the Beatrice Blog

Empowering people to make clothes they love to wear

What? Draping class for home sewists?

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Back in the early days of Beatrice, when we were testing with our Early Supporters, someone purchased one of our forms who’d never used a commercial sewing pattern in her life. I was shocked. Doesn’t everybody learn to sew starting with paper patterns? Nope.

Apparently, she draped all of her handmade clothing on a dress form. I mentioned this to my friend and colleague Sophie, and she told me that’s how she came to making garments too. She draped fabric on a form to generate the style she had in her head. Granted, she went to fashion school, but still, this was how she first thought to make clothing.

Hmmm. I thought draping was an advanced technique not for beginners. Maybe, draping was just another way to explore fabric and its behavior on the body. I wondered what’s more important to understand first: fabric as it translates physically into a style on the body or garment sewing execution?

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What we’re creating with our Spoonflower Small Business Grant

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Half-scale Beatrice covered in custom Spoonflower fabric

One of the goals we have at Beatrice is to inspire personalized creative expression. We accomplish this in a number of ways, like finishing our 3D scan dress forms as beautifully as we can and by making them as true as possible to the person they emulate. Until now, this has been limited to just body shape. 

Several months ago, Sophie and I started kicking around the idea of covering our forms with fabric in custom skin tones. Until now, we could never make them available in the way we envisioned because our low volume limited us to only a few batch-dyed fabric colors.

We also receive requests all the time for a draped woven cover, which is traditional for standard dress forms. Currently, we ship our forms with plain knit covers to keep them as affordable as possible. Woven covers always felt out of reach.

Could we solve both problems at once?

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Beatrice goes to Denver Startup Week

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Sharing our wares at the Physical Product Showcase

I can say with confidence that Denver Startup Week has probably never hosted another dress form startup. But against the odds, Beatrice made a rare appearance at the Physical Product Showcase representing the latest in sewing tech alongside the IoT dog collars and food startups. Nate and I got a kick out of seeing attendees light up when they finally wrapped their heads around what we do!

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Pack your bags, we’re going on a maker vacation

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Nate & company at an advanced sewing intensive with Workroom Social at Fancy Tiger

Last month, I spent a weekend in Denver at Fancy Tiger Crafts sewing jeans with 12 other sewing obsessed ladies. Even though I’m not new to jeans construction, sewing a finished pair of jeans from cutting to wearing is a tall order for me in 2 and a 1/2 days. There’s no time to agonize over pocket placement or a wonky topstitch. You have to just let go and sew. And really, that’s what makes it so much fun!

Gathered around a table covered with neatly folded sample jeans in every size, our instructor Lauren (of Lladybird fame) began the workshop with a little goal setting for the weekend. Yes, we were going to learn her hard-won jeans construction tricks she’s developed over the years. But, this class was not about sewing a perfect pair of jeans. It was about proudly walking out the door in a completed pair of handmade jeans and feeling great about it.

Reflecting back on that crazy weekend, Lauren had it spot on. Whether you’re taking a multi-day class at a local fabric shop or flying halfway across the planet for a multi-week retreat, the reason we take these workshops is almost never about achieving sewing perfection. When I asked my sewist friends about their “why”, this is what they told me.

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