STL Frocktails 2025
Are you ready for it??? Let’s take a deep dive into the best day of the year for the St Louis sewist community - STL FROCKTAILS!!
Walk Through STL Frocktails!
If you attended you saw how the St Louis community showed up to cheer each other on, but if you weren’t able to make it I wanted to give you a little taste of being there. Sewists from all over the St. Louis area gathered at City Garden Montessori school to meet, craft, learn about local sewing communities, eat some delicious nibbles, enjoy a themed cocktail & mocktail, bid on some amazing sewing goodies, trade some me-made garments, and of course……walk that me-made runway!! It was a celebration of our talent, hard work, and love of creating.
Event Theme
Our event theme this year was SUSTAINABLE STYLE. Fast Fashion is a topic near and dear to my heart, and I know many of you in the STL sewing community feel the same. In fact, reducing fabric waste has become a major goal for indie sewists everywhere; we made STL Frocktails a celebration of how we can use repurposed textiles to make beautiful clothes. We encouraged participants to wear something made from upcycled / sustainable materials, a thrifted & adjusted garment, a ready-to-wear garment that they re-worked to fit their personal style, etc. Runway participants were free to interpret the theme however it made sense, or they were also welcome to wear any me-made item (Because after all, me-made things are in and of themselves a sustainable choice!).
It was a JOY to see how sewists interpreted the theme, and the amount of creativity on that runway was off the charts!
Event Partners: City Sewing Room & perennial
Representatives from local community craft spaces Perennial and City Sewing Room told us all about their amazing events and crafting spaces. I know loads of us felt inspired to take a class, shop for donated sewing items, sign up for open studio time, or take the creative plunge into a membership.
We were also fortunate to have lots of organizations donate services, funds, social media collaboration, and more. THANK YOU to everyone that gave to make this event happen!!
DRANKS!
With a name like Frocktails, you know there had to be some fancy drinks!
We had both a themed cocktail & mocktail at the event, and both were DELICIOUS!
Our cocktail was a take on the classic Dark & Stormy, and it perfectly matched the emotional connections we all had with our handmade garments. (I know I had several meltdowns while sewing all those scraps together for my look, so dark and broody perfectly represented my make!)
Our mocktail was made by fabulous local mixologist Kendall from Libations Library
She designed the mocktail using Purple Rose Seltzer from local zero proof brand Cheerz and lavender bitters from small batch maker All The Bitter, and it was as delicious as it sounded. Garnished with lemon and fresh mint, Frocktails participants loved the concoction!
Nibbles
The food table was creative, inspiring, and filled with goodies to keep everyone happy.
From curated meats and cheeses, to gluten free & vegan desserts, to the best little homemade grapes appetizer we’d ever had, the Frocktails committee hit it out of the park with the nibbles!
Event Activities
The Me-Made runway was definitely the main attraction, but there were some other super fun and engaging activities for STL Frocktails attendees to participate in throughout the event.
Silent Auction / Raffle
Over 30 sewing and local related items were available for participants to bid on in the silent auction, or win in the raffle. There were lots of items from the worldwide indie sewing community (their generosity in donating loads of patterns to help support the STL sewing community was humbling!), some big ticket items like TWO ironing packages from international brand Oliso, and even some beautiful fabrics from across the country from places like Vogue Fabrics and LA Finch Fabrics.
There were also several amazing sewing related experiences available including items like: open studio at the City Create House, a membership to the quarterly fabric catalog from Vogue Fabrics, and memberships to sewing clubs like Cashmerette and Seamwork.
Did I mention there was even a refurbished antique singer sewing machine IN A CABINET as an item in the silent auction?!
STL Frocktails attendees were extremely generous with their bids, and all proceeds made will go to funding Frocktails 2026 - Sending everyone who participated a huge THANK YOU!!
Crafts!!
Of course we also made use of our creative selves at the event! We used fabric and notion scraps to create patches for our future mending selves, and also made some bedazzled hangers using fabric scraps to store our me-mades. The crafts were a super fun way to meet others in the community while making something useful and beautiful at the same time.
Me-Made Swap
Another fun activity for attendants was the Me-Made swap - Frocktails attendees had the opportunity to bring handmade items that no longer fit, weren’t quite finished, or just weren’t getting a ton of wear to donate to the me-made swap rack. They could then grab something someone else had donated to re-work or wear as is. It was a great way for us to see our handmade pieces go to someone that would love them as much as we did!!
The Memade Runway
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The Memade Runway 〰️
Okay so without much more rambling from me (because I know you’re really here to see those me-mades!), let’s move on to the runway.
Attendees were asked to fill out a card describing their outfit including details like what materials were used, where they sourced their fabrics, and what made their look special. We were fortunate enough to have local fashion & sewing guru Anne Pokoski to act as emcee, and she read out the outfit descriptions with all the grace and importance that the runway deserved.
Anne being the emcee queen
There were endless smiles, cheers, and even some laughter from the audience when one of the runway participants showed up with printouts of her lovely me-made lingerie that she was wearing underneath her clothes! It was a diverse runway filled with everything from French era costuming, to up-cycled drapes, to chicken purses made from a vintage panel, to a fancy silk dress made from vintage ties. It was a joy to watch everyone strut down that runway with confidence and get hoots and hollers from people who truly understand all the work that went into creating their looks.
Here’s a few words from my speech before the runway started….
“Tonight, we are not only celebrating our craft, we are using our talents to show that there can be an end to fast fashion. We are speaking out against clothes that fall apart after 3 wears. We have decided to do our part to shrink the piles of discarded textiles that line the beaches of our planet. And we are doing it in STYLE! In a world of fast fashion, we have chosen a different path. We’ve poured our hearts and souls into every stitch, turning pieces of fabric into works of art. Each garment you'll see today tells a unique story; of late nights at the sewing machine, of learning new skills, and of the pure joy of bringing a personal vision to life.” - Allison
Check out all the looks below!
My personal FAV runway look
made by local sewist Lexie, this up-cycled dress was made from silk ties - it literally made me gasp!
Well friends, that’s my deep dive on STL Frocktails 2025. I can’t fully express how thankful I am for this sewing community and your willingness to encourage each other. Sending all my sincerest gratitude for everyone that helped on the committee, supported with donated items, attended the event, shared on the socials, told a friend about it, or sent me kind words of encouragement - YOU ALL MAKE THE HARD WORK 100% WORTH IT!!
Hugs to you, and I can’t wait to see what you all dream up for next year…..
