The Bobbin

Local shop The Bobbin Sew Craft and Lounge gets a write up in The Burlington Free Press. I'm so psyched for them. I love my state and the people in it.Read the article below or online here.

Three years ago The Bobbin Sew Bar and Craft Lounge was born in Burlington. Co-owners Rachel Hooper and Gyllian Rae Svensson, both of Burlington, host weekly classes in mending, knitting, block printing and have coined the term “eco-sew” with their Friday afternoon classes designed to educate the community on reusing materials.
“About 67 million tons of fabric hit the landfills every year,” Hooper said. “We live in this disposable culture where we don’t value quality materials and we don’t value the labor that goes into making our clothing.”
This surplus of materials is what brought them to create The Bobbin. All sustainable sewing and crafting classes include materials. “A lot of our materials are recycled,” Svensson said. “Basically, we are here to give people a place to build a skill and recycle. It’s empowering for everyone involved.”
Many people come in intimidated by the sewing machines, but Hooper and Svensson said they are always on hand to show people that sewing can be fun and accessible. After taking a sewing class, machines can be rented by the hour.
“For some, it’s hard to pull the sewing machine out and make space,” Hooper said. “Here we have all the space and material you need to sew and create.” They offer birthday parties for children and parties for adults, too. The space and the guidance of Hooper and Svensson can be booked for an evening, or people can stop by to do some mending. Svensson said The Bobbin is a green business.
“We’re bringing sock darning back,” Svensson said with a chuckle. “As Americans we are going to need to reach a place where we get back to basics.”
Hooper said, “We embrace the Depression-era ethics of mending. Remember ‘a stitch in time saves nine?’”
Along with alterations and custom design work, The Bobbin also has clothing for sale made by local designers. The arts and crafts that line the walls and myriad vintage materials are also for sale.
Last week the two women held a class in crochet, creating models of the shape of the universe — coral-like structures called “hyperbolic pseudospheres” by some scientists.
While holding a red and blue piece of crochet work, Hooper explained that it was a hyperbolic pseudosphere.
“It’s next-wave geometry. It’s about negative curvature,” she said. “See how it folds in on itself and crenulates. That’s because of the properties of hyperbolic space. Scientists are using models like this to figure out how big the universe is.”