About Attachment Style Studios

Nearly 2 decades before the disco bug that started the Attachment Style Studios brand, I was lucky enough to learn the basics of sewing when I was a Girl Scout, in a troup led my amazing mom. Our elementary school group designed duct tape dresses for a fashion show, made hand sewn sit-upons for camping trips, and got to use a sewing machine to make small bags out of scrap denim. I found my third grade ~jurse~ in the back of a closet when I moved back home the summer after graduating from college and fell back in love with it. Now my most used purse, it has been the inspiration for the line of jags I’ve made under the Attachment Style brand.

My public high school was my next learning environment. The school was large with a wide variety of elective courses on offer. I took all 3 of the increasingly-advanced, semester-long sewing classes with Mrs. Farius. She ran a tight ship to make sure all of the students treated the machines with care, followed patterns to a T, and completed their projects with the crispest sewn lines possible. In the most advanced fashion design course, students customized patterns to bring their own visions alive, with some sewing their own prom dresses.

What I remember most is the relaxing break in my day of classes, where I’d reach a flow state moving between designated areas for the ironing boards, cutting tables, sewing & serger machines, and the collection bins for different sizes of fabric scraps. I hope to one day operate out of a space that brings me that same feeling. After I finished that coursework with a dress, romper (who else had 10 in 2015? eek!), and tote bags to show for it, I put sewing the away.

Years later, the pandemic brought my love of sewing back to life, and for the first time, I tried my hand at freehanding patterns. On top of making lots of face masks, I was inspired when one of my best friends Elise studied abroad in Uganda and brought me back a few yards of sturdy, beautiful fabric with navy, maroon and cream colors interlocking in a geometric pattern. With plenty of free time and space in my parents’ basement during Covid, I felt called to doing something special with those yards. Using existing clothing in my wardrobe as a guide, I figured out how to cut and attach pieces into a matching shorts and tank top set.

This reignited my excitement, but the sturdy fabrics had been a bit of a pain to work with. A few years later, while living in the large attic of a house in Somerville, Massachusetts, I set up a permanent home for my sewing machine and scrap fabrics, with the hope of completing a few half-finished projects and giving the room an artsy feel. Sadly for my scraps, I got inspired by one of my favorite DIY YouTubers, Micarah Tewers, who posted a video about about remaking an entire Kylie Jenner clothing line faster and cheaper than it would take for one item to arrive from an online order. I sought out the more forgiving world of stretch knit fabrics to ecreate a few of her projects to the best of my ability. I was charmed by the process of cutting ruffles out of circles (look it up if you want to smile), and encouraged by how easy it felt to create something so comfortable and flattering. It was at this point, with a studio of my own and a few successful projects under my belt, that my sewing really ramped up.

Heading into the holiday season, I had been reflecting on how lovely it is that I come from a family of borderline excessive gift givers, but also the flipside of overconsumption that I was hoping to avoid. Avid thrifters looking to convert our parents, my sister and I started talking about doing more of a crafty christmas, putting time and care into more sustainably sourced and personalized homemade gifts. It slayed! I finally tapped my scrap fabric bins to make a fairly random assortment of quilted pot holders and table runners, tote bags, and tops. It felt good to channel the holiday spirit through more of a circular personal/ family economy and see what the bits and bobs could emerge as with a little bit of creativity.

For one project I made use of scraps from this wonderful fabric with scenes of horses on pastures, intricate border patterns, and animal print sections. Building on a base of two plain tote bags I made from plain white linen we had laying around, I accented them with the scenes of the horses and border patterns. Watching one piece connect to another with the added detail of the zig zag stictch I used to prevent fraying was SO satisfying. I ran downstairs to tell my roommates my new passion was attaching things to things. I remember that exact phrasing.

When I moved from Somerville to Los Angeles, I made sure to fit my sewing machine and equipment into my car for the cross-country drive. Upon arrival, I got back to upcycling right away. New friends brought me to a Flea Market in Venice my first weekend, and I was immediately excited by the fashion filling my new city. The makers selling one of a kind pieces really stood out, even amongst a wide array of intriguing new aesthetics to explore. I purchased 2 pieces from a stall called Lue Studios, an upcycler using museum image databases to create patches through photo transfer. Both a shirt and a pair of jeans featured an image of a Dega dancer statue my parents have 2 replicas of in their home to represent my sister and I. It felt like the artist delivered a piece of home and love for me to wear head to toe.

I was really enjoying the thrifting and vintage scene those first few months as I got aclimated, and when the holidays came around again, an idea struck me to take this crafty christmas to the next level. With so much out of date clothing for sale at the thrift stores, I thought some of that fabric may be better put to use as part of a brand new garment, employing that same technique from the horse scene totes. Thinking of my sister, and her quirky, fun New York City lifestyle, I wanted to create a sweater that represented her and fit her whimsical style. I drew out some designs of cute creatures with urban accessories, and landed on a bug dancing under a disco ball. I cut out a bunch of thrifted fabrics from a sheet, a zip up hoodie, an athletic polo, and two ties and watched the design come together. I used a zig zag stitch to adhere the design in place onto a sweater while preventing fraying.

As soon as it came together, I felt a spark. I was so excited to give the sweater to her, and I was also looking forward to making more things like it. I wanted to celebrate the parts of my friends I value most through custom made clothing.

Just after that first project was complete, a conversation about my passion for ‘attaching things to things’ bled into the idea of naming a larger project with a play on a relationship theory framework: Attachment Style Studios.

The rest, you can find here. From events, pieces for sale, completed commissions, and a guidebook to shopping from artists with the same focus on upcycling and patchwork.