Not what it seams Hampden woman recycles old fabric into funky designs

It’s no surprise Kim Corey ended up designing clothes.

When she was a girl, she ditched the outfits her dolls came with and sewed up a few of her own. In junior high school, preppy turtlenecks with sewn-on designs were in style. Corey didn’t have enough money to buy as many as she wanted, so she made her own – and some extras to sell to her classmates. After college, she worked for a designer in Manhattan who catered to celebrities.

“I was always really conscious of what everyone was wearing – I used to put so much importance on it,” Corey said, sitting at an old schoolhouse desk in her bedroom, which doubles as her studio in the winter months. “Now I’m on the other end of things. Now I take everyone’s tags out of clothing and put my own in.”

Her own tag says Apron Strings, a name inspired by the domestic uses many of her fabrics once served. In her grandmother’s 1800s farmhouse in Hampden, which Corey calls “the homestead,” Corey takes old-fashioned fabrics and gives them a funky, contemporary twist. A vintage ’50s tablecloth becomes a retro skirt. Old Dickies work pants get jazzed up with a band of sequins at the ankle. A richly patterned couch cover gets cut up and sewn together as a pair of pants. And in true “Sound of Music” fashion, an old curtain can become a dress, a skirt, a jacket – anything.

“I loved the idea that she was taking old clothes and turning them into something new,” said Sarah Greene of Winterport, who recently bought several of Corey’s designs. “When you see something in a catalog, it may speak to you, you may think, “That’s so me,” but these things definitely have a life to them. They’d been used before, but now they are renewed.”

Corey, 32, started recycling out of necessity. She was between jobs and wanted to sew, so she had to make do. She soon found that the quality and selection were better with vintage fabrics, the overhead was lower, and she recycling idea was in tune with her beliefs.

“It started that way because of need, of my need, but now it’s definitely a part of it. It’s a part of who I am, too,” Corey said. “I’m aware of the consumption and the waste, where the system fails, and where we’ve cheated to get further in price.”

Because Corey’s clothes are unique and sewn by hand, her prices are higher than you’d find when buying mass-produced jeans and shirts at the mall, but they’re low by designer standards. Her pieces, with their exposed seams, inside-out sleeves and rough edges, have caught the attention of fashion-show organizers in Portland. In turn, Port City Life magazine recently included Apron Strings in an article about local designers, saying Corey’s “shabby-chic style showcases cultural references with an ironic twist.”

She has found a niche market in Maine, where she sells her one-of-a-kind pieces at Bangor Wine & Cheese, Dunne Roman in Portland, and In the Country in Northeast Harbor.

“I’m never going to support myself by doing it this way I think, and I’m not sure I want to go into production,” she said. “I’d like to gain recognition in the crowd that can afford anything.”

She has taken her designs to boutiques Los Angeles and New York, hoping to find a market among young, hip celebrities looking for something different. She had some luck in Manhattan when Julia Roberts bought a bright, swingy Apron Strings skirt.

She’s had some luck in Maine, too. Corey occasionally works as an assistant to film crews that come here. During the filming of “Finding Home,” Lisa Brenner, who played Mel Gibson’s love interest in “The Patriot,” bought a few Apron Strings designs from Corey. During a trunk show at a Mount Desert Island farm store, a Martha Stewart Living editor bought four dresses and gave Corey the encouragement she needed to push forward with her designs.

“I definitely didn’t go at this from the market point of view, but I finally started going for more public exposure through stores and the Web,” Corey said.

That included asking Leslie Thistle, who owns Caf? Nouveau and Bangor Wine & Cheese Co., if she’d consider her work for an art show. In January, Corey’s designs took the place of prints and paintings hung on the walls of the caf?, and her work is currently on sale in the neighboring wine shop.

“She has a niche of customers,” Thistle said. “I think it’s a nice fit for the store.”

Corey, who works as a free-lance organizer as well, has no problem with the business end of things. She keeps meticulous records. Her studio is tidy and orderly, with trims, buttons and embellishments sorted in vintage fruit boxes and wooden containers. Her clothing inventory is neatly stacked in big boxes.

She’s surrounded by inspiration. Original wallpaper covers many of the walls in the homestead with bold, colorful designs muted a bit by time. In the bedroom that doubles as her studio, decades-old quilts are stacked on the pushed-together twin beds. Blue-and-white mattress ticking peeks out from below. She sews in the same room, with an old machine on top of the schoolhouse desk. There are no dress forms – she uses own body as a gauge.

“I usually run around here naked because I’ll be putting stuff on and taking stuff off,” Corey said, laughing. “I hope nobody sees me running around up here.”

In the summer months, she moves the whole operation out into the barn, where generations of family members have scribbled or painted their names on the boards. Empty hangers await clothing on an old rack, and a few paintings brighten up the bare wooden walls. Though there are no antique quilts or patterned wallpapers in the space, Corey feels truly inspired in the barn. The unfinished space reflects her love for raw edges, exposed seams, and the beauty she sees in imperfection.

“It’s magical,” Corey says, looking around the nearly empty room and sighing. “I love it.”

Apron Strings designs are sold at Bangor Wine & Cheese, Dunne Roman in Portland, In the Country in Northeast Harbor (summer only) and by appointment by calling Corey at 942-0396. For information, visit www.tanglewave.com/apronstrings.