- On this episode of "Making," we join a dedicated group of tailors who are taking sewing to the streets.

Take a creative torch to some seaworthy watercraft, and join a family who are crushing viticulture and hospitality.

That's all next, here on "Making."

(wine trickling) (gentle calm music) This Program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station for viewers like you, thank you.

(gentle calm music) Hello and welcome to "Making."

The show is dedicated to makers and the artistry of their craft.

I'm your host, Matt Burchett.

Thank you so much for joining us.

- It's called the bias.

- [Matt] This week we begin here at the Sewing Labs, an inclusive and welcoming community, teaching personal enrichment, employment skills and entrepreneurship through the art and legacy of sewing.

(gentle calm music) (sewing machines whirring) (dreamy music) - We are a welcoming an inclusive community teaching the legacy of sewing for employment, for entrepreneurship and for enrichment.

I think the thing we focus on the most here at the Sewing Labs is the fundamentals of sewing.

- At the sewing labs, we offer beginning sewing, one and two in garments one and two.

And then we also have an industrial program which prepares people for vocational purposes so they can go get jobs in the sewing industry.

So that encompasses a domestic and industrial machines.

And that's a 30 week program.

We also have one-off projects and a lot of community projects.

So we do sew powerful purses and they are sent to Africa.

We do community projects in Kansas City that are sent to the homeless.

And then we also do some Boro stitching classes, basic mending, and just some fun little emotional confetti classes and things like that.

- [Eileen] We have what we call domestic machines, which are what I typically grew up on when I was learning in school.

So we have a room full of domestic machines.

We also have industrial machines.

And the difference between domestic and industrial machines is industrial machines are about six times faster.

Many of the industrial machines we have are computerized.

We also have a commercial embroidery machine.

- We have a 26 inch Gammill machine that's fully computerized with a CAD system.

So that means I can take a computerized quilt program and stitch it out and the machine does it automatically.

(sewing machine whirring) Sewing machines were invented in the 1800s and they were kind of mainstream in the late 1800s in homes.

The machine itself takes two threads.

It takes a needle thread and a bobbin thread to make a lock stitch, and that's what everything is constructed out of.

And that was the beginning of the sewing industry.

And from that, they've changed, grown, adapted, and created different stitches for different types of fabrics.

So the Industrial Revolution created factories in New York and Kansas City and different things.

Primarily here in Kansas City, we produced almost 75% of all the clothing and products for the world before 1950, and everything was sent over to China.

So there are many companies that are still in existence in Kansas City that require the sewing skill, the knowledge of the industrial machines.

And so, we have to know how to use these machines in that industry.

And here at the Sewing Lab, we have a bunch of different types of machines and 90% of the factories in Kansas City are going to have these type of machines.

(upbeat music) (sewing machine whirring) - Our primary focus is on workforce development.

We have a 30 week training program in partnership with a lot of other non-profits in town, to help their clients achieve what we call financial dignity.

We're creating pathways out of poverty for people through sewing, by teaching them that skill.

And so, by coming through the training program and connecting these students with employers, suddenly they have a career.

That's huge, absolutely huge.

I think what I refer to that is, not only do we provide financial dignity for people, we provide emotional dignity for people.

- You know, as local people, we have the opportunity to solve local problems, and we have the opportunity to give them a voice where they may not have ever had a voice.

The creative process is not only just inspiring in terms of like an end product, it's also very powerful in terms of what the process does to people, and for people.

Art therapy is a process that we use creative supplies that can be painting, drawing, sculpture, fabric, clay, to really bring out emotion and conversation without words.

So we use it in the sewing process to get people to experience tactually, that feeling of what fabric does when you touch it, when you feel it, when you connect it, when you tear it, when you deconstruct something.

It brings people out of levels of depression, pain, insecurity, it promotes confidence.

It's very powerful.

And sometimes the process is more valuable than the product.

You know, we get a variety of challenges that people face on a day to day basis in here.

And sometimes we just have to stop and take notice that we empower that individual to do better, to be better, to think differently, because they're making change in their life, they're making positive growth.

And just help them kind of stitch through things, to use that euphemism, like one thing at a time.

And we just process together.

And it really is about planting a seed and just really trying to understand and believe that we can make a difference, and that the creative process, something artistic, something enormous, and just magnificent can rise up out of that.

- It's just tremendous what the simple act of sewing together, can do for you.

Sewing is so good for your health and it builds community.

This is such a unique pathway out of poverty that we wanna continue to grow it and keep that legacy alive at the same time.

(cheerful instrumental music) (gentle calm music) (welding machine crackling) (calm soothing music) - How I ended up in canoe art and metal art was about five years ago, I had a heart attack and I got pretty sick.

It affected me a lot, I couldn't do much.

I had about a year that I really couldn't do very much at all.

And I was out in my shop kind of messing around, trying to start working again.

And I had a bunch of horseshoe and I started welding horseshoe, doing little crosses and stuff and making gifts, just trying to do something, create something.

And I did this lion head out of horseshoe, so a kind of a profile side of an African lion.

And it turned out really cool.

And I had this whole canoe that I brought to Missouri with me, and I had it over on a lake of mine, just over the hill.

And a windstorm came and it smashed the back end of it against the ground and ruined it.

(welding machine crackling) I cut the end of it off and I started drawing fish on it.

And I cut out this bass.

I'd never done anything in aluminum really.

And I took my angle grinder, wild brush on my angle grinder and polished it up.

And it was just beautiful.

I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is just stunning, "this is great."

I finished it.

It took me, I don't know, a month to finish it, and I put it on Facebook and it kind of got shared all over and that's kind of how it started.

I've used old fuel tanks and done moose and bears and stuff on different 3D kind of objects.

But the aluminum looks so cool when you shine it up.

There's just something about aluminum that looks really good and there's something about a canoe that is so different for a piece of art.

(mortar buzzing) I mean, who does canoe art?

I mean, who does hand drawn, original all hand done art on a canoe of animals and flora and fauna and stuff that we have around the country?

I really enjoy it.

You'll get a crowd of people around your canoes.

I mean, I have a full size canoe on top of my truck and be in a parking lot at Lowe's or something, and I mean, a crowd of people will come around just looking at it, taking pictures, "Can we take a pic?"

You know, it's just something about it is so much fun, not only to make it, but to display it and let people enjoy it.

I do what I love to do.

I do what I'm passionate about.

I'm passionate about wildlife, I love wildlife.

I mean, God's creation is a wonderful thing.

I mean, it's so vast and unique that it's just enjoyable to do my part of recreating what he's created.

So I enjoy that.

That's one thing that I'm able to do is look at an image and reproduce it, just freehand, drawing it on a canoe or flat metal.

And I can basically make it any size that I want, just looking at a little tiny image.

I'll draw my main characters on the canoe and then I'll freehand draw all the vegetation or whatever's between them, I'll just draw all that.

I couldn't do a canoe without plasma because it strikes an electric arc and then it blows air through that arc.

The detail I could take to another level.

I mean, it does this real fine line and your metal doesn't get real hot, so it's not warping.

With that kind of tool, then I could do lots of detail.

Which, I love the detail.

That's what gets me excited about a piece.

When I cut it, the cut lines aren't exactly on those magic marker lines.

So it looks pretty confusing when you look at it.

You're like, "That doesn't really look..." But when you take a wire brush to it and start polishing it, all those black lines disappear and it polishes all those edges.

It just looks beautiful.

I mean, I just love what it does and I think people that see my art agree, it's really a unique thing and really a beautiful thing to turn that old stuff into new stuff.

I don't know how many more full size canoes I have in me.

You know, I'm getting older, my back hurts more when I do one.

My body's kind of getting tired.

I'd love to do two or three more of them and just, you know, they're like my kids.

I mean, they're such a part of me that it's just kind of fun having them around.

(cheerful instrumental music) - [Cali] Get CGO, add a thread and wind a bobbin.

- [Matt] Even threading the sewing machine is something I always have to call my mom.

We're back here at the Sewing Labs, and I'm with Cali, and she's gonna talk me through what I don't know about sewing, which is everything.

- Awesome.

So first you have to have a needle thread and a bobbin thread.

Okay.

So you have to wind a bobbin first.

Thread comes off the spool, clicks here, comes around the bobbin winder tension, wraps around.

Put the thread towards and up through the hole.

It goes on the bobbin winder.

Post, clicks over, hold this tail up, put tension on it.

(sewing machine whirring) Go up, down, stop.

Clip it as close as you can to the bottom, then run it up, get it full.

The machine will stop (machine whirring) when it's full.

- That's way faster than doing it by hand.

- Yes it is.

Goes in the bobbin case, turns towards you counterclockwise and then off to the left so it gets in the bobbin tension, okay?

- Okay.

- Threading goes one, two, three, four, five.

Make sure you get it in here.

If you do not have it in here, you will not have a stitch, okay?

Take up leverage your friend, it's also your enemy, okay?

(laughs) Then you floss it, thread guide right here.

Floss it again above the needle.

What's this part?

- That would be the needle.

- Oh, good job!

I knew that one.

(laughs) - You're gonna make it.

Goes front to back.

Okay.

Then you hold the needle thread, turn the hand wheel towards you.

One full rotation, watch the loop come up, see it?

Grab it, cool.

So now I have two threads on top of the needle plate and under the foot, okay?

Put on the bottom cover.

You said you wanted to learn how to hem a pair of pants, correct?

- Correct.

- Awesome.

So I cut and sew together these mock pant legs and then I took them to the iron and sewed them.

I fold out a half an inch, pressed, folded another half an inch and pressed, okay?

We've already threaded the machine, unless you wanna attempt it.

- I think we're set.

- Don't touch it, it works, right?

- We're great the last time, we'll leave sleeping dogs lie.

- Good.

Well, the benefit of a household machine over an industrial machine, this I can take the extension table off, and I can sew as a free arm in the round.

(gentle instrumental music) Okay, so on this one, I'm gonna put the hem in, lower the pressing foot, and there's a V right there, a little notch out of the middle of the foot, okay?

- Mm hmm.

- I want my needle to come right down there.

So I'm like a 32nd of an inch from the edge of the pants.

- So we're stitching real close to that second fold?

- Yep yep.

(sewing machine whirring) So then as it goes around, it's able to sew around.

(machine whirring) (gentle music) Now, once you get to a point, I want you to pull, straighten out, get that press really tuck tight right there, okay?

And make it flat.

- So we don't sew a ripple into it somewhere.

- Yeah, kinda, and we wanna keep it straight, we don't wanna wonky him, right?

- For sure.

(sewing machine whirring) - And then you can overlap it just a little bit where your forward and reverse was.

(sewing machine whirring) Take up levers up.

(gentle music) There we go.

Gotta put our pants hemmed.

- It's like it was no big deal.

(laughs) - It isn't a big deal.

Cool?

- [Matt] Cool.

- [Cali] Your turn.

- Let's try.

- [Cali] Okay.

- Okay.

Does it matter where I start as far as this seam is concerned?

- Correct, that's a good question, 'cause you don't wanna start on the seam because there's a lot of bulk there.

You have one, two, three, four layers, whereas here I just have three, okay?

And so, we wanna sew over that, we don't wanna start on it.

So let's start about right there and then we'll come around and end there.

- Okay.

- Lower your press your foot first.

We don't move our hand wheel until our pressing foot is lowered 'cause the tension has to be on the thread or the machine will throw as much thread as possible and you'll have a bird's nest and everybody will put the punch in your little closet.

(Matt laughs) - And we don't need that kind of stress.

- No, we don't, we don't.

- Okay.

- There you go.

Don't put tension here if you feel like you're not getting straight, okay?

- [Matt] Okay.

- We want the machine to take the fabric away from us.

We don't wanna say, "No, I don't."

Just let it take it away from the (Cali mumbles) See, you're almost done!

Look at that.

- And I just remembered that I didn't lock my first stitch.

Can I lock that- - That's okay, that's perfect.

when I come around?

- So let's get these threads out of the way and then all you're gonna do is, how many stitches did I say do you need to forward in reverse?

- I believe three, is the number.

- Correct, awesome.

So all we have to do is overlap this and this stitch will be locked and the stitcher finishing, but you can do an extra forward in reverse right there.

And it'll be just perfect.

- All right.

So we'll keep it running straight here over the tall part.

(upbeat music) - It's all butter.

(Matt laughs) (upbeat music) Now once you get in the habit of using your, nope, don't turn it away from you, turn it towards you, always towards you.

(Cali laughs) Pull it up, there you go.

You have to put our pants.

- As soon as we get this string cut.

- Right.

- I'd wear that down the street.

- Yes, you would, look at that.

(Matt laughs) Nice.

- All right, well thank you so much.

- You're welcome.

- That was awesome.

- I'm so happy.

(cheerful instrumental music) - [Woman] I'll try the wine.

(calm festive music) They're doing it right.

They're growing the grapes, they're making the wine.

(calm soothing music) - Making good wine is really a start to finish deal.

You wanna have access to high quality fruit.

And having the vineyard here under our care, we're able to really ensure that quality from start to finish.

My brother and I had considered planting some vines and experimenting with wine making, and it sort of grew rapidly.

Planting 20 or so vines turned into 1000, and then it was just time to go.

(Asher laughs) So we planted all the vines and it wasn't long, we had to build a building and things just kind of snowballed.

- We didn't have any like, overarching goals.

We just had a dream, "Let's make wine."

I think we fell in love with wine and we knew we were passionate about it, and say, "Okay, so let's start making it "And let's see where it goes."

And a lot of it of it has been like that where it's, "Okay, we're growing grapes, that's working.

"Let's grow some more grapes."

And then we started making wine and you know, maybe the first two batches weren't, we loved them, like it's your own child.

Not everybody else loved them.

So those were like our little child batches.

And then we get a little better at it, a little better.

And so it's, "Okay, this is working, "so let's do more of it.

"Let's plant more, let's make more wine."

And then we need a building.

So, okay, let's start with a very small building.

And that's just kind of where we are doing it definitely within our means.

And then, I don't wanna say just making up as we go, but there's definitely a little bit involved with that because it's such a different business.

You're selling, you're making a product, you're selling a product, marketing it, but your agriculture's part of it.

And so that makes it so much different than a traditional business or again, just agriculture or just like a retail thing like this where this is blending those two things together.

- It was a very organic process.

When we planted the East Vineyard and started with 1000 vines, it was kind of something that we did, we weren't sure even how to properly establish like a proper vineyard, trailer system.

And so that took some time and that was really the focus.

So the vineyard was the initial focus.

Asher loves wine making and he kind of started playing around.

Word got out that we were kind of making wine and establishing recipes.

And I think that was the moment we knew that, "Okay, it's time to really maybe get more established, "learn a little bit more about wine making."

And it was just patience.

(upbeat music) - Growing grapes in Missouri can be a challenge just because of our weather, our environment.

We deal with a lot of humidity, pretty serious temperature swings, cold in the winter, hot in the summer, wind chills.

It can be a disaster for certain varieties.

- Which actually comes, one of my favorite quotes is Martin Luther.

He says that the beer is made by men and wine by God.

And it's so true because so much of it's out of our hands.

Like we're out there just trusting that the weather's gonna be favorable and it's gonna be good, and it's gonna be a good vintage.

But you're dealing with the deer that are trying to eat them and the Japanese beetles and the hail and the wind and there's all these things that are coming at these grapes.

So it's like, by the time it actually makes it to the bottle, it's like yes!

We've made it to the bottle.

If you're growing grapes and making wine, it is a year long process.

So in the spring or really winter, whenever the wines are still dormant, you start pruning, and pruning every single vine.

You're pruning the vines, and then you go on to, so then you plant, if you're planting more, which we have for the last couple years, so you pretty much jump right into planting new vines.

So then all throughout the summer as they're growing, you're tying up the vines, you're mowing, you're doing all these things.

Wind comes through and you gotta tie it all up.

And then you go into fall where you harvest, and that's, they don't all ripen at the same time.

So white grapes, you start picking generally late August into early September, and then red grapes can go all the way into the first or second weekend in October, depending on the weather.

So there's a month and a half where we're out there and harvesting every single... And at the same time, we're still making wine from the ones who harvested a couple weeks ago.

So, finally all that wraps up and then you get into the winter where we're supposed to be slowing down a little bit.

But no, and because then we've got the wine making.

So then we're blending, we're filtering, we're re racking back and forth, and then the winery's still going this entire time.

So, as all this vineyard stuff is going on, the winery's open.

So we're planning events, and we're getting people in the door and trying to get the wine out there and going to wine walks, doing things like that.

So, all the way into December and you can finally maybe take a couple weeks and just take a sigh of relief.

And then January, boom, you're back into, we're finishing up our wines, doing our final filtrations, making sure it's all balanced right.

January and February, really.

And then it's back into pruning, start all over again.

(Jesse laughs) - We would've never had a winery if it was not for the family.

The family's always been the important aspect of it.

My brother and I obviously.

And then including our wives and Katie, a co-owner, my parents, having them involved.

They were very excited when we first got started.

And as it's gotten bigger, they've become more and more involved.

And I think everybody really loves being up here and having hands on all of it.

From just pruning grapes to the making the wine, to the serving the wine.

It's not just a job.

On weekends, everybody wants to be here, everybody wants to help.

We couldn't do it without family.

(gentle calm music) - And that's all the time we have for this week.

But we hope all of our makers have inspired you to unlock your creative spirit.

Thank you for watching and we hope you'll join us next time to see what we'll be making.

More information is available on social media or online@kmos.org.

(gentle calm music) This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station for viewers like you, thank you.

(cheerful music)