What Makes People Start Sewing?

Wowsers! These past couple of weeks have been busy around here. In between being sick myself (hello ear infection and sinusitis!) I have been frantically sewing costumes for the kids to wear to Karneval celebrations. In fact, for the most part, the children dreamed up the costume ideas for themselves. Heck, Miss 8 even designed her own dress, pointed at the sketches and said “This!”. Yes ma’am!

Now that the rush of Karneval is over and the more sober time of Lent is upon us, I can get back to working my way through the endless mountains organised piles of fabrics 😉 to complete some cool, everyday clothes for the kids. Maybe even something for myself! *gasp*

In this now less-time-pressured week, I find that I am REALLY enjoying sitting down at the machine again. Not that churning out original kids’ costumes isn’t fun. But since there were no patterns as such, and a lot of planning, guesswork and occasional cross-fingers-and-hope-for-the-best involved, it’s nice to have a clear pattern and no deadline to work with.

Which got me thinking back to some of my first ever sewing projects and why I took up sewing in the first place. I mean, why is it that sewing is so beloved by so many people? (Witness the gazillions of pins in Pinterest or sewing memes on Instagram).

What makes people start sewing at all???

I was recently invited by Cara Crockett Stromness to contribute to this post on her Sewing Society website. It was such an honour to be able to assist a fellow blogger and to help her keen readers! And it gave me the fantastic idea of paying it forward and offering other bloggers the opportunity to share their knowledge WITH YOU on my Everything’s Famtastic blog.

I mean, I could sit here and tell you all my own sewing experiences and leave it at that. That could be a little dull.

Instead, I have reached out and asked a bunch of brilliant, creative, generous women who themselves have sewing and lifestyle blogs some simple questions about why it is they do what they do. Although we all enjoying sewing different things, in reading this post you’ll notice just how many things we all have in common!

In fact, they had so many great insights to share with you, that it wasn’t possible to fit them all in one post! Eek! Part 2 will be coming next week- be sure to keep an eye out for it!

For today, the aim of my post is to share with the wider world why sewing is such a popular hobby for SO MANY people and encourage anyone who is curious (or nervous!) about it, to give sewing a try! You don’t have to wait until you are sure you can create that “perfect” something.  Remember: everyone had to start somewhere. 😉

See if these ladies can inspire you to start too…

Why Did You Start Sewing?

I personally attended a high school that had previously been open only to boys and had never updated the curriculum to include subjects like Home Economics. So at no time was I forced to square off with a sewing machine in my school years (but I did knock up an excellent triple-layer toolbox in Metalwork class 😜).

I only started sewing just under 4 years ago, when my 3^rd child was a toddler. I was feeling driven to find some new challenges (as though 3 children under 5 wasn’t challenge enough!) and some sort of creative pursuit. I was never quite sure about handicrafts; I somehow had the feeling that it was old-fashioned and not for me. But then I noticed that several of my friends were attending sewing classes and producing cute shirts, beanies and pullovers for their kids. I decided, if they could create such cool, one-of-a-kind items, surely I could too! That’s how I got my start. And I’ve not looked back!

After speaking to all these lovely blogging ladies and asking why they started sewing, they told a variety of beautiful stories, which mostly boiled down to a couple of common themes: sewing for fun with family and sewing out of necessity.

Learning to Sew with Family

Sewing with, and learning from, family seems to like a popular way to light the creativity spark early in life. Many of these women started young. Like Julie from Machine Embroidery Geek: “I started sewing with my grandmother when I was about 6. She would give us a pattern and fabric as a Christmas gift and we would make the project “together”… I started sewing because I liked being with her and I loved making things.”

Cara from Sewing Society ‘s story about sewing with the women in her family is similar: “I watched my mom and grandma sew all sorts of things — pajamas, quilts, dresses, you name it. When my grandma gave me my first sewing machine, I was immediately hooked. I started sewing because it was something fun I could do with my mom and grandma. It gave us something to bond over.”

Not everyone had the opportunity to sew with their mother or grandmother, but were nonetheless inspired to enthusiastically take up the hobby.  Like Heather from Beginner Sewing Projects, who told me: “After my grandfather passed away, a stack of quilt tops that my grandmother had pieced decades ago were found in their attic… That is when I decided to learn how to quilt and became determined to finish what my grandmother started.”

See, even if you don’t have the chance to learn from and sew with family members, it’s never too late to start learning by yourself!

And for all you Mums looking to find a great pastime to share with your children (even when you’re quite convinced they don’t listen to a single word you say anyway 😉) sewing is a such a great idea! Just look at how passionately these women now sew and share their knowledge with others, after having those memorable sewing experiences with their own mothers and grandmothers.

Learning to Sew Because of a Need

But let’s not forget about that other common reason to start sewing: necessity. Not all bodies are created equal, nor are our bank accounts or our taste in fashion.

Being able to create made-to-fit clothes has drawn many women to sewing out of frustration. Like Karly from Paisley Roots whose height made shopping tricky. “I’m 6′ tall and have a hard time finding clothes long enough for me”. Or Saskia from She Who Sews who couldn’t find clothes to fit her children: “Shop bought clothes simply didn’t fit! Sewing them clothes meant that trousers and leggings didn’t fall down, and that dresses and shirts weren’t hugely baggy on them.”

I’ve heard stories of single, unemployed women being incredibly resourceful and creating clothes from bedsheets found at charity stores because store-bought clothes were too expensive.

Even if cost itself is not the issue, desiring to reduce wastage of materials by restoring and creating upcycled projects (have a peek here for a few easy ideas!) are popular reasons to start sewing. Sew and help the environment? Yes please!!!

Julie told me she loves “ up-cycling clothing and home decor items especially by adding embroidery and appliqué.  Why throw away a pillow when it can easily be recovered? I get a lot of pleasure from repurposing and giving old items new life.” Although Ruby from Ruby Rose Sews learned to sew as a child with her mother, she now chooses to sew as an adult because she too is “trying to live a more sustainable life and therefore making a lot more of my own clothing”. Just do an online search for “upcycling” and you will find a wealth of waste-reducing, environmentally-friendly(er) sewing ideas!

And sometimes it’s a blend of wants and needs that gets people sewing. Which is exactly how Danielle from Sew Gr8ful described it when she told me “There were things we needed or things I wanted and I was unable to find them in stores. So I decided to teach myself to sew and fill those gaps.” Gemia from Phat Quarters Sewing simply says she “bored, dissatisfied with available clothing” for kids and decided she needed to use her love of creative projects and learn to sew!

As these women have shared their stories, it became clearer to me, that no matter your exact reason for discovering the joy of sewing, it can turn into a lifelong passion that you in turn can share with others. And that is something very special 🙂.

I hope these super creative women have inspired you with their experiences to give sewing a go. Anyone, at any age, can learn to sew, you just need to have faith in yourself to figure it out!

If you are new to sewing, or haven’t even started yet, don’t let yourself be intimidated by all the fancy and complicated and beautiful ideas you can find online. Read some basic beginners sewing tips to get prepared, start a simple project to develop your skills and work your way onwards and upwards from there!

Once the sewing bug bites, you will naturally want to learn and try more techniques and challenge yourself. But I do warn you: sewing is such a useful skill to have, helps you create so many memories for yourself and others and is straight up So.Much.Fun, there’ll be no turning back. 😉

Do you want to try sewing? What would you like to learn to sew? Or if you have already learned to sew, what it is you enjoy most about it? Comment below!