(want the transcripts? scroll to the bottom of the page)
You all probably know that I took Brooks Ann’s Skirt Skills course this winter and loved how it changed my mindset and helped me get deeper into my artistry!
I’ve shared on the podcast how I wanted Brooks Ann back on (she was on last spring!) to talk about her process and to share my experience in her course and have a conversation with her about what drew me to her in the first place…her slow and thoughtful making.
She does things so differently than I do.
Not the end result or the intention we have with making, but in how we get from here to there. And I love to explore that and see what inspiration we can pick up!
And in this conversation, we do just that. We get into how maybe, just maybe, I’m like the hare and she’s like the tortoise. (although we both know how that ended! Gah!)
And by experiencing one another’s way of doing things we get to expand as individuals!
Take a listen!
Brooks Ann Camper first learned to sew as an adult working in professional costume workshops. After an internship at Yale School of Drama, and an MFA in Costume Production from UNC, she moved to NYC where she worked as a Broadway milliner for productions such as Wicked and Mama Mia!, and sewing for celebrities from Boy George to Big Bird – including Bernadette Peters, Felicia Rashaad, Kristen Chenoweth, John Lithgow, Sean Combs, The Undertaker, the Rockettes…
When she left New York and started her own business as a custom wedding dressmaker, she began blogging the process as each one-of-a-kind dress was designed and created. She realized that she was getting as much interest from “sewing people” as from “brides” and started teaching her unique methods of custom sewing. She absolutely loves sharing her passion with kindred spirits!
The last time Brooks Ann was one the show!
Brooks Ann’s Prep School for Custom Sewing
Brooks Ann’s Couture Bridal Site
Brooks Ann’s Blog – How Fitting –
And her ebook – Figure It Out
Also mentioned:
Camp Workroom Social
Hey! Do you know of someone who would make a great guest on the show? (maybe you?)
Email me tina@kinshiphandwork.com
Ep31
Hello, everyone. So fun to see you coming in. You are with us here on the InKinship podcast, a podcast for makers, makers who crave a vibrant, joy filled life. And today, specifically, because we’re talking with Brooks Ann Camper, I’m going to say for makers who might crave a little deepening of their process.
So today I am your host, Tina Vandenberg, and I’m here with Brooks Ann Camper. Brooksanne, thanks for being here. Hi, Tina. Thanks for having me. Yes, I do wanna let everyone know who’s here live, that you can put any comments you want to right now or any questions over in the chat and at the end of the show we’ll have you pop on if you want to, and we’ll talk about your questions and go through that.
So that’ll be super fun. But Brooks and Camper is. I would say well known in the sewing community as a custom sewing teacher. She has a business called Brooks Anne’s Prep School for Custom Sewing, which I think is just like the most adorable name. And in that prep school, you can start out with skirt skills, which is what I’m going to talk a little bit about today.
Cause I took her skirt skills class back in January. I think it was. And then after you become a skirt skills alumni, you can go into tops class, smarty pants. And I think there’s some other things in the works for alumni. Brooks Anne started out in a costume shop. She was a milliner on Broadway. She did custom wedding dresses, and now she finds herself teaching her unique techniques and sewing for your custom unique body online.
Brooks Anne, before I talk about my experience with your course, I wonder if you might share with us, what prompted you to start skirt skills? Why did you start? Um, I realize this could be a very big answer. So we’ll give it the cliff notes. If you don’t mind. Why did you start teaching online? Why did you go from somebody who was Making custom couturier bridal is probably the wrong use of that word, but bridal dresses into sewing and teaching online.
Okay. Yeah. Let’s go back. So 10 years ago this fall is the anniversary of skirt skills. So this story will start in 2014. So I was I had a day job as a woodworker And at night I was doing custom wedding dresses out of my house.
The wedding dresses were a side hustle. And, and I had been at the, woodworking job for nine years while, with the wedding dresses on the side. But The day job crashed and burned one day. Like basically we went to a staff meeting and everybody walked out of the staff meeting handing in their two weeks notice.
And my husband was on vacation. And so I quit my job while my husband was out of town. And so I knew I needed to come up with a new idea for employment before he got home. And at that point in my trajectory I had already had a huge academic and professional career in costuming that I had left because I had, reached a pinnacle and it was To hustle bustle for my sort of, temperament.
And so, I had, while making the wedding dresses, I had started a blog where I was showing how I’m, how I make wedding dresses and it was just me. It was at the time I had previously learned sewing from professionals, and so I was always like part of a team. And or, class like I had a professor grading my work, but when I was in my studio making the wedding dresses, it was just me.
And I’m just making this thing for this one person. So it was just this very small relationship. So we can do whatever we want. And I started putting that on a blog. I think originally thinking that that would be good marketing for brides, but instead it attracted home sewing people and, which I really didn’t know about.
So I really didn’t know about people who sewed their own clothes from patterns from patterns from an envelope or PDFs or whatever. And so I was really interested in it and I wanted to. To break into that community and I knew that and what I quickly learned through like blogs and Instagram, that was when all that was really fun.
And so I was trying to connect and jump into this community, but I realized that everybody did things really different from me. And I thought that the way that I did it was a lot more fun. And Back to me quitting my job while my husband’s on vacation. I signed up for a six week e course on how to make a six week e course.
And this was this was 10 years ago. So this is well before zoom and well before any of that, but I felt like I had a big, Idea to share and it seemed like it would be, fun to make an online course at that point there was craftsy that we’re doing like hobby stuff, video classes, but there weren’t really.
Classes like they are now, but skirt skills was born way back then. And it was a big monumental project because I wanted to teach everything from start to finish. So someone can truly do it themselves. I love that. I wonder, so correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that you went into university.
In theater, correct?
Did you ever have aspirations before you started skirt skills to be a teacher? What prompted you to want to teach it? Cause people, you could go all sorts of directions, right? When it comes to your own business and sewing teaching a unique skill set, what do you love about it? And how did you get.
That’s a good question. When I was in graduate school, I did have a one year where I was a teacher of an undergraduate level class. So I taught just basic technical costuming skills to students. To undergrads and it was one of those classes that all the undergraduates we’re always like, oh drama 64 It’s so awful like you don’t want to go take the costuming class and then I started teaching it and people like It got a reputation as like you got to get in there because brooksann’s teaching it this year kind of thing like people really loved it and so but That was a long time ago.
That was in 2000 No. Yeah. Yeah. 2000. And and then my mom is a teacher and my dad is a writer. And so I really, and a lot of my teaching is writing, like I do, meticulously planned lessons and and and I do love the academic, side of it. And and I hated all of the resources, like I looked through all of these books and I was like, that’s cool. That’s cool. No way. That’s dumb. Like it’s and so I couldn’t find a resource out there, shared most of the things that I loved about sewing. So I thought this is something that, that I think people would like. Very nice.
I can attest. I’ve taken your course. I, like I said, I took it back in January and I want to back up just for a minute and say that I took Brooks Anne’s course and I am a good student, right? Even though I’m like rogue in many ways and I know pattern drafting, although what you teach is slightly different not, even slightly, it is different.
You’ve got different techniques that you bring to it, but I have drafted patterns from years ago, but I took your course and I’m like, I’m going to be a beginner and I took it purposely to be a beginner and as a good student, I’m like, I’m going to do every single module. I’m going to do all the homework because that’s what I do when I dive into something.
That’s just my personality. And I’m so glad I did. But the content that you offer in your skirt skills course was really deep. Like you offered more than just, here’s how we’re going to do. how we’re going to get measurements off your body, which is different than I’d ever seen before. But also you went into deep here’s why this is happening.
Here’s what this looks like. Like you shared, so much information in a fun and concise kind of way. And I can totally see the academic part of that, that you brought to it. And I can see the intention that I think that you brought to it as well of I want people to have so much knowledge when they get out of here that it’s like they’ve gone through a college course.
Yeah, I would say as compared to a lot of online courses today, it’s much more like a college course. And that’s yeah, I have a master’s degree in costume production, and so that’s another thing is that, I come to it from someone who completely escaped the fashion industry.
I have no experience in fashion other than we had to use some fashion resources when and try to modify them to work for specific people. But, I, that was the part that I hated that was part of why I, became a milliner instead of like it was more fun to just work, with people’s heads because I hated all the fashion formulas.
And so now I’m just making it my mission. To, develop new ways to go about it that are designed specifically for the person who is sewing for themselves, because once you like take something that was designed for the fashion industry and boil it down to where it can be worked for you specifically instead, a way to.
Start with you and then move out from that rather than start with fashion and boil it down to you. And so my methods are, different than what I learned in school. Because that we were learning lots to, to fit lots of people. And Some of the things I have you do are personal you don’t necessarily really want to so it’s not something where you’re trying to start a business or if you’re wanting to do that, this probably wouldn’t be for you.
It’s more of a solo sewing adventure. Yeah.
I would dare say that you loved making custom bridal wear. I would say that’s probably true, right? And I would say from hearing you talk that you love teaching and you love sharing your techniques and you’ve created this really comprehensive and yet You describe yourself as Lucy goosey course. So I do want to, make the point here that while your content is really, deep and you give a lot of information and it comes through in this really concise way, you’re also like, and then just see what happens.
And which is one of the things I love about you. And I want to talk about that in a minute, but before we do, I wonder. Was it hard to give up doing custom garments for other people? Are you happy with the choice to become a teacher of people rather than create things? individually for other people. So I’m happy where I am now.
No regrets and, the, wedding dresses, like it all just happened organically. Like even how how I became a wedding dress maker happened organically and how it faded away happened organically. Like basically I was making a wedding dress for we had a second mock up fitting on March 17th, 2000.
And so we, we postponed it and postponed it. And there was no wedding. And then I just during the pandemic, I was already an established online Someone who’d been sewing online. So I wasn’t developing my course during the pandemic. I was making a second edition like I, I also like I’m constantly evolving because I learned so much from my students.
And during the pandemic weddings down online courses up. So I really just decided this is and it’s so fulfilling. Like it, of course it’s fulfilling to help a bride a bride look beautiful on her wedding day. And there’s a big payoff at the end.
But it’s, so fulfilling to have, people really have an excellent experience that I was able to share with them. So I definitely I think I’m in the right place. Very nice. And I might do wedding dresses again some other time. Right now I’m in a temporary studio. There’s no space that’s fine.
Very nice. So I met you online. I don’t even know how many years ago, six or seven, probably. I was reading some of your blogs. I love the detail and the thought that you put into your blog posts for at the time you’re posting about wedding dresses and posting about your history and about different things that different techniques that you had, you were doing in your studio.
And I found it so interesting because I think that you and I, this is my judgment. You’re a good friend of mine. I think I can say this. I think that you and I are very similar people as far as. What we believe in, what matters to us, our sense of humor to some degree, like all of that, we’re very similar in, but we come at it like I’m the hair and I’m just going to say you’re probably the tortoise, right?
If we were going to put this with this connection in here and I and my life have craved more tortoise. And so when I saw your podcast, excuse me, when I saw your blog post and, I watched the information for skirt skills, I’ve always been really intrigued because I’m at a point now in my life where I want to give more than just lip service to the idea of slowing down my practice and going really deep in what it is that I do.
Like I want it to be more of an artistry, more of this. What experimenting curiosity. And while I’ve always been all of those things, I’ve been them fast, right? And I’ve been really disappointed if whatever I was making didn’t work out that time, cause I was not doing it again. I only have this much time.
I can’t do anything outside of that. I’m being a little harsh on myself here. I’m not quite that bad, but I definitely have operated under the idea that I’ve got some kind of a time dearth, but I don’t have enough time to do the things I want to do. And so you have always been really appealing to me because I, like I said, we connect really well in so many different ways.
And also you have this way of going about it that’s so different than mine. And I wanted to experience that. And so last January, when I was in your course, That’s exactly what happened. And I was so excited for that. There were so many ways in which, again, I go as a good student and I want to just recommend to anyone, if you’re going to take a course, if you’re going to take a workshop with anyone for anything, because obviously this podcast is not just for sewists, but going in with that beginner mindset, because you just never know.
What you’re going to pick up if you go into it and you’re like already know 75 percent of this I’m just going to Flip through the stuff that I already know and get to the things I think I don’t know like you may pick up things you didn’t have any idea that were different than yours or that could Augment what you’re currently doing.
So that’s my little cheer or my little Advice, I guess if you’re gonna take anything you can spend the time which I highly recommend you do. I’m even the experts in like places that I admire, they take courses and the kind of things that they’re doing always to continue to be inspired to continue to connect with people in the community, all of that.
Anyway, that’s my side note, go at it with a beginner mentality and see what you can pick up. So again, I was a really good student. I did all the modules. I have you you know what? I do have a confession though. I have not finished my final skirt and it will happen. Life has been a little crazy, but I just was looking over my notes and I’m going to do some blog posts about my notes from your course because it’s been really fun and it will happen as soon as I have some time.
That’s the thing is skirt skills is not really about the skirt. Like people think that it is about getting a skirt at the end. And it’s not because like you haven’t finished your skirt. It wasn’t about finishing the skirt. And you will finish it, and then another one and another one. The first one like takes a monumental amount of time.
The second one, you’re golden. Exactly. But what I did pick up and what is what I wanted to pick up was this idea of being curious and experimenting. So one of the things I love that you do and that you talk about is like taking your fabric and using your having enough fabric and we talked about this in other places, but having enough fabric to actually sample out the kind of techniques you want to do.
So try out gathering with this fabric and tucking it into a yoke and a little piece like these, all these ways in which you can actually be the scientist, be the experimenter, be the artist, whatever you want to say, and try things out instead of just like rushing right to the finish line. And I also really.
Embraced in your course, the idea of not having so much pressure on what I’m making, and that can be the painting that you’re painting. That could be the food that you’re making. It could be anything, but enjoying the process of it, being curious, not always knowing what all of my steps are going to be along the way, but knowing that, I may not end up with something that I want.
And then that’s okay. It’s the actual process of it. And again, that might be better. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And it likely is going to be better, but letting go of that, like this finished product must be something. And so I’m not going to really experiment because I don’t want it to be. Not work out.
So like embracing that idea that, which again, for me was breaking the, my kind of connection to time. They don’t have time to do it differently than this. And so I want to say, I really appreciate that about your first. Yeah. Yeah. As you were, describing yourself as the hair, I was saying like, yes, I am the opposite of that.
And I love turtles. Out here. But yeah one of the things I love, so I guess part of the thing that is different about my sewing process is that it does, it allows for revision and experimentation at every step rather than you start it finishing and then see if it worked or not. And so sewing is full of reversible, adjustable processes.
And that’s like the best part about it is like you just. The expectation is always low going in because all you have to do is get a rough start and then, fix that a little bit, fix that a little bit, learn a little more. And so it unfolds life doesn’t hand you an envelope and a set of instructions.
There’s so many variables that. That you can consider because you’re one person making one thing for yourself. So you can be in total control. There’s no real reason to go so far outside to get back into you. I love that. And I think that can relate to so many things, right? Like I said, if you’re baking or you’re painting a picture, if you’re, there’s something about that mindfulness that comes in with I’m just taking this one step at a time and we’re going to see where we go and I’m going to be able to pivot and I’m going to be able to shift.
And yes, probably more often than not, it’s way better than it could have been. If you just had a straight line that you were following, I’m just going to get to that spot because you can shift if you’re like, this actually doesn’t. It’s a little tight right here, I want to shift that. And if you learn things like the long way first, then you can always then shortcut to the hair.
But if you always learn the shortcut, or you always start with the shortcut, and you actually don’t even know what the long way is, then you can’t make that decision for yourself. So like people can take my course and not take a million years to make a garment. Like you can apply it to speedier methods, but it just gives you the background of what you are short cutting.
So that you can decide whether or not to take the risk or not. Or if maybe I’ll take a step back and do a little sample on the side. I’m not sure how this zipper is going to work in this rayon. Put it, in, you can take it out, put on something besides the garment, aside.
You can be a scientist. It’s a, it’s an experimentation. And then those are the things that like the designer never could have known. Like the designer of the pattern has never met, doesn’t know your personal preferences, doesn’t know your shape, doesn’t know your exact fabric, but you do know all of those things.
Those are things that you can. Always try to be more mindful of even if you are following a commercial pattern, just knowing that the designer didn’t had to make some assumptions about those things for you, but you can get more specific and play around with those things. And really, it is a whole lot about listening to fabric and like letting, the materials tell you what they want to be.
Yeah. Yeah, that’s slowing down. I just was walking through my property earlier this morning. And those of you who’ve been listening for a while know that I just bought two acres. And maybe a month ago, I planted some apple trees, raspberries, gooseberries, strawberries, like all the fruit, apparently.
And, I’m now battling the deer a little bit. So let’s not talk about that. But I was walking around, And there are two little peaches on my peach tree, two little itty bitty peaches. And I know, not because I know very much about this, because gardening is a pretty new venture for me. Although, orcharding, I should say, is a pretty new venture.
I know that you’re supposed to pick them the first couple of years to let the tree really grow, because it’s just like a five foot tall tree right now. An old Tina would have been like, I’m just gonna let it grow. It just wants to grow. It’s here. It wants to be here. It wants to grow. I can’t hook it up.
I can’t do it. And then I’m gonna pick this peach, and I’m gonna get so many more peaches down the road, right? I’m gonna, I’m gonna delay this, and it’s gonna be a healthier plant, because I delayed it. I don’t know if you’re seeing the connection here, but I certainly do. But I, love that idea, and I’m definitely embracing it more and more in my own life of Just taking the process for what it is like, I’m probably going to pick all the flowers off my strawberry plants because I just, planted them.
And I also got advice that I should do that so that they’ll become a healthier plant because they’re just having recently planted. And I’m like, that’s okay. That sounds good. Yeah it’s save that hectic energy stuff for work. You do need to be speedy sometimes, but not necessarily like in your hobby or in your gardening, those are times where you can say, I’m going to step back from like the rush a day world or whatever, and then you can still be fast if you want, but it, does take practice to get slow though.
It does. And I, yeah, so I appreciate that very much in your story. I’m going to shift gears here just for a minute in your story. I know, because I’ve had you on the podcast before, so if anyone wants to hear that, I think it was episode 9, I believe. I’ll put that in the show notes, so if you want to check it out.
I know that there are several opportunities, and I would guess that part of this, I might have answered this, I’m not going to say anywhere, I’m going to finish my sentence, I’m not going to finish that one. I know that in your story, there have been opportunities, And you don’t have to go into them, but I know there have been opportunities that have fallen into your lap and you have either known to follow one or been like, Nope, that one’s not for me, and I’m going to shift this way.
And you know that on the podcast, I love to explore the idea of living a vibrant life. I love to explore the idea of following your intuition, because I think that’s really a key. Knowing yourself really well and following your intuition, but yet not letting fear get in the way. Rule as well is a topic I love to talk about.
So I wonder if you might share, if you have any thoughts on when to pursue an opportunity and when you know, when to shut the door on an opportunity. Yeah, that’s a good one. So here’s the example. The example is right around that time that we talked about earlier 2014, 10 years ago, skirt skills had gotten some cut kind of notoriety, I don’t know. Like it was a fresh new little baby and I didn’t know. So I don’t know how I got. on the radar, but I got an opportunity to offer skirt skills on, Berta patterns had some sort of, online academy or something. And I’m like, Oh my gosh, do you have one? For those of you who don’t know, Berta is like a big name in sewing.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And so they want so they, anyway, I’m like, oh my gosh, I’m like a big deal all of a sudden, like this, has got to be it. This is my opportunity. Somebody wants to feature my thing. And I’m looking over the contracts and all that, and I’m not sure just because, In that moment, I don’t so front.
It’s a pattern company like a commercial pattern company at envelope style sized fashion brand. And that’s the opposite of what I’m teaching. But they would. And so I went back and forth with the staff and I would ask my questions and and they would always come back with some sort of soothing answer.
To make me feel better about taking advantage of this opportunity, but I did have some unease about it, but still feeling this is just I’m just nervous that I’m going to be so famous or whatever. I don’t know. And so I walked on the street was exactly.
And so anyway, at that time, it seemed like a big deal. And I needed to make a decision. And You know me, as you’ve learned, I’m an academic, and so I do like meticulous research and try to like pros and cons lists and all that stuff. And I probably sewed up some little samples of that
and they, and then it came down to one time where I asked, I hadn’t actually asked the questions yet, like I said. Okay, I’m, going to come back and ask a few questions about this subject, And then they came back to me and just tried to answer all of my not questions before I had asked them.
And it didn’t really correspond to what I was going to ask them. And then I thought they’re just trying to get me through the door. They’re not listening. And I’m not sure this is a good fit. So I was like, Pulled the contract at the last minute and was like, I may have blew it. But it was like, not even a month later, I get a call from Jennifer Weiss of Workroom Social.
And now I’m starting to cry just thinking about it. But any, anybody knows Jennifer Weiss, that will make you laugh because she’s the crybaby of us all. She gets like so emotional when she talks about Camp Workroom Social. And She asked me to be a part of this sewing camp for adults and it just sounded so magical.
And I loved working with her and all of a sudden it was like of course, this is the right opportunity. And I definitely did not need to do that other one. There will be things that are a good match for you. And so when you feel things that are sticky, even if you’re like sewing with your needle and it’s offering resistance you look for the alternative and try to find out what the barrier is.
And so through it, thank you for sharing that. You’re Right. You had to have a little faith, obviously, to turn down this really great potentially opportunity, but you knew somewhere, and I’m going to paraphrase here, but you knew somewhere that it wasn’t. Quite matching up for you.
It wasn’t aligning for whatever reason and you trusted that. I think that is so beautiful and definitely is what I try to do in my life too. And you trusted that you shut that door and then this opportunity came on that you knew immediately. Like your heart was like, yes, this is exactly what I need to do.
And that’s where you went. And I, I think that’s available that feeling to all of us. It can be so scary to shut the door on something though. Yeah. Yeah. I didn’t want to quit that job either. Like it was just it like I loved the work, but the workplace environment wasn’t working. And so we all quit something that we loved.
But now I’m here. There’s no reason for me to still be there. 19 years later, like I put nine years in there. Like I got my fill, picture frames or whatever. But, it, yeah, so it needed to go and, it needed, and I needed, something to like, tell me it was time to go. The same thing with leaving New York.
I was like, there just came a point all of a sudden it was like, Let’s leave. And you listen to that. You, listen to that little voice, which I think so many of us can really struggle to do to hear the voice and not just be like you said it perfectly when you were talking about the Berta opportunities.
You’re like, all right, am I just afraid? Is that why I’m feeling hesitation? Like I certainly have had that happen in my life. And then in hindsight, you’re No, that was not fear. You know what fear feels like? I think it’s like this feeling of like, when you’re excited about something and that fear comes in, but you still have all that excitement is still there.
It’s just different than when it’s you’re pushing yourself and forcing yourself into some kind of choice that you don’t necessarily want. There’s a different feeling, but you have to like, tune into it to know, and you have to be ready to jump, to leave New York, to quit your job. Yeah, because I love that hat job too. It’s oh I always fall in love. I’m a pretty content person. So I love it. So if you don’t mind, I know you shared this other places, but just because this is a cute story. Will you tell us about the wrestler that you made a hat for when you were a milliner?
Can you share that? You probably can, right? Sure. So , my millinery job was not only for Broadway, it was also for other like major theatrical productions. And so I did make for WrestleMania 20. If anybody watches WWE, I made The Undertaker. It was his return. He had a new, he’s six foot 11 or something like he’s un, unmistakably tall.
But but yeah, I made what goes on the very tippy top of his head all by myself. So it was fun. That was my most famous, because I think it’s my most seen hat because Broadway shows people go and see, but that was television. It was wrestling for kind of loud. Yeah that, that was fun.
I got free tickets to Wrestlemania for making it sad, and I Did you go? I did, yeah, Madison Square Garden. Was it amazing? Was it awesome? It was really just weird me and Giuseppe Spolatini, who was the, fancy he was our shopper, he was a good friend, and so we went and, and it’s like, when you’re there in the, I think it’s way more fun to watch it on TV than it would be to be there, because when you’re there, you’re, we were so far away, and then it, they didn’t, it wasn’t even loud, like we couldn’t even hear what was going on, like it’s, it was really boring.
I thought it was going to be more fun than it was, because a lot of my friends like that wrestling stuff and so I know some of the characters, but I don’t follow it or anything, but I thought it was going to be more fun than it was. I have to tell you, I have to look up The Undertaker now, because I find wrestling to be tragically boring as well.
I’m sorry for anybody listening who’s what are you talking about? But, that is, that would probably be my experience as well. But, I love it that The Undertaker paid for a custom main head of armaments. Like I love him himself his, the entertainment company. But they have very specific outfits and that’s the thing about costuming you make something that conveys his presence.
And so this was less of the traditional undertaker style and it had this more cowboy flair to it. For that year, I think he’s now, I don’t know, he’s probably not wrestling now. That was a long time ago, but anyway, he’s, he was a big, bad dude. I love that. Thank you for sharing that. So you went into let’s back up just for a minute.
You went into, you’ve been a theater person. I don’t know. There’s probably a technical name for that, but you’ve been a theater person and before you were costumed, you were actually were, did you perform? And then you’ve also been a woodworker. So what is it about Brooks Anne that is attracted to both theater and woodworking and custom sewing?
What do you think that hits for you? The making part, like I don’t do so much acting or anything. I I hadn’t even been to a play in decades. But, back in the day it started with acting. And I guess that’s what got me to the costume shop. And set construction.
That was where I got into woodworking too, was I was more interested in the sets and and being on set. But I, like at the end of it, like I was done with being on stage. And I really got into the making parts. And so the, woodworking. Oh, I guess it all started in theater, the sewing and the woodworking, and they just moved into couture wedding dresses and fancy gold gilded picture frames, so I just leveled up as much as I could.
You know what I find intriguing as somebody who’s listening to this is The way that you approach sewing and what I think that you how you approach your framing is all setting the stage for what you want to be presented, right? So it makes sense. Yes. That’s what I loved about. So the woodworking job, I don’t know if we got into it, but the woodworking job is what I would do is I would make museum quality picture frames.
It was one of these it was another job where I’m making the whole thing from start to finish. Like I get the order card. I go stick of raw wood, I cut it I biscuit joint it, I glue it, I gesso it, I sand it, I make my own gesso, I make my own clays, I brush clay on it, I water gild it patinas, like the whole thing, and then I and then wax and dust and then I build the shipping crate and I put it outside.
And it was a whole funds and each thing was designed for a specific piece of art. So that’s the same thing sort of that, that was attractive about the wedding dresses is like this Dresses job isn’t it isn’t showpiece is the person and so at I saw the dresses as like the frame we’re giving it its best You know Look, and that’s how I see clothes too.
And also from the theater perspective, you know that you’re presenting the character that you want to be for the day or whatever or something that truly represents who you are. I like the very specific. personal aspect of clothing. I have almost zero interest in fantasy and like a fashion line or whatever.
So I’ve never been in theater. I’ve never, I’ve never performed in anything. Like I did some charades once, I think maybe I’ve never done that. But but I also, Think of clothing as something that supports who you want to be. Who you are on the inside and who you want to be presented out to the world.
And I think that’s beautiful. It’s so fun that you came at that from that direction. And that I have that same thought, but like I come at it from my life experience to get here, the life experience that comes at it from there. What a beautiful support. I do think of that. So like in the morning, if I’m like I’m feeling frumpy or down for whatever reason, because we all have these ups and downs in life.
If I want to be cheered up, I know that if I wear something that makes me feel more powerful, more connected to my body, more a little more sway to my hips, that it’s going to bring my mood up often. Yeah, every morning I pick my underwear color like based on what I was like, this is fun and cool.
So I’m gonna have a fun and cool day or whatever, or I need it to be really cool, like really chill, or, really warm. I love that. I don’t choose my underwear that way. I guess that’s like my morning intention. That’s, I, I do very minimally blue things, but I do pick this is the color of love and I’m going to be doing, I think I’ve got, Lovey pink ones on today because I was going to do this interview and I wanted people to like me.
Oh, I wonder why I feel extra love for you right now. It’s because you’re wearing pink hearty underwear or whatever there. I love that. I love that. Before I open our conversation up to the people who are here live, I wonder, , what do you think gets in the way of our creativity?
And this could come from your own personal experience or it could come from what with students, but what do you think gets in our way when it comes to creativity? I’m looking at my notes because there’s so many things, right? Like, how do you do, I think one thing is, getting too far ahead of yourself.
Like I do a lot of prep. Like an insane amount of prep, some people say, but I don’t do a lot of planning. Like I don’t, I don’t necessarily start with the end, start with the rough start and let things evolve. And, making things really personal rather than, I don’t know, trying to, to, to figure out other things.
I like that. And do whatever you want. It’s all about, especially in your hobby or whatever, make it work. Yeah. Trust yourself. Maybe. Yeah. . Brooks Anne. Thank you so much. This has been such a lovely conversation. I do want to say your skirt skills class, your next core is. You can enroll beginning June 8th. Is that accurate? Yeah. June 8th it will open for enrollment, and then class starts June 19th. And then there’s another session that will start in August if you missed the June one.
Very nice. But then that’s it for 2024. Okay. So you can go to brooks and.com, B-R-O-O-K-S-A-N n.com if you wanna check. out any of the stuff we talked about. She’s got an ebook. She’s got those blog posts we talked about. She’s got skirt skills as a course, but she also has, once you become an alumni, you’ve got the tops class and the smarty pants and some other things in the works.
So you can join her love letter as well. Do you want to hear from her in a semi regular? Is it weekly? No I, my love letters, like my newsletter is good. I think you guys should all get on my newsletter. And that’s where I talk. I’m not big on social media or any of that stuff anymore. I, have fun scrolling around and I’ll show show up every once in a while, but.
I don’t want to make reels like this is not my interest or, and like I said, like my classes, my whole philosophy is like taking things one step at a time and taking your time and so sharing little things out of context or whatever is just not really how I go about it, but, But my newsletter I feel like it’s a smaller group of people.
I feel really comfortable talking with just you guys. If you’re interested in just chatting, like this, but it’s really just me writing, get on my newsletter list and it comes out about twice a month unless I’m about to open a class and then you’ll get emails about that too.
And maybe discounts are. Who knows? And I want to reiterate, we didn’t talk in depth about my experience, although I will do some blog posts about that here in the summer sometime. But definitely my takeaways from being in Brookstown’s art skills class was a deepening of my artistry, sort of permission, if you will, to take more experimental choices, to be more curious with what I’m doing.
I definitely would consider myself, like I said, I am, I’m a student, I’m a planner, I’m all of those things, as well as being a teacher. But This brought new information to me and ways of embracing things like Embracing, slowing down the process, trying out, maybe sewing it down by hand rather than using the machine or use the machine rather than do this or that, like just gave me those kind of new ways of looking at things.
So if you have any interest, I think you should really join the class because it was so much fun. And I got just the deepening that I was looking for in that course. It was fun to have you in class, too. You were a good student. Yes, I know. All right. Does anyone here with us today live want to come on and talk with Brooks Anne?
Do you want to put a question in the chat? If you don’t want to come on, you want me to just read it? We would love to talk with you because it’s just so much fun being able to be in conversation. If you’d like to do that, either raise your hand and I’ll pop you in or put something in the chat.
Brooks Anne, while we’re waiting for anyone to So think of the question that I might have for you. What are you working on right now? What am I working on right now? I am I just finished a pair of jeans. And but I’m still in the trial period because you never know, like denim always changes. As you wear it.
So you really don’t know what the happy medium between because I I do laundry once a week. We don’t have a washer dryer. We drive to town and go to the laundry mat. And so I’m learning that the waist is perfect. And I think I’m going to take in the sides a little bit more. So there’s still a work in progress, but and then I’m working on some Courses, but I don’t want to get into that too much.
So doing some experiments, mad scientist experiments that are going pretty well. It was a rocky start, but I’m mad scientists experiments are starting to pay off. So I’m going to be making a mock up, as soon as we get off of this call. Oh, yeah. Back into it. That is super fun. That’s a really fun process.
I’ve been working on, I’ve been working on them in my head for a long time, but I have a custom job that I’m doing. I have a gentleman that I know in my life, and he loves to wear Bib overalls, cause they’re super comfortable and he can not have to worry about fiddly blah as we all worry about those kinds of things.
And so he wants a pair of bib overalls that are like made of pinstripe wool, like 1920s kind of feeling, to wear to weddings and to wear to fancy events and things like that. So I, he gave me an old pair and I’ve cut them apart and I’m creating a pattern from them. And it’s You just, I don’t know, it feels so fun.
It feels so fun. I love this. I want that. I want some. I think that sounds cool. I love wearing overalls too, but I gotta make my husband a pair of overalls before I make myself some. So there’s a cue because as we learned, I’m slow.
All right. So it doesn’t look like anyone has any questions per se, because the conversation was so dynamic and good, but does anyone want to share what you’re working on? Share with us. We would love to hear,
I just wanted to go grab it because I, Tina, you’ll be so proud of me. I actually sewed something. I made this t shirt. Oh, I am so proud of you. Yeah, I even did the oh, it’s blurry, but I learned how to use a double needle. I took a class like a kind of a sew along class from a lady out of Australia.
And I made a t shirt to go with my pants, which I also found the fabric for the other day that I, we cut, but I never actually sewed. So that’s next on my list. Oh, yay. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, it was really nice to see you all. Yeah, you’re fun. Hopefully I’ll be able to, join in every week or at least follow along.
I love having you here. Thanks. Thanks for being here. Yeah,
well, Jen says she finished a cashmere shirt in a plaid cotton that she started at wardrobe week And that’s with Jennifer Weiss, right? And Claire says I’m making an upcycled top. Very fun. I do have one more question, Brooksanne, before we let you go here. What else do you make? How else do you, what are hobbies?
Do you have any other hobbies? Do you have anything else that you like to do for fun? I don’t have time. I like hiking. I like watching TV. I guess when sewing has never been my hobby. So it’s starting to be that I’m making clothes for myself. But I learned in a professional setting.
I’ve never sewn from a commercial pattern or anything like that. So it was, and I was always sewing for others. And then I was teaching people to sew for themselves. And so if I’m. In a class and I’m making clothes for myself, then I get to have some clothes. Or but it’s infrequent that I’m because I am making so much during my day it’s, it seems more like I should be doing it during work hours, or if I’m back in here after work hours it’s oh, hiking is what I do instead other things.
But, and then just big projects like we’re renovating the house. Woodworking it’s like constant when have a carpenter husband and we’re always renovating our own properties. So that’s more, what I do. Very nice. Oh, it’s been so fun to have you here.
Thank you for coming on. Again, if anyone wants to hear or learn more about Brooks Ann, you can go to her website, brooksann. com. B R O K S A N N. com. And I want to thank all of you for being here live. It’s been so much fun. We’ll see you again next Thursday. I have a, you know what? I’m not going to say because I’m going to butcher what she has.
It’s a very fun conversation. And then two Thursdays from now, we’re going to get Sari Mitnick from Seamwork will be on the show as well. So I look forward to seeing you there and you can check out Brooke Sand’s previous episode with me. I believe it was episode number nine. And hear more about her journey.
Thank you, Brooke Sand. Thank you for having me, Tina. This was fun. It was Hi everybody. All right. Have a good day.