Welcome, Elizabeth! One of our new Fabricistas
I'm excited to get back to our regularly scheduled blog posts. We have a few new sewers around the blog. I will be introducing them all very soon, but wanted to introduce you to our winner in the Fabricista Fashion Challenge -- Elizabeth! I'm excited to have you on board and creating together.
I am so excited to be a Fabric Mart
Fabricista for the next 6 months and would love to share a bit about my sewing
journey!
I was first introduced to sewing as
a young child when visiting my grandparents deep in the coastal swamps of South
Carolina. My grandparents lived off of a
dirt road in a teeny township so I was bored, naturally. My mother suggested I learn to sew clothes
for my many Barbie's and she taught me the basics using her own vintage Barbie
clothes patterns. I loved the idea that
I could dream up an outfit for my doll and make it come to life. In recent years I recently rediscovered all
the clothes I made for my Barbie's during that season of life and I was
prolific. I especially loved
embellishing their clothes with bugle beads and fringe. I still love to embellish my garments but
with less bugle beads and more piping and contrasting fabrics. As I grew too old to play with Barbies I also
quit sewing until the year before I had my first child when a dear friend
reintroduced me to sewing.
When I made the decision to stay
home with my first child I quickly realized that parenthood is full of cyclical
activities that seem to go on and on, including diapers, baths, meals, cleaning
up a bazillion small toys. Sewing became my therapy, it was the one thing that
stayed done at the end of the day and it gave me that feeling of doing
something to restore my being.
Another way that sewing is therapeutic
for me is in relationship to my job- which I've recently returned to part time after
more than 6 years staying at home with my children. I work in the field
of hospice (end of life care) as a chaplain and bereavement coordinator. It is a deep privilege to journey with people at the closing of their lives and
I am so grateful that people allow me to walk alongside them during that sacred
time. To sustain my work/life balance- I sew. My yoga instructor has said, "let your
motion be your meditation" and I feel that with sewing- cutting fabric,
pinning fabric, feeding it through the machine, ironing it, those are my
motions that evolve into meditation. It's restorative to me.
I am thrilled to be able to share my
creations with the readers of Fabric Mart Fabricista blog since I have found that
half of the fun of the online sewing community is seeing other's creations and
sharing my own. It excites me to see
others who share in my sewing geekery- to find others who are equally excited
about seeing several people take the same pattern and all achieve a different
look, or figuring out a new fitting trick/tip, and perusing fabrics and
patterns. I don't have a lot of friends
who sew, let alone sew their own clothes, so it's wonderful to get to know others
with a similar passion even if they are half a country away. My friend, Hanni (whom I do indeed live half
a country away from), and I originally began our blog I
Sew, You Sew in order to share our projects with
one another and others. Hanni is soon to
have her second child so she is on a bit of a sewing hiatus but I'm sure she'll
get the itch to create soon.
My hope is that as I share my
projects with you, you will find encouragement to continue your own sewing
obsession! If you are like me there are
always more sewing ideas (and patterns) crashing around in your head than is
humanly possible to complete and I hope that as I work on my projects you will
share with me your own. Sharing projects
with one another not only inspires, but often elevates my sewing skills since I
am always learning something new about this craft from others who are more
experienced. This is going to be a fun
time! So let's keep our sewing obsessive
minds going, our sewing machines whirring, and our scissors sharp and
ready!
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Posted on October 24 2015
This was very interesting to read! Looking forward to seeing your work. Thanks!
I really enjoyed reading this. Not only are you good at sewing, you are also a good writer. I love your ability to express your emotion around sewing. It is therapeutic indeed. I can imagine that your line of work, its is very important to have that "meditation" that sewing gives you. I am a SAHM of one and sewing is all "mine", outside of my family life. It truly rejuvenates my soul. Welcome to the blog! And nice to e-meet you!
-Vatsla
Thank you so much Ann! I am excited to get started!
Thank you so much for your very kind words. As a new parent it was so important to me to have something that was all "mine" too. Sewing is so good for decompressing- the majority of the time! I look forward to being a Fabricista and its great to e-meet you too!
Hi Elizabeth. I cant wait to see and read your blog posts here on the blog. Also, I just wanted to add that I admire and congratulate you on your other job (Hospice). We decided to put my mom on hospice (with much reservation after hearing so many horror stories) earlier this year. We lost her in February but our experience with hospice was wonderful and peaceful(despite the end result). My husband and I have since been trying to figure out how we can be of service by volunteering. Thanks again for doing this wonderful thing for families. Look forward to seeing more of you.
I love this story, Elizabeth. Thanks so much for these words. I look forward to reading your posts!
Natisha,
I am so glad to hear you had a good hospice experience- and my sincere condolences go out to you at the loss of your Mother. At the hospice I am with we truly want to respect the life, dignity and quality of life of each person we serve, it is deeply meaningful work. Speaking from my experience, good volunteers are invaluable to all the families we work with and are such special people. It was good to "meet" you and I hope to see you around the blog!
Thank you so much for your encouragement Colleen, I am glad my words were helpful! I look forward to blogging and getting to "know" you and other readers here at Fabric Mart.
Thank you for sharing! Looking forward to reading your posts!