🎉 Excitement, collaboration, creativity -- it was all part of the the ReFashion Sewdown Showcase, a day of designing and sewing to prepare to present that evening before an enthusiastic crowd of over 140 people. 🎉
This year the artists participated in an all-day sewing blitz that took place at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art from 10am-5:30pm, using a curated box of clean scrap pieces, upholstery samples, and deadstock textiles otherwise destined for landfills.
Entry categories included: 1) The Whole Shebang - This category was for artists or teams who created an entire outfit in one day at the Sewdown on April 27th from the textiles that we provided, such as tablecloths, bedsheets, etc. 2) Down Home - This category was for artists or teams who created one piece of clothing or a home decor item in one day at the Sewdown on April 27th from the textiles we provided, e.g., curtains, a quilt, a slipcover, jacket, etc. 3) Student Challenge: Jeans and T-Shirt -Student Challenge: This category was open to all Middle School/High School Students (ages 11-18). Students upcycled a pair of jeans and a T-shirt using other used clothing items or textiles to create one cohesive outfit. They worked either individually or as part of a team before the event, then brought their outfit(s) to model at the Sewdown.
In the evening, models descended the grand staircase in completed outfits before the general public and judges, who determined the cash prize awards. The public partook of appetizers and drinks the first hour and cheered on the models in the latter half.
Thank You to Our 2025 ReFashion Sewdown Sponsors
Thank You to Our In-kind Sponsors
Thank you for hosting the Sewdown!
Thank you for the notions, general supplies and support!
Judges
Bella Yongok Kim (Gig Harbor, WA) is a mixed-media and fiber artist specializing in installation art and textiles. Inspired by Jogakbo (Korean patchwork) and its tradition of repurposing fabric, she stitches together discarded plastic packaging and fabric to create new meanings. Her work reflects on migration, identity, and overconsumption through fabric and recycled materials. Continuously exploring sustainability in art, she participated in the ReFashion Exhibition (2022). Bella’s large-scale installation Arirang 2.0 was exhibited at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art in 2024. Her work has also been shown at the Whatcom Art Museum, Northwest Quilt & Fiber Art Museum, and the Burke Museum’s Korean collection at the University of Washington. She has received multiple awards, including the Artist Trust GAP Award (2023), People’s Choice Award (2021) at Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, Best Show Award at the Peninsula Art League, and the Artist Achievement Award from the Korean American Coalition (2024). Bella raises awareness of sustainability through art and transforms discarded materials into new artistic value.
Piper Tupper is an almost lifetime PNWer, having lived on Bainbridge Island for about 16 years. She loves our little corner of the PNW and the community here. Her children grew up here and, as the owner of Esther's Fabrics, she is a small business owner on the island. She learned to sew 43 years ago when she was 8 years old. A Barbie Doll doll clothes pattern caught her eye on a trip to the fabric store with her mom, an accomplished apparel sewist, and she just had to learn how to make the beautiful dresses she saw. Her mother patiently taught her from that point on and has been teaching and mentoring her ever since. This love of sewing and fabric has been with Piper almost her entire life now and she loves sharing sewing and encouraging others in their sewing journey.
Kathleen Bowman has been sewing since she was 9 years old. Her mother was a professional seamstress and passed on her talents to her daughter. As Kathleen grew, so did her skills. As a young adult, she sewed most all her clothes as well as fashioning slip covers, curtains, bedspreads, quilts and decorative pillows for her house. Her love of sewing——using her hands to create—— began to branch out into other avenues. She went on to build tiny houses, sheds, green houses, chicken coups, an outdoor bathroom and shower, reroofed her houses, added decks, tiled floors, built walls, framed windows and doors all with her own hands and tools. She cuts and styles the hair of her adopted children, whom she has collected from various parts of the world, completing her vision of family. Painting became a passion and she has sold oil paintings internationally. For a brief period, she was paid as a muralist. While living with her young son in Nicaragua, Kathleen opened an organic shop, making all her own organic body products from soaps, toothpaste and creams to laundry detergent. One day, searching for organic fruits at the Central Market, she came upon a newly shipped crate of used clothing from the U.S. Soon, every Monday morning was spent sorting through the new shipments as they arrived. She delighted in repurposing the clothing and selling them in her shop. Clothing in Granada, Nicaragua was cheaply made and styles were very limited. Seizing the opportunity to use her creative skills, soon the shop was a favorite with all its unique and fun, repurposed clothing. Creativity, to Kathleen, is as innate as breathing. While others ask, ’Why?” Creativity asks, “Why not?”. One of her favorite quotes is by Bill Moyer who said, “Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous”. This is a marvelous life!
