Fit 2 Stitch

Peggy Sagers: I've heard it said: the big difference between couture and ready-to-wear is not design.

Couture has a power that ready-to-wear can never have.

The attention of those little hands as they sew, all that love and belief goes into the cloth.

Another quote reminds us, "Sewing is a way to quiet the mind, to relax the body, and to feed the soul."

Sit back, relax, and join us as Ella Pritsker shares the true beauty of couture, both in technique and in spirit.

male announcer: "Fit 2 Stitch" is made possible by Kai Scissors.

announcer: Reliable Corporation.

announcer: Bennos Buttons.

announcer: Plano Sewing Center.

announcer: Elliott Berman Textiles.

announcer: And WAWAK Sewing Supplies.

Peggy: "In a world that moves so fast, couture invites us to slow down, to be present, to work with our hands, to imagine, and then to create.

For anyone who dreams of exploring their own creativity, couture is a gateway to a life filled with beauty, purpose, and a deep connection to the art of making."

This quote is a quote from my guest.

Ella Pritsker is here today to show us this beauty, this connection, the joy that couture brings us.

I love it, I can't believe it's your quote.

I'm very humbled.

Ella Pritsker: Thank you, aren't they beautiful?

Peggy: They are beautiful.

Ella: Don't they just make you so happy?

Peggy: They do, they do.

I mean, when I look at a garment that's just so gorgeous, it is impressive.

Ella: And that is what couture is all about.

Couture is when artistry, fine craftsmanship, and exquisite textiles meet, and like in the example of this jacket, we have this absolutely gorgeous French boucle, and it's paired with this beautiful silk jacquard, gorgeous buttons, exquisite details.

I mean, the amount of time and just attention and love that this garment had, the enjoyment that this garment brought to the person who made it and the person who is wearing it is immense.

There's nothing else like couture.

Peggy: It is, it is.

I mean--and what goes through my head a lot of times when I look at this, Ella, is how much time did this take you?

But in our conversation, it almost feels sacrilegious to ask you, you know what I'm saying, because it isn't about the time.

I know sometimes it comes down to, but yeah, sometimes I worry about that.

Like, how much time does something like that take?

Ella: On an average, every couture coat, jacket, or long coat takes at least 40 hours, and that is because there's so much pad stitching and things like that inside, especially when like this jacket, for instance, has hair canvas inside as opposed to fusible interfacing.

Peggy: And would you say truly it could last a lifetime?

Ella: It will last a lifetime, and it can be passed down as an heirloom.

Peggy: And so when you're doing it, do you look for details that are classic, or sometimes yes or sometimes no?

Ella: It just really starts--you start and then you see how you want to proceed and details you want to use, and it's always a collaborative process with a customer.

When they come in and say, "I would like to have a jacket for a special occasion," or even just for an everyday purpose, everyday--wearing it everyday, then we decide on the color, we decide on the linings, we decide on the buttons, but then we decide through the muslin process what details we use, and then we get to the fabric stage, and then it really unfolds.

The story of this jacket really unfolds when we get to working with the fabrics.

Peggy: So it takes patience.

Ella: It does.

Peggy: And patience on the customer's part also.

Ella: Yes, and it's a willingness to participate in this beautiful process where at the end you have an amazing garment that you create and the customer gets to enjoy for a lifetime.

Peggy: And there's so much we want to look at.

Let's keep going, because there's so many beautiful things on this table.

I want to talk about so many of them.

Ella: In this beautiful jacket, we have this exquisite trim.

It's adorned with this beautiful one-of-a-kind trim that was created specifically for this jacket using the fabric of this jacket, and today I prepared a few samples of how this trim can be made, so if you'd like to see-- Peggy: We would.

Ella: And I love this process of making trim because it really allows to customize a jacket, to make it just your own, and it can be different each time you make it too.

So for instance, we cut the strips of fabric into 2-inch pieces, and then each 2-inch piece, we get to pull all the little-- Peggy: Oh my goodness, look at this.

Ella: --Threads off each end just like that.

You pull on each thread and it comes out.

Peggy: So does it change colors according to which way you're cutting them?

Ella: This is the part where you get to decide which color it's going to be, whether you pull it across grain or the other way, and then in-- Peggy: Weft or warp.

Ella: Weft or warp, and that's the way this different color will appear.

Whether you pull it one way or the other, it's going to be either darker or it's going to be brighter, and it's going to have shimmer or not.

It just depends on the fabric that you're working with, and each and every fabric will have something different to offer.

Peggy: And so do you start, you sew this down the center, and that's to stop it?

Ella: Yes, and you don't have to use anything in the center.

You can just have the technique itself and create that, then fold it in half like I did with this particular piece.

Fold it in half and have it only on one side, and just add it to a pocket or anywhere else on the garment.

So basically, you create your own trim.

First, you cut a 2-inch piece the way you decide to work with it, and then you pull the fibers off and you have a beautiful trim.

Peggy: It's easy and fun.

Ella: It's very easy, but it's so much fun because you always make something very unique and very interesting, so that is the-- Peggy: And when you have--you've got a lot of trim here.

Ella: We have a lot of trim, and it's everywhere.

We have it around the collar, around the front, around the pockets, and we have it on our little sleeves on the vents.

Very pretty.

Peggy: From a designer perspective, would you say to put it in those places?

Ella: You can put it anywhere you want.

Traditionally, we put it on pockets and around the neckline, and of course around the vent.

Peggy: Your jacket's beautiful.

Ella: Thank you.

Peggy: So you have the trim around the neck?

Ella: This actually is not trim, it's beaded one piece, one pearl at a time, one bead at a time.

Peggy: You stitch one bead at a time?

Ella: Yes, right on the fabric as you can see.

Peggy: So see, I feel so crude asking you how long did this take?

Ella: Many hours.

Peggy: More than 40.

Ella: Many hours, more than 40.

Peggy: Okay, we'll stop there.

Ella: It was enjoyable.

Peggy: Okay, I love that.

I love that spirit about you because you don't, it's--you're truly one to me that it's not about the destination.

Ella: Definitely.

Peggy: It is the journey for you.

Ella: Definitely, people ask me all the time, "When did you become interested in fashion?"

and I almost say, "Never," because I'm really more interested in the process of getting to the garment.

I love the process, and the process is what makes it very enjoyable for me and brings me so much pleasure and satisfaction and fulfillment.

Peggy: And that's a gift, because I've been so destination-driven for so long, "just give me the garment," it's taken me as I've gotten older to learn the patience, to learn that patience in the process, because that's where you get the details that are so beautiful.

Ella: Yes, and I had to learn to say to people that are destination-driven, "I'm not your couturier.

You have to find somebody who can make it like that for you, and you can be satisfied with something that's made in five minutes."

Peggy: That's interesting.

Ella: It's going to be more than that for me.

Peggy: So you've told some people goodbye.

That's good.

Ella: I don't say goodbye.

I just explain what I can and can't do.

Peggy: Yeah, I like that, and then they can say goodbye.

Ella: I think we can all--I think we all deserve to really enjoy the process.

Peggy: Okay, talk to me about this wedding dress because I know this is not the destination.

This is the journey.

Ella: This was a journey, and it was a beautiful journey.

This dress started with a woman that came in and brought a piece of heirloom jewelry and said, "This is your inspiration," and I want it to look like a Kate Middleton dress.

And of course, we had to design the sketch, we chose the fabrics, then we chose the lace and how it's going to be, and then I had the freedom of creative expression for the flowers and how they would be, so I decided to create these 3D flowers with organza silk, silk organza petals, and I had incorporated the silk petals all throughout the gown, and I actually brought a sample of how to make them, so if you'd like to know, so let me show you a few pieces that I have prepared and how to--this is--meanwhile, this is a beautiful flower.

Peggy: So this is something like this also?

Ella: And there is like a garland of these beautiful flowers on this mother of the bride gown.

There's lots of beautiful petals here.

Peggy: This person has to be so happy wearing this.

Ella: She loved it.

Peggy: I'll bet.

Ella: She absolutely loved it.

She really enjoyed her--the wedding time and the whole process of having this made.

So let me put this aside, and I'm going to show you how to make these beautiful flowers.

So first, the flowers are consisting of these beautiful petals, and once you have the petals, you can then decide how many you're going to use and how you're going to use them.

So to get to this point where you have all of these flower petals to put together, we need to cut out silk organza into petals, so let me show you a few things.

So I make small templates to cut the flower petals.

First I cut several flower petals, and here they are, one flower petal at a time, and then you sew them together.

Just, you put them together like that, one on top of another.

You pin them.

Peggy: So each of these is actually two--oh my gosh.

Ella: Two pieces of silk organza, and then you sew them all around the edge, and once you've sewn them-- Peggy: Like a little tiny eighth inch seam allowance?

Ella: An eighth of an inch seam allowance, yes.

Peggy: Do you do that by hand, or do you do it by machine?

Ella: No, you do it on machine, and it's really easy, much easier to do than you think.

You just have to really get a, you know, a handle on how to do it, and you can even do it with a quarter-inch seam allowance or half-inch seam allowance, whatever makes it easier for you, and then just trim it down to a very even seam allowance, narrow preferably, because the final product, when you look at the petal, you see seam allowance, and that's why it's important to have a very-- Peggy: You know, it's funny, I didn't even see it until you talked about it.

I see it now, but the first time I looked at them, I did not see the seam allowance, but the seam allowance is actually really pretty.

It gives it a little bit of weight.

Ella: Yes, it almost becomes a part of the design.

Peggy: Sure.

Ella: So once you have sewn them together, then you use this little tool, and you turn it inside out just like that.

It's very easy.

It looks much more complicated than it is, but it really is very easy to do, and then once you turn it inside out, then you want to press it.

You want to be careful not to poke through, and then you want to press it, press the whole seam open, just like that, flat just like that, and then once you pressed it, it's going to look like this.

Peggy: So I am not an art person, so I have to ask these silly little questions.

Ella: Sure.

Peggy: Like, this looks so good, like, this looks real to me.

Ella: It takes patience.

Peggy: How did you know the shape of the petals?

Like, this one's not the same as this one's-- Ella: I hand drew all the petals.

Peggy: So you could go from a picture book then?

Ella: You can.

I knew what I wanted my flower to look like, and I drew every petal, and then I made these paper pieces so that I could-- I actually drew them on a piece of paper, and then I laid them out and I put them through my printer, scaled them down, scaled them up so that my flowers are very uniform but different sizes.

Peggy: I like that.

So in this, you have like three different shapes.

Ella: Probably five.

Peggy: Probably five, okay, but that's enough that it makes the flower look natural.

Ella: Very--yes, very pretty, natural.

You want it to--you don't want all the petals to look the same because there's no such thing as the same petals in nature.

Peggy: That's something that comes so natural to you, it doesn't work for me.

I need five petals, different shapes, got it, okay, but I can do all that, I just need that help.

Ella: Anybody can do that.

Peggy: This is beautiful.

Ella: This is a technique you'll learn.

And actually, there was a beautiful dress that Valentino had introduced in 2000s, and it had these beautiful pink shapes made of silk organza that moved so beautifully, and I realized that it was made of pieces of silk organza sewn together and then applied to the dress, and it looked like fur trim at the bottom of the dress.

I just absolutely loved that.

Peggy: So then after you have done the petals-- Ella: Imagine how much time that took.

Peggy: No, I can't.

Couture, I mean--but I always wonder, and I feel a little bit guilty for even wondering that because it's not supposed to be about the destination, but this journey is like forever.

Going back to this now, you just took the little pieces and hand-sewed those in, and then put the crystals on top.

Ella: That's right.

Peggy: I mean, that is just beautiful.

Ella: And then on this particular flower, then we did something different.

We took a piece of silk netting, and we scrunched it and put pieces of beads.

Peggy: So it gives it texture.

Ella: Yeah, so it just makes it a little bit different.

And in this case, we decided to use guipure lace to create a little bit more texture.

Peggy: Okay, so this was actually already finished.

The edges, you just cut them out around?

Ella: Yes, we cut out the flowers from lace.

Peggy: That's incredible.

So it's really just the ideas that you can come up with.

Ella: As long as you have the technique, which I always say, when you learn the technique and you learn to--and you mastered something that you can then apply to different things, you have the creative freedom to do whatever it is that you would like to do with that technique.

Peggy: Those tools in the toolbox.

Ella: That tool in the toolbox.

Peggy: I like that.

Ella: Yes, and if you have the patience to explore and the creativity to explore, sky's the limit.

You have the freedom.

Peggy: So when you do--I'm going to go back to this wedding dress for just a little bit now.

Let's say you did the base and then you said, "Okay, this is X amount, but I want to do all these silk petals," but that will cost you X amount.

Do you go back and visit with the bride and say, "Do you want to pay this much more?"

Ella: It is a creative, collaborative process, and every step of the way we meet, and we have a fitting, and we discuss details and what else we want to add, and then I make a sample and say, "I really like this, would you like to have that?"

and then, yes.

She says whether or not she wants to do that.

Peggy: So time and money both play an impact, just not the hard and fast.

Ella: Yes.

Peggy: Okay, I love that.

Show me this next thing.

This is so much fun.

I've gotta do this because I saw-- Ella: We had this gorgeous flower and a very pretty plain bag, and when I added the flower it just became a very-- Peggy: So you bought the bag and just added the flower on?

Ella: Exactly.

Peggy: Because black organza goes with anything.

Ella: Right, and so it just made this little bag so much more special.

Peggy: It looks very expensive.

Ella: It does now because we really created something very special and very unique for it.

Peggy: Yeah, it's beautiful.

Ella: And then we used these flowers here on the fabric on this beautiful brocade and added some beading and added a few petals, and in this case, there's only a few petals throughout the dress.

Peggy: So was this the fabric, or was this--?

Ella: That was the fabric.

Peggy: Oh my goodness.

Ella: And we just added some beads.

Peggy: You just made it dimensional.

Ella: We did.

Peggy: Because right now in fashion, dimension is all the rage.

It's really, really strong.

Ella: And I think that people really love unique things.

Peggy: I agree with that.

Ella: Everybody wants to have something that is specifically for them, that is very unique and special.

Peggy: Especially when it's so pretty.

Ella: So this-- Peggy: And it does make me happy.

Ella: This particular gown was made for mother of the bride who came and said, "My daughter is having a wedding, and it's a garden black tie theme," so what can be more garden black tie than something like this?

Peggy: It's beautiful.

Ella: It's very unique, and nobody else is going to have this kind of dress.

Peggy: And she loved it.

Ella: She did.

Peggy: Okay, I know there's more to come.

Ella: And then there's one more technique that I would like to show you, and that is our-- Peggy: This is a big one, though, because I'm telling you lately, I've seen this a lot, this dimension, this whole concept that, really, it's just time-- Ella: Creating texture.

Peggy: It's creating texture.

Ella: It's just creating texture, and knowing how to apply technique that you already know is really just, it unlocks your creativity.

It allows you to do so many different things.

You can then dream up and create and actually fulfill what you are seeing in your mind when you know the technique.

Peggy: Yeah, yeah, thank you for that.

Ella: So, and the last thing that I wanted to share with you is this beautiful technique that's called passementerie.

Passementerie is a French technique that was born in, I think, 18th century?

A long time ago, and it was previously used only for royalty and for very special things, and then it still is because it does take a lot of time to do.

Peggy: So passementerie, isn't that what was always on the bottom of military?

Ella: Mm-hmm.

Peggy: Okay, and we've got it on this one.

Ella: And we have this-- Peggy: Let's take a look at this and just see.

Ella: We have it on this beautiful jacket.

It's sparingly used here.

I love the little detail here on the jacket.

It's a technique of attaching, applying, cording by hand.

Peggy: Any type of cording, it doesn't even matter?

Ella: Any type of cording.

Peggy: But this is all done by hand?

Ella: It's all done by hand.

It's laid out by hand, and it is symmetrical from the center back seam.

It's symmetrical on both sides.

It is very difficult.

It's not complicated, but it's difficult to do even though it looks very simple.

Peggy: To get it symmetrical.

Ella: To get it symmetrical.

Peggy: And again, color of the cord versus color of the suit, those are all just design choices.

Ella: Those are things you decide.

Those are your design choices.

That is something that is entirely up to you.

Like, when I saw this beautiful piece of boucl and saw all the pretty, fun colors, and then one day I walked into a store and saw this tie-dye trim that's called rat-tail, and I picked it up and I thought, "Oh my god, this is going to be perfect on this jacket," and here we are.

Peggy: I need your vision.

Show us, please.

Ella: So this technique is very simple, although it is very time-consuming.

It is not complicated, it's very simple.

Peggy: Just because it's by hand?

Ella: Just because it's by hand.

Peggy: Because this seems time consuming to me.

Ella: All of it is time consuming.

Peggy: That's fair.

Ella: Couture is time consuming.

Peggy: I've got to get on the journey and forget the destination.

Ella: There's nothing that is not time consuming with couture.

Peggy: Okay, that's fair.

Ella: It's all very, very-- Peggy: I do appreciate your honesty on this because some people say, "Oh no, it just takes a minute."

Ella: No, it doesn't.

They're not doing couture if it takes a minute.

This is where your creative freedom really is at play.

See, I chose this beautiful piece of jacquard, gorgeous brocade, and you can just lay out your trim any way you choose.

Just your design choice, however you would like it, and I usually allow it to lay the way it wants to allow.

When it wants to twist, I let it twist, and then take it from there and go, you know, one way or the other with it, although I do have something in mind when I usually do that.

And then, basically what we want to do is we want to stitch it very, very close.

Peggy: You're actually going through the cording itself.

Ella: I'm going through the cording with very small stitches attaching the cording.

Peggy: This is a project I would finish in the year 2090.

Ella: Patience, the result is worth it.

Peggy: But I think what's cool is because you're in the business, you have to finish this stuff.

You can't start a project and not finish it.

Ella: You have to finish, and you have to finish it to your customer's satisfaction, not just yours.

Peggy: Have you ever had somebody come in and say, "I don't like that?"

Ella: No.

Peggy: See, that means a lot of communication back and forth.

Ella: You have to.

We have to communicate.

That's the only way to have a happy customer, is to communicate and set proper expectations.

Peggy: Honestly, I can talk to you all day long.

This is just way too much fun, but we're gonna have to say goodbye, but thank you so much for being here, I really appreciate it.

Ella: Thank you for having me, thank you.

Peggy: Oh, my goodness.

Look at this.

This is just way too much fun.

And I will say, it does bring me joy.

When I look at it, when I see the work, it makes me happy.

I just get an ulcer when I think about doing it, but I'm going to get better.

Stay right where you are because Ella will be back to share a concept of couture that is new, exciting, and unlike anything you've seen before.

She's opening the door to her world, inviting us all to peek inside her everyday life in couture where craftsmanship, creativity, and care meet in every stitch.

announcer: "Fit 2 Stitch" is made possible by Kai Scissors.

announcer: Reliable Corporation.

announcer: Bennos Buttons.

announcer: Plano Sewing Center.

announcer: Elliott Berman Textiles.

announcer: And WAWAK Sewing Supplies.

announcer: To order a four DVD set of "Fit 2 Stitch" series 14, please visit our website at fit2stitch.com.