Stitch Please

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Episode 138 of Black Women Stitch, Fabric Intake Process

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LaTisha Porter

LaTisha Porter was born and raised in Philadelphia, PA, where she currently resides. She is a mother of two amazing daughters, Maiya Nicole and Makenzie Elise.

​

LaTisha decided to make garments for women adding later both children and men to her line of custom sewing. The choosing of her company's name, NicoleElise LLC, was developed by her desire to leave a legacy for her daughters using their middle names, Nicole and Elise. Her love for all things fashion has been since she can remember.

Lisa Woolfork

Lisa Woolfork is an associate professor of English, specializing in African American literature and culture. Her teaching and research explore Black women writers, Black identity, trauma theory and American slavery. She is the convener and founder of Black Women Stitch, the sewing group where Black lives matter. She is also the host/producer of Stitch Please, a weekly audio podcast that centers Black women, girls, and femmes in sewing. In the summer of 2017, she actively resisted the white supremacist marches in her community, Charlottesville Virginia. The city became a symbol of lethal resurging white supremacist violence. #Charlottesville. She remains active in a variety of university and community initiatives, including the Community Engaged Scholars program. She believes in the power of creative liberation.

Insights from this episode:

• LaTisha’s sewing story
• LaTisha’s transition from a reluctant apprentice to where she is now
• What sparked LaTisha’s interest in sewing
• Philadelphia’s sewing scene
• Latisha’s experience in a magazine 
• How she overcomes the challenge of fitting another person

Quotes from the show:

• “The feeling that I got when I got into a fabric store was just overwhelming, so it just made me want to make things” –LaTisha Porter in “Stitch Please”
• “The Philly sewing scene is unscripted if you will, it’s very organic. No one is scared to be themselves and present what they like for themselves. No one sews alike, but everyone is bold in what they do, that’s the major thing” –LaTisha Porter in “Stitch Please”
• “I try not to conform to what everyone else does. If I like a pattern, and I wanna wear that pattern, and I’m gonna make that pattern about 50 thousand times. I’m not a one and done” –Latisha Porter in “Stitch Please”
• “One of the things about making 50 dresses in the same style: the difference between you doing that and maybe some fast fashion house is that every single one of yours is different”  –Lisa Woolfork in “Stitch Please”
• “A lot of times, people want something that they have seen me in. I mainly sew dresses and skirts for people” –Latisha Porter in “Stitch Please”
• “There’s no better time than now. If there’s something you wanna do, just do it. We have to turn the volume down on life, and listen to ourselves, and hear our hearts, and follow our path” –Latisha Porter in “Stitch Please”

Stay Connected:

Lisa Woolfork

Instagram: Lisa Woolfork

Twitter: Lisa Woolfork

Latisha Porter

Instagram: LaTisha Porter

Website: https://www.nicoleelise.shop/

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.

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Jen Hewett

Jen Hewett is a printmaker, surface designer, and textile artist. Depending on how you look at it, artist is either Jen’s second or fifth career. With a degree in English Literature from the University of California, Berkeley, she started her working life in education and educational nonprofits. She then briefly ran her own stationery business and took a few detours through business operations, human resources, and consulting before becoming a full-time working artist (again). She partly credits the success of her experience running her own creative business to her non-linear (but always interesting) career path.

Jen’s first book, Print, Pattern, Sew: Block Printing Basics + Simple Sewing Projects for an Inspired Wardrobe, was published by Roost Books in May 2018. Her second book,  This Long Thread: Women of Color on Craft, Community, and Connection, was published by Roost Books in November 2021. Her clients include Anthropologie, Cost Plus World Market, Moda Fabrics, Unilever, and Yelp. Her work has been featured in Better Homes and Gardens, Uppercase, and MSNBC.

Lisa Woolfork

Lisa Woolfork is an associate professor of English, specializing in African American literature and culture. Her teaching and research explore Black women writers, Black identity, trauma theory, and American slavery. She is the convener and founder of Black Women Stitch, the sewing group where Black lives matter. She is also the host/producer of Stitch Please, a weekly audio podcast that centers on Black women, girls, and femmes in sewing. In the summer of 2017, she actively resisted the white supremacist marches in her community, Charlottesville Virginia. The city became a symbol of lethal resurging white supremacist violence. #Charlottesville. She remains active in a variety of university and community initiatives, including the Community Engaged Scholars program. She believes in the power of creative liberation.

Insights from this episode:

• Who Jen Hewett is and what she does
• How Jen’s book came to be
• How Jen got into printmaking
• Jen’s print-making process
• How to believe in your work and voice
• Why Jen considers herself a textile artist
• The inspiration behind Jen’s book
• Creating representative work
• What to expect from Jen Hewett

Quotes from the show:

• “I design a lot of things for the sewing industry. So, I design primarily fabric and I have been doing that since 2018. I am on my third or fourth fabric collection at this point” —Jen Hewett in “Stitch Please”
• “I have done a lot of textile art and didn’t call myself a textile artist. I always say I am a printmaker first and everything flows from that, but I am owning it now, that I am a person who does and likes many things” —Jen Hewett in “Stitch Please”
• “With printmaking, you do one thing and you do it over and over again, unlike being a painter who does a one-of-a-kind one thing. A printmaker is already set up operationally, it makes sense to do the same thing over and over again” —Jen Hewett in “Stitch Please”
• “What’s the saying like ‘walk around with the confidence of a white man and you will get what you want’?” –Nicole Angeline  in “Stitch Please”
• “The nice thing about the work that I do is that it is replicable. So it feels in many ways, low stakes. That I am constantly putting things out there, some will stick, some won’t” —Jen Hewett in “Stitch Please”
• “When I find books like this one, that are good and I like them, and I like to go back to them, because not every book you get that you are gonna go back to, but this one is nice and it's very digestible” —Ada Chen in “Stitch Please”
• “The overall consensus seems to be celebratory and gratitude, if I can put it in two words. Folks who are celebrating that this book exists and that women of color are having their voices centred and amplified, and talking to a variety of people. And then the gratitude which extends towards you for creating and pulling this together” —Lisa Woolfork in “Stitch Please”
• “I wanted it to be representative. Not necessarily everybody because that’s impossible, but to include people who are not included” —Jen Hewett in “Stitch Please”
• “In many ways, writing this book didn’t feel like a race because I had this really strong sense that the community would have my back. But then I had to do everybody’s story’s justice in order for people to have my back”  —Jen Hewett in “Stitch Please”

Resources Mentioned

Asian Sewist Collective

Stay Connected:

Lisa Woolfork

Instagram: Lisa Woolfork

Twitter: Lisa Woolfork

Jen Hewett

Website: Jen Hewett

Instagram: Jen Hewett

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.

Sign up for the Black Women Stitch quarterly newsletter

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Leave a BACKSTITCH message and tell us about your favorite episode.
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Kia Sangria

Kia Sangria is passionate about cosplay, costume creation, being a sewist, and creating costumes for black people in play.

Lisa Woolfork

Lisa Woolfork is an associate professor of English, specializing in African American literature and culture. Her teaching and research explore Black women writers, Black identity, trauma theory and American slavery. She is the convener and founder of Black Women Stitch, the sewing group where Black lives matter. She is also the host/producer of Stitch Please, a weekly audio podcast that centers Black women, girls, and femmes in sewing. In the summer of 2017, she actively resisted the white supremacist marches in her community, Charlottesville Virginia. The city became a symbol of lethal resurging white supremacist violence. #Charlottesville. She remains active in a variety of university and community initiatives, including the Community Engaged Scholars program. She believes in the power of creative liberation.

Insights from this episode:

• Kia meeting her husband through cosplay
• Kia’s cosplay-themed wedding
• Kia’s generosity and helping people in sewing and cosplay
• Getting recognition from brands
• Kia being a cosplay panel
• Insights into cos-fashion
• Collaborating with Zelouf fabrics
• Kia’s plans for Halloween

Quotes from the show:

• “For me personally, my husband represents one of the more positives aspects of cosplay which is not just someone in a costume, but actually someone becoming the character” —Kia Sangria in “Stitch Please”
• “That (sharing information generously) is pretty rare, not a lot of folks will go out of their way, they might tell you a few things, but it takes something, I think very generous to create an entire video to show somebody something” —Lisa Woolfork in “Stitch Please”
• “I don’t really do the things that I do for brand recognition, but it’s really nice that folks notice” —Kia Sangria in “Stitch Please”
• “I am a resource; that’s what I tell people, please don’t be afraid to ask me questions cause I am here to help you” —Kia Sangria in “Stitch Please”
• “Color is very big for me. As someone that likes to take different types of creative control over how I make costumes, having so many different shades of blue and green, and what have you, allows me to customize my looks” —Kia Sangria in “Stitch Please”
• “For the type of sewing that I do, which is sewing for cosplay, it’s a little bit different from sewing a blouse, or a shirt, or a pair of pants, or a dress. There is a lot of pieces that go into cosplay making. I am looking to be that resource”  —Kia Sangria in “Stitch Please”
• “Sewing is hard, but I think that sometimes sewing on your own can also be difficult if you do not have that experience, and you do not know where to turn to” —Kia Sangria in “Stitch Please”

Resources Mentioned

Zelouf Fabrics

Stay Connected:

Lisa Woolfork

Instagram: Lisa Woolfork

Twitter: Lisa Woolfork

Kia Sangria

Facebook: Kia La Sangria

Pinterest: Pinterest

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.

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Leave a BACKSTITCH message and tell us about your favorite episode.
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Sarah Hill

Dr. Sarah Ashley Hill is a psychologist and lupus warrior who started sewing in 2019, after learning that she had a severe form of lupus nephritis. Having had a knack for fashion from a young age, Sarah has used sewing as an articulation of her style and to suit her current lifestyle.

Lisa Woolfork

Lisa Woolfork is an associate professor of English, specializing in African American literature and culture. Her teaching and research explore Black women writers, Black identity, trauma theory and American slavery. She is the convener and founder of Black Women Stitch, the sewing group where Black lives matter. She is also the host/producer of Stitch Please, a weekly audio podcast that centers Black women, girls, and femmes in sewing. In the summer of 2017, she actively resisted the white supremacist marches in her community, Charlottesville Virginia. The city became a symbol of lethal resurging white supremacist violence. #Charlottesville. She remains active in a variety of university and community initiatives, including the Community Engaged Scholars program. She believes in the power of creative liberation.

Insights from this episode:

• How Sarah got started in sewing
• How diagnosis with lupus led to her sewing journey
• Sarah’s lupus journey
• Sarah’s pursuit of creativity 
• Sewing her grandma’s Bridgerton Ball

Quotes from the show:

• “An artist has to create, so it wasn’t an option for me to not do something with this creative energy. Even if the body was breaking down, not creating, not finding beauty or making beauty was not an option” -Sarah Hill in “Stitch Please”
• “It’s not going to kill me [lupus], or if it kills me, it’s gonna kill me doing what I am gonna do [sewing]” -Sarah Hill in “Stitch Please”
• “What you can’t do and can't control is your attitude, your outlook, the space in your heart, the vision that you have, and those who you’ve allowed to hold that vision with you and for you” -Lisa Woolfork in “Stitch Please”
• “We all get to claim our time, and we do not have to live by someone else’s calendar or somebody else’s clock” -Lisa Woolfork in “Stitch Please”
• “If you wanna do something, just go try it, and if you do not have the resources, there are plenty of organizations like sewing communities if you do not have a sewing machine” -Sarah Hill in “Stitch Please”

Stay Connected:

Lisa Woolfork

Instagram: Lisa Woolfork

Twitter: Lisa Woolfork

Sarah Hill

Instagram: Sarah Hill

Website: Sewing for Myself 

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.

Sign up for the Black Women Stitch quarterly newsletter

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Leave a BACKSTITCH message and tell us about your favorite episode.
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Shasta Schatz

Shasta Schatz loves to create. Her favorite hobby is sewing, where she dabbles in yarn manipulation, painting, 3D printing, hot gluing, and duct taping. Her costuming inspiration is mainly from the 16th century drawing inspiration from her love of art museums. 

Lisa Woolfork

Lisa Woolfork is an associate professor of English, specializing in African American literature and culture. Her teaching and research explore Black women writers, Black identity, trauma theory and American slavery. She is the convener and founder of Black Women Stitch, the sewing group where Black lives matter. She is also the host/producer of Stitch Please, a weekly audio podcast that centers Black women, girls, and femmes in sewing. In the summer of 2017, she actively resisted the white supremacist marches in her community, Charlottesville Virginia. The city became a symbol of lethal resurging white supremacist violence. #Charlottesville. She remains active in a variety of university and community initiatives, including the Community Engaged Scholars program. She believes in the power of creative liberation.

Insights from this episode:

• Insights on historical costuming
• Differences between costuming and cosplay
• Shasta’s journey in costuming
• How art museums have inspired Shasta’s work
• How Shasta found a community in costuming
• The challenges she has experienced in making garments

Quotes from the show:

• “I do a lot of observing when I am costuming no matter where I am” -Shasta Schatz in “Stitch Please”
• “Every single garment that I make, every accessory, every headpiece, every beaded pin that I put in my hair, I can probably trace it back to art history or letter that was written to a person” -Shasta Schatz in “Stitch Please”
• “I absolutely give out information freely, always send me messages, I will tell everybody everything because nobody told me anything when I started out after college” -Shasta Schatz in “Stitch Please”
• “Nobody wants to sew upholstery fabric by hand, so you put that part in the machine, but you do the linen part by hand” -Shasta Schatz in “Stitch Please”
• “Incorporate a little bit of hand sewing into every single garment that you make” -Shasta Schatz in “Stitch Please”
• “Go out and grab a big three pattern that looks close to what you want coz it’s at least gonna give you an idea of what goes into it” -Shasta Schatz in “Stitch Please”

Resources mentioned:

• Audre Lorde’s essay
• The Tudor Tailor

Stay Connected:

Lisa Woolfork

Instagram: Lisa Woolfork

Twitter: Lisa Woolfork

Shasta Schatz

Instagram: Shasta 

Facebook: Green Linen Shirt 

Twitter: ScifiCheerGirl 

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.

Sign up for the Black Women Stitch quarterly newsletter

Check out our merch here
Leave a BACKSTITCH message and tell us about your favorite episode.
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Serena

Serena sews and collects vintage patterns and sewing machines. She enjoys creating vintage content from the 1940s-1950s for Instagram and YouTube to help encourage diversity in the vintage world and share her passion for vintage style. She enjoys dressing up and creating her vintage reality. 

Lisa Woolfork

Lisa Woolfork is an associate professor of English, specializing in African American literature and culture. Her teaching and research explore Black women writers, Black identity, trauma theory and American slavery. She is the convener and founder of Black Women Stitch, the sewing group where Black lives matter. She is also the host/producer of Stitch Please, a weekly audio podcast that centers Black women, girls, and femmes in sewing. In the summer of 2017, she actively resisted the white supremacist marches in her community, Charlottesville Virginia. The city became a symbol of lethal resurging white supremacist violence. #Charlottesville. She remains active in a variety of university and community initiatives, including the Community Engaged Scholars program. She believes in the power of creative liberation.

Insights from this episode:

• Insights on Serena’s style as a form of costuming
• How Serena describes her style and practice
• Her journey in transforming her wardrobe
• Serena’s journey into vintage clothing
• Serena’s favorite vintage decade
• Insights into Serena’s black vintage inspiration

Quotes from the show:

• “I felt comfortable with myself like as a person, I’ve always been into vintage” -Serena in “Stitch Please”
• “I don’t think I have a favorite, I chose my style in seasons” -Serena in “Stitch Please”
• “I love that your creative genius is not gonna be encumbered by the historical demand of the time” -Lisa in “Stitch Please”
• “I think the word authentic is a word that gets absolutely beaten to death, it gets overused. There are some folks that will have you think that authenticity is a thing that you do, rather than who you are” -Lisa in “Stitch Please”
• “First, I am a creator. I like to dress in the past, but I like to leave room for creativity” -Serena in “Stitch Please”
• “I think 100 percent historical accuracy is not realistic” -Serena in “Stitch Please”
• “I try not to be too inspired by people that I can’t talk to and relate to, and usually that not gonna be celebrities. I try and find inspiration in everyday things and people” -Serena in “Stitch Please”
• “I try and find inspiration from all types of people in all walks of life because I don’t want to live in this tunnel of monotony” -Serena in “Stitch Please”
• “Never believe you are ever done learning” -Serena in “Stitch Please”
• “Don’t underestimate the power of just trying because you really don’t know if you are capable until you actually try” -Serena in “Stitch Please”

Stay Connected:

Lisa Woolfork

Instagram: Lisa Woolfork

Twitter: Lisa Woolfork

Serena

Instagram: Sewrena

YouTube: SewRena 

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.

Sign up for the Black Women Stitch quarterly newsletter

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Join the Black Women Stitch Patreon
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Lisa Woolfork is an associate professor of English, specializing in African American literature and culture. Her teaching and research explore Black women writers, Black identity, trauma theory and American slavery. She is the convener and founder of Black Women Stitch, the sewing group where Black lives matter. She is also the host/producer of Stitch Please, a weekly audio podcast that centers Black women, girls, and femmes in sewing. In the summer of 2017, she actively resisted the white supremacist marches in her community, Charlottesville Virginia. The city became a symbol of lethal resurging white supremacist violence. #Charlottesville. She remains active in a variety of university and community initiatives, including the Community Engaged Scholars program. She believes in the power of creative liberation.

Sign up for the Black Women Stitch quarterly newsletter

Check out our merch here
Leave a BACKSTITCH message and tell us about your favorite episode.
Join the Black Women Stitch Patreon
Check out our Amazon Store

Stay Connected:
YouTube: Black Women Stitch
Instagram: Black Women Stitch
Facebook: Stitch Please Podcast

Join the Black Women Stitch Patreon.

Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich

Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich is a crafter, a blogger, a sewist, and the author of several children’s books, including Operation Sisterhood, It Doesn’t Take A Genius, 8th Grade Superzero, Two Naomis, Saving Earth: Climate Change and the Fight For Our Future, as well as the picture book Someday Is Now: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-Ins, and Mae Makes A Way: The True Story of Mae Reeves, Hat and History Maker. Her most recent release is The Sun Does Shine: An Innocent Man, A Wrongful Conviction, and the Long Path to Justice with Anthony Ray Hinton and Lara Love Hardin. She is the editor of the We Need Diverse Books anthology The Hero Next Door, and has contributed to several collections.

Lisa Woolfork

Lisa Woolfork is an associate professor of English, specializing in African American literature and culture. Her teaching and research explore Black women writers, Black identity, trauma theory and American slavery. She is the convener and founder of Black Women Stitch, the sewing group where Black lives matter. She is also the host/producer of Stitch Please, a weekly audio podcast that centers Black women, girls, and femmes in sewing. In the summer of 2017, she actively resisted the white supremacist marches in her community, Charlottesville Virginia. The city became a symbol of lethal resurging white supremacist violence. #Charlottesville. She remains active in a variety of university and community initiatives, including the Community Engaged Scholars program. She believes in the power of creative liberation.

Insights from this episode:

• Olugbemisola’s start of her sewing journey
• Olugbemisola’s childhood and growing up with black dolls
• How Olugbemisola is bringing dignity to black folks through her books and amplifying their voices
• Insights on affirming black women and how they can claim their space in the world
• The power of black creativity
• The connection between writing and sewing
• The process of narrating an audiobook

Quotes from the show:

• “When you make something yourself and put that creative energy into something, it makes it even more special” -Olugbemisola in “Stitch Please”
• “Dignity is not something you give, dignity is something you affirm. Everybody is born with dignity, everybody has it, but not everybody gets to have it affirmed” -Lisa Woolfork  in “Stitch Please”
• “I think a lot of times the focus is on the struggle and the striving and not enough on just the beauty, creativity and the art” -Olugbemisola in “Stitch Please”
• “You have a relationship with every book or every story that you read, and it’s a very personal relationship” -Olugbemisola in “Stitch Please”
• “We are a people, and a people does not throw their geniuses away” -Lisa Woolfork in “Stitch Please”
• “Telling your own story and telling the story of your people and having those stories was just so important to me from a very young age” -Olugbemisola in “Stitch Please”
• “Be generous with yourself, be kind to yourself, do not feel that your process has to reflect anybody else’s ” -Olugbemisola in “Stitch Please”

Resources Mentioned:

In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens

Stay Connected:

Lisa Woolfork

Instagram: Lisa Woolfork

Twitter: Lisa Woolfork

Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich

Website: Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich 

Instagram: Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich 

Twitter: Olugbemisola 

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.

Sign up for the Black Women Stitch quarterly newsletter

Check out our merch here
Leave a BACKSTITCH message and tell us about your favorite episode.
Join the Black Women Stitch Patreon
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Stay Connected:
YouTube: Black Women Stitch
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Facebook: Stitch Please Podcast

Black Girls Sew Projects by Hekima Hapa and Lesley Ware available here

Join the Black Women Stitch Patreon.

Hekima Hapa

Hekima Hapa is the founder of the nonprofit, community organization Black Girls Sew in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Not only is Hapa the founder, but she is a fashion designer and a business owner of Harriet’s by Hekima (HbyH), a Harriet’s Alter Ego company. Hapa is investing her over two decades of experience in fashion styling, fashion merchandising, sewing, and designing to teach courses for Black Girls Sew to leave the youth excited about education in sewing, design, and entrepreneurship. She has also co-authored the book Black Girls Sew with Lesley Ware. 

Lesley Ware

Lesley Ware is an author, educator, entrepreneur, and personality who has written five books: Sew Fab: Sewing and Style for Young Fashionistas, My Fab Fashion Style File, How to Be a Fashion Designer, 101 Ways to Love Your Style and Black Girls Sew.

Lesley’s passion for inspiring youth began when she earned her degrees in Elementary Education and Public Administration and continued when she orchestrated national programs for institutions like the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Girl Scouts of the USA.

She has created fashion education programs for the Parsons School of Design, Metropolitan Museum of Art with the Costume Institute, Pioneer Works, Museum of the City of New York, New Visions, New York Times Student Journeys, and other institutions.

Insights from this episode:

• Insights into what led Lesley and Hekima to write their book
• How they chose the fashion icons to interview in their book
• How denim is connected to black ancestry
• Insights on how they bring in fashion and black cultural knowledge 
• Lessons Hekima and Lesley learned while writing their book during the pandemic
• The lessons they hope people will learn from reading their book

Quotes from the show:

• “I talk to people all the time about how easy it is to upcycle denim and how easily and readily available it is, but it is not something easy to produce” -Hekima Hapa in “Stitch Please”
• “It is really important that we think about it [denim] historically: it being connected to cotton, and how our ancestors being here” -Hekima Hapa in “Stitch Please”
• “Every time that I get an opportunity to do anything, especially working on books, in my head I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to do this again, so I give it everything that I possibly can” -Lesley Ware in “Stitch Please”
• “The logistics of writing a book in the pandemic present challenges and opportunities” -Lesley Ware in “Stitch Please”
• “I think the book itself is like a love letter to Black girls, and that's something that I really love about it” -Lisa Woolfork in “Stitch Please”
• “To get your stitch together, you’ve got to write it down” -Lesley Ware in “Stitch Please”
• “Just keep trying even when it seems impossible, it doesn’t seem like it’s gonna happen: whether it’s stitching and you are making a garment, or it’s really like stitching in life” -Hekima Hapa in “Stitch Please”

Stay Connected:

Lisa Woolfork

Instagram: Lisa Woolfork

Twitter: Lisa Woolfork

Hekima Hapa

Instagram: Hekima Hapa 

Twitter: Hekima Hapa 

Facebook: Hekima Hapa

Lesley Ware

LinkedIn: Lesley Ware 

Instagram: Lesley Ware 

Twitter: Lesley Ware 

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.

Sign up for the Black Women Stitch quarterly newsletter

Check out our merch here
Leave a BACKSTITCH message and tell us about your favorite episode.
Join the Black Women Stitch Patreon
Check out our Amazon Store

Stay Connected:
YouTube: Black Women Stitch
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Facebook: Stitch Please Podcast