Katie Rempe: What if the simple act of seaming and sewing could bind together more than just a garment or accessory? Today we explore how this act can symbolize connection, community, and the magic in profound ways in this week's episode featuring our special return guest, Raechel Henderson! Yay!
Raechel Henderson (she/her): Hello. Thank you for having me back.
Katie Rempe: Light from Lantern presents Knit a Spell. I'm your host, Katie Rempe, designer, knit witch, and your companion in this magical making podcast. Together, let's explore the enchanted world where knitting meets the magic of the craft.
All season long we are talking about symbology, sigils and signs that are in knitting and crafting and how, people who don't know, it looks like a foreign language. I was reflecting on your first episode that you came on to promote your book, Sew Witchy, and then , your book about Hestia, and then the Wheel of the Year, and maybe even more upcoming projects, including what we're talking about today, which is your new book:
The Witch's Wardrobe!
So we wanted to have you back to share more of your expertise and talk about your brand new book.
Raechel Henderson (she/her): I have looked at patterns for knitting and crocheting. And yeah, that's, yeah. Not only just a foreign language, but yeah, it's it's magic.
Katie Rempe: Now you are back, expanding on your Sew Witchy journey into a whole witchy wardrobe.
Witch's Wardrobe
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Katie Rempe: So let's start by saying that is coming out in December. We're airing this in November, so pre orders are available.
I want you to tell us, How the idea for this book came out and how it expands on Sew Witchy.
Raechel Henderson (she/her): Sew witchy There's a couple of garments included in it That was at the request of my publisher. They were like, oh, there's some cool stuff in here but could we have some more wearables So I made two patterns for that. It was a tunic and a cape. And as I worked on those, I just kept thinking about how, clothing can be magical.
I've done deep dives in the past into like fast fashion. And I'm very much into, not only because I've sewn for living. So I've made clothes for other people, but making clothes for .Myself and one of the things that kept coming up when I was sewing for people was I was making these skirts with pockets.
Very simple concept, but everybody was like, oh my gosh, it has pockets. And I was making sizes all the way up to like 3 and 4XL. And when you go to conventions and like, it's really hard to find. clothing in that size. I would watch these people pull on a skirt that fit them perfectly and they would just like hand me their credit card, twirl out of the booth just so happy.
And I was like, you know, that's magic. Being able to find something that fits you perfectly is a type of magic. And I also am very fond, I have a big collection of sewing books. So I, a lot of the sewing books, they would include some garments, but they were usually either very simple ones or ones that would come with patterns.
And a lot of people are not off the rack sizes. And so all of that coalesced into this, idea of calling it, Dressed Like a Hedge Witch, which, I just wanted to say here are some designs that you can make for yourself so that you can feel witchy. You can make them to your own measurements.
Make them from the fabric that you want so that it suits your aesthetic. With the advent and with the expansion of witchiness over the last like decade or so You have a lot more options But they also kind of fit into this very specific aesthetic and myself like I like the occasional black skirt and black t shirt But I also like colors.
I like prints. I like other stuff. So I figured this was a good way to kind of To let people be able to make something that suited their own style. And also, this book is very, greedy of me, , and very personal, because I was like, I want to make clothes for myself.
So, all of the clothes that are in this are stuff that I've made for myself to wear, That I was like, you know, I like these styles, I think other people like these styles, I think there are other witches out there like me who want to make stuff to fit themselves, so here we go, let's make a book of it, and Llewellyn was very cool and said, yeah, let's do this, and I, I am very lucky to have them.
They have been so supportive of my entire, witchy crafting journey.
Self-Empowered Custom Fit
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Katie Rempe: Thank you, Llewellyn, for supporting, fellow magical makers. There's been a huge awakening within our crafting of knitting as well on expanded sizes and making it more inclusive and as a sewer myself, I went to fashion school, grading patterns is one of the most difficult things to do, and we should talk about it for a minute because there are ways to do it that you can make it easier and more available for people, and then there are ways that clothing are made that it makes grading so difficult for the range of sizes people come in that I'm like, I like, this is almost an impossible task.
So when you talk about learning how to make your own clothing, much like we do as knitters, the patterns become inspirational pieces, like seeing something that you've made. You're like, Oh, okay. It's, A person wearing a corset like this.
I never really thought maybe that could be appealing to me.
So could you talk a little bit to how learning how to make your own clothes, even just a little bit, can offer you a level of empowerment?
Raechel Henderson (she/her): Oh yeah, and that's where I started off with because again, everybody's a different size. Everybody's a different silhouette. And, modern day patterns are based off of, post World War II measurements, where the average height of a woman was, 5'8 and, I can't remember what the weight was, but it was, something like 120 pounds.
And that's what a lot of places used as their prime measurements for making clothing. You can immediately see what the problem is, is that's not going to fit everybody. So even if you do something as simple as I'm going to do this skirt, I have this pattern for this skirt.
It doesn't quite fit me. It doesn't go up the right sizing or when I look at the sizing on the back, it's not quite right. You know, either it's too large or too small. When you adjust that, and you make it your own, the, feeling of confidence, and, the empowerment of that, of saying, okay, I turned this into something that fits me.
And then it becomes your favorite piece of clothing and people will compliment you on it and you say, thanks, I made this. all of that, I think, is really important, especially in this day with fast fashion, they're literally making clothing that's only supposed to, stand up to seven wears and then be tossed aside where you have countries that are inundated with the leftovers from, our landfills and our clothing landfills, all of this is stuff that we need to take into, account when we look at our clothing choices and what we're going to do for our clothing, and especially if we consider.
Ourselves living magically. We definitely need to take that into account because how are our actions impacting the larger community and the large the world at large?
Katie Rempe: the first time you make your own anything, no matter if it's a sewn set of pajamas or a pillowcase or, a knit, swatch, you become immediately, more appreciative of the process that it goes into making it because you have just made it.
Raechel Henderson (she/her): If you make your own clothes or even if you're playing around making a pillowcase or something like that, once you get used to those skills, you can transfer them to other stuff.
Mending & Making Investments Last
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Raechel Henderson (she/her): once you understand how a garment is put together, it makes it a lot easier to mend the garments that you already have and say, Oh, I see how this was put together.
It makes it a lot easier. I can fix this instead of, Oh, there's a hole. I'm just going to throw it away. So these are skills that will serve you in multiple different instances.
Katie Rempe: And you took time to make it initially. Odds are you're probably going to be a little bit more attached to it than something you just bought off the rack. Mm hmm.
In most cases, at least that's been my experience. I'm always more willing to mend my hand knit sweaters than just be like, guess I'm going to throw it away.
What? Well, it took me 120 hours to make and also it was 300 worth of wool. So maybe I'm going to pull this out and make it into something else.
Raechel Henderson (she/her): Yeah. And that's, the other part. That's the flip side of that is because of the way our society is set up, making stuff for yourself, is more expensive and it sucks that that's the way it is. This is where you get into, what do I want my impact to be, and also, do I want to buy something that is cheaper, but isn't going to fit me quite the way I want it to, and then I'm always going to be itchy, or uncomfortable, or it's just going to sit in the back of my closet.
Or am I going to Make something and yeah, it's going to be more money, but it's going to last longer not only because of the materials that you use and the techniques you use but also because you're going to take better care of it. And so in the long run Something that you made while it might be more expensive initially.
It's going to save you money in the in the long term It's just hard especially these days to see that. It's an investment to go out and you know put down 50 to 100 on materials and then spend the time and the effort and everything to end up with something that you could probably go and get for 10 from Walmart.
Katie Rempe: Which is also a good reminder, the next time you're angry at your craft, you could just buy this thing for a fraction of the price somewhere, but you're choosing to make it, so, you
know, be cool. put it down for a minute, that's okay too. You can be mad at
your crafting for a second.
Raechel Henderson (she/her): Absolutely.
Mending & Glamour Magic
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Katie Rempe: some of the techniques that you talk about in your book are color magic, knot magic, glamour magic, and mending magic. I'm interested in mending specifically because that's a huge movement right now. Can you tell me, what is mending magic and how do you explain it in the book?
Raechel Henderson (she/her): Mending magic is using the opportunity to mend something as an opportunity to invest magic into the piece that you're working on. And this is where you sit there and, you engage in those other, magics, color magics, and your choice of your mending, and your thread, and your yarn, and all of that, what you're doing it's a very much a healing kind of magic where you're putting forth these healing energies of I'm fixing this and recognizing that just because it needs to be mended doesn't mean that it's fixed.
worthless. So you get into their, like, self confidence. If you have low self esteem or if you have trauma, it's great magic to work through that, to bring in, some elements of your shadow work to then work out on this mending. But it also brings in energies of glamour because you can, through your mending, make something, more, uh, Beautiful.
There are whole movements, especially like the Japanese, activity of mending stuff with resin and putting the gold foil on it. Uh, I can't remember what it's called off the top of my head right now, but, this idea of rather than trying to hide what it is that you're mending, that you bring.
attention to it and that you bring attention to it in a beautiful way. So choosing threads that, you know, gold threads and, silver threads, like these iridescent colors, to then make it more beautiful. this is a very healing process in that then you are, you know, Again, saying it may be broken, it is not worthless, and there is still use left in it.
ha ha
Katie Rempe: A great strengthening opportunity too.
Maybe this, heel had a hole here. But, I've mended over it now. It's stronger than it ever was, so the foundation is, more built up. So I think it could be a reflection tool.
Especially with the glamour element, allowing this to be part of the feature of the piece instead of something that drives you crazy.
Lean in!
Raechel Henderson (she/her): Yeah, oh, exactly, and if you are a parent, mending magic, especially if you're mending your children's clothes, is a Perfect opportunity to start putting in some of those loving and protective energies in it, like school clothes, if you're mending a backpack, stuff like that, mending gives you the opportunity to, bring in whatever energy you need into that project.
And I do. I think that a lot of people tend to, they look at stuff, uh, very mundanely and they're like, Oh, I'm just patching a hole or I'm just fixing this seam. And I encourage people to look at these mundane tasks and say, How can I bring the magic into it? How can I make it more magical? Because once you start doing that, once you start mending, sewing, knitting, doing any kind of that crafting with that intention and that mindfulness.
You're going to remember that every time you encounter it again. Every time you wear that article clothing. Every time you pick up that craft project to do again. You're going to be like, oh yeah. And that's going to strengthen that intention. And it's going to carry into the future with you.
Katie Rempe: Yes, so why not make it a positive intention?
One of my favorite examples of this is I used to teach weaving classes
and I don't know if you've ever set up a loom before or not Raechel.
Have who?
Raechel Henderson (she/her): No. Weaving is one of those things I want to get into. But I'm like, scared of it at the same time. I have healthy fear of it. I'm like, one of these days,
Katie Rempe: It also takes up a lot of space. So I get
it. Yeah.
Part of the process is setting up the warp, which is like laying out the strings before you get to the weaving part, which is usually where people just want to jump in. Everyone used to say like, Oh, I have to set up the warp. And I was like, no, you get to set up the warp. It's your roadmap. This is the best part. You have to flip your mindset around on this. Otherwise, why are you even learning it? This is like step one. It'd be like, I hate casting on stitches. So, I never knit.
Witches Wardrode Patterns
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Katie Rempe: So in your book, you have kind of already alluded to the fact that you made a lot of these pieces for you, but how did you figure out which pieces exactly you were going to feature?
Raechel Henderson (she/her): That was, a process because what I wanted to do is I want this book to present an actual wardrobe. I want it to be that if you made one piece of Each of the items in there that you would end up with a, I think it's 27, 28 piece wardrobe.
I wanted everything to be able to mix and match so that you could make one or two pieces. I wanted them to be pieces that you could style in your own style. Individual style and that you could then work with what you already have in your wardrobe.
So I stuck with a lot of basics. And I also looked at a lot of historical garments where I was like, okay, we're witchy. We want stuff that is romantic feeling. We want a certain silhouette. We want these lines. And so, like, there's a chemise in there. There's a petticoat as foundational. There's a set of bloomers to help with getting that But also to learn the basics to end up with a complete wardrobe.
When I started out, I had a good 50 that I had listed, like, I'm going to do all these things. And because the Aries in me and the, competitive type a personality, eventually it became, that's too many projects.
You need to put some of those back. And I'm like, no!
Katie Rempe: Book two!
The return of the wardrobe.
Raechel Henderson (she/her): yeah, exactly. So what I did is a lot of them were, takes on basic patterns and I was like, let's keep it basic. Let's keep it to some dresses, some skirts, some tops, stuff that will, be easy to make, that is easy to, grade for people and that anybody, whatever their sewing skill can do. Like the most complicated pieces in there is there's a waist cincher So there's a corset which involves, a few steps that are more advanced But most of the projects I wanted them to be simple.
I want to encourage people To take up sewing, and in order to do that, I need to make sure that the entry level is low. Not that these are simplified pieces and people with more sewing skills might find them boring, but that they, get you into all the, techniques you need to use. They are simple enough so that you can incorporate magic as you're working on them.
That's the other thing. If it's too complicated, then you lose your focus and your intention. That's how I ended up choosing the pieces that I chose.
Katie Rempe: So it sounds like you're setting people up for success by offering them wins. Everything in here is a win. You are going to be able to do this and succeed and be empowered by your learning, yes?
Raechel Henderson (she/her): Yes, that's what I attempted. That's what I'm trying to do. I will be honest, this book is the most ambitious one that I've written to date, and it terrifies me a little bit. Like, I love it so much, and uh, it's beautiful. On the other hand, I'm just like, oh my gosh, I hope. that this works out fine, and I hope that it works for everybody, and everybody around me has been telling me, no, no, it's good.
I'm like, I'll believe that when it finally comes out. I mean, this is, this is what happens when you're an author, though. You work in this vacuum, and until the book comes out, you have no idea what people are going to say about it or whether it works or not And then if you're like someone like me with you know, imposter syndrome and all that other stuff Like your husband says no, it's a great book.
You're like you just say that because you love me you have to say that you are contractually obligated to say nice things about me.
Katie Rempe: You live in the house, what are you going to screw this up by saying it could use some work? Come on!
Raechel Henderson (she/her): But yes That is what i'm trying to do is make a book that anybody at any sewing level You We'll be able to pick it up and make at least one piece out of it.
Katie Rempe: In my experience with patterns, people love, no matter their skill level, something simple, basic, and timeless. You can layer things that are simple, and people who are more advanced, will know how to use that as the jumping off point.
And, We deal in soft goods. So, Even though you have to cut some of your fabric, usually you can save it to some degree.
So you can't screw something up too bad. Knitting, you can rip it out. Like, even if you've cut some things, you can make it work. Even sewing, even if you've kind of like, oh, okay, now this isn't going to become the shirt, now it's a purse. You can always make it work. Just like Tim Gunn said.
Raechel Henderson (she/her): Absolutely.
Katie Rempe: You just have to be creative and give yourself some grace. I think
anyone who is learning any skill, we all have the societal, pressure that if you are not doing it perfectly immediately, you're a failure. But as someone who fails all the time, that's how you learn. So
fail more.
Raechel Henderson (she/her): Absolutely.
Repurposing Fabrics
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Katie Rempe: So one of the fun projects that I saw on the back cover, and I was like, Is this knit? Oh my gosh, it's crocheted! But I believe it was, recycled from a pre, knit fabric? And it was like a cowl with buttons of protection?
Was that right?
Raechel Henderson (she/her): Yes. That is, absolutely one of the, Projects, and there is a cow where it is recycled from a sweater. Had a sweater that had gotten holes in the armpits, and I was like, okay, I'm not a knitter, don't really know how to do the mending for that, but what I can do is I can turn it into a cow, and I did. And, that's one of the major themes of this book is on reuse, recycle, going and checking out places that you normally wouldn't look at for fabric, like, thrift stores, and, of curtains can make a really nice skirt or cape, especially if you are a larger sized person when a lot of the fabrics at the hobby stores aren't wide enough.
So I very much encourage people to look at what they have on hand and redefine how they think when they think of sources for fabric.
Katie Rempe: Just because it's sold to you as bedsheets doesn't mean that it's not a sheet of fabric kind of a thing. Oh.
Raechel Henderson (she/her): two favorite dresses that I wear around the house right now were made from jersey bed sheets that I got from Goodwill.
They're so comfortable.
Katie Rempe: You can find a lot of really nice blends and things available in sheets. I mean, you
know, amazing, uh, organic cottons, Egyptian cottons and silks, and all sorts of fun stuff.
Power of Cross-Cracfting
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Katie Rempe: Learning a little bit of cross crafting can really open up, a world of creativity and empowerment, so, I'm curious to know, what do you think the benefit of learning a little bit of multiple crafts can be in order to really strengthen like your main focus?
Raechel Henderson (she/her): The first thing that comes to mind is that it then teaches you an appreciation for the other craft. Just because you sew doesn't mean you understand what goes into knitting something or crocheting it and vice versa. even giving it a try, Gives you that appreciation so that you're not like belittling or going, Oh, I could do that.
Or, Oh, you're charging how much, or you're still working on this thing. What's taking so long? I could have made a blanket in half that time. Were you sitting there with your fleece tying the knot. See? Blanket done. It's like, okay,
Katie Rempe: Uh huh.
Raechel Henderson (she/her): Slow your roll.
Katie Rempe: Quality. Right. Yeah.
Raechel Henderson (she/her): Yeah. But also, I think it gives you opportunities to do a lot of really interesting things, fashion wise, but also magic wise. Because, like we were talking about how the patterns for knitting and, crochet, how they look like a foreign language. They look like a magic code. And so, That's something that you can take into account where even if you are not, or crocheting yourself that you can then say, okay, but this involves sigil work.
Really? It involves numeracy, that word that I can't say. you can then look for ways to incorporate that into a project that you're doing where you want to incorporate that Esoteric, concealed, coded messages into your project. So maybe you find a sweater that you can repurpose into a cow.
Maybe you have a friend who knits and you work, an exchange so that you get something that you can, put into your, cape or something like that.
Magic Correspondences of Materials
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Raechel Henderson (she/her): But the other thing is, materials have their own magical correspondences. And so by embracing cross crafting and trying other crafts, you then open up, a whole new world of magical correspondences and, materials that you can work with.
That allows an elasticity for magic, where I don't have this, I need something that corresponds with the sun, but I don't have anything that does that here, but oh, I have this yarn, and it's yellow, I can incorporate some of that into my project to bring that solar energy into.
That sort of thing where you then can see. similarities, and you can make those, substitutions.
Katie Rempe: I love that. It's the best way to re inspire a craft you've been doing for a long time, is learn one that you can apply towards it. I remember being on a big knitting stale for a while and I learned how to do like a one giant granny square afghan and Even though I didn't fall in love with crochet I was like, oh, well actually, okay Now at least I know how to work this hook. So that's fun. And now the next time I drop a stitch I'm gonna be quite upped at that or Next time I need to sew up a seam maybe I'll use the crochet hook instead of the sewing Needle and it will work much better.
it can offer you benefits to the original craft that you would never, otherwise anticipate, just like anything, I suppose it's like learning a different type of magic and all of a sudden you're like, Oh, well, now I need sigils on everything. So that's good.
Embrace Your Unique Witchiness!
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Katie Rempe: To wrap this up, a lot of people, can be. Self conscious, perhaps, about putting themselves out there in a witchy way or a crafty way. A fear of getting judged. This book, really helps you have some personal empowerment over that, but I wonder if you have any words of advice or encouragement for folks who are looking to put themselves out there a little bit but are hesitant.
Raechel Henderson (she/her): One of the really nice things about, this expansion and this, embracing of spookiness and witchiness over the last decade or so has been that you can low key get witchy without anybody thinking anything of it. And one of the nice things about magic, too, is nobody has to know if you don't want them to know.
So, if you're worried about being judged, think of it that you're kind of getting away with something. And think about how you can subvert the, natural inclination of people to think, Oh, she's just Quirky or she's one of those spooky autumn girls or something like that where you can then be like, oh, but i'm low key Doing magic.
It's like the stealth cosplay Technique that people will do where They have dressed up and it's obvious cosplay to anybody else who recognizes that but to other people They're just like oh, it's just a fashion statement.
Worst case scenario if you're in a place where you want to Be out, but you can't be out because of safety reasons or because of societal pressures Then that's what you can do is it's it's fashion.
I'm making a fashion statement. There's always going to be the opportunity for people to judge you, That's their problem. That's not your problem. I totally understand as somebody, who grew up in the cage of other people's eyes, it's hard to get around that, but the more you tell yourself that the more it makes sense.
And the less you feel the weight of other people's judgments on you. So give yourself grace. But also just keep in mind if you're doing the magic. Nobody needs to know if you don't want them to. Your first and foremost is to be safe, because there's still a lot of places where you can't be out and proud, or there's other circumstances where you can't do that.
View it as, you're being the most witchy of witches in that you are being stealthy about it.
Katie Rempe: There are so many ways to embrace your witch and you don't have to just like go all out.
Raechel Henderson (she/her): And also, one thing to keep in mind is, despite media presentations, there's no one way to look like a witch. if you are a witch, you look like a witch. So, whatever you wear is your witchy self. It's just a matter of what your mindset is.
Katie Rempe: It's more of a title than a look, right?
Raechel Henderson (she/her): Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Color of the Week!
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Katie Rempe: One thing I have been doing before we wrap things up for each episode this season is pulling a color swatch out of my
little yarn card bag here to offer the Knitting Collective and the Crafting Collective a little advice for the week ahead. So I'm gonna see Pull one up and then, I'll have you reflect on the color and what you think the meaning is and then I'll go. How about that?
Raechel Henderson (she/her): that sounds great.
Katie Rempe: Okay, let's see what we got. Oh, it's this one. Red velvet.
Raechel Henderson (she/her): Nice. I love that color. That is, like, one of my favorite colors. This is all about, richness and prosperity, especially in your relationships. That's what I'm getting from that.
Katie Rempe: Very, passionate week, I think.
As always, listeners and watchers if you have comments and feelings on the color that we just chose, we'd love to hear from you.
Raechel Henderson (she/her): Oh, yeah.
Follow Raechel & Patreon After Show!
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Katie Rempe: Raechel, thank you again so much for returning,. I just want to remind folks that we are going to be doing the after show, as always Raechel and I are going to do more witchy woo stuff and a Q& A and but, before we go, how can people continue to follow your journey? Where can they follow you?
Raechel Henderson (she/her): I'm mostly on Instagram, and I just started a YouTube, Both of those are at idiorhythmic, which is a word that means living by one's life patterns. If you feel, you ever need to connect with me, I am totally responsive to DMs. I will totally talk to you about witchy stuff and crafting stuff and witchy crafting stuff.
Go ahead and join me on those platforms.
Katie Rempe: And we'll be sure, of course, to link everything in the show notes so that it's easy for you to follow Raechel and all of her books. Remember, you can pre order it. It will be out in December. The Witch's Wardrobe. Yay!
Raechel Henderson (she/her): Thank you so much for having me.
Katie Rempe: Thank you for coming back and, uh, you know, like, six times the charm, right?
You'll come back, hopefully? Maybe?
Raechel Henderson (she/her): Every time you call me, I will show up. I am, at this point, you're just, it's like Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, just, you know, hold up a fabric swatch in the mirror and, uh, I will appear. Bye!
Katie Rempe: Raechel, uh, via scrying and claw. So, she said anytime, so, just saying. Awesome, everybody! Well, until next week, thank you again for joining us, and we'll see you then! Bye!
Speaker 3: Thanks for tuning in. If you enjoyed the show, consider sharing it with a friend, leaving a review on iTunes or Spotify, and supporting us on Patreon to enjoy exclusive content. You can also subscribe to the Light From Lantern YouTube channel to receive a notification whenever a new episode of Knit A Spell is released.
And as always, I'd love to hear your feedback on this episode, so be sure to leave a comment on YouTube or on Patreon. See you next week!
