My Mother taught me/ to sew when I was around 8 or 9.
If I remember right I begged her to teach me. The first thing I stitched (or attempted to stitch) was a doll dress for Ginny. Remember the Ginny dolls?
I can still picture the fabric we used for that little dress. It was seersucker, it was white, and it had tiny colorful flowers all over it.
Ginny was not a big doll. If you don’t remember Ginny, she was the size of a little sister for Skipper. And Skipper is Barbie’s little sister. So you can imagine the size of the dress.
The first seam I stitched was a side seam of the very small dress. The sewing machine my Mother had at the time had the foot peddle mounted to the side of the sewing machine cabinet and you used your knee to push it.
I got the fabric positioned, put the needle in the fabric, lowered the presserfoot, and slowly pushed on the foot peddle - 0r knee peddle I guess!! Then without really meaning to I pressed harder and the machine went faster. I had been instructed to keep the edge of the fabric along one of the seam guidelines but the seam soon started getting wider and wider. Forgetting that I needed to take my knee off the foot peddle I hollered “STOP STOP!!” as the machine went faster and the seam grew wider. I remember my Mom and I laughing together over it as she quickly reminded me to take my knee off the power to the machine :) And so I learned to use the seam ripper. I’m really not sure now if I actually ripped that seam out or if Mom did it for me. I did manage to get that little dress finished with Mom’s help because I remember playing with it.
And that was the beginning. One year at Christmastime I made myself a vest to go with a skirt my Mom made. I made dresses for my sister when she was a preteen. Think '80's in all their foofy, ruffles, and bows glory! I made my own dresses. Once I remember trying to make my own puffy rainbow wall art since I couldn't purchase the shiny satin ones for sale. It didn't really turn out but that was the beginning of trying to duplicate an idea and make it my own.
When my oldest daughter was a baby I decided to sew for a few other people to earn a little extra cash. From there it has evolved and changed into designing my own thing and creating it the way I want it or to fit the personality and likes of my customers. The desire to design spills over into home decor and really may have started there in the first place. I have always enjoyed decorating, rearranging and fluffing. Now I incorporate my sewing into the decor - sewing new pillow covers, slip covers, wall art, etc. There is always something to be created!