Backwater Barbie Jacket
Photo by Jay Shifman
I dedicate this blog to my grandmother, Viola Mae Cullars Freeman (1935-2024). She was a seamstress, garment worker, domestic, and homemaker who ran a laundry business out of her home. Without her love and sacrifice, I would not be who I am today, and for that, I am grateful.
I like sewing and knitting. I get so excited by self-expression, colors, textures, bodies, and shapes. I finish one project and am ready to jump into the next. I started learning about sewing via YouTube videos back in 2018. That year, my New Year's resolution was to get more in touch with my creative side. At the time, I was playing euphonium in New York's Queer Big Apple Corps (fka Lesbian and Gay Big Apple Corps) symphonic band, and I was surrounded by primarily queer men who told me that they also worked on theater sets, in costume design, sang, or painted outside of the band. Somehow, I was jealous because my only artistic hobby was music. So I told myself I would learn more creative hobbies, and I did--I started learning how to sing and sew from YouTube videos. As a beginner home sewist, I was ambitious; I wanted to make brightly colored clothing with attractive fabrics and textures. One of my first garments was a pink ponte knit pencil skirt. As a beginner, most sewing pros would tell you to avoid stretchy fabrics, but I couldn't help myself.
Next was this jacket. In some ways, it feels anticlimactic now, considering I first started this project back in 2019. And life looks so much different then. When I first embarked on this project, I had no idea what I was doing. I met Em, who went to fashion school and worked in the industry. Em, the sewing pro she is, gave me many sewing supplies, fabrics, books, etc. And of all the things she gave me was a hunting camouflage (camo) jacket with one sleeve, and I loved it. As we got to know each other, Em showed me the importance of knowing how to draw patterns. As a beginner, I had no idea what she was talking about. All I knew was the vintage sewing patterns that my mom and I collected seemed fun and exciting.
Em and I began the process in her Bushwick apartment. We talked about how I wanted the jacket to look like this Volcom denim jacket that another friend lent me. The hunting camo reminded me of growing up in South Carolina, where hunting is popular. When I was younger in South Carolina, white people were known for rocking hunting camo the most out of any demographic. I recall when I was in high school (2006-2010), a group of Black students from a neighborhood called "The Forest" coordinated their outfits, all wearing black shirts with hunting camo incorporated. When they all walked into the school cafeteria, some students begrudged them, but in my mind, they were trendsetters.
Regardless, I love what hunting camo represents— hunting, rural, country folks, nature, the South. But it also reminds me of how moving North taught me that many people expected me to hate where I was from and what it represented-- putting the dirt in dirt poor, racism and history of enslavement, the things that are relevant to all regions in the United States, but what is most associated with the South, that’s why I named it my Backwater Barbie jacket (it is a reference from the first Wendy Williams documentary) but that's a blog for another day. Let's get back to sewing!
Em took me to a denim fabric store in midtown, and we went to a few notion stores to get me thinking about what kind of hardware (zippers, buttons) I wanted on the jacket. Em took my measurements and showed me how to draw a pattern. Again, I only knew a little about sewing, but in hindsight, sometimes a crash course is good. I eventually made a jacket draft using muslin and other scraps, which Em walked me through via text!
Due to life changes, I put down sewing for a while, partly because it sometimes seemed daunting. Eventually, I mustered up the sense to finish the jacket. And once I got into the groove of things, I forgot how daunting sewing could be. I used black flannel for the lining and drafted the hood pattern using Patternmaking for Fashion Design by Helen Joan Armstrong. The jacket style is oversized and meant for layering and casual hangouts.
Em would drop nuggets of wisdom about sewing that have made much more sense lately, like—
Only sew for people (especially not for free but even for paid) if they've given you something priceless.
You cannot automate the garment creation process, but if the industry could, they would. Humans make our clothes, and those humans deserve full lives and good wages.
Garment workers do not usually get paid well, so we should constantly advocate for and uplift them and move away from fast fashion.
Sewing darts in the waistline of your jeans or pants make your butt look good.
Sometimes, projects follow you through time and continue to do so. I still have work to do on this jacket, but I'm happy with its current state.
A video compilation of the jacket making process.