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Members of Richmond Really Sews! after their 2023 Frocktails event. Photo by Wayne K. Thomas, courtesy Karen Keech Swerling.
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Richmond Really Sews! meets in founder Karen Keech Swerling's basement sewing studio to learn sewing techniques. Photos courtesy Karen Keech Swerling.
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Courtesy Karen Keech Swerling, Richmond Really Sews!
Karen Keech Swerling worked in Hollywood as a costume designer for three decades. She and her husband were looking for a change of pace in retirement, so eight years ago they traded their house in Malibu for an early 1900s Victorian in Richmond’s museum district. Keech Swerling converted the basement into a studio for her nonprofit, Richmond Really Sews!, and she offers free classes to anyone with a desire and a passion to sew.
“You should see the energy,” Keech Swerling says. “People chat while they’re sewing and become friends — I love it. Sewing allows us to express where we come from and how we feel. We can’t do that if we go to the store.”
Members of Richmond Really Sews! are showcasing their work on Nov. 2 at their annual fundraiser, Richmond Frocktails, a fashion show featuring their handmade creations. While Keech Swerling donates her time and talent, she relies on funds raised at the event to cover sewing machine maintenance and supplies.
Karen Keech Swerling, founder of Richmond Really Sews!, in the 'Eliza Doolittle' dress she made for Frocktails 2023. Photo by Wayne K. Thomas.
“You’re going to see a lot of really fun things,” she says. “We don’t do totes and aprons — we go beyond that. Our members make something they are proud of, because when you wear something, your outfit speaks for you.”
Frocktails will feature about 32 models, and some will wear a second or third outfit. Keech Swerling will be show a 1920s-style cocoon coat she designed and made with inspiration from the famous French designer Paul Poiret.
Members are men and women, beginners and professionals, and people of all different backgrounds. Every Saturday afternoon, they gather around 30 work stations with different sewing machines. “If they’re beginners I put them on a Kenmore or a vintage Singer,” Keech Swerling says. “If they’re a little more advanced, I put them on one of my vintage Berninas. I also have a couple of Vikings and eight sergers.” She also provides fabric, thread, zippers and elastic — “whatever keeps people sewing.”
“We have such a diverse group,” Keech Swerling adds. “We have people who have never touched a sewing machine before, and then they move up and they want to do modern mending, Sashiko and other embroidery, or cosplay. It’s so wonderful.”
Frocktails 2023 (click for more images). Photos by Wayne K. Thomas, courtesy Karen Keech Swerling
In the spring, the group went to New York City, where they met with famous fabric designers at Elliott Berman, Mood Fabrics and Metro Textiles. When they got back to Richmond, they received a big surprise: a 60-pound box of fabrics from Elliott Berman.
“They’re sustainable fabrics from France and Italy, really expensive, high-end fabrics, that we were able to give to our members,” Keech Swerling says. “Some of the fabrics will be featured in the Frocktails show.”
The designer says she loves sharing her knowledge with others as a way of honoring the teachers at California's Long Beach City
College and San Diego State University who impacted her life early on. “Nancy Morgan took me under her wing and asked me what I really wanted to do,” she recalls. “They didn’t have a costume design program, so she helped me create my own major.”
Keech Swerling took classes in the art, home economics and theater departments, where she met another significant teacher, Alicia Annas. “She was giving all the other students A’s but refused to give me one, so I went to meet with her,” Keech Swerling recalls. “She told me I was the most talented student she'd had in 18 years of teaching, and I could really do this if I stopped doing my projects the night before and if I only produced portfolio-quality work from then on. So I did.” After that, Annas helped her research the business and learn about unions, and introduced her to friends in Hollywood. Above all, she gave Keech Swerling the confidence and encouragement to push herself.
Keech Swerling’s first project was “Esperanza” with the American Film Institute in 1982. Though unpaid, the work helped her break into the industry. She went on to design the costumes for the “Munsters Today” series and the movie “Far North,” where she worked with director Sam Shepard and actors Jessica Lange and Patricia Arquette. Over the next 33 years, she designed costumes for major feature films and TV shows, working with such celebrities as David Bowie, Kelsey Grammar and Jimmy Stewart.
But despite her career success, Keech Swerling says she feels the most fulfilled today, passing on her skills to others and keeping the art of sewing alive, in a city she and her husband love. “History, culture, arts, music, walkability, community — Richmond has it all,” she says. “I’ve made so many friends who are artists, who have introduced me to other artists. This is the happiest we’ve ever been in our whole lives.”
The Frocktails fashion show will be Nov. 2 at 6:30 p.m. at Triple Crossing Beer's Fulton locaton; tickets $45.
