NextFab is a membership-based makerspace that provides shared workshops, education, and mentoring in woodworking, metalworking, laser cutting, 3D printing, textiles, jewelry making, and digital manufacturing tools. With over 500 members, NextFab offers a supportive community where you can learn new skills, build products, and explore making as a professional pathway. By choosing a handmade gift
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Do you know what it’s made of? Where it came from? Who stitched it together? Go ahead and cheat. Check the label. That will get you part of the way there: a list of materials and a country, but much of the story will remain a mystery. That little tag won’t tell you about the
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Mayana Carter knew she wanted to create a different kind of bridal salon. Before opening Kinfolk Bride, Carter had worked in the bridal industry for 10 years in various capacities. “I found myself longing to see more designers of color, more women designers and more small makers,” she says, “and I wanted the people in
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In Johanna Dunn’s Belmont Hills studio, rich upholsteries abound: lush reds, animal prints and houndstooth mingle with florals, tweeds and blackout curtains. Her slow-fashion company, City Totes, specializes in artistically crafted bags made from reclaimed fabrics. Dunn, 55, loves finding materials destined for the trash and designing a new life for them. Over the past
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Just off South Street, pink neon lights up the new sign outside Worm’s Emporium, a boutique-style vendor art mall. Inside the light, airy space, handcrafted fine art and craft pieces delicately line shelves constructed by cofounder Sabrena Wishart. Vendor stalls showcase a variety of mediums including ceramics, drawing, upcycled clothing, stickers and much more. Each
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When Laverne Evans needed a red purse for her birthday outfit this past November, she knew exactly where to go. Evans, 28, made her way to I Spy, You Buy, a curated thrift store in Mount Airy, to see if owner Dolly Park had something in stock. “She told me to come back tomorrow,” Evans
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Following the birth of her first son in 2018, Melanie Hasan experienced postpartum depression, a condition that affects millions of women each year. She turned to natural dyeing to find comfort. “Just dipping your hands into a really nice, lukewarm bath and absorbing the color of an onion skin, or just embracing the smell of
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Feast Jewelry’s Adrienne Manno doesn’t upcycle because it’s trendy. Or because she’s on some sustainability soapbox. Manno describes the reclaim-and-repurpose aspect of her jewelry making as an organic outgrowth of incorrigible collecting. On her used-to-be-frequent travels, Manno would spot and acquire a piece here, an element there—a 1980s faux horn belt at a London flea
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Lindsey Troop is the regional manager for Fabscrap Philadelphia. Photography by Drew Dennis. Fashion Forward By Samantha Wittchen Jordan Haddad sat in his 1,800 square-foot studio in South Philly’s BOK. The waste was piling up. His local sustainable fashion company, Lobo Mau, had been saving fabric scraps from all of the clothing it designed and
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I’m wearing spandex right now. No, I’m not at my computer in an Olympic leotard or even Lululemon athleisure. I’m wearing Levi’s jeans, and though they are almost all cotton, they have about 3% spandex, a kind of plastic, woven into them. The unfortunate fact that they have plastic in them prevents them from being
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