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Summit Selvage creating hands-on upcycling studio on Capitol Hill

 

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Black, upcycling at 12th and Pike (Image: Summit Selvage)

By Hannah Saunders

With a lifelong love for sewing, Emelia Black has brought her creative dream to life by opening the Summit Selvage art studio at the corner of 12th and Pike. While working a 9 to 5 during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, she found herself creating bunches of upcycled products as an outlet.

About a year ago Black began showing off her upcycled creations at pop-up shops around Seattle, such as the Fremont market, SoDo, and the Tacoma Sunday market. Before a move to 12th Ave, Summit Selvage’s first studio was located just a couple blocks away next to Neumos.

“There was only 95 square feet and it’s really cute and a great way to teach sewing classes and connect with people, but I started to outgrow the shop,” said Black.

At the time, Black was conducting repairs on a pile of Carhartt jackets, which took up half of the shop’s floor space, but she found the 950-square-foot location on 12th Ave back in February of this year.

“My goal with the studio was to create my dream creative space where I could store all my vintage textiles and found objects and thrifted stuff and create in a large space with all the machinery of my dreams,” said Black. “Also, creating a community space has been important to me because the Seattle freeze is real—there’s nowhere to meet friends.”

During her time spent at pop-up markets, Black connected with vintage dealers and wanted to provide a space for people who dabble in sewing and arts while creating a sense of community, which seemed to be lacking.

Summit Selvage held an opening party with friends Naomi Amber Dawn, a Collage Workshop Instructor, and vendor, music and visuals from DJ Double Black Diamond, the Paper Portal Used Books shop, muralist Nick Robles, and the designers and creators at Smash the Box, Exchanging Hands Vintage, and Paige St-Pierre last week. The location was originally meant to open in April, however Black became ill with COVID-19 for several weeks. While she was not feeling well, Black kept thinking about the décor for the space.

“The building came with the orange ceiling and the yellow beams, and I didn’t want to paint all that, so that kind of set the style up,” said Black.

Black has styled her open layout studio in a ’70s space age and op art theme, with sandy tones. Her friend painted a mural on one wall to bring the color scheme of the studio together.

For the time being, Black will be selling upcycled products at pop-up shops in Seattle, such as Doll Parts Collective this Sunday. She’ll also be featuring products at the SoDo flea market in the beginning of June. In addition to upcycling second-hand goods, Black does repairs for vintage stores, as well as custom orders.

“A lot of it’s from thrift stores and then my vintage dealer friends have been so helpful in finding cool textiles for me and giving me good deals,” said Black.

When the items first come into the studio, conditions vary. Within her workshop sits a stack of vintage linens, some of which have holes in them, but because she’s cutting out pattern pieces, she wouldn’t use the holes.

“I always really love doing repairs because the item comes to you unwearable, so you can’t really go downhill from there,” joked Black.

Currently, Black has been making totes out of 1970s tapestries, which are a bestseller due to their colors and scenes. Her favorite products to upcycle consistently change.

“I’ll get really in the zone for one product,” said Black. “I was really into doing Carhartt jacket and pants upcycles, but those are pretty rough on your machine and your hands, and all my nails were broken all the time.”

On average, it takes Black anywhere from one to four hours to upcycle totes, shirts, and jackets. Pricing for finished products is based off the time taken and cost of material. Even if a project takes longer than expected, Black always tries to charge a consistent hourly rate.

On top of using her space to create upcycled products, Black is excited to see events take place at Summit Selvage.

“It’s kind of a half-baked plan—just kind of doing what sounds fun each week,” said Black.

Black will be teaching classes around fiber arts, such as sewing and mending clothing that is centered around sustainability, while her friends will be teaching hand stitching, screen printing, and origami classes.

“Other people are renting this space to be able to use the layout and machinery as well, and I’m trying to keep it all really affordable because sewing can get so expensive,” said Black. “I’m excited to see what events other people are most excited about and what becomes the most popular thing to host in here, and to see what people create in the space as well.”

For Capitol Hill residents wishing to become involved, Black encourages checking out the calendar on the website for events. She also encourages individuals to fill out a contact form on the website for any questions or ideas for events in workshops.

Summit Selvage is located at 1432 12th Ave. You can learn more at summitselvage.com.

 

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Carrie
Carrie
1 year ago

This place sounds great! I wish Capitol Hill had more places like this. We’ve lost so many of our good creative shops since the 90s. This is exciting, and I hope she’s successful.

Nomnom
Nomnom
1 year ago

I LOVE the sound of this place, and brava to Black for pulling it together and realizing her dream. Capitol Hill needs more of this: community-centered organizations that bring people together over shared interests. I’m nearly tapped out with classes at Century Ballroom at SCC; maybe a fiber arts class is in my future!