A satisfying day of sewing done

I sew quite a bit. Ok, a lot.

I was a child that sat at my mother's feet and played with the spools of thread in her cabinet (she had a really cool holder) while she stitched at her machine. My grandmother gave me a needle, thread, quilt square and button at 4 and had me stitching up yarn coasters at 6 (probably so I would quit messing with my flower girl dress she was trying to finish for me). At 8, I took some of my mom's scrap fabric and made a pair of pants for my stuffed animals. BY 9, I had made several dresses for my dollies--by hand because I wasn't allowed to use the "dangerous" (read: expensive) machine.

I didn't get to use a machine until 7th grade home ec, like every other kid on the planet. And I made the requisite pillow, flat apron, and ugly skirt. Then we were allowed to pick out what we wanted to make. We had a spring dance coming up, so I made dresses for my friend and me.

I moved to my dad's house, and we had a cheapy sewing machine that no one cared if I used. So I gave it a workout. I made a bunch of my church dresses (thankfully, it was the 90's and calico flower prints were in, blech). Everytime I found nice fabric for cheap, I started buying it up. My mother always had a trunk full of fabrics that I loved to go through, and I started my own little stash and scrap bag.

The culmination of this came my junior year of high school when I made a period dress for my Shakespeare class. I had studied the Tudor period of English history pretty deeply before I went to visit the UK, because we visited a lot of the Tudor castles and palaces. When i was there, I took hundreds of pictures of the period portraits, castles, palaces, and dresses that we found everywhere. I used these pictures as a jumping off point in deciding which style of gown I wanted to make. I went with a classic Tudor shape and style, in royal purple.

I moved out, without a sewing machine! Disaster! lol... Thankfully, my grandmother let my borrow hers when I decided I needed to sew a Halloween costume (or three...). Then I needed curtains for my new pad. Then someone wanted pillowcases for their body pillow... and my (her) machine was pretty busy several days a month. Still, I just did it for others because they couldn't/didn't know how, whatever.

I finally bought myself a good machine (and gave grandmother's back) right after I got married. Again, curtains, jammies for the wee sprout in my tummy. After he was born, I made him a little jacket to wear to the Colorado mountains almost immediately (It was June and 90-not a jacket or sweatshirt to be found anywhere). I had to alter nearly all of my clothes through the next few months, since I was a new, weird shape. (Seriously--I am so glad I do not have to go through that ever again. Even though I am all gaga over babies, there will be no more babies from me! w00t!). More curtains, more alterations, more baby things, more skirts and dresses for me... and a LOT more fabric collected into the stash!!!

I started thinking about turning all of this into a business somehow. I wanted to do baby things--like crib sets, nursery accessories, baby outfits, etc. But then the FTC lead-rule changes put that on hold until those laws could be sorted out again. Then I started finding fabric that would make perfect, flirty aprons... and Amanda's Aprons was born.

My marriage started to tank in a big way, and I put these dreams on hold until I could clear out of the situation. I just made jammies for the kids and did my regular mending. I made a couple of dresses and skirts for the girls, but nothing was finished for the company. I picked up my paintbrush instead (which had been dormant for years) and started producing art for the children. My camera and lights also got a serious workout shooting the pottery. My Art Tank was full.

I finally moved out, and got this wonderful space in my bedroom that was literally made for a seamstress (the previous owner was the Home Ec teacher at the old high school in town). I have a closet filled with my fabric stash--and what doesn't fit in the closet is in my fabric dresser. Yes, I am well-stocked with fabric. Let the sewing begin.

Today, I spent 6 hours altering a prom dress for a friend's daughter. There are probably 3000 beads on the dress, I had to remove about 500 so far, and re-bead about 200. I can honestly say I enjoyed every single moment of the work I did today. I had a ton of fun bopping around the dress, dancing to the music; destroying and rebuilding this dress.

I have a huge attitude problem toward work--correction, toward the corporate working environment. I've been a working artist for over 3 years... the thought of sucking it up and going back into that world, working for someone and playing by their rules is killing me. I mean, if I HAVE to, then I will go work for anyone that is running a legal establishment (yes, I have had issue with this in my job search), but damn, I really don't want to if I can avoid it at all. I put out my resumes like a good girl, I scour the help wanted ads, temp agencies, online job sources, the phone book every day... But really, I'm trying to make it until the house sells or whatever.

I want to sew. I want to paint. I want to play cameras. I want these things to be my paycheck. I want to work on my own schedule, so that if Kate gets sick at school, I can be here for her. So that I can take them to their gymnastics, swim lessons, soccer practices, scout meetings. This is everything that is great about being a parent and I don't want to miss more of it than I have to because of the sharing issue.

I will be finishing the Audrey Dress as soon as I get these prom dresses out of here. I have a beading detail that I sketched out today to put on it if I can find the beads I have in mind. Stay tuned, lol.