If your daughter’s heartthrobs are Tim Gunn and Al Gore, then Wee Scotty is the place for her. Not only does the San Francisco sewing school teach kids how to sketch and assemble a garment, its Scottish owners take the high road in their Rip & Recycle course, which is patterned after the sensible, waste-not mentality that got our ancestors through the first big depression.
Students are asked to bring to class a pile of old favorite clothes they no longer wear. At the end of the one-week, $275 session, they will take home an updated, adorable top or dress that even Heidi Klum would agree is greatly altered – and, in a good way.
The deconstruction approach to the wardrobe, touted by sites like Crafting a Green World, can be employed by all green fashionistas in possession of treasured garments they cannot part with. I took apart a Dolce & Gabbana black top to make a prayer book cover for my daughter to use at school. It had a stunning Asian applique that I sewed onto the cover (two women flanking a floral urn), embroidering Lauren’s Hebrew name at the top. It emerged as a an Asian-Jewish style I like to call Oy-Soy. No one had a siddur cover like ours. Meantime, a designer top that was too small was converted into a cherished, holy object that will live on.
Yes, Wee Scotty’s method of taking a pleasurable week to rework old material sure beats trekking to Mood Fabrics and buying cheap yardage to whip together a couture number in 24-hours that might be Bryant Park-worthy. Project Runway, take note!