I had heard of Fort Lonesome through several friends and a couple of weeks ago had the chance to visit the studio where they make their one-of-a-kind garments featuring custom chain stitch embroidery. It was late afternoon, and the rain had stopped but the moisture hung heavily in the warm air. The scent of palo santo and the sounds of Leon Bridges welcomed me into the studio behind a bright red house in South Austin. Here, Kathie and the Fort Lonesome crew were busy working away within the brightly painted orange and grass green walls.
Founded in 2000 by Kathie Sever, Fort Lonesome represents a return to specialized craftsmanship and attention to detail. Each piece they work on is a labor of love and a collaboration with the individual who will wear it and treasure it forever. The beauty and detail of their designs are truly breathtaking – Kathie and her team can take a regular item like a denim jacket and turn it into a unique heirloom to be passed down across generations for years to come.
How long have you been doing chain stitch embroidery, and how did you first get into it?
I’ve worked with several iterations of embroidery — hand and machine — but I’ve been experimenting with chain-stitching machines for around ten or eleven years. I bought my first machine from Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching, who offered to sell me one that she had bought and hoped to learn to use, but never found the time. After I moved the machine to my studio, it took me many years of self-teaching to figure out the machine, as there were no readily available resources at the time for learning how to use it.
For someone who isn’t familiar, can you explain what chain stitching is?
Chain-stitching, the way we do it, is done by vintage machines that are directed by hand as you stitch using a steering-wheel like gear that is located under the machine — it’s very much like drawing, if you can imagine drawing upside-down and backwards.
What is your favorite thing about being an entrepreneur?
Being able to be here…working from home…even if it drives them crazy sometimes. But at least I’m here and I don’t have to be at the office. I don’t have to leave when they have a day off from school, even if I’m not able to just take off whenever and do whatever…wherever. I can kinda work around their schedule and that’s my favorite part.
What is the most challenging thing about being an entrepreneur?
The most challenging thing is that it’s up to me to make sure that I get paid. So instead of somebody giving me a paycheck every two weeks – no matter what – it’s my job to make sure that all that income is rolling in and that’s really, really complicated when you’re an entrepreneur. You’ve got other people you have to pay, you’ve got materials that you need to buy, you’ve got insurance that you need to keep and you’ve got machines that you need to repair…and all of that stuff is really, really expensive and hard to juggle. And I’m more of a creative person than a business person so that part for me is really, really challenging.
Where did the name Ft. Lonesome come from?
Lonesome is a word that I feel holds a special energetic magic. Most of us recognize it as representational of the feeling of being alone — possibly even lonely — but also free. Lonesome acknowledges universal longing, while simultaneously celebrating one’s autonomy. I most powerfully felt this while living in Montana, where I worked on a ranch for several seasons. It was a lonesome time, but I was so fed by the space and sky and distance between myself and what at the time felt like the rest of the world.
Tell us about your ideal day in Austin. How’s it start? Where does it end?
My ideal days in Austin start with a trail run on the Barton Springs Greenbelt, where you can cool off post-run with a jump into the transcendently chilly Barton Springs pool, and probably ends with a light-of-dusk dog walk with my husband (and dog… and sometimes even one of our two kids when I can coerce them to join us) in the neighborhood.
