My Sewing Story

Y'all know Lindsay started a sewing history thread and so while I eat my dinner I will put my sewstory to press. I was always really crafty as a child. I loved to tinker with things...so much that my nickname was "Tinker" (AKA "Stinker" at times!) I entered local craft competitions (I always won) and learned to crochet before I went to school thanks to my loving patient Grandmother. I started sewing doll clothes, designing for Barbie was my big start in fashion. I inherited an old treadle machine and soon I graduated to designing clothes for me. We had a large family and to supplement my wardrobe I would refashion Grandma's old dresses. My Mom was happy to relinquish the sewing and mending duties to me. I made money and scored record albums hemming pants and adding gussets to my brother's jeans. I was tall and as some of you might remember, they didn't make pants for tall girls way back when...I can remember pants not being allowed for girls at school (and there it is...she's ancient!) I took home ec like all good girls in Junior High and excelled in the sewing segment. When my husband and I got married, he bought me my first Kenmore sewing machine...$150.00...that was expensive back then. I made his suit for the wedding...a turquoise poly double knit with a light blue quiana shirt (everybody cringe...I know I am!!!) I went to work for Jantzen, a local sportswear company in the Northwest and stayed there until I became a stay-at-home Mom for a few years. Of course I sewed for my daughter, but I also started making money on the side sewing soft sculptured dolls. It was quite lucrative for awhile there. Then I went back to work at a local hospital and the sewing slowed down for awhile when I went to nursing school. After that the sewing resumed, but not with the fervor of the last few years. I bought my first embroidery machine about 6 years ago and that really got me back into sewing. Now I run the big 6 needle and that frees up my first embroidery machine to sew. Not that I don't have backups for the backup machine. I always have a sewing machine to use (and if I didn't, I'd be shopping for one.) So that's my sewstory...sew far!