My mom inspired it all

At the tender age of 12 years old I started to realize that my relationship with fashion was not the same as my peers. How I wanted to present myself in the world wasn't found on the racks in a store. Mom always said classic never goes out of style, and wanted very much for me to follow her guidance, but those clothes didn't speak to be either. In the mid 80's I wasn't in love with neon, of course neither was mom. Therefore my mom, who had won multiple state awards in 4H for sewing and owned a custom drapery workroom, taught me to sew.

We spend hours standing over tables cutting fabric, while she explained notches and marks. She would lean over me while I slowly sewed as straight a line as I possible could 5/8" from the groove on the surface of the machine. She would tell me when I did it wrong, and then tell me to rip it out and re-do it. I am sure you can imagine the amount of pre-teen eyerolling and disgusted sighs that accompanied those statements. However, in the end, I would have clothing that no one else had. I felt like a movie star. Even the jeers and laughter of the obnoxious pre-teen peers didn't sway my passion for making my own clothing and designing things that only I would have.

Fast forward to kids and all the Easter dresses, Christmas dresses, and Halloween costumes, but not much else because a mom to two girls is not a life of leisure whilst sitting and eating bon bons, but each opportunity to create something was met with meticulous pattern design and fabric selection.

Again fast forward to those late 30 doldrums of the monotonous nature of day to day work, kids, meals, housework, sleep, wash, rinse, and repeat over and over and over again forgetting who I even was inside and even the dreams that the 12 year old me thought would come with fashion. Enter the bestie for the restie that created me an Etsy account so that I could sew whatever I wanted and sell it. I wasn't very social media, internet selling educated, and still have more to learn than I even know I should learn, but I fiddled about with making kids clothes, women's wear, costumes. Anything I liked and anything someone would pay me to make. At the time my boyfriend thought he was supportive, but the reality is he was only okay with me sewing as long as it didn't interfere with time he wanted me to spend with him. The business adventure didn't take off well, because I wasn't investing the time it needed, but I never gave up.

However that first little launch into sewing as a money making adventure reignited my passion, and started to spark something in me that had been long dormant. I was sewing again. I was creating again. I was taking flat fabric and wrapping it around people to help them show who they were on the inside. I was styling people, and re-finding myself in the process. Eventually the relationship ended. I moved on. I kept designing and creating. I met someone new. He sat quietly behind me whispering in my ear, "you can do this".

About 4 months before COVID changed the face of humanity I opened my dress shop. I was selling some of my own items, but mostly the work of others. I was styling women. I was in heaven. I was doing boutique shows, and car shows, and so much more, and learning in the meantime that I still had in me the things that make me ... well me! The third show on my schedule was the first one that I sewed at the event, and I FOUND THE FORMULA! Sell clothes, alter them on site, and make women see how they are amazing beautiful creatures that deserve to be in the spotlight of their own lives. Then..... COVID. It seems so cliché to say that, but I walked out of that show and they closed everything. So for the next 14 months I sat at home doing whatever I could to keep the lights on, and that didn't include nearly as much sewing as I wanted.

Things are coming back to life now. The coma of society is awakening and we are going back out into the world and shows are being held and parties are being had. I have done one show already and it was the most profitable I have ever done, and that amazing man whispering in my ear asked for my hand at that show, so it was also the happiest show. However the thing I learned over those 14 months was I do not want to sell anyone else's clothing. I want to sell MINE. I want to have the Sweety Darlin line of apparel that women can buy in boutiques all over the globe. See I can either make clothes and sell in one store, or I can design clothes and have them made under my supervision and sell them in ALL THE STORES. Now I work on designs. Now I look for a factory, and fabric sources, and I figure out how to make that dream a reality.

Life is long, and I am not done yet. Life may keep happening and changing and evolving this plan, but until God calls me home... I ain't dead yet and I got things to do and global domination in fashion to achieve. Every woman everywhere deserves to see the very best version of herself in a mirror and that means I have a lot of things to make.