ABOUT ME

Hello, I am Erika. I am a maker who is passionate about sustainable and slow fashion. I am on a mission to teach folks how to make and mend their clothing and household items. Through my work I hope to encourage a “Mend and Make Do” mindset when it comes to our habits as consumers. I have been sewing for myself and my family for 17 years and started teaching these skills to my community in 2022.

My love for mending started in my early 20s when I got a job repairing and altering clothing at a local dry cleaner. In more recent years my mending has become more visible and creative making each item a unique work of wearable art. I value the message of the saying “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without” and reference it often in my classes.

When my son was born in 2007 a friend taught me to sew tiny clothing and cloth diapers for my kids. I started making creative play items like coloring wallets, felt crowns, and cloth dolls and selling them at local shows like the ever popular Wintry and Hip Holiday Markets. As an avid thrifter I started upcycling wool sweaters and making darling pixie hats and fingerless mitts.

From 2014-2017 I had the opportunity to work with amazing sewists at a local custom sewing and fabric shop. The years I spent working for CLOTH textile studio allowed me to expand my knowledge of garment sewing and tailoring clothing.

When I am not sewing you can find me thrifting, knitting, experimenting with plant dye, making botanical cyanotype prints on fabric, tending my garden, foraging, and creating herbal medicine. I have a part time day job as an herbalist and shop steward at The Vervain Collective apothecary in Garden City where I offer tea blends, oxymels and other herbal goodies under the brand Wild Ginger farm+forage. I have an amazing family and my partner and I have several super rad kiddos (some grown and a couple still at home) and two equally as rad dogs.