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.” Continue reading