INTERVIEW: Meet Alice, Vacilando’s Production Seamstress
For the Scrap Collection, we gave our remote production team carte blanche and a few loose parameters to make whatever they dreamed up from our leftover fabric scraps. Each and every quilter and seamstress that we work with is wildly talented and creative in their own right - we wanted to provide an outlet for that creativity while repurposing our fabric scraps into something beautiful and useful.
Alice joined the Vacilando team in November 2020 as our third production seamstress, focusing exclusively on our small-batch quilt coats. Since then, she’s also drafted the patterns to expand our coat sizing and is currently working on a new Chore Coat design (both coming this fall!). With an extensive background as a costumer for theater, film, and ballet productions in London, we’re quite lucky that she’s hopped across the pond to share her vast sewing knowledge and skills.
We asked Alice a few questions about her background and sewing skills - let’s get to know her!
How long have you been quilting?
My Grandma taught me English paper piecing when I was 8 or 9 and I started a hexagonal quilt made from her sewing scraps, but it was so fiddly I never finished it! I trained as a costume maker and then came back to quilting as an adult, and now all the fiddly processes are my favourite parts.
How did you learn how to quilt/sew?
I learned some hand quilting from my Grandmother, but I didn’t learn to sew with a machine until I was about 15, when I started using an old one to alter thrift store clothes for myself. I started making my clothes and my sewing slowly improved with a lot of trial and error.
Where is your studio?
I'm very lucky that our apartment in DC has a mini room that is perfect studio sized! I sometimes end up cutting and basting on our dining table for the bigger quilt coat pieces as well, but I'm not very tidy and my pins and thread seem to migrate all over the house, so I try and keep it all in my studio as much as possible!
What machine do you use?
I use a Bernina 930 Record – it's a metal housed machine from the 80's with a really powerful motor that sews through everything! I love that you can take all the housing pieces off and service and clean it yourself (the quilting dust is endless...) but by far my favourite feature is the detachable knee presser foot lift, it saves SO much time when I'm piecing.
Most valuable tool?
Probably my needle holder – it's so beautiful and always makes me smile when I'm working. Before I got it I used the same sad grey piece of foam for 3 years so this was a much needed upgrade!
Favorite fabric color?
I love anything in the mustard/gold/burnt orange zone, and I really like fabrics with extra texture in the weave like the Pepper linen/cotton.
Best sewing tip/hack?
It's not a new one, but a hack that is well worth it is making continuous bias binding out of big squares and using a pin on the ironing board to press it (instead of a metal maker). It makes really neat seams in the binding, uses the fabric efficiently and there's no need to have a bias tape maker of every size handy.
Squares + rectangles, triangles, or curves?
I prefer curves, but doing all the HSTs for the North coats and lining up all the seams nicely is really satisfying too.
What’s your favorite thing about quilting/sewing?
I really like pattern matching and piecing, there's nothing more satisfying than having every seam or pattern flow across the surface smoothly. I have been doing some garment pattern drafting for Vacilando as well, and seeing something you've imagined in 3D, then worked out how to pattern it flat, then putting the thing together into 3D again – that whole process is challenging and super enjoyable to me as well.
What's your least favorite thing about quilting/sewing?
The mess!! Tiny scraps of batting, loose thread, SO MUCH dust!
Your favorite Vacilando piece?
This is tricky! The Crescent is one of my favourite quilts, I like the colour combination and balance and it reminds me of peaceful misty mountain hikes. Of the quilt coats (which is what I make mostly) the recent collaboration with Little Korboose was so satisfying to work on, and I loved how the multi print lining turned out.
Preferred drink + snack while you’re working?
I'm too paranoid to have anything other than water in my studio after a couple of coffee clumsy near misses – so lots of water, and popping to the kitchen for herbal tea and dark chocolate when I need a mid afternoon boost.
Preferred drink + snack after you’re done working?
Usually some post work chips and salsa or salted sesame sticks and iced tea, or a sour beer if I'm feeling fancy.
What’s your most memorable travel moment?
Ooh so hard to choose!! I went on a trip to Chile about 5 years ago, and swimming in so many different types of landscape in one trip was amazing – high altitude hot springs, salty buoyant pools on the slat flats, beautiful beaches and a freezing cold natural rock water slide in the forest.
What are you up to when you aren’t making quilts/sewing?
I like to grow veg and cook/bake a lot, and otherwise curling up with a good book.
Where can we find you on the interwebs?
I have some of my work on http://www.alicekornicki.com/.
