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The iPod generation in stitches
Young people discover a traditional domestic art tailor-made for them – sewing.
from the May 1, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
More broadly, sewing lounges and clubs offer people a social network and personal contact that many don't get in the high-tech age of IMing, online chat rooms, and blogging.
"I think young people are looking for new social outlets, and sewing certainly does that," says Sharon Wirth, who teaches an introductory sewing course at Iowa State University in Ames. "With garment construction and quilting, even knitting, I think a very big component is the socialization. People are learning a lot about coping skills, patience, and persistence. You learn some real life lessons with sewing."
Certainly Ms. Meng and her two childhood friends, Melissa Alvarado and Melissa Rannels, were aware of this when they opened the Stitch Lounge in 2004. They had been thinking about starting some sort of arts-and-craft shop for several years, but finally narrowed their concept to sewing. More than anything, they wanted to create a place where people with all levels of skill could congregate. "We want people to find their own place in the sewing community," says Meng.
The result is a boutique with fur-covered lights and orange-sherbert walls in San Francisco's hip Hayes Valley neighborhood. There, amid shelves filled with fabrics ranging from metallic to mohair, sewing machines whir throughout the day.
Unlike some sewers in the Leave-It-To-Beaver generation, many of today's young enthusiasts want to redesign already owned clothes as a way to express their inner seamstresses. Consider, for instance, turning a pair of pants into a skirt. "People want clothes that look original," says Meng. "How much more original can you get if you take a vintage shirt and turn it into something else?"
The Stitch Lounge is something of a citadel to refashioned clothes. The three owners are about to come out with their second book that explores reconstructing new clothes from existing closet stock, and the window of their store features a host of reengineered goods – a black mohair jacket lined with flame-red fleece, for instance, and a turquoise skirt with a black velvet waistband.
For photographer Dawn Pavli, the concept of refashioned clothes is what drew her to Stitch. A collector of vintage dresses, Ms. Pavli signed up for a beginner's sewing course. She hopes to take the skills acquired here and apply them to what's on her hangars at home. "I'd like to alter my clothes, just to make them more personal and more interesting," she says.
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