My Story

My mother introduced me to sewing when I was seven or eight years old.

She made my Easter Sunday dresses and more than a few of my Halloween costumes. At the time, I didn’t understand what she was handing me. To a little girl, it was just something Mom did.

It took me years to see it clearly. My mother and her three sisters, like so many women of their generation, sewed out of necessity. Mom was so slender that store-bought clothes never fit her, and even if they had, there wasn’t money to buy them at retail. So she made them herself. Back then, nobody called that art.

But my mother was an artist. She could draw, she could sew, and she always had an eye for color.

She passed away in 2018, at just 70 years old. I can’t sit beside her and learn from her anymore. But I can keep sewing.

She was the only person who ever called me Krissy Noel. I’m launching this studio in honor of her memory.

Why handmade, why now

Handmade clothing is having a quiet resurgence, and I understand why. Fast fashion feels soulless. It’s made to be worn a few times and thrown away, the quality is poor, and it takes a real toll on the Earth.

Every piece I make is the opposite: sewn by hand, one at a time, often from vintage quilts and linens stitched by women like my mother and her sisters, and given a second life instead of a landfill.

— Kristen