In a bright room with hanging plants and wooden floors, Lynne Stewart works at her sewing machine. Lynne is a seamstress and interior décor designer who makes art from fabric scraps. Her studio consists of two small rooms at the front of a community pottery studio that she and her daughter, Paisley Hanson (of Paisley Violet Designs) run.
Lynne has two manual sewing machines, preferring those over computerized ones. She is attentive and precise, while also finding the process to be exciting. A wooden sign is posted on the wall: “This is my happy place.”
Lynne has explored many art forms in her time, including jewelry. She graduated with a textile design degree from the Rhode Island School of Design, but she admits she hasn’t done much with textiles as a career. Instead, she is more interested in product sewing. She compiled a lot of leftover fabric after years of sewing projects, giving her a new opportunity: recycling fabric to make home décor.
“And I was having all this leftover fabric, so I started making the plants,” she points to the shelves above her, lined with cute, fabric succulent plants.
Now, Lynne runs her own home décor business using upcycled fabric. She saves sample books from interior designers and uses fabric samples to create plant pots for fabric succulents. Through upcycling, Lynne comes across different patterns and colors that she wouldn’t necessarily use, giving her art a lot of variety and uniqueness.
“I then evolved into making these things,” she points out the display of her work at the front, including plush mushrooms, cats, sock monkeys, and chicken pillows.
Her chicken pillows are one of her most popular items. She recalls making a little chicken ornament one time, just to use up some fabric, and that inspired her to make it into décor. “I thought, well, I can make this big!” she reflects. Now, her quirky shaped chickens are very popular in stores like the Gardenshop and tend to sell out quickly.
In terms of inspiration, draws inspiration from the outdoors. “I love nature. I grew up in New Hampshire, in the North Conway area, so I was outside a lot.”
Most popular, are her plush blueberry pillows because of their connection to the Maine wild. Lynne takes it further however by making unique sizes that put a twist on the object.
“I see something I like, most of it is nature-based, and I make it into art,” Lynne tells us. “You see, I had 4 children, and I was a stay-at-home mom. We weren’t a TV family. Instead, we always were making things. And it makes my style childlike and whimsical, that’s my personality. I guess I pick weird, odd things to make.”
Lynne also works with her daughter, Paisley, an artist as well, to come up with ideas. They go back and forth, establishing a good creative dynamic to fuel each other’s imaginations.
Lynne notes that her plush logs come from time she spends outside with her daughter. “Paisley was like, I love how these grow on the side of the tree. They look like ears! And so I made these,” Lynne holds up a soft log with gray, half-circle fabric mushrooms clinging to the sides.
Lynne makes a lot of prototypes and adjusts them as she needs to. She shows us one of her prototypes, a fish taco, that didn’t come out exactly as she envisioned, so she decided not to sell it. “I don't like it, so I'll change it.”
Sometimes she looks at a fabric and feels inspired. With a textured brown cloth, she exclaims, “Slugs! That would be fun…”
Lynne is in production for the fun of it. “I feel like a child, and people love that. People need that.”
