00] And then I started researching the work that goes into that. And I was like, OK, I don't want to have an independent pattern company. But I had come up with a proposal. I put together a business model for a line of patterns.
• [00:33:07.68] And I was lucky to meet with the people at Vogue. Vogue Patterns magazine did a little tidbit on my blog. And Kathy Marrone, who was the editor at time, said hey, do you want a tour of the offices? And I was like, do I want a tour of the offices? I would kill for a tour of the offices.
• [00:33:24.77] So I got to go in and see the drafting room and all the muslins. And it was super exciting. And I ended up meeting with the design team that day and presenting my idea to them. And they were like, yeah, yeah, we'll do it. I was like, what? They're like, yeah, we'll do it We'll do your line. Really, that was the conversation. I was like, oh good, OK.
• [00:33:49.55] And there was a lot talk about which brand they were going to put it into. I had hoped that it would be a Vogue line obviously, because my entire sewing career is based on a Vogue book. And they initially thought McCall's, because there's already a retro line in McCall's.
• [00:34:09.92] But then they fell on Butterick for a reason I can't really remember. And I think it was because they felt like there was more opportunity in Butterick to grow vintage looks.
• [00:34:20.67] So I started designing patterns at this time. Oh, this is my little logo that the illustrator for my book did, which I love. It's just called Patterns by Gertie, and it's just a line within Butterick's line. And I do about four a year. I only have two out right now. But my first one made the cover of the catalog, which is when people ask what the proudest moment of my career is, I have to say this was it. Because it's so tied back into my afternoons spent at Joann's as a child, looking through the books and all that.
• [00:34:51.65] And to me, seeing my own book for the first time did not compare at all to seeing my design on the Butterick catalog. I was like, I made it.
• [00:35:01.12] So just to give you a sense of how my process works for Butterick, none of my designs are original. They all come from vintage looks. But what I look for when I design is, what does the modern woman want to wear? And what's in demand? What can't I find in a vintage pattern? What's a design detail that is rare? Or this was a good one. I saw a bunch of patterns that had that drape on the side, and Joan wore that dress on season one of Mad Men.
• [00:35:38.39] So I started searching around for patterns like that. And it turns out that that's a pretty rare type of pattern. And they were selling for like $200 and the bust size was like 30 inches. I was like, that's my waist size.
• [00:35:52.91] And so I realized that there could be a demand for those little details that vintage enthusiasts get really excited about, but can't find. If you just want to make that kind of dress and you want to find it in your size and you want to find it at Joann's for $0.99, what do you do? So that was the idea. And that's how all of the designs came about.
• [00:36:13.01] I also did a coat dress, and I have two more coming out in March, which I'll talk a little bit about later.
• [00:36:18.59] The book. So the book was really hard. It took a long time to write. It became my full time job. I kind of realized as I was writing, I don't know how I thought I was going to keep working full time. There was no way. There was absolutely no way.
• [00:36:38.26] It has nine patterns that have a ton of variations. So I ended up making 25 garments for the book, which was another thing that took up a lot of time. And my editor, at first, she said, I really want to show all the garments inside out. She's like, I just love how garments look inside out on the dress form.
• [00:36:56.68] I was like, I'm making 25 garments in two months. I don't know if all of them are going to be like museum quality on the inside. So we compromised and did some of them shot from inside out. But they're all finished well. There's no glue holding them together. It's not like Project Runway.
• [00:37:18.20] So I modeled all the garments for the book, which was my editor's idea. And it was a weird thing for me. I'm not a professional model. But I kind of became one for this project. And the one thing that was great about it was that I got to make all the clothes in my size. So I didn't have to make sample sizes, which is amazing. So I had a whole new wardrobe.
• [00:37:39.92] And I did the modeling, and it was a little bit stressful. I worried a lot about the photos. I hate some of them. And you know how just sometimes looking at pictures of yourself, just like, blech. And so this book is just full of them, obviously.
• [00:37:59.24] But my favorite thing about the book is the illustrations. We found this woman. Her name is Sun Young Park. And we looked at a couple of candidates for illustrators. And her stuff was really good, but it wasn't the one that I first gravitated towards. But then we started talking, and she's really versatile. She kept trying out different styles.
• [00:38:20.15] So first she did super glamorous sort of like fashion plate illustrations. And I was like, I don't know. It just feels cold. I mean, it's perfect, but it just doesn't feel right.
• [00:38:31.50] And so at that point, she started working with photos from my blog and turning them into illustrations. And it became so personal. And she even took pictures of my friends and illustrated them. And what sealed the deal was that she started putting my cat, Henry, into the illustrations.
• [00:38:50.94] And can you see up on the shelf? Yeah, his head is poking out there. Yeah, there's several Henry's in the book. And then we got to the point where I wanted Henry added to every photo. I was like, well, this illustration is good, but can we add Henry? And Melanie was finally like, enough. Enough cat.
• [00:39:13.22] But not just those illustrations she did, I love these. I wanted to show the parts of a tailored coat. But she took it to this level. I think it's just so gorgeous. And this is one of my favorites, too. She had this idea to do sort of like x-rays of it. Like what an x-ray view a bone bodice, what would that look like.
• [00:39:36.21] So that's the book. And then I was just going to finish up by talking about what I'm working on next. I just signed up two more books, so I'll be doing that. My blogging, obviously. I wanted to talk about blogging. Because on New Year's Eve, I was like, my resolution is to really rededicate myself to my blog. Because I feel like it's gotten very hard to continue with the sort of output that I was doing in my first year of blogging. And I can never really get back to that. I don't know if I really want to, because it really took over my life.
• [00:40:07.07] But I feel like I really strongly identify as a blogger. I would like to just say I'm a blogger, but people are always like, what do you do? I'm a blogger. But they're like, but how do you make money?
• [00:40:18.38] But every opportunity I've had comes from my blog. So it's really where the source of everything is for me. And I want to keep writing it, obviously. And The Talented Mr. Ripley I was writing about the other day. Oh, my hair. I write about my hair all the time.
• [00:40:36.49] This was an important post for me just because I had a lot of doubt about dying my hair pink. And then I did it, and I was really horrified with myself for 12 hours. And it was like one of the worst nights of my life. And so I wrote about it.
• [00:40:48.58] And it was important, because anytime I feel really vulnerable about something and then end up blogging about, and I kind of cringe and wait for the trolls to come out and say, you look terrible, or you're hideous or whatever it is. And I get this outpouring of support. And it's so amazing. I got almost 200 comments on this post, and they were all just like, you look gorgeous. There was one comment that was like, I don't like it. But other than that, out of 200 comments, it was pretty amazing.
• [00:41:16.57] While my blog has always been very personally and sometimes it's very hard for me to put myself out there in vulnerable ways, it has always felt really good when I do it. So writing personal stuff is just part of what I do.
• [00:41:29.97] I just took a college teaching job, by the way. And my faculty mentor was like, anything I know you're a blogger, but don't put anything too personal up. I was like, too late. These students can find out anything they want about me. So it's just part of being a blogger, and I guess that's what it is.
• [00:41:51.18] Oh, I write about my love for My Little Pony. I'm super into My Little Pony right now. And the reason I put this up there was because I am just constantly amazed. Anything I become obsessed with-- My Little Pony, playing the ukulele, hula hooping-- I write about it and people are interested in talking about it on a sewing blog. I think that's what's been amazing to me is that all these interests can kind of come together in a very cool way.
• [00:42:23.24] And yeah, the My Little Pony thing. People were like, I love My Little Pony. There are a lot of people who like it in the sewing community. It's pretty amazing
• [00:42:30.25] AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
• [00:42:32.16] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: You My Little Pony fans?
• [00:42:33.45] AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
• [00:42:35.14] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Who's your favorite pony? Million dollar question, I know. OK, sorry. Too much pressure.
• [00:42:42.70] This is my My Little Pony dress. Pinkie Pie is my favorite pony. So I made a whole fabric on Spoonflower that uses her cutie mark, which is the symbol on their flank. And yeah, at times like this, I was like, oh god, I know I'm going to get some mean comments about those. People are going to think this is ridiculous.
• [00:43:00.55] People were so supportive. They loved it. They loved that I made the fabric. They were interested. They want to know how to do it. It was just, like I said, always really amazing to me.
• [00:43:08.80] Book two. So book two is going to be called Gertie Sews Vintage Casual. And it comes out in fall 2014. So the idea behind this book was when I was working on the patterns for the first one, a lot of people said, oh, are you going to have a pant pattern? And I was like, oh, maybe I should include a pant patterns. Because for a modern woman, that's really part of a wardrobe, definitely.
• [00:43:32.69] And I wanted to try to work it in, but I realized that the topic was so big and that there could really be a whole book on it. So it's not a book on pants, but it's a book on casual clothing and the construction techniques that go into it that are different from the more couture stuff that I did in the first book. And then also the fitting techniques.
• [00:43:51.92] So if you've ever sewn pants, you know that they're like a fitting nightmare. So I'm working on that.
• [00:43:58.49] Oh, thank you. 10 minutes? OK. OK, got it. No, this is perfect. I'm doing really well. I'm doing good with time. I told them I'm really bad at managing my time when I talk, because I can just go on and on and on.
• [00:44:11.82] So I wanted to show you some of the research that I'm doing. This is Claire McCardell dress. Have you heard of Claire McCardell before. A huge designer in the '40s and '50s. And this has actually been a really interesting research project. Way more interesting in ways than the first book, because it's a very historical moment.
• [00:44:34.47] And casual clothing and the history of it is so tied into women's history. Because at this time-- this was post-World War II-- people didn't want to look to France anymore for fashion. They wanted the creation of this new American look is what they called. And Claire McCardell was one of the leading designers.
• [00:44:57.36] And the amazing thing is that most of the women who are known for the American look, which is casual, sportswear, separates, that kind of thing, were women. You get away from having Christian Dior and French men being the idols. And now American women were wearing clothes by American women. It was pretty cool.
• [00:45:16.36] So this is one of her dresses. Her whole thing was that she used really simple fabrics-- gingham, denim. She made this dress called the popover dress, which had like an oven mitt attached to it. I'm not going to do that in the book.
• [00:45:30.78] And so her whole idea was clothes that you want to wear. Clothes that feel good to wear, which is so different from my first book. People ask, do you have sweatpants? Do you wear sweatpants? And I'm like, I live in pajamas at home. I do dress up a lot, but I also love comfortable clothes.
• [00:45:49.67] And I love the idea that the women were working with at this time of making clothes that you don't have to wear a corset to get into. As much as I love New Look, you don't have to wear a corset. You don't have to wear your girdle. This is your favorite dress that you throw on every day of the summer. So how does a designer come up with those concepts?
• [00:46:08.03] This is a design by Tina Leser. It's a hostess pajama, which I kept coming across in my research, too. I don't think I'm going to do a design exactly like this. But I love the pants under this sort of tunic thing there. And that became very popular. So I also like the whole scene going on here.
• [00:46:27.97] [LAUGHTER]
• [00:46:29.21] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: I want that to be one of the photographs in the book. We were having a conversation about modeling again, and I was like, I really want to pull in some other models for this book. So if anyone wants to be a model, I want to do some plus size models. I was thinking of having two--
• [00:46:48.94] AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]
• [00:46:51.05] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Yeah, so I wanted to do a thinner woman, then a plus size woman so that there was a bigger range involved. But the question is, who are these people going to be and all that. So if you know anyone who's a great model and is interested in sewing, hit me up.
• [00:47:08.89] I've been researching a lot of casual sewing patterns from the time. I love these cigarette pant things that they were wearing. And then that jacket on the upper right is a style that became really popular around the time-- the '49er jacket. Have you heard of this? It's made by Pendleton Wool. It's the simplest thing in the world, but people were obsessed with it.
• [00:47:30.25] And I love the idea of having, in the second book, a shirt pattern that could be made into a wool jacket. It could be done in a gingham and tied at the waist, that kind of thing.
• [00:47:38.62] So again, it's going to be a core of patterns that can be made into a variety of styles. So there will be a simple pant that could also be adapted into shorts. It could also be made into a wide leg version, like a Katharine Hepburn kind of thing.
• [00:47:52.19] So pattern making is always really important to me, and I always wanted to make people feel empowered to change their patterns. So if you have this idea of a perfect pant, you don't have to spend hours and hours searching out that pattern. You could make it yourself using a basic pattern. So it's accessible for women or for modern sewers, but I think a lot people don't really realize that.
• [00:48:18.90] So I'm working on new Butterick patterns as well. And I can't show you them yet, but I wanted to show you some of the images that I showed Butterick. Then I thought you could glean some little hints.
• [00:48:29.67] This is Norma Jean. And I was researching jeans at the time. So I do have a jean pattern coming out. I can tell you that. It's coming out in March with a little top.
• [00:48:43.93] Yeah, Elizabeth Taylor. So the shelf bust dress is one of those mythical patterns that cost $200. And so I designed one, and it's coming out in March, too.
• [00:48:56.86] This is looking very into the future. I'm going to be doing a swimsuit at some point. I'm obsessed with vintage Jantzen ads. Amazing. They were built like evening dresses essentially. They had so much boning. And some of them, like this says, shape makery. They had like girdles inside and really intense construction.
• [00:49:17.53] And then I'm coming back to bar suit, because I just finish proposing an idea for a suit design sort of based on this era. So it all kind of comes back to my initial interest that was talking about before. So full circle. And that's all. Thank you so much.
• [00:49:36.62] [APPLAUSE]
• [00:49:43.68] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: So we can go to questions now.
• [00:49:45.96] SPEAKER 1: Any questions, please come right up to the microphone. So I have one since no one's up here.
• [00:49:53.47] When you talked about trousers, I was wondering about-- I remember I loved I Love Lucy-- the what I call the Lucy Ricardo pants. Is that kind of the cigarette pant, or does it seem like they were wider legged at the bottom and she'd wear flats, and they'd hit about at the leg?
• [00:50:09.18] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Oh, they were wider legged? When I think of her wearing pants, I think of her wearing like the hostess dress kind of thing. She did have that on--
• [00:50:15.77] SPEAKER 1: She did those, yeah. Definitely.
• [00:50:16.87] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: --and then the slim pant underneath. But I'll have to look at the wide legs, because I'm not sure what those would be.
• [00:50:24.77] AUDIENCE: Hi.
• [00:50:25.76] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Hi.
• [00:50:26.59] AUDIENCE: I've been a professional seamstress for 25 years. I have a shop in town. And I teach sewing, so it thrills me to no end to see all these people here who are interested in hearing you speak. Because I'm always trying to get people interested. So I don't have a question, but I just wanted to thank you for helping to change the face of sewing. That you can be a feminist and know how to sew. And it's really cool, and it's incredibly empowering to have the skill. It just thrills me to no end. So thank you very much.
• [00:50:57.89] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Thank you, yeah. That's really important to me, too, and seeing young women want to start sewing again. I think there was sort of a fear that the industry was dying. That all these fabric stores were closing. Joann's is the only place you can really buy any supplies right now.
• [00:51:14.54] And I think for a while there was this sort of feeling that sewing is completely out of fashion. And there's been a complete resurgence lately that's really satisfying for me to see, too.
• [00:51:30.52] AUDIENCE: Hi. Thank you so much for coming. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about, like I see your project of doing those 14 patterns as helping you make the jump from a beginning seamstress to someone with a lot of expertise. If there's anything that you would recommend for someone who does have the beginning, what can someone do to kind of make that jump?
• [00:51:47.22] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Right, that's a good question. Yeah, people ask sometimes, oh, should I do the whole Vogue project? Is that what would help me learn? I was like, no, don't do it. It's really a lot of work.
• [00:52:00.48] And so yeah, the Vogue project, it was the starting point for me, like I said. But it definitely wasn't the ending point. And I ended up seeking out so many other resources from it that it's not really the simple from beginner to couture sewer project.
• [00:52:25.13] I think one of the best things you can do is take a class. There's so many studios popping up now. And like you were just saying, you're a seamstress and you teach sewing, even if you don't have a sewing studio in your area, though it sounds like you do, you can find a seamstress who will give you private lessons. That's what I did when I wanted to learn draping. I didn't want to commit to the whole draping course at FIT. So I found a woman who was a seamstress in New York, and she taught private draping lessons to me for about a year. And that's how I got a good grasp on that.
• [00:53:01.58] So private lessons with a seamstress are a great, really valuable thing. I think especially because then you can really tackle what you want to do. The beginner courses that teach are more like everyone starts out with a drawstring bag. It's like those lame things that no one wants to do, but you have to get through.
• [00:53:21.06] So as much education as possible is really important. It's important to me. I strive to keep taking classes as much as I can. But then also, I really recommend Threads magazine as a good starting point. They have the whole archive on DVD now, so you can just buy the disk and search for anything you want. I learned more from that magazine than I think anywhere else. It's really an incredible resource.
• [00:53:49.75] AUDIENCE: Did you go to a private seamstress to get measured for your patterns and things when you made them?
• [00:53:56.02] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: When I made them for the book?
• [00:54:00.24] AUDIENCE: Did she go to a private seamstress to get measured, because for a pattern, you need measurement.
• [00:54:07.34] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Right. Yeah, no, I didn't. I made the patterns myself. I did take pattern making at FIT so I had a pretty good grasp of what went into it. But the weird thing that I did for my book was that I used myself as the fit model, because I was also the model model.
• [00:54:29.92] And I based the sizing-- because you know how sizing is so weird and arbitrary and it changes from line to line and pattern to pattern. So I thought well, my line, my sizing can be arbitrary, too. It will be me. I'm the sample size. So I made myself a size eight. And I went down to a two from there, and then up to a 16. So I was the central side size. I tend to be an average size anyway, so it worked.
• [00:55:03.22] But yeah, I fit everything to myself, which actually people have been responding very well to the fit of the patterns in the book. Because what I did was make sure that they worked well for a more hourglass woman than the pattern lines in stores tend to. So you'll see that the hip sizes are bigger in proportion to the waist sizes, which I have a hard time with a lot. So that's one of the things that was really important to me.
• [00:55:31.09] AUDIENCE: Thank you.
• [00:55:32.09] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Yeah.
• [00:55:35.94] AUDIENCE: I really applaud the fact that you're actually putting out again into publication things that you could really only find in older books in the past. So it's wonderful to see that stuff again.
• [00:55:45.27] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Thank you.
• [00:55:46.07] AUDIENCE: One thing that I was wondering about, you mentioned that you're doing pattern making yourself. Did you have kind of a fitting mannequin made? And if so, are there still companies in business that do that? I had one made of my torso probably about 15 years ago when I wanted to make my wedding dress. And it is so handy to have something that has the exact measurement of shoulder to waist and all that. I was curious how you do it.
• [00:56:15.39] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: My draping teacher-- I wrote a post about this-- she did drape a muslin on my body, and we made a shell out of it and then put it on my dress form and stuffed it. The problem was that my weight changes a lot. And it was good for that period of my life, which is a heavier period. But then I kept pulling out all the stuffing when I lost weight. And it got a little complicated.
• [00:56:43.97] You can have forms made to measure. One company that does is it Wolf, is sort of like a pie in the sky dream of mine. They do it for like $2,000 though. It's not an insignificant amount of money.
• [00:56:54.42] AUDIENCE: The one I had made I think was like $300. That's somewhere in New York City. But that, as I said, was quite a while ago.
• [00:57:01.90] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Yeah, you can hardly get a standard dress form for $300. That's interesting. Yeah, the thing that I would recommend doing is getting-- there is a company called Fabulous Fit. Do you guys know this company? They make dress forms. I don't love their dress forms. But I like their system that they have, which is that they have this lycra tube or sleeve that goes over the entire dress portion of the mannequin. And then they sell pads that you can add to it.
• [00:57:31.76] The problem with the system is that the pads are so big. So like you put a pad on and then it's like, oh, well now I have a huge butt. There's no levels of subtlety or anything there. But they also just sell that sleeve on their website. So you could use your own dress form and get the sleeve. Or you can just make a spandex tube and then pad out your form.
• [00:57:56.26] And you want to put on your form where your actual waist is. So put a line of stay taper. Yeah, all that. So you want to have the waistline, the hipline, all of that marked clearly for your body on your dress form definitely.
• [00:58:12.94] AUDIENCE: And just a quick follow up. As I was listening to your explanation, I remembered you were talking about the wonder of Threads. They've done at least two articles over the years on making a model, a dress form for yourself with a friend's help and a lot of duct tape.
• [00:58:28.37] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Yeah, there are the duct tape dress forms. As I've gotten more into making actual patterns that other people will use, it's helped me to have standard dress forms, because they come with all of the draping lines that you need on it to make a pattern. So princess lines are on there. There's the tape at the waist. There's usually a metal plate at the armhole, which helps you draft the arm [INAUDIBLE]. All that stuff that you need for pattern making.
• [00:58:57.83] So I actually ordered a special dress form for Butterick, because they're sample size is a 10, which is actually like a two if you go to stores. It's all really confusing. So I have one of those, and I can drape directly on that.
• [00:59:13.28] AUDIENCE: Hi. I'm 18-years-old, and I'm a senior in high school right now. And a lot of my friends want to sew. I've been sewing for a while now, and I've been trying to help some of them out.
• [00:59:24.88] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Great.
• [00:59:25.46] AUDIENCE: But sometimes it's hard, because I can't remember exactly where I started. So what tips would you give to them if they're just beginning?
• [00:59:32.51] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: For complete beginners? Well, I think the best thing you can do is start with a really simple skirt pattern. That's what I do in all of my beginning classes at the Sewing Studio. So maybe if everyone were working on the same pattern, like a pencil skirt without a waistband, that's kind of the easiest place to start. And it's easy to fit, too. Because you really just have the waist and the hip.
• [00:59:58.91] And then I really recommend reviewing fabric grain and proper cutting technique, because that's one of the things that I think people forget a lot. And I do an entire class on it at the Sewing Studio. In the eight-week course, one is focused only on cutting out your pattern. So really focusing on grain, how to layout fabric properly, measuring from the grain line on the pattern to the selvage, all of that stuff. I think if people understood that-- it's kind of a difficult concept to grasp when you first start sewing. But I think it's one that really can't be overlooked. So does that help you at all?
• [01:00:40.93] AUDIENCE: Yeah, thank you.
• [01:00:46.46] AUDIENCE: I'm really excited about your experience with Spoonflower and doing your own fabric. I wonder if you could talk more about that process. I know Threads just had the article on it, and they list two companies for do-it-yourselfers. But where do you see that industry going?
• [01:01:03.67] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Interesting side story is I just started teaching at Marist College, which is in Poughkeepsie, New York. And one of the resources the fashion students have there is a fabric printer in the department. Yeah, it's amazing. So it's this big thing, and they have technicians who work there. And they have a whole catalog of types of fabric they can use in it. So it's a lot wider than what Spoonflower. It's like a binder that thick. It's amazing.
• [01:01:32.88] Apparently the quality of what they print isn't very good though, because they just stick it through that little printer thing. I recommend Spoonflower, because I think the quality of printing is very good. It's fabric that you can actually wear, wash, all that stuff. It's not just going to go down a runway and that's it.
• [01:01:46.89] So I think that what's complicated about it is that you have to have some graphic design skills to even get started. So I took a private lesson on Photoshop. Because I wanted to learn Photoshop, but I didn't want to take a Photoshop course, because I was like, that sounds really boring. I really just want to go to one guy and say, OK, I have this-- I used to do some silk painting, too. So if I scan this image, how do I make the changes for a fabric design? So I just went to one person and learned what I wanted to know about Photoshop rather than everything about Photoshop. Because you can really go deep into that rabbit hole. So that was really helpful.
• [01:02:35.14] And also, recently in Beacon, this woman opened a studio called Fabrication, and she teaches textile design in my little town in New York. It's amazing. So I took a class with her, too. And she teaches Photoshop specifically for fabric design.
• [01:02:52.20] There are also two new books out right now. One by the woman who writes the blog, True Up, which is a fabric blog. And then another one, and I can't remember what it's called. But there are two book specifically for aspiring fabric designers, even if you just want to make fabric for yourself, that have really good tips in them.
• [01:03:10.34] So I would say learn some basic Photoshop. But you weren't really asking that, were you?
• [01:03:18.32] AUDIENCE: It's good to hear that colleges and universities are coming back to surface design and actually thinking about buying these--
• [01:03:24.41] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Yeah, I think it's going to get bigger and bigger, definitely. I think that the whole print on demand thing is just amazing. It is kind of expensive. But my fabric, I think, was like $30 a yard or something like that. But for custom fabric, my own design on this really lovely cotton silk blend that came within a week, it's a pretty amazing resource. And I think if you can, definitely invest in some Photoshop education, because it's really exciting what you can do with it.
• [01:03:57.22] AUDIENCE: Hi. I identify myself as someone getting better at sewing.
• [01:04:01.82] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: OK. I think I do, too.
• [01:04:05.01] AUDIENCE: Right now, my husband's in grad school, so I don't have a lot of money. But I want to know what are some good tools to invest when going through all these sewing projects. I'm actually registered for your bombshell dress online. But I'm not really sure of the tools that I should invest in with my limited amount of money. So what would you recommend to have now?
• [01:04:25.68] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Well, good scissors definitely I think are something that you can't skimp on. Do you guys know KAI scissors? Aren't they Amazing. K-A-I. It's a Japanese brand of scissors. They sell them online. Some quilting shops carry them. They are amazing. I used to hate cutting out patterns. Now I'm like oh, I get to use my scissors. And I've had them for like a year now. It's not just the novelty of them. So that is definitely something I wouldn't skimp on.
• [01:05:01.45] But I think you can save money on fabric. I have really expensive taste in fabric, but there's no reason why you have to spend upwards of $20 a yard on fabric when you're first starting. And there's a lot of really decent quality cottons at Joann's and stuff like that. Yeah, that's a great place to start.
• [01:05:22.99] A machine. I cheaped out on a machine when I first got back into it. I bought one of those Brother Project Runway machines, mostly because it was on Home Shopping Network and there was an installment payment plan or something. I couldn't even afford to pay for it all at once. And I hated it. I really hated it. I had a ton of bells and whistles. I had 300 stitches, and it was LED screen and all this stuff.
• [01:05:52.39] But I ended up paring back to a much more expensive, but simpler machine. So I ended up getting a Bernina 1008. I paid about $800 for mine. So everyone always asks me, what's a good beginning sewing machine? I'm like this $800 machine is really great. And it really would be a machine that you could start off on and just continue on.
• [01:06:18.22] But I would say invest as much money as you can into a good machine, preferably a mechanical one. I don't go for all the computerized stuff for beginning sewers. I don't really even need it at all for what I do. I don't need a computerized machine. So simple, but quality mechanical machine is definitely something you want to put your money into, too.
• [01:06:38.69] A dress form I don't think is necessary when you're starting out. A cutting table, that was the biggest luxury for me. That's more of a luxury item. I found one on Craigslist for $200. It was amazing. So I do have a special cutting table.
• [01:06:52.41] You have to have a good iron and a good ironing board. But other than that, you can definitely go more budget. Does that help?
• [01:07:02.20] AUDIENCE: Yes, thank you.
• [01:07:04.78] AUDIENCE: Thanks for coming to Ann Arbor.
• [01:07:06.64] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Of course.
• [01:07:07.22] AUDIENCE: I've taken Michelle's classes. And Michelle, I'm sorry, I know the name is French. It's [INAUDIBLE]. I stopped sewing. So the name escapes me. Remind me the name of your place.
• [01:07:18.86] AUDIENCE: Nonpareil.
• [01:07:20.69] AUDIENCE: Nonpareil for anyone who speaks French. So her classes are great. They're beginner and advanced. Anyone who wants to take just little two-hour classes-- is it Viking store on Jackson? I've been there.
• [01:07:36.75] AUDIENCE: Ann Arbor Sewing Center.
• [01:07:37.64] AUDIENCE: Ann Arbor Sewing Center. For beginners, I'm still shying away from zippers. So go, find out how to put a zipper in. And then you won't have to avoid those patterns. And my favorite tool is a rotary cutter.
• [01:07:55.14] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Oh yeah, I like my rotary cutter, too.
• [01:07:57.07] AUDIENCE: And I found a really great steam iron at Treasure Mart. Yay, find of the century. So thanks for putting out your book. I always love to see variations on patterns. I'm not good at imagining how to do them. The math part really escapes me. So when I see patterns that offer, well, you can do the sleeve this way. Just add two centimeters over here or something, it's really fun.
• [01:08:21.69] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Yeah, yeah. I started sort of doing simple pattern making with a book called Design Your Own Dress Patterns by Adele P. Margolis who was a really prolific sewing author in the '50s through '70s. And this book is amazing for people who feel like that who kind of want, oh, I want the sleeve to be just a little bit different. Or how do I make a v-neck on a scoop neck?
• [01:08:45.72] For the first time, I felt like I was reading something that was in English. You know what I mean? Broken down into just layman's terms. Like, oh, you just add a smidge up the thing. It's not like, oh, you take your t-square and rrrr.
• [01:08:59.53] AUDIENCE: Hi. I really enjoyed your presentation. Thank you for coming to Ann Arbor. This is just a follow up comment about making your own patterns. I just read the True Up book. But there's a website called nicolesclasses.com. And there's a four-week pattern design class that's all on your computer, go at your own pace. And it's like $90. So it was really economical, and it covered all different types of pattern design.
• [01:09:27.67] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Does it have some Photoshop tips in it, too?
• [01:09:29.62] AUDIENCE: It's actually in illustrator.
• [01:09:30.89] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: In Illustrator, oh, OK.
• [01:09:31.97] AUDIENCE: So you can scale the patterns. But they also teach Photoshop online classes, too.
• [01:09:36.88] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Oh, and another thing-- thank you for remind me-- I want to say about the computer programs is Photoshop is really expensive, which is one of the drawbacks. But I use Photoshop Elements, which is like this hobbyist version of Photoshop. And it became free with-- I bought one of those digital pens to do, what do they call them? Wacom tablet? Thank you. And Elements came free with that. And I'm able to do everything I need to on that. And if you want to just buy, I think it's under $100.
• [01:10:14.30] SPEAKER 3: OK, let's all give Gretchen a big hand. Thank you so much for coming.
• [01:10:17.44] GRETCHEN HIRSCH: Thank you.
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