From stitches to stitching
Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I'm Penny from Maryland but originally grew up in England the daughter of a dressmaker and a sheet metal worker.
From day 1 it was assumed that I would take after my Mum and my brother would take after my Dad... WRONG !!! My brother did go on to take after my Dad, but it took me many years to follow in my Mum's footsteps. She was so good at what she did that to say I was intimidated by her mad skills behind a sewing machine would be an understatment and the only stitching I wanted to do were the 'injuries' on my teddy bear. I went on to become a nurse and learnt to stitch in a whole other way.
Fast forward a few years and I moved to the U.S with my new husband, when we started having children I no longer wanted to spend long hours in hospitals or doctors offices working and looking after others I wanted to stay home and look after my own children and for a while I was very content and lucky enough to stay home with them and be a full time SAHM
In 2006 after some unfortunate turns of events we found ourselves moving for the 4th time.
Thankfully in our new town I met a group of wonderful women through a local Moms group who were a great source of support. One of the mothers was pregnant and the group threw her a shower, I had no idea what to buy her and was very low on extra cash so I bought my first 2 yards of fabric, took my sewing machine out of storage and whipped up a baby blanket set and that was the beginning of a whole new adventure. One of the moms encouraged me to start selling on Ebay, I thought she was full of it but hey, it was worth a shot. I made up a set, listed it and it sold, before I knew what was happening others were asking for blanket sets too, then a friend introduced me to Etsy and I decided to give it a go, I made a purse, took the pics, listed it, went to check that I'd done everything correctly but poof there was no sign of the purse, frustrated I relisted it only to find once the work was done that I'd actually sold that first purse seconds after listing it.. WHAT ????? The next few months were spent making crayon holders and chalkboards... when I look back now I'm horrified at my craftsmanship of my early days, but I never once heard a complaint from my customers so maybe I was just too hard on myself.
I'm not going to lie, it hasn't been easy and there have been times when I've felt like giving up but everytime that happens something wonderful happens that tells me I'm where I'm supposed to be, doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
Sewing is no longer something I dread, sewing is what takes me to my happy place and provides me the outlet for my creativeness. Paired with Etsy it has provided me with the extra income we need as a family along with my desire to work my own hours, on my own terms, out of my own house and be there for my kids when they need me.
I couldn't be happier
