The First Stitch

The story of Growling Stitch began with one jacket. In the early stages of my research on substandard thrift store garments, I encountered items that were beyond resale: a worn pair of jeans and a deformed cotton-acrylic sweater. They were unsellable by retail standards, yet I saw possibility in them.

I reassembled those discarded fabrics into a patchwork jacket and embroidered the back with the view of Lake Louise. It was a way of stitching Alberta’s landscape, beauty, and resilience into pieces that others had already given up on. This garment was not polished or perfect, but it was alive with character.

This jacket became my first trial, a proof of concept that imperfection could be transformed into something treasured. It carried the lessons of my research and the heart of my vision, with human, textiles, memory, and the land. From that first stitch grew the idea that would become Growling Stitch.