← Threads Magazine Podcast: "Sewing With Threads"
Threads Magazine Podcast: "Sewing With Threads"
Adaptive Sewing, with Lynn Brannelly | Episode 94
00:42:16
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- [00:01]
A
Check out our just released elearning course your Go to Easy Fitting and Refined. Taught by the late Cynthia Guffey. This on demand video class walks through constructing a versatile jacket with high end details. In nearly seven hours of instruction, you'll learn to fit and sew the jacket step by step. The course even comes with a downloadable pattern. You'll discover valuable tips to improve all your sewing or while making this stylish wardrobe staple. To sign up and to find other on demand learning opportunities, go to courses.threadsmagazine.com.
- [00:44]
B
Welcome to Sewing with Threads, the monthly podcast with the staff of Threads magazine. I'm your host Carol Frase and today I'm talking with Lynn Brannelly of Sewn Adaptive and Los Angeles. Lynn has more than 30 years of experience in costume design and styling for film and television, as well as 50 years of expertise in custom sewing and adaptive apparel. She's also a designer for the Gnome pattern line. These days she's occupied with running her tailoring service which specializes in adaptive alterations for people with disabilities. She says her goal is to help her clients feel confident, comfortable and seen in what they wear. Welcome Lynn.
- [01:24]
C
Thanks. Thanks for having me.
- [01:26]
B
It's so nice to have you here. And as I was reading this, you have 50 years of expertise in custom sewing. I think you started when you were 10 years old or something like that.
- [01:34]
C
I started when I was seven.
- [01:36]
B
When you were seven. Okay.
- [01:38]
C
I'm 58 now.
- [01:40]
B
Okay, well, so you've been sewing. Well like, like a, like a good threads reader. You started in those early days when you can learn really quickly and easily and if you get the love of it, you just keep on going for the rest of your life.
- [01:52]
C
Well, truthfully, for a threads plug, back when I was learning to sew, threads would be the equivalent of what is now the Internet for sewers. And I used to devour and study Threads magazine literally to figure learn how to do things.
- [02:14]
B
Lynn, did you study sewing in school?
- [02:17]
C
No, I did not. I'm self taught until after I was actually diagnosed with dyslexia. And at that time I was able to go back to school and get my degree in fashion design. But I was a grown adult with grown kids at that point.
- [02:36]
B
That's really interesting. I've been talking to a number of people recently with adult diagnoses of dyslexia who have found their way to, to use skills that they have that probably weren't appreciated before that in their careers and they become very creative and really successful. Which is great to hear. Well, I'm Interested in hearing about your background in costume design? But first, I'd love to know, how did you get started with sewn adaptive? Can you tell us a little bit more about sewn adaptive and where the idea came from?
- [03:10]
C
Well, sewn adaptive was born out of an experience I had a little over three years ago when I was asked to do adaptive alterations for the Runway of Dreams foundation Runway show here in Los Angeles. And I had had experience with doing adaptive tailoring a little bit as a costume designer in film, but not at the level with this Runway show, which showcased not only a lot of national brands who have elements of adaptive in their collections, but more importantly, a large variety of model talent, all who had all kinds of different disabilities. And what that experience did for me at that time was, was I became keenly aware of how little there is out there for the disabled community, how the fashion industry has a very limited and narrow view of adaptive design. And as I was seeing firsthand, the disabled people themselves aren't really being offered an opportunity to contribute to design.
- [04:36]
B
What were you seeing that was available for them before you were sort of looking into this?
- [04:42]
C
Very little that resonated as the equivalent of your basics that would be adaptive proportion wise, that would be considered kind of custom. They don't offer multiple lengths or things like that, but a lot of things, like some adaptive closures. One, two. You know, out of the entire group of brands and their collections, Tommy Hilfinger had the magnetic zipper. I think it was Target that had magnetic button closures, but that's about it. And when you're, you know, in a. In a Runway show that has a dozen national brands and, you know, that's the extent of vision for the largest marginalized group in the world. To me, as a designer, I knew, looking at all these different needs and what the problems were, if you would. I knew that it was basic fit adjustments. It was basic understanding what the needs were, what the disabilities were, and then what we can do to make it different without losing the integrity of the brand's intended design. And truthfully, the majority of those alterations are obvious.
- [06:29]
B
So the Runway of Dreams, was that a show that was based on ready to wear clothing? Was that the idea and then tailoring?
- [06:37]
C
No, it was for the Runway. It was ready to wear clothing, but it was the adaptive aspects of. Of these individual brands. And in the case of most national brands, if they have any kind of adaptive. You know, if you have 20 pieces in your collection, you have one adaptive piece. You know what I mean? So, yeah, it's. It There, there aren't options out there. They're very generic. They lack style, they lack anybody's personal aesthetic. And like I said, looking at it and understanding, you know, how to make my own clothes, how do I make, how I make clothes for other people, no two bodies of ours are the same. This isn't. It's not rocket science. It's. It's the same. It's the same working principles. It's just a different silhouette.
- [07:36]
B
Yeah, well, you say that because you're good at fitting. I think many people who sew at home are. You know, we struggle to fit ourselves, let alone anything that's different from ourselves. But. But yes, if you have expertise in fitting and you really understand proportion and where things need to change, that's. That's fantastic. I wonder, do you do. Do you make a lot of custom clothing for your clients or do you tend to do more? You do that too?
- [07:59]
C
Yes, yes.
- [08:01]
B
What are some of the most common alterations in fit and functionality that you make?
- [08:08]
C
Well, because in the disability space, the largest demographic in the disabled community are people with mobility issues. So the majority ends up being for wheelchair users, just by nature of there just being more of them. So a adaption that I will do for a wheelchair user is when seated. A wheelchair user, you know, typically when you're seated, all the material at your front rise is, is designed to be able to accommodate seated, standing, walking, moving. But when you're always seated, that extra ease just sits right there like a pile of bad fabric. And to somebody who is trying to present themselves with confidence, you know, they want correct fit. Also, you know, they may have a special need and a medical device that has. There has to be adaption accommodations for that too. But I will lower the rise, which lengthens the waistband. I will sometimes raise up the back of the pant, and just doing that takes away all that excess in the front. So if you're visually looking at someone seated in their chair, you know, they look snatched and fit and they're best proportions.
- [09:42]
B
Well, can I ask you. I'm imagining a pair of jeans, and the front rise, maybe from the, from the crotch seam up to the waistband is maybe 11 inches, say on a smaller size. And you might want it to be eight or something like that. Yeah. How do you get rid of.
- [09:59]
C
Somewhere around it?
- [10:00]
B
Where do you, where do you take out those three inches? Do you cut the zipper through the zipper, shorten that? Yes. And what happens with the pockets?
- [10:07]
C
You usually angle it down so you start at the top of the side seams, and you Angle it down, you know, like a smile, and you eliminate. You're eliminating that from center front.
- [10:21]
B
Okay. So. And as you said, the waistband gets longer because that. That front line is longer. Where do you get your extra fabric from typically?
- [10:31]
C
Usually. What happens? It depends. Usually when I'm doing this, there's a. There's a high probability that they also need their pants to be shortened. So. So I will harvest from that hem. If not, you know, I have a ton of stash as we do, and I try to get the most correct closest match that I can. But because it's also in the center back and they have a chair back, it matching perfectly isn't the end of the world. And because there's a belt carrier also at that center back, seamless, you know, you'd have to really be looking for that to see that.
- [11:19]
B
That's very clever. That's. That's the kind of thinking that most of us don't have to do when we're. When we're growing. We don't have to think about how to reshape and find the fabric for it. That's really fascinating. Do you have other alterations that you have sort of developed into a fairly common practice.
- [11:41]
C
One that. Well, so one another with wheelchair users. Another thing that happens to a lot of wheelchair users is on ready to wear. You know, sleeves are just made to be sleeves, and they're made to be able to have full range of motion, but if they are too billowy, have too much ease, any wheelchair user is basically rubbing their cuffs and forearms over their wheels. So a wheelchair user, a common issue for them is that their sleeves are filthy at all times because they're touching the wheels. So in the case of the sewn adaptive pattern that I did for simplicity, I intentionally made the ease less. Made the cuff without a lot of ease. It's secure to the wrist, and therefore, as they're going about their day, that sleeve doesn't drag into their wheel so their clothes aren't getting dirty. Another alteration that I developed, and I'll give credit to Chelsea Hills, she's the founder of Rollettes, and I've done a lot of custom apparel for her. She was having me do a suit for an event, and she wanted it to be white, like off white in color. And something I've noticed a lot with wheelchair users is they'll avoid light color just because of this dirt problem. You know what I mean? So it's like you can wear all colors except white. And she wanted to wear white, and. And she was like, what can we do? Because it's a regular blazer, and I want it, you know, I want to. I want it to look good. And we came up with this illusion of putting in a vinyl insert on the underside of her sleeve, you know, about yay long. I matched color matched exactly to the fashion fabric of the jacket. And so at any given point, she can just wipe it clean.
- [14:00]
B
That's amazing. What a great idea. Well, you just brought up Chelsea Hill and the roulettes. And I have to say, when I first heard the term roulettes, I was thinking, is this like a wheelchair derby? Like roller derby? That seems very dangerous. Maybe not, but they're a dance group. They're a dance group.
- [14:16]
C
They are a dance group.
- [14:18]
B
I'd love to hear a little bit more about.
- [14:20]
C
Absolutely. The Rollettes is a professional dance team here in Los Angeles, but they're a lot more than that. Chelsea Hill is the founder. I believe they've been around 10, 12 years. Started by Chelsea, started off with her inviting other wheelchair users around the country to come at the time, visit her home at the time was in, I think, the Montecito area and just started kind of having this women's empowerment event, you know, bringing people together with common interests and with a passion for dance. She had been dancing, you know, her whole life and was set for doing that professionally, from what I understand. And after her accident, she started the Rollettes as a professional dance team, but more importantly, a women's empowerment group. And every year, they have a convention called Rollettes Experience here in Los Angeles for four days. And people come from all over the country and outside of the country to just have connection. They do panel discussions, they have professional choreographers, teach dance classes, and it's incredible. It's incredible. And sone adaptive has been able to be a support vendor for the last three years in a row to the event. And. And so I've done. I've done a lot of work for roulettes as far as. As sewn Adaptive, but it's. It's just. It's incredible. It's incredible. And the, you know, the. The talent that makes up the team are huge. Hugely accomplished in their own right. Chelsea Hill last year performed in the opening ceremonies at the Paralympics in Paris along with Kaylee B. Bay, also a team member. There's actresses, there are content creators and advocates that are a part of this dance team.
- [16:47]
B
So did you. Did you create costumes that went to the Olympics, to the Paralympics?
- [16:53]
C
I did not create costumes that went to the Olympics, but we will get to My goals later. And I'm going to throw this out there to manifest it. So I would like sewn adaptive to be the costume designer for the Paralympics 2028 here in Los Angeles.
- [17:10]
B
Okay, that's great. I think that you should be. That would be really, really wonderful. I don't know who they usually have, but I think it would be great if you did.
- [17:17]
C
Right.
- [17:18]
B
Well, okay, so imagine that you're now working with people from around the world. I know that you have local clients who come to your storefront and help you there and get fitted there, but you also consult with video chats for some of your clients. How does that work?
- [17:38]
C
Well, first I'll do the caveat relative to what has changed about sonadaptive. So, and the reason why is because in October of last year, Alex, my business partner, decided to pursue other things. And at that time we were kind of looking at the analytics, if you would, of where our work comes from and, and, and how, how much the facility itself was being utilized. And the truth of the matter is, is even though the local clients loved the fact that we had this shop and that it was fully accessible, it's a lot of effort for many people with a disability to make the trek out and, and do this. 70% of my business has always been virtual fittings and mail in alterations. And I'll go into kind of how that works. But when I took over the business as sole proprietor in October, I changed the business model and now all of my local clients, I do house calls and then everything else is virtual fitting and mail in.
- [18:51]
B
Oh, that sounds great though. Yeah.
- [18:53]
C
So how that works is I will have a consultation similar in format to what we looking like right now. Typically my, you know, the, the client will make a submission through the website, kind of saying like, here's what I have, or, you know, here's the issue I'm having and you know, schedule virtual fitting and we will do a virtual fitting. If they need assistance with measuring, I usually have them have somebody there to help them with that, you know, tell them, have a measuring tape, have some safety pins, and I'm going to walk you through all of it. So in the case of jeans, you know, my client who was out of New York, she puts the jeans on, we get on the zoom and I literally show her. I slide back in my chair here and I mimic for her exactly where I want her to pull out the excess. She puts a pin below, she puts a pin above, takes them off, put it some, mails them to me, I alter it, mail it back.
- [19:59]
B
That's so much more straightforward than I would have guessed. That's great. Yeah, that's really good. And it certainly means that a lot more people can benefit from what you have to offer.
- [20:12]
C
Yeah. And like I said, the majority of the business is just that and the number of times weekly that I get a submission into Sonadaptive's website asking for an appointment. A lot of times they're saying, is there anybody in my area that does this? And it's like, or are you located, you know, do you have any other stores anywhere else? And it's like, unfortunately no. The demand is great. I am booked out a month in advance always. And that, and that's for local as well as mail in. The demand is there, you know, so, you know, one of my, one of my other goals that I would like to create is like a son adaptive certification, if you would, where I could go into any, any kind of alteration, you know, place and train their stitchers and tailors on, you know, these are the type of disabilities that you know, that will come through. These are the kind of the adaptions that they'll need. Because when I started sewnadaptive and I, and I would have one on ones with clients prior to them becoming full blown sewn adaptive clients, you know, I did a lot of, you know, research and asking him like, what's your experience when going to a dry cleaner with the majority of wheelchair users, the space is inaccessible. They couldn't even do a fitting. In the case of somebody with dwarfism, there's just so much you need to know about say dwarfism. The type of dwarfism dictates all types of differences, you know, from one to the next. And most dry cleaners obviously don't know anything about this and from a liability standpoint, don't want to touch it with a 10 foot pole. So they're getting turned away because people don't have this knowledge, not because it wouldn't be very easy to understand. They just don't know what they don't know.
- [22:34]
B
Right. And they don't want to get in there and cut up somebody's clothes and have it turn out wrong. Do you think that in most dry cleaner tailing, tailoring situations they have the, they would be willing to learn this kind of thing?
- [22:48]
C
You know, I, I don't know. I mean you would think with 26% of the population out there, all 100% need alterations that you'd want to take advantage of, of that, that money, you know what I mean? You know, even, even if your mission wasn't mine, which was to make a difference. There is an entire demographic that is being neglected that has the resources to have this work done. And unlike able bodied people, they don't have the option not to have this work done.
- [23:32]
B
Right, exactly. Yeah. Well, this is definitely something to think about and keep it on your goal list. So you've told us a little bit about your sort of easy, sort of normal kinds of alterations that you do. Is there anything that's especially challenging you've had to do?
- [23:49]
C
Well, again, kind of circling back to, to say dwarfism. When I get an alteration from somebody with dwarfism, what ends up typically happening is you end up kind of taking the garment completely apart. Because proportions aren't just lengths, you know, they're depending on the type of dwarfism. Again, kind of say statistically or what typically is with different types of dwarfism will kind of dictate how the body is different. And so I end up taking a garment, you know, a regular adult goes out and buys something they like and it's trendy just like we do, and they bring it to me and I have to reshape the entire garment in order to be proper proportions for them. And if it's already ready to made, you know, you're taking this thing all apart, then you're, you're doing all those fit adjustments, then you're putting it back together. And the likelihood of that pocket placement, that welt pocket that was already put in being where it needs to be is, is iffy. But with that amount of work for just an alteration on a ready to wear, you're at the same price point as if I just did you a custom garment and you got to choose every aspect of it exactly the way you wanted it.
- [25:25]
B
I was going to ask about that. Do you then create patterns for individuals and then they can come back to you and you say, I've got your trousers pattern always ready.
- [25:33]
C
I have one client, Kristoff. He is a actor, he's an adaptive surfer. He also had a podcast. I don't know if he still does, but he's an actor. And pretty quickly when we first started working with him, he was bringing in ready to Wear. And right away, as a wardrobe stylist, I was like, you're on red carpets, you are front and center. We should not be adapting ready to wear for you. We should be creating custom pieces for you for those events so that you look your very best. And we had one scenario, he was in a film with the guy, the actors space. I'm spacing it anyway. But he was in a big film that went to Sundance and he was going to Sundance to promote the film. And he came into the shop and he was like, hey, yeah, you know, I need to get something made. And he was like, I think I just want a suit. And I was like, well, what's the event? Where are you going? And he was like, oh, I'm going to Sundance. And I was like, no, no, no, a suit is all wrong. I was like, okay, now I'm, now I'm being a stylist. And I'm telling you that the look of Sundance is not, you know, not a tuxedo, not a suit. I was like, we need to make you a really cool, you know, like, jean jacket and a cool pair of custom jeans and, you know, a nice dress shirt. And it should be very. Not rustic, but it should be, it should be edgy, hip and trendy like Sundance. And he was like, okay, we made them. We made him this incredible jean jacket that had, that had leather, leather collar, custom jeans and a couple different dress shirts. And we got calls from able bodied people wanting his jacket.
- [27:35]
B
I have to say that I think the photograph of this is on sewnadaptive.com it should be. Yeah, it should be. People should go and look at it because it's a great outfit. I know why people are calling for that because it is exactly that. It's like, it's cool, but it's not crazy. It's very contemporary. Yeah, it's a really, it's great styling and the fitting is impeccable.
- [27:55]
C
Right. And his overall, I mean, you know, literally when we presented it to him, literally as he's jumping in the car to drive to the airport and you know, he put it on and he, I mean, he welled up. He was literally like, I have never looked this good. And it's like, no, you've always looked this good. It's just, it's never fit properly.
- [28:21]
B
And it feels so much better when your clothes fit your body properly. It's not even just like that you're happy to look good, but you, you feel like yourself, which is really important, I think.
- [28:33]
C
Right. And, and universal. It's universal.
- [28:38]
B
Yes.
- [28:39]
C
We all, disabled or not feel that way.
- [28:43]
B
Yes, absolutely. If you think about, you know, the plus size community also, you can't just go out there and say, I feel like this kind of person. Oh, there's nothing for me to buy that will help me express what that is.
- [28:55]
C
Right.
- [28:55]
B
That's. It does feel like. I mean, the fashion industry is run by its bottom line. And. But as you say, it feels like there are enough people out there that it could, their bottom line could not suffer if they tried to serve them right.
- [29:11]
C
No, I mean, you know, I understand from a manufacturing standpoint, it's always a risk. You know, when you have a collection and you already have your manufacturing set up and anytime you make any kind of changes, that's a cost. And offering adaptive, you know, is a risk as far as, like, will they buy it? And, you know, it's why I went the direction I went where it's like, okay, well, if it already exists, I'll make it. I'll make, I'll adapt it to you and then you can wear what you want to wear, you know. And in the case of dwarfism, you know, somebody were to come up with a line for dwarfism, even that because from, from difference of types of dwarf dwarfism, you know, like I said, there's all kinds of different. There's all kinds of differences. And so, you know, it would be a very specific, It'd be very niche and, you know, it would be hard to be able to justify the cost, especially if it, if it didn't end up selling. You know what I mean? But that's why, you know, it's like, just, just come to me. We're just, we'll just do it custom and you'll look exactly the way you want to look.
- [30:28]
B
So now you have been creating designs for GNOME patterns. Did you reach out to them or did they reach out to you? How did you, how did you get connected to them?
- [30:37]
C
So my, my know me story, when I was approached, I was approached by Mimi G to be a licensee for Nomi. And at the time that she reached out and approached me, I had already started Sonadaptive. And so when we were talking about, you know, what being a NOMI licensee entails, in my mind, I had already decided that no matter what I did, I was going to make sure that I was able to represent design that's adaptive design. And so I pitched back to her. I was like, yeah, I'd love to do this, but would you consider allowing Sonadaptive to be a licensee for the Adaptive category? And they said yes. So I am under contract as a NOMI designer as well as Sewnadaptive is a contract licensee. And so SewnAdaptive has two patterns under Simplicity currently and has since last year. That is actually sold very well. And then the GNOME designs, all of my GNOME designs look like regular designs to those looking at the envelope. But every bit of the design that I did was intentional in proportion. Anything that I've designed, if you are in the seated position, you do not have to make adaptions.
- [32:15]
B
That's really interesting. I noticed that with the, the tops tend to be a little bit of an asymmetrical. A little bit shorter in front, longer in back. How do you do that with the pants?
- [32:24]
C
So this one behind me, and I know this doesn't play well for podcast, but this one behind me is my, my latest pattern. And you can see the length of the jacket. The, the. The blouse is a high low. It's adaptive on the pattern front. It's me on the pattern. And you see it and you're like, oh, I like that look. I love that jacket. And but what you don't know is that it was with the seated position in mind that I designed first. You just happened to. To like it also.
- [32:57]
B
Yeah, it's completely on trend. And for listeners, it's a brown leather kind of a cropped jacket and a blouse that has a bow neckline and an asymmetrical hem that's a little bit longer in the back. This is a great look that could be worn with jeans, skirts, standing, sitting, whatever. And in the show notes, we'll put the pattern number and a link to it so that people can get to the pattern at the Simplicity website. But I've noticed with some of the other ones that have a similar kind of look where you could tell that the, that the, the tops probably wouldn't have to be changed. I, I wasn't sure about whether the, the bottoms need.
- [33:30]
C
Well, what I, what I've done with re. What I've done with regards to the pants and I can't think of the pattern number off the top of my head. It was the second one that came out. Those pants also I did with adaptive in mine. They are a flared like, like lace. Lace pant with a know like a flesh under lining. And the zipper is a side zip which for those, most people. Side zip? Yeah, we side zip pants. Those exist. But for somebody who wears an ostomy bag or a colostomy bag, being able to have that side zip allows them to access that without having to remove their clothing by just zipping from the side. So there's that aspect. I also intentionally did not put pockets. There's no pockets on the pants because pockets on the back on somebody who is in a seated position, like a wheelchair user, anything that over time that can rub and create sores can be very dangerous. For wheelchair users. So you're always mindful of seams and how thick they are or belt carriers and things like that. You're always mindful of, you know, if there could potentially be an issue for that. But when the. But the way I kind of counterbalance all of it, you know, you bought the design ready regular design for you. You don't have a disability. When I do the sew alongs, I add all the. And here, if. If you're doing this for adaptive, here's how you shorten the front rise on the pant. Here's how you bring up the back, so. Or here's how you switch out the buttons for magnetic closures. So I add that I didn't ask permission. I just do that.
- [35:24]
B
I was not aware. I haven't watched your. Your instructions, but I recommend this to anybody who needs tips on doing adaptive sewing, because I'm sure that a lot of that kind of stuff is. Is transferable to other patterns or other. Other situations.
- [35:40]
C
Absolutely.
- [35:41]
B
So, yeah, that's. That's a great service. Thank you for doing that. So I have a couple more questions that have to do with you outside of your. Of your current. Your current role, and one is, I know you said you. You've done adaptive sewing for people in the entertainment industry. Have we seen. Have we seen any of that on the big screen or the small screen?
- [36:05]
C
As far as adaptive?
- [36:07]
B
Yeah.
- [36:10]
C
You have. If you've watched any of my films, you have, but again, you wouldn't know it. Yeah, I. I have had. I have had talents that. That wear ostomy bags and colostomy bags, and I've done adaptions so that they could be on screen, be acting, and no one is the wiser.
- [36:41]
B
Okay? So that. And that's the point of it. No one is the wiser. Right.
- [36:45]
C
Right.
- [36:46]
B
My. My other question is, have you ever been asked to judge a challenge on Project Runway? Because it would be great to see them challenge the designers, challenge with an adaptive challenge and have somebody knowledgeable actually talk to them about that.
- [37:04]
C
No, Nobody. Nobody at Project Runway has ever reach out to me and ask for such a challenge. I know that there has been elements of adaptive in seasons past. I mean, I'd be first to say I would absolutely love that opportunity. I would welcome that opportunity because, like I said, you know, the current adaptive designs out there, there's some. There's some independent designers that are. That are doing really great work, but are not necessarily well known. But as far as, like, national brands, they're not. I mean, they're Doing stuff. But. But it, in my opinion, is not great. I would absolutely love that opportunity because there are so many ways to adapt high fashion. Real, you know, really solid looks that I would love for the disabled community to be able to see, but I would also love for the overall fashion industry to normalize that. Adaptive doesn't have to look any different than any other design. It doesn't. All the stuff that I do, like I said, you don't know. You don't know that I've done it. You know what I mean?
- [38:30]
B
Yes. If somebody uses a wheelchair or walks with crutches or whatever mobility they use or anything else. Yeah. Why should they have to be, you know, just, like, so grateful that they got, like, a basic pair of pants and a basic top when they deserve to be dressing in a way that's more expressive.
- [38:47]
C
Right.
- [38:47]
B
Yeah.
- [38:47]
C
One, one fun factoid. I did audition for Project Runway Season 3. Many, many years ago when I first came to Los Angeles. I'd heard about the audition, and I just. On a whim, I was like, I'm gonna try. I had no preparation. I definitely didn't have a clear collection or anything. I just kind of grabbed the things that I had on me and went. I was actually in line all day with Uli, if you remember the talent. Uli, who ended up on the show. But, you know, I'm. You know, I obviously didn't make the show, but I'm a believer of, you know, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
- [39:32]
B
Yes, absolutely. That's. That's a good way to think about it. And that takes me to my last question, because we're gonna. We're running out of time now, and that is. You were saying you had goals that you. That you're put. Trying to manifest. Do you want to share some with us?
- [39:45]
C
Yes. So, one, I already said it, but I'll say it again. I want to be the costume designer for the Paralympics, for the 2028 Paralympics here in Los Angeles. I would love to develop an accreditation type of. I don't know, certification, something for tailoring shops, alteration shops, to understand different types of adaptive alterations so that they could offer those countrywide. I've started mentoring interns, and I want to be able to continue that I really enjoy, especially mentoring neurodivergent. One, because I am neurodivergent. But two, that there is skillsets within neurodiverse people that actually, in the sewing world, makes you better.
- [40:44]
B
Yes. Yes.
- [40:45]
C
A better way to put it better than a lot of other sewers. And then, and then lastly, I would love to be able to create some kind of program to teach people with disabilities how to sew how to sew pedalous techniques on a sewing machine so that they themselves could could start businesses and do adaptive as a business themselves.
- [41:09]
B
This is all very ambitious. I have a feeling that you will make them happen, all these different goals and it's going to be fantastic to see that that take place. So keep us all updated. Lynn, it was so good to talk to you. Thank you so much for joining me and anyone who wants to know more about Lynn and her work can go to sewnadaptive.com and you'll see a gallery of garments that she's done, as well as different listings of services that she provides so you can find out quite a bit. Thank you to all our listeners for tuning in today. You can find show notes for this episode@threadsmagazine.com as well as links to previous episodes. Meanwhile, keep on Sewing with Threads.
- [41:51]
A
Thank you to our guests for joining us and thanks to all of you for listening. Please remember to send your comments, questions and suggestions to th at threadsmagazine. Com and please like comment and subscribe wherever you are listening. Until next time. Keep on Sewing with Threads.