The Call to be Creative: Part 4
04/02/2026 03:01PM ● By Lisa Schlichtman
Morgan Kurz's brand, Seam of Life, specializes in sustainably-made merino wool and hemp activewear. Photo courtesy of Morgan Kurz.
Morgan Kurz was drawn to Steamboat for its unparalleled access to outdoor recreation. She’s an avid snowboarder and mountain biker and knows the kind of apparel she likes to wear when she’s out doing what she loves. In 2021, a year after moving to town, she launched Seam of Life – an online shop specializing in sustainably-made and sourced merino wool and hemp activewear for men and women handcrafted by Morgan.
The Michigan native was first introduced to sewing and natural dyes when a friend, who had started a small business making handmade clothing, reached out to her needing help. “I basically worked as an apprentice under her for about a year and learned the very basic fundamentals of garment construction and sewing on various sewing machines,” says Morgan, who was living and working seasonally in Northern California at the time.
A year later Morgan moved to Bend, Oregon, and found her-self recovering from a torn ACL. “I started sewing again to stay busy mentally while I was healing my body physically,” she says.
Since starting the Seam of Life brand, Morgan is focusing on merino wool, which she says is the ultimate technical fiber – quick drying, naturally moisture wicking and anti-microbial. She uses ZQ-certified merino wool, the global standard for sustainable wool that she sources from New Zealand. Most of the raw fabric Morgan purchases is “dead stock;” either overproduced by a fabric mill or over ordered by large companies. This means she gets random amounts of fabric in small batches, which is perfect for the one-of-a-kind garments she creates by hand.
Morgan works in a tiny studio she has carved out of her apartment. It’s a bit of a shuffling act but she makes it work. She also uses outdoor space for the dying and drying processes.
The colors she creates using natural dye baths are heated in large stock pots on her stove and cooked for different periods of time depending on the color she is trying to achieve. She reuses, or as she calls it “revives,” almost all her natural dye baths, storing them in buckets with lids outside and adding fresh dye material or extract to the existing dyes each time she begins to cook a color. Raw fabric is then placed in the dye baths, three or four yards at a time.
“Sometimes fabric stays in baths overnight, and some colors go through multiple different dye baths,” Morgan says. “After I dye a base color, I will fold, tie and then overdye fabric with another color to get fun tie-dyed patterns. The colors are truly alive, and they kind of do their own thing. The more work you put into a color, the more vibrant and pretty it is in the long run.”
She then oxidizes the fabric in the fresh air, and after that, rinses it by hand with a hose. The fabric is hung to dry and then it’s ready for Morgan to cut and sew. She doesn’t use digital patterns but drafts her own.
“I’m truly a one-woman shop,” Morgan says. “I don’t have help or employees. I’ve just always made everything from scratch, which is very time consuming and challenging but it’s also really rewarding and really fun.”
And ultimately, Morgan is making and selling a product she absolutely loves. “I want to wear functional, durable clothes and gear, but it doesn’t have to be boring. It should be fun, make you feel good, and make you want to go outside, get exercise and goon some epic adventure.”
In addition to selling apparel through her website – www.seamoflife.com – Morgan also has merino wool neck gators for sale at Ski Haus and Straightline Sports in Steamboat, and she is beginning to participate in more local markets. Her product line includes hoodies, shirts, base layers, neck gators, leg warmers and more.
Morgan Kurz was drawn to Steamboat for its unparalleled access to outdoor recreation. She’s an avid snowboarder and mountain biker and knows the kind of apparel she likes to wear when she’s out doing what she loves. In 2021, a year after moving to town, she launched Seam of Life – an online shop specializing in sustainably-made and sourced merino wool and hemp activewear for men and women handcrafted by Morgan.
The Michigan native was first introduced to sewing and natural dyes when a friend, who had started a small business making handmade clothing, reached out to her needing help. “I basically worked as an apprentice under her for about a year and learned the very basic fundamentals of garment construction and sewing on various sewing machines,” says Morgan, who was living and working seasonally in Northern California at the time.
A year later Morgan moved to Bend, Oregon, and found her-self recovering from a torn ACL. “I started sewing again to stay busy mentally while I was healing my body physically,” she says.
Since starting the Seam of Life brand, Morgan is focusing on merino wool, which she says is the ultimate technical fiber – quick drying, naturally moisture wicking and anti-microbial. She uses ZQ-certified merino wool, the global standard for sustainable wool that she sources from New Zealand. Most of the raw fabric Morgan purchases is “dead stock;” either overproduced by a fabric mill or over ordered by large companies. This means she gets random amounts of fabric in small batches, which is perfect for the one-of-a-kind garments she creates by hand.
Morgan works in a tiny studio she has carved out of her apartment. It’s a bit of a shuffling act but she makes it work. She also uses outdoor space for the dying and drying processes.
The colors she creates using natural dye baths are heated in large stock pots on her stove and cooked for different periods of time depending on the color she is trying to achieve. She reuses, or as she calls it “revives,” almost all her natural dye baths, storing them in buckets with lids outside and adding fresh dye material or extract to the existing dyes each time she begins to cook a color. Raw fabric is then placed in the dye baths, three or four yards at a time.
“Sometimes fabric stays in baths overnight, and some colors go through multiple different dye baths,” Morgan says. “After I dye a base color, I will fold, tie and then overdye fabric with another color to get fun tie-dyed patterns. The colors are truly alive, and they kind of do their own thing. The more work you put into a color, the more vibrant and pretty it is in the long run.”
She then oxidizes the fabric in the fresh air, and after that, rinses it by hand with a hose. The fabric is hung to dry and then it’s ready for Morgan to cut and sew. She doesn’t use digital patterns but drafts her own.
“I’m truly a one-woman shop,” Morgan says. “I don’t have help or employees. I’ve just always made everything from scratch, which is very time consuming and challenging but it’s also really rewarding and really fun.”
And ultimately, Morgan is making and selling a product she absolutely loves. “I want to wear functional, durable clothes and gear, but it doesn’t have to be boring. It should be fun, make you feel good, and make you want to go outside, get exercise and goon some epic adventure.”
In addition to selling apparel through her website – www.seamoflife.com – Morgan also has merino wool neck gators for sale at Ski Haus and Straightline Sports in Steamboat, and she is beginning to participate in more local markets. Her product line includes hoodies, shirts, base layers, neck gators, leg warmers and more.