#whyisew

Have you heard of Throwback Thursdays or Flashback Fridays?  It's where people upload old photos and we all get to laugh, cry, sigh, smile..... pretty much feel all sorts of nostalgia and emotion when looking at those old memories!

This week we invite you to join us on a similar adventure regarding sewing!  I know there are many readers out there who are well seasoned and have been sewing for years, and there are also a lot of new beginners - many of them new moms - that are just now finding the skill and enjoyment of sewing!

This series will be so much fun as we learn more about each other, why we sew, and what inspired us to learn!  At the end of this post we would love for you to write your story and link it up to the link party so we can learn more about you!!!  And all this week, make sure you check out the stories on these blogs!!!

 

6.22.14 | Sewing Mama RaeAnna | Simple Simon and Co. |

6.23.14 | Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy | Nimble Phish | Sprouting Jube Jube | Paisley Roots | Made For Mermaids | Glitter and Wit | Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop | Rae Gun Ramblings |

6.24.14 | Shaffer Sisters | Sew Like My Mom | Bebe Lambs | EYMM |

6.25.14 | The Sewing Geek | GYCT | Lulu and Celeste |

6.26.14 | Ruby and Jack Patterns | Muse of the Morning | Fishsticks Designs | Little Kids Grow |

6.27.14 | Make it Handmade | Rebel and Malice | Ali Cat & Co. |

RAEANNA'S STORY

Since I have the floor right now I am going to give you the long version!  For me, sewing became part of my life as a little girl.

My grandma, Eva Mae Smith, LOVED to sew and made many outfits for me and my brothers as well as all my doll clothes!  When I was around 10-12 she spent time teaching me how to sew on my mom's sewing machine in our basement.  That sewing machine didn't get a lot of use.  Although my mom had good intentions of using it, we only got it out a few times to do projects like a quilt and Bible cover for one of our homeschool co-op classes.

One year in college I had grand hopes of relearning and "stole" my mom's rarely used sewing machine.  It ended up making the move with me when I got married after graduating.  But unfortunately it sat in my closet until our bed broke....

Yep, our bed broke (not due to any adult content!!!!) Trying to play "fix it," I found that if I propped that heavy duty sewing machine hard case under the wooden bed frame where the screws had been stripped we could manage without having to buy any new furniture!

So, for about 5 years (!) my sewing machine served the purpose of playing bed frame!

Now we reach the chapter of the birth of my sweet baby boy, Christian in 2009!  I was DETERMINED to learn how to sew and use this heavy duty 1980s sewing machine so I looked up videos on YouTube and took the beginning sewing class at JoAnns!

It mustered my courage to try my first pattern! (And you have the good fortune to check out the pictures!!!  I documented the process in a Facebook photo album!)

 

This was my first time laying out a pattern and figuring out how to construct it all!

I made a TON of mistakes!

 

I think the worst of all the mistakes is this fabric!!!  What was I thinking!??!?!

 

I also made a huge mistake by cutting my snap tape the wrong size so I had to cut the legs off and make it a shorts romper.

I started scouring the internet during my lunch hour at school (I taught elementary music k-5 from 2002-2011) and I found chat rooms and message boards that led me to Children's Corner Patterns!  I was so lucky that I lived less than an hour away from their store!

 

The Johnny was my first Children's Corner pattern and I fell in love with their designs!

 

I was so proud of my first real success and went on to basically learn how to sew through the Children's Corner patterns! (I made a TON of jon-jons for Christian and as gifts, as well as several Lucys and Frannie Baby.  I also learned how to picture smock with the Johnny pattern!)

Now, enter the chapter of the birth of Eva Mae in 2011 and my blog start-up!

My first blog post, January 2012

Having 2 years of sewing experience before Eva Mae was born, I was ready to try to share my knowledge so I started my blog!  You may have noticed that my grandma's name is carried on with my daughter!  I wrote a lengthy post about her in a Project Run & Play challenge HERE.

It was also after the birth of Eva Mae that I discovered PDF patterns!  This peasant dress (Emma by The Sweetest Patterns) was the very first PDF pattern I bought!  I found some great blogs (Sew Mama Sew, MADE, Made by Rae, Me Sew Crazy, and Craftiness is Not Optional were the first blogs that I followed!)

Emma Dress and modified hat from Simplicity 7994

Having a heart for teaching and no longer fulfilling that passion in the classroom, I turned to sewing and felt fulfilled whenever I shared my knowledge with other local moms, or created a tutorial for my blog! I taught 5 classes - some in my home and some at the public library - to help moms learn the basics of using their machine and that sewing wasn't anything to be afraid of!!!  I've always said if I could teach myself, you can too!!!

We all start somewhere and I am a testimony that if you stick with something you will see a return investment!  I would have never thought that Jessica of Me Sew Crazy would pick me to be on her Sewing Rabbit team!  Or that fabric companies would seek me out!  Or that I would find a passion in designing PDF patterns!  Meeting bloggers through sew along contests and in real life has inspired me and given a sense of purpose to my hobby and I am so excited to see what is to come in the next chapter!

So, why do you sew?  When did you learn?  Write your story and share it here!  Or, maybe this post has inspired you to try for the first time?!  If so, let me recommend a Sewing 101 series for you HERE!

An InLinkz Link-up