Welcome! Let's Talk All Things Crafty

Where did your love of sewing and/or making all things crafty come from?

Mine came from my grandmother, who lived down the street and whom I visited frequently. She taught me early on (although she complained that I was "unteachable" much of the time!) and by the time I reached junior high, I knew all the stitches that they wanted to teach me in Home Economics. My grandma loved to quilt but I didn’t pick up on that love. I have to credit my mom as well, who sewed Halloween costumes and clothes year after year for my brothers and me and kept her fabric in large boxes that were so fun to dig through. Believe it or not, I still have some of the fabric and it comes in handy for outfits that need to fit a certain (I won’t say which) era. And now my kids enjoy digging through my fabric bins.

My name is Julie. I am a member of the Puget Sound Sewing & Craft team and I am so pleased to be here with you. I was born and raised in the Puget Sound (Kitsap County) and love the area. It will always be "home" to me. I have three kiddos, two in middle school and one in early elementary who are my pride and joy and (most of the time) get more attention than my projects. I love to learn, and seek this constantly, whether through classes, articles or other people. Yes, I am the note scribbler in the group, and I learn best when learning is hands-on and I can actually try a technique.

Someone asked me recently, "What do you want to accomplish through the blog?" and I have to say that I (as well as the rest of the team) want it to be a place where you can come for downtime, fun-time, instruction and interaction with other people who love all things crafty as much as you do.

Whether you are a beginner, want to freshen up on your skills (me!) or maintain title as an experienced crafter, I hope that your time here will energize you and maybe even give you the desire to try some new things.

Please take a moment to comment right now and let us know one or more of the following:

• A little bit about you
• Where your love of all things stitching and crafting came from
• Who your mentor was (if anyone)
• A love/hate relationship that you might have with sewing or crafts
• Topics you'd like to see on the Puget Sound Sewing & Craft blog

Looking forward to getting to know you!

Julie

Comments

[Gina Milano]

Thank you, Julie, for adding the photo of my Mariners T-shirt quilt to your Blog. One of your readers can acually *WIN* that quilt, or a 2nd similar quilt that was on display at the Northgate Pacific Fabric quilt show.

One will be auctioned in August for the Jamie Moyer Foundation, "Catch a Cure for Cancer." The other auction quilt will benefit Fred Hutchinson at a luncheon in January at Safeco Field.

[Anna-Beth]

My grandmother was crafty - but since her eyesight went when I was wee and she died in my early adolescence, she didn't get to teach me much. So perhaps my craftiness is primarily genetic, and a trait that skips generations, as my mother is not crafty at all.
I was an avid reader as a child, especially Laura Ingalls Wilder and L.M. Montgomery, so I think that is where a lot of the drive to sew and knit came from - I spent more time in my mind on the frontier of pioneer America or in the society of turn-of-the-century Canadian small-town then I did watching action-packed cartoons. Women in those books often were quilting, sewing, embroidering, knitting, or canning (my respberry jam is awesome.) Plus I collected dolls, and liked to make them new clothes, so that was a prompt to take on crafting too.
I didn't have a sewing machine till I was 25 - I made my mother and myself duvet covers one little hand-stitch after another, leaving my fingers sore but I was so proud of my work. I saved for my sewing machine for three years and have used it heavily since I finally got to bring it home. I took a quilting class at Pac Fab and have been passionate about quilting ever since.

[Busydebbie]

Julie,

My DH (Dear Husband) seems to know me better then I know myself. He sends me to the fabric stores to destress...says that my drug of choice is fabric dust:)

My love for fabric came about from JR. High HomeEC. I love new clothes...but our family of six didn't have alot of money...but my mom always bought me as much fabric as I would sew. Now that I think of my dad bought my mom her first sewing machine when I was born. (Maybe I was infected with the sewing bug in the womb).

I like to sew clothes, but have also enjoyed making tie-down flannel quilts. My main passion is for Cross Stitch...mainly because I liked it for it's travelabilty...I was a Flight Attendant for 20 years and could take my CCS with me in my suitcase. I did fly with a couple of Flight Attendants who did bring their sewing machines with them on long layovers.

Looking forward to these blogs...maybe I could connect with local seamtress to help fit patterns.

[linda]

Buckram is available at all six Pacific Fabrics locations. Dover Publications has a lot of books on historic garb.

I hope those commenting on the blog will sign their comments. I read the most recent comments and could not tell if we were hearing from one person or several. The earlier posts by Julie WERE signed.

[Carmen]

Hi Donna,

I found a couple of websites that might be helpful with your costumes:
http://www.ece.uwaterloo.ca/~arnora/arnora/costumehdbk.htm
http://www.maybe.org/~rodmur/sca/Cotehardie.html
http://www.virtue.to/articles/circle_houp.html
http://www.virtue.to/articles/modern_patterns.html

Good luck and have fun with your project! I would love to see the finished the products!

Carmen

[Donna]

My friends have asked me to make them garb for Society of Creative Anachronism events.
Does anyone know of a good basic pattern to use as a beginning point for making a cote'hardie, a houpelande, or a side-less surcoat?

And do you know where I can buckram, for making headresses?

Donna

[Julie]

JUGS! What a great group name and a ton of fun. Thanks for sharing your experiences!

[Julie]

JUGS! What a great group name and a ton of fun. Thanks for sharing your experiences!

[Jean]

I learned to sew in the fifth grade from a teacher who originally brought in a hook latch rug that we would work on during lunch or recess. She then brought in her sewing machine for an after school gathering we called JUGS - Just Us GirlS. We had no real organization - and got to pick what we wanted to make - but were encouraged to keep it simple and the teacher would help us.

I've been through highs and lows of sewing but found that at about 35+ that I really love to sew! I got a Morse sewing machine for graduation in 1974 that did zigzag and it met most all my sewing needs. I think it probably had more miles on it than any car I ever owned! I couldn't just get rid of the machine outright when I finally decided I had too many machines. Finally passed the machine on to my elderly aunt as a portable that was a little easier to move around than her treadle!

Make clothes on occassion, same with quilting - mostly a crafter or maybe just craft/sewing ADD. Need lots of projects and different ones!

[Julie]

Thanks for commenting!

[Laura Christianson]

I have a love-hate relationship with sewing. When I was growing up, my family had very little extra money, so my mom sewed ALL our clothes (including splendid tailored suits for my dad) on our old black Singer and her very snazzy Pfaff. That Pfaff practically did all the work for her!

Mom was a perfectionist, so when she was teaching me to cut out patterns with the electric scissors (very cool for a young girl growing up in the 60s and 70s), and instructing me how to put in zippers and buttonholes and the like, I was under a lot of pressure to "do it right."

Unable to meet her high standards (I was always ripping seams out and starting over and I hated that), I gave up on sewing during my late teens. But I rediscovered my mom's thriftiness as a 20-something, married, penniless woman and renewed my love affair with the old Singer.

I still gravitate toward stiching the easy stuff (curtains, pillowcases, and the like) and wish I'd inherited more of my mom's sewing talents.

I did inherit both her sewing machines when she passed away five years ago. There may be hope for me yet!

[Carmen]

I started sewing on a Singer Featherweight when I was 8 years old. My Mom sewed a lot and made many of my clothes and even cabbage patch dolls for my sister and I. While I was growing up my Mom was the Sew Fun coordinator for Quality Sewing, so she was always learning lots of fun new sewing techniques that I picked up just by being around. Now I mostly stick to home dec, quilting and fun personal projects like purses and clothing modification.