Love At First Snip

Welcome to my love story with sewing. To better understand my passion, I first must tell you why it began. I had the drive to create a bikini line that truly supported and represented women of all sizes, born from my struggles in finding swimwear that came in my size. The journey of designing swimwear to embrace curves, not just cover them up, took off with excitement and was coupled with a hunt for the perfect manufacturer to meet my extended sizing goals. While saving to afford such a manufacturer, I sustained an injury. My injury required me to undergo surgery to have a prosthetic replace part of my elbow. With this prosthetic and surgery sending me into debt, the reality of starting my swimwear line slipped far out of reach. In the months following, I worked at regaining use in my dominant arm while planning and thinking of ways to make my dream again reachable. Proving more difficult than imagined, planning and striving for this was not bringing my dreams within sight of reality, leading to my spur-of-the-moment purchase of a sewing machine. Never having had sewn, I decided to focus on learning a craft and taking things into my own hands. In the beginning stages, fabric cutting and simple hand stitching came slow and with such struggle to a recovering arm, yet as I cut my first pattern from the fabric the excitement for my goals and myself began to return. With only a week into sewing, I found myself unable to step away, and starting as a new study and learning the ways of simple stitching to pattern making and fabric cutting, I was starting to make progress rather quickly. At the point I was making what feels like wearable art, I was long hooked and deeply devoted to a passion I would never have seen for myself. This new craft was giving me a sense of healing, not only in strengthening my hand but also in my mind, and continues to do so. Sewing altogether reshaped how I looked at my injury, bringing me into a growing passion for something I did not know I needed or had a talent for. Although I maintained a can-do attitude throughout my surgery and recovery process, I hadn't fully convinced myself that I was remaining on the bright side of things. I pour every ounce of my heart into everything I make. To bring joy to the people I create for continues to fill my own heart with joy, each time acting as fuel for my love of the craft. May 18th, 2021 I was able to launch my bikini line with excitement and pride, hand-making every piece and giving me true creative freedom to make pieces in all sizes that help ensure confidence in those who wear them. Knowing that my passion has helped aid in a person's recognition of their beauty only pushes me deeper into my love for the art of sewing. Every part of this process has and continues to teach me so much more than just a new trade or hobby. Seeing just how capable, devoted and persevering I can be in one area is doubt by doubt erasing the things that can and have held me back in many areas of life. I am still learning and growing in my craft and my life, but with more excitement than has encompassed me in a long time. My appreciation and love of sewing grow with each day with every stitch. That extinguishing of self-doubt for me began with the first delicate cut of fabric with my Fiskars rotary cutter and fabric scissors, and for that, I would like to thank them for being a part of my journey and a continued part of my passion.