A Bundle of Wonderful

Pauline Marr’s skills at stitchery border on witchery.

Sewing is Pauline Marr’s Super Power. If there’s ever a global breakdown, Pauline, an off-the-grid Art Wizard, can keep us in stitches.

In fact, she and her sisters, children, and grandkids are loaded to the teeth with thread, needles, thimbles, sewing machines, and tons of repurpose-able fiber products. Reclaimed clothing, linens, thrift store finds, and anything cotton is about to be a re-worked wearable. Pauline’s home is so dedicated to fiber art, if you open a cookie tin, hoping for a snickerdoodle, you’ll likely find a fascinating entanglement of random sewing notions accompanied by one of her four-legged fuzzies zonked in a cat nap.

was always on the table.

Pauline says, “My mom taught us six girls how to sew. We were repurposing fabrics long before re-cycling was cool. In my 20s and 30s, I sewed all the clothes for my boys. To keep things trendy, I added camo pockets, dinosaur patches and flaps. But when I got into my mid 30s, I moved toward painting; sewing took a sabbatical.”

We were repurposing fabrics long before re-cycling was cool.

Once fabrics are sorted, they’re ready for ripping, cutting, distressing, stamping, bleaching, patching, appliqueing, handsewing, and embroidering. Then cabbage roses and butterflies and all manner of magical things are laid out on the surface of a split pair of dissected jeans. And that’s where the fun really begins.

Growing up in a large family with parents from the Great Depression (nothing was ever thrown away), a sewing machine

When she needed curtains, she wasn’t happy with the ready-mades available.

She says, “I followed a sewing video and found my curtain style. It worked out fine. Then I saw Tracy Myers tutorials and I was hooked for life. She was an up-cycler who knew all kinds of stitchery witchery. She was tearing linens into strips, doing lace and textural bo-ho fabric manipulations. She shone a light on me that will joyfully burn forever.

It takes 3-4 days to reinvent a pair of jeans. Much of it is just like creating a painting. Pauline says, “I decide on a palette. For example, I might plan to use 60 percent of a dominant color, let’s say pink; 30 percent of an auxiliary color, like something from the yellow family hue; and 10 percent of an accent, like a black and white check.

As I lay out flowers, animals, accents on the jeans, it begins to tell a story and come together. I have devised an overlap with button closures that accommodate four different sizes, expanding five inches. It’s not a one size fits all – but nearly.”

Pair the jeans with a vest of bo-ho, edgy hippie pieces finished with a button or wrap-around tie, again, accommodating several sizes. Scraps can be incorporated into a scarf and/or a cross-over-the-shoulder bag. It’s all about designing one-of-a-kind, unique creations.

You can usually find Pauline at the Highlands Farmers Market at Kelsey-Hutchinson Founders Park on Saturdays. Call her at (828) 230-3211 to schedule a personal tour of her studio and a conversation about a customized garment, perhaps made from family clothing, photo transfers of beloved pets, heritage buttons, or keepsake jewelry.

Or maybe a God-wink to the magnificent nature that surrounds us. Even though Pauline is steeped in her stitchery now, she still does her fabulous paintings. Make an appointment and visit with this bundle of wonderful.

by Donna Rhodes / photos by Susan Renfro