Cut from the Same Cloth

“Turkey Tracks” is a 19th-century quiltmaking pattern that has the appearance of little wandering feet. Patterns like the tracks, and their traditions and myths, have been passed down through the generations, from their frontier beginnings to today, where a generation of makers has embraced the material as a means of creating something new. Olivia Jondle is one such designer. Here, she’s taken an early turkey track-pattern quilt, cut it into various shapes, and stitched the pieces together, adding calico and other fabric remnants as needed. The result is a trench coat she calls the Pale Calico Coat. Her designs are for sale at The Rusty Bolt, Jondle’s small-batch fashion company based in St. Louis. —SAMANTHA STEVENSON

- By Samantha Stevenson

JONDLE’S CLOTHING LABEL is named after her father, Rusty, a welder. He and Jondle’s mother, who worked in stained glass, were artists in their own right, and as a young girl Jondle was fascinated with their ability to take 2-D materials and create 3-D objects. She started sewing in high school, taking fabrics that she’d collected from thrift stores and stitching them together into costumes just for fun. She later purchased an IKEA sewing machine and dabbled in creating small garments such as underwear. But Jondle followed another passion to California, enrolling at the San Francisco Art Institute with a focus on painting.

HOW DID YOU GO FROM PAINTING TO SEWING?