I grew up with sewing all around me. My mother sewed a lot of our clothes--especially dresses, made crafts, and now has a long-arm quilting machine business. Her mother is an excellent seamstress and when I was a teenager made me the most awesome fitted skirt and jacket that I wish I still had. My other grandma was a home-economics teacher and still sews now at the age of 88. So, I learned basic sewing skills by default, but actually had no interest in it.
When I graduated from college, I thought a digital camera would be a great gift, but instead my mom and grandma bought me a sewing machine. I think I used it once in the first four years I had it. Then one day in Relief Society we were talking about how our mothers taught us modesty. I commented that my mom always sewed my prom and homecoming formal dresses so that I had something modest and beautiful to wear. Suddenly I realized, hey, I have daughters (Megan was a newborn) and I'd better improve my skills so that someday I can do the same for them. Thus my sewing adventures began.
My skills are still very basic (i.e. I still need serious help with zippers) but I have learned a lot and had a lot of fun in the last few years. I've made many dresses for my daughters, skirts for myself, curtains, bags, blankets, etc. One of the things I had a lot of fun doing while Curtis was in business school and we didn't really have any money was "refashioning." My friends and I discovered that our local thrift store had 10 cent sales on certain days, so we'd go fill our carts with "fabric" from the thrift store. I call it fabric, although it could be shirts, pants, a big mu mu . . . you get the idea. Then, I'd make it into something else. It's a really fun thing to do and brings out your creative side. I also would buy things and then try my hand at simple alterations to make them fit better. I am still not a tailor by any means, but I hemmed a pair of pants for a neighbor and felt proud that she trusted me enough to ask and then wore them afterwards.
The one thing that really made me start loving Korea was the Dongdaemun fabric market. I love to go there and just look at everything you can buy. I'm excited for the embellishing challenge because there is just so much to experiment with. I follow some sewing and fashion blogs that have given me some ideas. For example one of the sewing bloggers I like Is always showing how to copy the J. Crew and Anthropologie tops that have ruffles, etc. that are so cute these days, here is something that would be fun, and here are some inspiring tops she pointed out. I'm thinking of trying this for shirts my size as well as my kids. We'll see what happens.
Having baby #3 has made it difficult for me to find time and space to sew. My sewing room is now Claire's room, so I have to find a new space for all my stuff. Also, my sewing time was usually in the evenings after the kids go to bed, but lately I've been too tired to do much. So, I'm hoping this group will help motivate me to sew again and that I can push myself to learn new skills that I'll need to one day make those prom dresses!
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