11.09.21

Chloe Skye Nagraj

She / Her
sewist / maker / landscape architect

I’m Chloe, I’m a sewist / landscape designer / gardener living in central Virginia. I learned to sew at a local sewing shop in my early twenties. I originally got into it so that I could shorten thrifted clothes to fit my height. I dabbled in sewing from patterns during this sewing stint but ended up frustrated when the clothes wouldn’t magically fit me straight out of the pattern envelope and set the hobby aside for years.

In 2020 I came back to sewing. I had just graduated from grad school and was floundering in the tumult of that year. I had an itch to make a jacket and decided to make one since I had something specific in mind. Two things about sewing for me clicked differently in this moment then they had when I was younger. The first was that it became a grounding respite during the pandemic. Sewing gave me a sense of self sufficiency, mindfulness, and control that I really needed. The second was that translating patterns from 2D to 3D mentally made sense to me when in the past they hadn’t (I chalk it up to just finishing a degree in an architecture program). Feeling more confident in understanding sewing patterns has allowed me to be more freely creative and have fun with sewing in a way I haven’t ever been able to.

I’m now transitioning to another phase in my sewing practice that isn’t rooted in anxiety. I’m looking to what I love about gardening to inspire me: a slower, ongoing relationship that isn’t solely centered around consumption and production. I don’t know what this looks like yet, but hopefully I’ll figure it out!

What influence does music have in your life as a creative?:

I rarely listen to music when I sew! Sometimes I’ll listen to music on speakers, but I often find it distracting. However, I listen to music while doing just about everything else. Music helps me focus, pumps me up, calms me down. I love making playlists and have different ones for writing, drawing, when I’m tired but need to work, when I’m wired but need to sleep. Now that I think of it, it’s kind of weird that I don’t listen to music when I’m sewing. Maybe I just haven’t made the right playlist yet!

Tell us about your playlist:

This playlist has a pretty full range of the music I listen to, from more low-key relaxation music to bangers to sad songs. It’s a mish mash but I think it works as a playlist! It also is a mix both of stuff I’m really into right now and music that I’ve been listening to since I was a teen. It starts chill then revs up then ends chill.

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Tune in // Tune out


  1. スポーツマン (2019 Remastering) – Haruomi Hosono
  2. After I Met You – Rüdiger Lorenz
  3. Go Home – h hunt
  4. Tomorrow’s Gone – Charlie Megira
  5. All Alone – Mal Waldron
  6. I Love You – Willie Griffin
  7. A Little Lost – Arthur Russell
  8. messy – serpentwithfeet
  9. Numb – Portishead
  10. Haunted Water – Spellling
  11. I Wanna Be a Winner – Vickie & The Van Dykes
  12. Ariadna (ариадна) – Kedr Livanskiy
  13. 17 Años – Medio Mutante
  14. You Make No Sense – ESG
  15. Your Turn to Run – Malaria!
  16. I Heard It Through The Grapevine – The Slits
  17. Contort Yourself (1st version) – james chance
  18. Stretch (12″ Version) – Maximum Joy
  19. Mr Clarinet – The Birthday Party
  20. T 3.2 – Carter Tutti Void
  21. Spur – Helena Hauff
  22. Make It Up – Tirzah
  23. Pain – Boy Harsher
  24. You Never Knew – Negative Gemini
  25. I Am Alive – E. Myers
  26. King of Hosts – Tzusing
  27. Paténipat – Charlotte Adigéry
  28. Gaut – Fauxe
  29. A New Error – Moderat
  30. Baby Forgive Me – Robyn
  31. Oh Baby – Micachu & The Shapes
  32. Noise – Zsela
  33. I Can’t Stand the Rain – Ann Peebles
  34. symbol – Adrianne Lenker
  35. You Bring These Things – Karen Marks