Sewrella: sew

S E W much ♡

I guess all of you lovely readers may be wondering why my blog is called SEWrella.

Well I don't really know.

I kinda do.

But let's leave something to wonder about, okay folks? Good. Glad we cleared that up.

Well really it's very simple. I love to sew.

Call me a grandma, call me old fashioned, call me anything! I like to sew and I don't care who knows it! {name that movie in the comments}

hey that's me!

Sew really, I'll tell you guys a real serious story and we are about to get sentimental for a second.

Last October my dear, beloved, honey pot of a Great Grandmother Betty passed away. She was in her mid-eighties and was the life of the party, the spring in everyone's step and was absolutely, positively beautiful through and through. She was also chock-full of crafty skills, but her most favoritest was always sewing. She was so good, in fact, that she sewed wedding dresses for a time (seriously, how Grandmother?) Anywho, I never learned to sew from her. I never really saw her sew, I wasn't involved in that part of her life at all. Our time together mostly consisted of eating ice cream and napping and talking about boys. Oh, Grandmother. I miss you.

The most amazing woman

Around August of last year I decided that I wanted to learn to crochet. I watched lots of youtube videos and quickly taught myself the art. I bought trunk-fulls of yarn and went to town. I even crocheted in the hospital with my sweet Grandmother before she passed. I crocheted a lot.

Around the beginning of the year I began to get tired of crocheting and decided to learn cross stitch and hand embroidery (something Betty was very, very fond of). I'm sad to say that this didn't last long before I felt a calling to sew. I mean really sew. As in make something incredible out of a big ole piece of fabric. They way my Grandmother did.

I bought an $80 Brother sewing machine from the great big land of Walmart, took it home, and read the manual front to back. That night I taught myself how to wind a bobbin, what the heck a bobbin was, and how to thread the needle. I was pooped. The next day I bought some fabric and practiced some stright stitches. Then, I went out and bought a whole slew of fat quarters and decided that I would try my hand at a quilt top. I didn't realize how ambitious this was.

The quilt top came together over the course of about a week and before I knew it, I had me a full blown quilt. Granted, the seams didn't line up perfectly and the binding is a wicked mess but I made a quilt. I made a quilt. ...What??

The very next week I wanted to try a dress. I bought a Project Runway Simplicity pattern, a bunch more fabric (the ladies at the cutting counter at the fabric store are starting to recognize me by this point), a zipper, and matching thread. I puffed up my chest, breathed in deep, and said "I'm making my own clothes today."

By the next evening I was trying on my new dotted/floral number in front of the mirror and twirling and pinning some alterations in place.

I added pleats on the neckline and along the back to get a perfect fit - something the pattern didn't warrant and I was never taught or prompted to do. I don't know how else to explain it, except to say that I think my Grandmother Betty was helping me. When I saw that the neckline of my new handmade dress didn't fit perfectly I thought to myself "Oh, I'll just pinch it in here and pin and baste stitch it down and that will make a pleat and look pretty." The end. It was done and I got multiple compliments while wearing it on the "detailed structure and pleating."

What the heck? I had no idea what I was doing! But I did. I did and I didn't. Really I was just winging it but for some reason I knew how to follow all of the steps in the pattern. I knew where to adjust and how to make this garment. I had never even seen a dress sewn. I really thought (and still do think) that Grandmother Betty breathed sewist life into me and I picked up where she left off.

And for that reason I will keep on sewing. I heard her voice while I read that pattern. I saw her smile when I slipped on my dress for the first time. She is with me, helping me learn and guiding me.

She was an exceptional sewist for most of her life and I can only hope to one day exhibit the talent that she did but I feel like I have a chance.

Because I have her help everyday.