{"id":43939,"date":"2021-12-02T17:07:32","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T21:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mofga.org\/meet-mofga-volunteer-eva-and-paul-murray-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-03-02T09:03:42","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T13:03:42","slug":"meet-mofga-volunteer-patti-dowse","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mofga.org\/meet-mofga-volunteer-patti-dowse\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet MOFGA Volunteer Patti Dowse"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\"Two<\/figure>

Meet MOFGA Volunteer Patti Dowse<\/h3>

Spring 2022
\nBy Danielle Walczak\n

\n\nOn the eve of the Common Ground Country Fair, Patti Dowse, of Cambridge, Maine, gathers T-shirts. That night, before the Fair begins, she alters the T-shirts with her surger \u2014 adding fabric to widen or lengthen them at the waist \u2014 to make the shirts more comfortable for volunteers who want them. \n

\nDowse describes the upcycled technique she created as taking thrift store finds and redesigning them \u201cin a kind of funky way, so that they\u2019re more flattering for us old farts.\u201d It\u2019s also a way to \u201cfeed her thrift store addiction,\u201d she said. Dowse\u2019s shirts are much like her role at the Fair: stitching together different pieces from different places to make a cohesive experience. \n

\nAs co-coordinator of Maine Marketplace, she seeks out and brings together disparate people making products in Maine to sell their goods and services at the Common Ground Country Fair, helping them with their marketing, displays or whatever needs doing. \n

\n\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of fun,\u201d Dowse said. \u201cSeeing someone who\u2019s just starting out and seeing them take off. Because really [the Fair] can be a real launchpad for a small business. You have a very targeted clientele at Common Ground. People that don\u2019t have a lot of things in common that would be hard to access, but they come to Common Ground. So it\u2019s a great place for people with a really good product or service to get started.\u201d \n

\nDowse can\u2019t remember how she heard about the first Common Ground Country Fair in 1977, but she was there and has attended ever since. \n

\nIn 1999, after her first year of selling deerskin handbags at the fair, she was tapped by Ellis Percy to be a co-coordinator of Maine Marketplace. Since then she\u2019s also served on the steering committee. Dowse sold her bag business in 2013.\n

\nDowse thinks the diversity of Maine Marketplace is what makes it special. \u201cBasically we take all the people that don\u2019t fit anywhere else. The island of misfit vendors, it\u2019s pretty funny it\u2019s quite a mix,\u201d she said. \u201cIt's a complete potpourri of everything.\u201d \n

\nOver the years Dowse has learned where to slip in and help, whether it\u2019s bringing lights to a new vendor who has a dark booth or taking videos of vendors like Tirdy Works\u2019 Mary Winchenbach who sells crafts made of moose poop. Dowse is credited with creating the viral video of Winchenbach\u2019s vendor spiel, which landed her a reality television show. \n

\nDowse, too, has been inspired by other vendors, which helped her start her upcycled clothing business Rags2Riches in 2020. \n

\n\u201cI really missed it, people who make stuff really can\u2019t help themselves, we have to keep making stuff,\u201d she said. Dowse now sells her altered clothes on consignment at three shops in Maine. \n

\nDowse\u2019s energy enlivens the work she does and those she does it with. When she\u2019s not making clothes for her new business she can still be found promoting others at the Fair. \n

\n\u201cI think [the goal of the Fair] is to involve as many people as possible in agricultural pursuits and help people understand what agriculture is and what the advantages of doing it in an organic manner are. Lot of education happens but it\u2019s lots of fun and there\u2019s lots of great eating.\u201d\n\n\n\n \n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meet MOFGA Volunteer Patti Dowse Spring 2022 By Danielle Walczak On the eve of the Common Ground Country Fair, Patti Dowse, of Cambridge, Maine, gathers T-shirts. That night, before the Fair begins, she alters the T-shirts with her surger \u2014 adding fabric to widen or lengthen them at the waist \u2014 to make the shirts 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