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Everybody with an interest in local art loves to decry the gentrification of Portsmouth. But there’s still some life in the old lady yet.

MULTIMEDIA Video:  Ms. Dilando’s sewing signature tees

On Brewster Street, near that newly rehabbed but notorious rooming house, a hive of artists (with the inevitable day jobs in the service industry) occupies several rental properties. On the third floor of one of these houses, working above painters and musicians, the buzzing is coming from the sewing machine of one Byrdy Dilando, age 24.

Byrdy owns Dirtybyrd Apparel (www.dirtybyrdapparel.com), a little business showcasing bags and clothing of her own design and construction. Dirtybyrd is not just little, it’s tiny — one sewing machine, one employee. T-shirt patterns hang on the wall above the machine. Shelves are filled with fabric odds and ends and a tiny rack holds finished products with hand-sewn hang tags.

As it says on the Web site, Dirtybyrd was started after Byrdy finished her fashion education at Mass. Art and wanted to do something more than waitress (she’s worked at the Union Bluff in York Beach, Maine, since high school). She just recently moved her operation from her mother’s house to the Brewster Street space (where she lives of course, too – her bed is feet from her business).

Alongside personal inspiration, the success of American Apparel (www.americanapparel.net/mission/), the hipster model of "vertically integrated clothing manufacturing" (all design, manufacturing under one roof plus anti-sweatshop measures like high wages and benefits for workers) has helped smaller operators realize their own dreams. And most, like Byrdy, don’t want to conquer the world. She just wants to provide affordable, unique products to people who want an alternative to mass-producing outfits like Target and "that W-place," as my friend Iva calls it.

Since her work place and home are also vertically integrated (her bed is feet from her sewing machine) and therefore not optimal for hosting shoppers, she’s just launched her Web site and with the help of PayPal, interested buyers can peruse and buy her wares online. Her Web site (www.dirtybyrdapparel.com) looks exactly like her work, and after I met her, I realized it feels exactly like her personality. That must have been a hell of a web designer, to nail it so perfectly, I commented. She did it herself. She sewed it. What? Yes, she stitched it. She wasn’t getting exactly what she wanted with traditional design tools, so she sewed each page of her site, her friend photographed the pages and voila! A Web site that looks and feels exactly right.

But the bottom line is the product. Yes, you can have a cool mission. Yes, you can have the most amazing site around. You can even have aw-shucks charm and quirky, pretty looks that can’t help but help your image. Byrdy’s got all of these. But, more importantly, she’s got the product. Her handbags are well-made and there’s a range from tote to clutch. They’re beautifully lined and most have hand-sewn buttons, which adds a little something-something. Her tees are super soft and flattering without hugging the curves you’d rather not show. Simple designs are set apart with cut-out backs, bows and ties and, of course, Byrdy’s own stitching. Do your wardrobe a favor and pick yourself up an original Dirtybyrd. And if she doesn’t have what you want, just tell her. She’ll probably whip something up for you.