Today we’d like to introduce you to Grace Wells.
Hi Grace, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I first learned to work with free motion sewing machines while getting my BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). My love of the iconography and embroidery work on Western & Americana clothing, paired with my love of making with garments & textiles, created the perfect space for Chainstitch embroidery to grow into a primary part of my art practice.
Chainstitch embroidery has really taken off in the last few years. When I first started looking for a machine, they were pretty tricky to find. My incredible friends in Chicago at the Cosmic Country Show threw a fundraiser to help me purchase my first machine. For months, I kept my eyes peeled for the perfect one. As a joke, I updated my Hinge prompt “What are you looking for” to “A Singer 114w103 chainstitch machine.” While antiquing with a friend in Virginia a few months later, I got a response to that question with the phone number for a sewing machine store in Dallas. I bought my current machine, a 1970s Consew 104-1T, over the phone on the curb in front of the antique mall.
It took about 6 months of bad practice, a lot of youtube tutorials, and a lot of time searching chainstitch embroidery forums to get the hang of the machine. I had been doing vintage pop-ups for several months in Austin before I was ready to bring it along and offer live custom-lettering for the first time. I rebranded my vintage shop to incorporate chainstitch embroidery, and launched Source Material in 2021.
My first big opportunity came when Paige Plaisance invited me to show work in the Honky Tonk Catwalk; things really took off from there. I started exploring stitching on vintage garments, giving a new life to pieces with history. I’ll be participating in the next catwalk, my 4th, on April 19th.
The last year has been my biggest growth spurt yet. I had the honor of joining Sierra Ferrell at her Ryman Auditorium debut in 2024, offering custom chainstitching to her guests. Lyft partnered with me to bring their queer Honky Tonk celebration to life during Pride Month in Brooklyn. Dickie’s collaborated with me to make custom garments for Ryan Bingham. Huckberry has been a huge supporter of the brand, hosting me at festivals like Fairwell and brand pop-ups, and connecting me with artists like Post Malone and Leon Bridges who I had the honor of stitching shirts for last fall.
Now, I’m really focusing on growing the brand to focus on more custom orders, offer ready-to-wear stitched collections, and support brand partnerships & private events.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest struggle has been balancing building my brand while having a full time job. Chainstitching is time intensive, not to mention the admin responsibilities of owning a small business. I’ve definitely had moments where I over-committed or wasn’t able to be as present as I’d like. I’ve worked very hard over the last year to restructure the rest of my life to prioritize the brand first, and it’s been smooth sailing ever since.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I offer custom chainstitch embroidery on vintage or custom-designed garments. While I often work with western iconography and imagery, I’m moving towards a more surrealist interpretation of that aesthetic material. There are some amazing contemporary chainstitch embroiderers and rodeo tailors in our community in Austin and the fashion space more broadly. Like with any medium, what sets us apart from each other is our individual perspective. There’s space for everyone in our creative community, and I love seeing how our medium can be reinterpreted by other stitchers. My work, skillset, and aesthetic focus is further away from true rodeo tailor work and more closely in conversation with vintage clothing and contemporary fashion as a whole.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
We’re seeing, across all creative mediums, an attempt by mass production and artificial intelligence to take the maker out of the process. Makers, paying real life artists to execute their craft, is a big cost to companies that want to copy our work at scale. We’re already seeing chainstitch work, specifically rodeo tailoring, being ripped off by computerized embroidery operations and fast fashion brands. I think that, over the next 5-10 years, the desire for artist-made work— to see the hand of an artist and know something was made by a real craftsperson—will become increasingly valuable. The real signifier of wealth won’t be labels or logos or being perfectly on trend, it will come from custom made, one-of-a-kind vintage, and artisan-made works.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://srcmaterial.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/srcmaterial/
Image Credits
Photos by Hannah Louise Koehler.
