My Sew Called Life

Woman with short, wavy blonde hair and glasses smiling, wearing a blue sleeveless top and a white knit cardigan, standing in front of wooden drawers with small labels in a bright room.

Hi! Lisa here, stitchin’ on a mission with all puns intended!

My sewing story began at the age of 11, when my Bomba (that’s my mom) taught me to use a sewing machine so that I could make the wildest, widest, wide-leg pants of my dreams. They were orange with blue flowers and they changed my life forever.

Fast-forward ten years later with a degree in Fashion Design from Drexel University and an obsession with vintage clothing, I followed the myth that I needed to live in a huge city to be in the clothing biz, so I packed up my Singer and scissors and headed west to LA. With a resolve to never bow to mass production or fast fashion, I sewed and scrambled my way across eight different cities in as many years, finally landing in wonderful Richmond, VA.

Woman in a colorful striped shirt working on sewing or crafting project at a workspace with fabric, scissors, and sewing tools.

RVA is my home and it’s where I teach, mend, and make fiber art in a low-waste sewing studio called Top Stitch. As a fierce friend of the environment, my priority has always been nature and community and the beautiful moments where the two entwine. I believe we can take care of our material things and each other at the same time. It’s my mission to nurture both, every stitch of the way!

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About Top Stitch

Featured
Style Weekly
Style Weekly

"Top Stitch was founded by Lisa Hutchinson in 2016 to combat the excess waste caused by mass production and fast fashion through fixing existing clothing. From torn seams and moth holes to patches and stain cover-ups, Top Stitch can return your clothes, family heirlooms and quilts to fighting form."

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Clotheshorse Podcast
Clotheshorse Podcast

"Top Stitch Mending is a vibrant community sewing hub that also offers repairs to keep clothes out of the landfill. […] For me, community is bringing people together who may not otherwise meet, and finding common threads between them. Ideally, weaving a strong cloth of connections. I think small businesses can be a meeting place and conversation starter for these connections. We provide a place where people can sew, learn, and create while making friends and finding time for self care…"

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Church Hill Newsletter
Church Hill Newsletter

"Hi mend-friends and neighbors! Top Stitch Mending is a sewing studio located on 23rd street, between Leigh and Clay, on the bottom floor of a sweet little carriage house. We offer clothing and other textile repairs as well as sustainable sewing classes by appointment. Our hope is to lighten the load of excessive textile waste that ends up in landfills annually, by restoring the items in your home and closet, keeping them in circulation."

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Sustainability Side Hustle
Sustainability Side Hustle

“I started a sustainable mending business to eliminate as much clothing and textile waste as possible, redirecting it from landfills. Mending keeps things in circulation longer and disrupts the speed of fast fashion. When we slow down the fashion consumption cycle, we get to explore its supply chain, where it is broken, and the people that are affected the most by it.”

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Style Weekly’s Top 40 Under 40
Style Weekly’s Top 40 Under 40

“At 11 years old, Lisa Hutchinson learned to sew from her mother, a home economics teacher. Her interest eventually grew into a business, TopStitch Mending, where she repairs clothing as a way to minimize the environmental impact by keeping used clothes out of landfills.”

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Darn It! A Sockumentary by Liza Hazelwood
Darn It! A Sockumentary by Liza Hazelwood

Darn It! A Sockumentary focuses on the sustainable mending practice of Richmond clothes mender Lisa Hutchinson. She applies her mantra of “anything can be mended” to the human condition, showing her love for fabric, clothes, and the Richmond community.

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In the press