From Yo-Yos to Artwear

With traditional handsewing and a passion for mending, fiber artist Marty Ornish teaches students how to transform vintage quilts and fabrics.From January to April 2024, the solo exhibition A Splendid Decennium: Victorian to Vanguard showcased ten years of work by Marty Ornish (MartyO), including her art quilts, assemblages, and wearable art. The retrospective took place in two historic venues in San Diego, California—the Villa Montezuma Museum in Sherman Heights and the Gaslamp Museum at the Davis-Horton House. In addition to the exhibit, Marty hosted lectures and workshops on fashion topics and sewing traditions.

I was excited to sign up for Marty’s workshop on how to make fabric yo-yos (also known as Suffolk Puffs), an upcycling technique that repurposes small fabric scraps. I wanted to learn the technique after seeing a gown that MartyO made from a blanket composed of hundreds of yo-yos. The original blanket was handstitched by San Diego book-artist Joan Crone in the 1940s, and the former owner gave it to Marty to reinterpret Crone’s art with her own.

In the workshop, we cut fabric scraps into circles, rolled the raw edges inward, and tacked them down with a running stitch. The fun part was cinching the borders and flattening each one into a little shape reminiscent of a flower. We each made an average of three yo-yos during the class, which put the hundreds that were handsewn for the blanket into perspective.

Back view of the deconstructed, then upcycled, wraparound yo-yo gown, “She Stared at the Carousel Through Rose-Colored Glasses,” at the Gaslamp Museum at the Davis-Horton House. The original yo-yo blanket was made by Joan Crone, from San Diego, California, in 1945. Joan gifted the quilt to Marty to make into a gown. Photo by K.M. Royal

Rescued Treasures

Marty’s primary material is vintage quilts from the hands of countless unknown makers. The damage to these quilts, however severe, encourages her creativity. For example, her favorite method to mend large holes is to insert lace, which beautifies instead of hiding these inconveniences. Once she has repaired the quilts using traditional mending techniques, she designs zero-waste garment patterns to create wearable art. With this practice, she demonstrates their value and promotes sustainability by salvaging otherwise forgotten textiles.

Marty prefers to sew by hand, saving only the heaviest jobs for the sewing machine. “Each stitch I make is a meditation, and somehow brings me closer to the original maker,” she says. I would have loved to attend every workshop she taught, from basic techniques of mending to making a Victorian-era bum roll (and why not?). Whether utilitarian or quirky, her classes revive enduring sewing methods and encourage her students to think creatively when it comes to repurposing and upcycling one’s wardrobe.

“Abstract of Recollections,” at the Villa Montezuma Museum. It was constructed from seven vintage quilts and partially trimmed with a heavy crocheted lace edging that was gifted to her from a friend. Photo by K.M. Royal

Her passion for sewing and thrifting is inborn. Both her mother and grandmother worked at the Steiner Liberty Corporation sweatshop in Glen Rock, Pennsylvania, sewing cuffs and collars. Both were skilled seamstresses who taught her the wisdom of wasting nothing and how to stitch new life into threadbare items. Marty teaches these values to crafters, both new and experienced: with every stitch, something worn and frayed can become new and beautiful again.

The author thanks Marty Ornish for allowing her to write about her exhibit; Louise Torio, FOVM President of the Villa Montezuma Museum; and Kelsey Wood, Museum Engagement Coordinator of The Gaslamp Museum at the Davis-Horton House.

Interested in learning more about Suffolk Puffs? More information can be found in the September/October 1995 issue of PieceWork.

Also, remember that if you are an active subscriber to PieceWork magazine, you have unlimited access to previous issues, including September/October 1995. See our help center for the step-by-step process on how to access them.

Resources

• MartyO
• Instagram
• Two of Marty’s wearable art creations are on display indefinitely at the Villa Montezuma Museum.