On today’s episode of The Good Dirt, Mary and Emma sit down with artist, writer and teacher Katrina Rodabaugh to discuss her slow fashion journey, sustainability as a process, embracing imperfection and mending as healing. Katrina dives into her own outlook on embracing a more sustainable lifestyle, a process that takes place over time and many small steps. The three discuss the importance of accessibility in the movement, and how remembering the values of the past doesn't have to mean giving up the progress we have made as a society. They also talk about how slow fashion practices such as thrifting, mending and making are important as a disruption of the industry and a positive step towards change. 

A poet and fiber artist at heart, Katrina has published three books, Make Thrift Mend (2021); Mending Matters (2018); and The Paper Playhouse (2015). Her writing and artwork has appeared in publications such as the New York Times, Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living, Mother Earth Living, Sewing Magazine, Sunset magazine, Sweet Paul Magazine, Taproot magazine, and more. 

Katrina currently lives with her artist husband and their young sons on a two-hundred-year-old farmhouse in Hudson Valley, New York where they grow dye plants, flowers, herbs, fruits, and vegetables while caring for chickens and honeybees. 

Let’s get into the episode:

1:30 - Mary and Emma catch up and talk “cultivation” and upcoming events 

4:00 - Katrina Rodabaugh: Artist, Writer, Teacher 

5:20 - Katrina introduces herself 

13:30 - Make Thrift Mend 

20:00 - Accessible sustainability 

34:00 - Remembering slow fashion 

 41:50 - Mending as healing 

47:40 - What does the Good Dirt mean to you?

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