My Journey back to garment sewing

I love plain long-sleeved t-shirts in the Winter. I love to pair them with sweaters, jackets, vests and scarves.  Here's a picture of me with my husband and a daughter and her husband in one of my old long-sleeved tees (one I can no longer wear....because it has holes in it....)

I had bought some ready-to-wear long-sleeved tees from Gap and Banana Republic and they had all wound up with little holes in the front around the waistband. I was getting so tired of buying shirts and having them wear out within a year or less that I was prepared to take drastic action!!

About the same time I was dealing with this frustration, I started noticing one of my friends posting lots of home-sewn clothing items. I remembered that I used to sew clothing, but I had gotten away from it. I'll discuss the reasons later...but all of my sewing of late had been mending, quilting (which I still love), altering clothing for my daughters (making it fit better, more modest, etc) and costumes for school plays. However, all my children are grown and gone (mostly - I still have the odd one home for a few months or weeks at a time - but they are mostly on their way out) and I was so inspired by my friend.

I also went to Dallas last year with my husband on a business trip. His cousin, Abi Ferrin, lives there and we went out to dinner with her. She has a fabulous line of designer clothing that she makes and sells from her studio and shop there in Dallas. She showed us around her studio and I also went and checked out her shop. She sells high-end designer ready to wear clothing, but her journey to this business was as a seamstress. More inspiration!!

These two women made me really want to get back to garment sewing. One of the problems I had 25 years ago when I was sewing was that I would pick out a pattern and get it sewn up and not really like how it looked on me. Some of this is learning how to pick fabrics, some of it is learning how to fit patterns and some of it is being able to know what a pattern looks like on your body type. I have LOVED LOVED LOVED following the sewing community on Instagram. It might be one of the best things to happen to home sewists. You can look at a hashtag for a certain pattern and see what that pattern looks like sewn up in all different types of fabric and on all different types of bodies. It really helps me to figure out what I like BEFORE I invest the money and time into a project. So, I started this blog and my sewing Instagram account in an effort to add to the resources for other sewists. Also, it's fun to be a part of this community and share what you make with people who appreciate it!!

So, introduce yourself! Comment! Help me find more patterns I will like! And be the inspiration for someone else - and thanks for welcoming me into the lovely online sewing community!!