Need your pants hemmed? Bring them to the bar
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Cathy Dickey, left, created a sewing pop-up at The Kingpin. Photos: Courtesy of Cathy Dickey
If you've got a pair of pants with a missing button or a hem that needs to get taken in, you might try bringing it to The Kingpin on a Wednesday night.
Why it matters: That's where you'll find Cathy Dickey, who started a sewing pop-up at the Uptown bar last October.
Zoom in: Dickey is a Kingpin regular, but while some folks head to the bar looking to chat with friends, and other folks might bring a book, Dickey usually brings something to sew.
- "It started out with quilting," she says. "I'd hang at the bar, and I'd be stitching, and folks would be like, 'hey, can you fix [this]?'"
- That's why, when Kingpin owner Ben Sherman inherited a tuxedo that he wanted to have taken in, he asked if Dickey could help him out last fall. She said of course, and he stood on a box of liquor bottles while she took measurements.
- After that experience, Ben told Dickey to pick a day of the week to post up at the bar, and her sewing pop-up was officially born.
The big picture: Dickey's been sewing her whole life. Growing up in Wisconsin, she was raised to believe that if something could be fixed, you didn't throw it out.
- Sleepover parties at her house would involve making custom boxer shorts with matching scrunchies, she recalls. Later, when her grandmother died, Dickey inherited gallon-sized bags of buttons.
- "I like putting a mend on stuff," she says. "I'll take a hole in a pair of pants and put a cartoon-y fabric in there to make it funny."
Yes, but: Not everything is fixable.
- "Fast fashion has ruined our perception of the value of an item," she says, noting that many companies make items in a way that they can't actually be fixed. "Because we don't have a tradition of making things in America anymore, we fail to understand the true cost of a garment."
State of play: Dickey prefers not to mend formalwear, and instead points to the many talented local seamstresses who specialize in that kind of thing.
- But her pop-up is perfect for repairing work uniforms or sewing on the odd button here and there.
- She won't make repairs at the bar, though. Expect to drop off your items and meet her later for a pick-up. The average cost is around $20.
The bottom line: There are pop-ups for food, shopping and even tattoos. So, why not sewing and mending?