eGrove (Univ. of Mississippi)

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Unknown, Author

White girl outside 3

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White boy in suit against backdrop

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African American baby

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African American woman

The Mississippi Judicial College, a division of the University of Mississippi School of Law, provides education and training for judges and court personnel

University of Mississippi. School of Law

Mississippi Judicial College

Holly Cheyenne Holder-Brown, Library Specialist II in Access Services, Main Library, learned about the history of the circle skirt, how her grandmother and mother learned how to sew, and how to use a sewing machine to create circle skirts.https://egrove.olemiss.edu/staff_res/1052/thumbnail.jp

Holder-Brown, Holly Cheyenne

University of Mississippi 
eGrove 
Staff Residencies Mississippi Lab 
9-1-2025 
Patterns of Nostalgia: Recreating Memories of the Past through 
Machine Sewing (Summer 2025) 
Holly Cheyenne Holder-Brown 
Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/staff_res 
 
 
 
 
Staff Creative Residencies 
Summer 2025 
Self-Assessment 
 
   
 
 
 
Patterns of Nostalgia: Recreating Memories of the Past through 
Machine Sewing 
 
 
Holly Cheyenne Holder-Brown, Library Specialist II in Access 
Services, Main Library, learned about the history of the circle 
skirt, how her grandmother and mother learned how to sew, and 
how to use a sewing machine to create circle skirts. 
 
Being a part of the Staff Creative Residency program helped me 
reconnect with childhood memories of my grandmother, learn 
the basics of a new skill, and provided an outlet for creative 
expression with textiles. I learned the history of the circle skirt, 
researched vintage patterns, and talked with my mother about 
how my grandmother learned to sew clothing by taking apart 
worn-out garments and using them as patterns for new pieces. 
I am humbled by her abilities and proud to take my first steps 
into sewing. 
 
Eighty percent of the stipend went toward the cost of the sewing machine, with the 
remaining amount applied toward other supplies such as shears, pins, fabric, elastic, etc. 
During the course of the residency, I put my new sewing machine and supplies to use, 
creating two circle skirts - one from a pink synthetic satin fabric and one from a 
multicolor patterned cotton fabric. I found stretching the elastic waistband and sewing 
straight at the same time challenging. I found creating the second skirt easier than the 
first one, so my skill progressed with practice. 
 
After completing this project, I am even more impressed with my grandmother’s sewing 
skills as I struggled with creating tidy cuts and seams. In the future, I would like to 
continue developing my sewing skills by learning techniques for altering existing 
garments, as well as creating more complex pieces like dresses. Expanding my sewing 
repertoire will allow me to further explore the intersection of textiles, nostalgia, and 
personal expression. 
 
   
 
  2 
 
 
 
 
Modelling the completed pink skirt side shot.  
 
Modelling the completed pink skirt overhead shot.  
   
 
  3 
 
 
 
 
 
In progress pink skirt.  
   
 
  4 
 
 
Images from the second circle skirt I made. 
 
 


Patterns of Nostalgia: Recreating Memories of the Past through Machine Sewing (Summer 2025)

Jena Denise Payton, Graduate Activities Assistant in The Graduate School, developed a book of compiled food recipes from my County Road neighbors and beyond.https://egrove.olemiss.edu/staff_res/1055/thumbnail.jp

Payton, Jena Denise

University of Mississippi 
eGrove 
Staff Residencies Mississippi Lab 
9-1-2025 
From Seoul to Soul (Summer 2025) 
Jena Denise Payton 
Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/staff_res 
 
 
 
 
Staff Creative Residencies 
Summer 2025 
Self-Assessment 
 
   
 
 
 
From Seoul to Soul 
 
 
 
Jena Denise Payton, Graduate Activities Assistant in The 
Graduate School, developed a book of compiled food recipes 
from my County Road neighbors and beyond. 
 
 
This residency has been an amazing experience for me. I began this journey with the 
goal of capturing the soul of our community through its food. As I traveled and spoke 
with residents, I was welcomed into their homes, their memories, and their kitchens. 
What emerged was more than a cookbook, it became a reflection of who we are when we 
gather around the table: a community that celebrates both its differences and its deep, 
shared love of cooking. Each recipe you read is more than a list of ingredients, it's a 
welcome, a memory, a gift. Whether you're an experienced cook or just starting out, may 
you feel the spirit of togetherness in every dish you prepare. During this time, I have 
printed posters of my cover and a few recipes that are within the book. By the end of the 
residency, I will have completed and printed the full cookbook, From Seoul to Soul. I 
hope to have this cookbook available for all that were involved by providing their family 
recipes. My hope is that this collection will continue to remind us all that no matter our 
backgrounds, food will always bring us back together. The only difficulty I experienced 
was time management. I wanted to spend more time with each person, and I just could 
not. I hope that I can include others within a different volume at a different time in the 
future. 
 
 
   
 
  2 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
  3 
 
 


From Seoul to Soul (Summer 2025)

Jabrea Turner, Academic Counselor in the College of Liberal Arts, is a beginner who is learning to sew using a portable sewing machine.https://egrove.olemiss.edu/staff_res/1062/thumbnail.jp

Turner, Jabrea

University of Mississippi 
eGrove 
Staff Residencies Mississippi Lab 
9-1-2025 
Learning to Sew (Summer 2025) 
Jabrea Turner 
Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/staff_res 
 
 
 
 
Staff Creative Residencies 
Summer 2025 
Self-Assessment 
 
   
 
 
 
Learning to Sew 
 
 
Jabrea Turner, Academic Counselor in the College of Liberal 
Arts, is a beginner who is learning to sew using a portable sewing 
machine. 
 
As I have embarked on the journey of full- time employment and adulthood, I have 
found that is so easy to be consumed by only work and home if you do not have hobbies 
or many outside responsibilities. I know that I am good at a lot of things, but I do not do 
many of those things consistently. I became interested in the Staff Creative Residency 
after I learned that it was an opportunity for any and all staff members across the 
campus. The residency has been an outlet for me to put an emphasis on a new talent I’ve 
wanted to learn, which is sewing. 
 
I used my stipend to purchase a Brother sewing machine, a small table, a few threads, 
scissors, snips, and measuring tape. The stipend was also used to travel to Clarksdale, 
MS and compensate for mentorship with a local tailor where I was provided with more 
essentials like fabric chalk and a ruler. 
 
When starting the residency, I specifically was looking to focus on altering bottoms. 
However, as I began my work in July, my mentor guided that I start from the scratch to 
become a professional. I really did not consider that I would probably need to learn all 
of the basics first. I thought that I could get right to it. We started by working to identify 
the rules of the machine and by using smaller pieces of fabric to practice sewing on 
drawn guidelines. I can see why this step was very important, because although it 
sounds simple, it was still rather frustrating. We progressed to identifying inseams and 
altering the crouch and have been able to complete this process for a pair of pants that 
were oversized. 
 
I am grateful for this experience that has allowed me to embrace a talent that I have 
been interested in for so long and plan to continue making progress to the professional 
status. I know that it will definitely take some time, and the Staff Creative Residency has 
allotted me the tools I needed to start. 
   
 
  2 
 
 
Photos and videos include some steps of the process. 
 
 
1 and 2 are where I would mark the bottoms with the fabric chalk to 
indicate how much fabric is being removed. 3 shows where I broke the 
needle while sewing due to it hitting one of the pins. 
 
 
 
Image one 
 
   
 
  3 
 
 
Image Two 
 
   
 
  4 
 
 
Image Three 
 
 
 
A video of pin placement to hold pants fabric in place while sewing and 
hence, how the needle broke in photo 3. 
 


Learning to Sew (Summer 2025)

Cole Russell, Graphic Designer in University Marketing and Communications, used the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) Ableton to create STEMS from songs, create beats and drum patterns, import samples into the software, and manipulate and create original pieces, while also recording my own music to accompany any pieces.https://egrove.olemiss.edu/staff_res/1060/thumbnail.jp

Russell, Cole

University of Mississippi 
eGrove 
Staff Residencies Mississippi Lab 
9-1-2025 
Sampling and Creating Music using Abelton (Summer 2025) 
Cole Russell 
University of Mississippi 
Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/staff_res 
Recommended Citation 
Russell, Cole, "Sampling and Creating Music using Abelton (Summer 2025)" (2025). Staff Residencies. 61. 
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/staff_res/61 
This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Mississippi Lab at eGrove. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Staff Residencies by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact 
egrove@olemiss.edu. 
 
 
 
 
Staff Creative Residencies 
Summer 2025 
Self-Assessment 
 
   
 
 
 
Sampling and creating music using Abelton 
 
 
Cole Russell, Graphic Designer in University Marketing and 
Communications, used the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) 
Ableton to create STEMS from songs, create beats and drum 
patterns, import samples into the software, and manipulate and 
create original pieces, while also recording my own music to 
accompany any pieces. 
 
With my creative residency, I decided to learn how to operate the digital audio 
workstation Abelton in order to import songs, manipulate beats, and eventually create 
new pieces of audio/original beats and songs. I’ve played bass and acoustic guitar for 
many years and have always wanted to learn how the recording process worked. For the 
past 10 years or so I’ve also become more and more curious about sampling and wanting 
to understand how beats and drum patterns are “chopped”, sampled, manipulated to 
create all-new original pieces. I decided to purchase a one-year subscription to Abelton, 
one of the industry leaders in the DAW arena due to its robustness and versatility. The 
software and platform is much more complicated than I had imagined, and I learned 
quickly how much focus and time I would need to allow to get the hang of it. While I 
didn’t learn all there is to know, of course, I did build a relatively solid foundation for 
building music from scratch within the software. With my stipend, I also purchased an 
AKAI brand midi controller and a set of recording headphones. The midi controller 
allows a user to use pads to chop and manipulate beats and music sections in real time 
and also offers a keyboard for recording sounds and instruments directly into the DAW. 
I was able to experiment quite a bit with the midi controller, but I have much more to 
learn from the tool. In addition to the Abelton subscription I also purchased a 
subscription to Tracklib, an online resource for downloading cleared free music samples 
ranging in all types of genres and time periods. I realized soon in the process that the 
samples would need to be separated by instrument to gain even more control and 
customization when using in Ableton, so I searched out websites and eventually landed 
at FADR.com that allows users to create STEMs in an, easy affordable way. 
 
   
 
  2 
 
From this process of learning I discovered a new love for not just manipulating existing 
music to create beats and patterns, etc, but also a new love to create original music. The 
Abelton software opened a new world up to me where I could create drum tracks myself 
to accompany my own guitar and bass playing. The midi controller’s adaptability to 
create piano and synth tracks was also helpful in complementing original ideas. I found 
myself returning to the software several times a week, even after the residency was over 
to lay down simple ideas or import/chop certain songs that came to my mind. This will 
be a never-ending pursuit of a new outlet for creative work, it appears! 
 
 
Photo of my workspace 
 
   
 
  3 
 
 
Over-the-shoulder shot of me working in the software 
 
 
 
Photo of me in front of the software 
   
 
  4 
 
 
 
 
 
 


University of Mississippi

Not a member yet

White girl outside 3

White boy in suit against backdrop

African American baby

African American woman

Mississippi Judicial College

Patterns of Nostalgia: Recreating Memories of the Past through Machine Sewing (Summer 2025)

From Seoul to Soul (Summer 2025)

Learning to Sew (Summer 2025)

Sampling and Creating Music using Abelton (Summer 2025)

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