LB Sew Studio carries Luna Bella’s spirit into a new chapter

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, March 3, 2026

The new studio is smaller than Luna Bella’s, but it still carries a trace of the same charm.

On a recent afternoon in Vashon Village, sunlight spills through the windows of LB Sew Studio, illuminating sewing machines, baskets of fabric and spoolies of brightly colored thread.

A hot pink wall brightened the airy room. Just outside were the small, steady pleasures of the village — Toad and Jaguar Tattoo next door, Wine Shop Vashon nearby. Inside, there was the familiar ecletic feeling that made Luna Bella’s consignment boutique, for years, less a store than a refuge.

For 25 years, Luna Bella’s served as Vashon’s funky community closet, a place where islanders hunted for velvet jackets, tried on improbable dresses and, for a moment, forgot the weather of their lives.

At the end of January, that chapter closed. The building on Vashon Highway where the boutique had long been housed was sold in December, and owner Tesse Crocker, who had run Luna Bella’s for the last five years, was given 60 days to vacate.

She did not choose to close. But out of that abrupt ending, she is trying to build something new.

“I have such a grief about losing Bella,” Crocker said.

Her new venture is not a consignment shop. Instead, the new space will host sewing classes, lectures and workshops, while also serving as Crocker’s workspace for custom sewing, alterations and the sustainable gowns and wedding attire she has long made on the island.

“This is a cornerstone of what I love to do,” Crocker said. “I’ve always had a space that is sewing related on Vashon.”

At Luna Bella’s, Crocker balanced private lessons, community craft gatherings and custom sewing. But the day-to-day demands of the boutique, especially during bridal season, left little room to grow that part of the business.

Now, with the boutique gone, she is leaning into what she believes people want most: practical skill, creativity and a way to live a little more lightly on the planet.

“I feel like right now, people want to learn,” Crocker said. “They really want to take care of their clothes. It’s more obvious to us, the effects of fast fashion and we’re not into it. We want to make the things that we love last longer.”

That ethic of reuse and repair — long woven into Crocker’s work — remains at the center of the new studio. Most of the fabric used will be thrifted or upcycled.

Many of the classes invite students to bring in garments they already own and alter them into something newly useful or newly beloved: skinny jeans reshaped into wide-leg or barrel silhouettes, collared button-downs transformed into halter tops, old blankets turned into dog coats.

When Crocker took over Luna Bella’s she changed not just its layout but its sensibility. She removed walls, improved the airflow and sharpened the store’s point of view.

The racks became more curated, the selection more intentional. She chose pieces for their quality and singularity, rather than simply accepting whatever came through the door. She brought, as she put it, “curation, expertise, and style,” along with what she described as “a deep love of caring for clothing.”

That philosophy helps explain the sense of loss that rippled through the community when Luna Bella’s announced on Facebook that it was closing. The post drew dozens of comments, many affectionate, some bereft.

Among them was Melanie Salonen, who has lived on Vashon for 31 years and shopped at Luna Bella’s through its many transitions.

“She carefully curated what she took and also opened up the space to feel more like a gathering place for the community,” Salonen said.

Of Crocker’s remodel, she added: “It had great bones and she just took it to the next level.”

Salonen said Luna Bella’s was both useful and social — a place for last-minute needs, conversation and connection. It also filled a practical gap on the island, she said, offering dress clothes and other special pieces without requiring a trip off Vashon.

“I ran into friends there every time I went in,” Salonen said. “I never felt like we had to be pushed out of there. We could catch up and the laughter and and the tears sometimes, you know, we would all meet after something horrible had happened in the world and so I’m gonna miss the social part of it.”

That sense of refuge mirrors the way Crocker describes the boutique.

“It was like a beautiful environment that people could step into and get out of their heads and get out of their lives,” she said. “It really was kind of a little like a style sanctuary.”

Salonen said she also wants people to understand that Crocker did not leave the space by choice.

“I think it’s important for people to know that she wasn’t ready to leave yet,” she said. “And that this was not her choice to have to leave that building … it wasn’t that she was tired of us at all.”

Salonen has already signed up for a class at LB Sew Studio and plans to continue using Crocker’s tailoring services. Still, she said, the island will feel the loss of the boutique. “We’re gonna miss a store like that on the island,” she said.

That sanctuary now takes a different form.

At LB Sew Studio, classes begin March 7 and, at least at first, will range widely as Crocker tries to gauge what people are hungry to make.

Offerings include beginner sewing projects, lectures on dressing for the body you have now, silk pillowcases, upcycled camisoles and even making your own underwear.

She is also partnering with Wine Shop Vashon on a monthly Sip & Sew, where participants can learn hand-sewing techniques such as embroidery or sashiko stitching over a drink.

“Folks need a dedicated space to sew properly, and a lot of people don’t have that space. Their kitchen tables need to host breakfast dinner and homework,” Crocker said. “So my space is that dedicated space to sew and grow.”

If Luna Bella’s was a place to slip into another self for an afternoon, LB Sew Studio is something more tactile and instructive: a place to make, mend and learn; to put down a phone and use your hands; to sit with other people and produce something tangible in a culture increasingly built on the fleeting and disposable.

The work Crocker did at the boutique, she said, will continue here in another register. The studio will still offer personal styling, special occasion tailoring, sustainable bridal design, alterations and hemming.

For now, she is settling into the bittersweetness of reinvention — grieving one beloved space while opening another, enjoying, at last, the possibility of free weekends, and trusting that the community she built uptown will follow her into this new room full of light.

“It feels good here, and I’m excited about what we can do,” Crocker said.

And whatever Luna Bella’s was, she believes its spirit did not vanish with the move.

“I built such an amazing community there,” Crocker said. “And that’s not going anywhere.”

LB Sew Studio is at 17205 Vashon Hwy S.W., Suite B1W. More information about classes, pricing and wardrobe services is available at lbsewstudio.com.