Sewing – My Journey to Confidence and Creativity.

My sewing journey began 10 years before I ever picked up a needle and thread. We were planning our wedding, and I came across an incredible gentleman’s velvet frock coat on Ebay. It was love at first sight, and I nervously placed my bid at what seemed to me to be a ridiculously high amount - $1,111.11. To my joy and horror, I won for exactly that price. Eek!

At that point, I was feeling pretty low about myself. I had visited a bridal shop brimming with new hope and anticipation, only to find the staff needlessly rude and cruel about my size. I was a US14 at the time, and they basically told me they had nothing in their boutique to fit ‘your body type’. I was crushed and no longer felt excited to pick out a wedding gown for myself.

Anyway, I hopped on a train and headed to Sheffield, U.K. to pick up the suit for my husband to wear. The lady selling it was called Cathy Hay, and I had no idea at the time that she would one day be a famous costumier and YouTuber.

Cathy was amazing. She took my measurements and talked about my vision for my own gown. She made beautiful sketches of my dress and then took me on an adventure to shop for the perfect fabric. I had never been in a haberdashery department before. I fell instantly in love with the silky fabrics, the rainbows of ribbons and trims, the gleaming gold and pearl buttons in drawers above the counter.

We selected a gold embroidered silk. I admired Cathy’s confidence and trusted her completely to make me a dress I wouldn’t feel fat and ugly in.

Several fittings later and the wedding day arrived. I was actually 10 weeks pregnant at the time, but the dress was so cleverly made nobody could tell. She had even embroidered my name in gold thread inside the bodice. I was transformed into a 17th century princess for the day. And I knew then that I was going to have to learn to for myself.

Babies and a transatlantic move kept me busy for a few years. It wasn’t till the little ones were in nursery school that I finally had time to myself again. I found a listing for a used sewing machine on Craigslist, and picked it up. I was so nervous. The lady was lovely though, and showed me how to thread it. She gave me a bag of thread spools too, and my sewing adventures began.

I sat in front of the machine. I had a vision of what I wanted to make, a simple twirl skirt for my little girl. I had some blunt, old scissors from the kitchen and struggled valiantly to cut six inch squares with them. It took two days and much cursing even to get that part done. I wondered how anyone ever got to sew at all if just the cutting took so long.

My first project was a disaster. I had seen serged clothing in stores, and picked the sewing option that looked most like those edges. It turned out to be a blanket stitch. My mother laughed at me for that – and I knew I would need to get lessons to figure out how to actually use my machine.

I advertised on Craigslist for a teacher. I found two – both women happy to teach me in exchange for lunch. We became friends, and had a sewing circle for a while, enjoying each other’s company while we created our own projects.

They taught me how to shop – until then Joanns had seemed a daunting place to me, I had no idea how to pick the right fabric or what cutting tools there were. We left the store with my first sewing purchases – a few yards of cotton in a rainbow of colors, some pins, a dress pattern, and best of all, a Fiskar’s cutting mat and rotary blade set.

If you haven’t seen one of these sets, here’s a picture. It is a miracle worker – the mat protects your table and has a grid of measured squares to keep you cutting straight. The ruler is clear plastic and also marked so you can be sure to get perfectly squared corners and neat edges. Last, but by no means least, is the rotary cutter. This blade is terrifying at first. It’s a razor-sharp circular blade and if you aren’t careful you can cut yourself badly. As a very accident-prone left-hander I was nervous to even touch it. My friends taught me the correct way to hold it, and where to place my hands on the ruler to make sure I would never cut myself. When you treat a rotary blade with respect it is the best tool in the world.

I was slow at first, nervous to press too hard, scared my hand would slip. So I bought this one, with a handle and soft-grip handle.

The grip was just right for my swollen fingers, and the guard protected me. I grew more confident. After a few weeks I could cut anything out with confidence, and figured how to change the blade myself. My old, blunt scissors were resigned to the kitchen drawer once more as I searched for new tools for my hobby.

That’s when I discovered the spring-action scissors. I had no clue such a thing even existed – what an amazing device. I have suffered from Rheumatoid Arthritis since I turned 21. My hands often feel like burning, throbbing, gnarled wood. On rainy days or in cold weather they curl up like dying spiders, and are incapable of doing much at all. So cutting with scissors was a difficult process for me. I had to do it slowly, taking regular breaks. Sometimes it left me in tears and feeling useless.

The spring-action scissors naturally open by themselves. All you have to do is press them closed and they spring back, reducing the energy and effort of cutting by half. It was a life changer for me – suddenly I was able to sew for longer hours, create projects that in the past seemed too daunting to even begin. Those scissors took a lot of the physical burden of my hobby away, and gave me new confidence in my abilities.

I spent a happy year creating little girl’s dresses for my daughter and her friends. I reveled in the myriad colors that surrounded me. I saved up for an embroidery machine, now my creations could include characters and details I could never have created before.

I began to think of myself as an intermediate sewist, and my confidence grew when I went to the fabric stores. The staff knew me now and asked about my projects. They boosted my confidence and I grew to look forward to our interactions. It had been lonely moving countries and leaving all my friends and family behind. Sewing gave me a chance to meet new people.

I was finally ready to do what I had always promised myself I would – make a historical gown like my wedding dress. And I had the perfect excuse for it – my Mother and Father in Law were invited to a masquerade ball in Williamsburg. My father in law was borrowing my husband’s frock coat from our wedding ten years earlier. But my Mother in law was too petite to fit in to my gown. I decided to thank her for all the love and kindness she had shown me over the last decade, and create her a beautiful dress of her own.

I found a historical dress pattern for a Robe à l'Anglaise and a shop in Williamsburg that sold it. I also bought a straw hat in the quaint little shop. The dress pattern was daunting, more complex than any of the little girl’s clothes I had made previously. The fabric was so expensive and I felt my hands tremble as I prepared to make the first cuts. I decided I needed to make a practice version first.

I got lucky. Somehow a whole roll of faux silk was reduced to a dollar a yard in Walmart. There were 10 yards left on it, exactly what I needed for my project.

Some of the pieces were too small or shaped too tightly for my Fiskar’s rotary blade to cut. So I used the 5” snipping scissors to cut the little notches and details. I had a furry helper at times!

I used my trusty Fiskar’s pinking shears to cut the long silk strips that made up the yards and yards of ruffled trim. The zigzagged edges they gave prevented fraying and matched the same techniques used centuries earlier.

It took several days to make the prototype. I didn’t get it 100% perfect, but that was fine because the fabric wasn’t too expensive. My Mother In Law tried it on and looked great.

I was finally ready to cut into that beautiful embroidered silk. The dress took shape, I learned so many new skills as I attached hooks and eyes, added boning. I created the undergarments – everything had to be perfect so my Mother In law felt truly magical at the ball. I even decorated a mask for her and made a cloak. The straw hat took many hours of hand sewing, and my arthritic fingers ached and blistered.

But then it was done… the final outfit complete with barely a day to spare!

I went with them to the ball to help her dress, just as a servant would have helped her in the 1700’s to fasten her corset and lace it tightly. It was wonderful seeing her transform into an excited and beautiful lady, and the love in my Father in law’s eyes as he saw her for the first time.

What a wonderful couple they made, the king and queen of the ball. People came up to admire her gown and I felt the rush of pride from my head to my toes.

Now, I could hold my head up high. I had made it! I was finally a seamstress. And I couldn’t have done it without Fiskar’s. Their products made every step seem easier, and took the physical pain away from my arthritic fingers. Thanks, Fiskars! We did it together!