This is actually a really great feature on the shop I work in, Sewn Studio. It just opened in February, so people in the community are still finding out about it all the time and press like this is great.
But it's just so funny to me that they make sewing sound like this weird, archaic lost art form that's just now becoming trendy. I mean, I know the whole handmade movement has been huge in recent years, but haven't people always sewn? My mom and grandmothers did it, but now I do to, so there was no generation skipped. Maybe I just have a different perception of it now that it's such a big part of my life. And I tend to be pretty un-self aware about some things, so maybe people my age do think it's really very weird that I sew. But I would still like to think that it's one of those skills that has always been around and always will be. We think we are such modern and trendy sewists with our modern fabrics, but won't the things our daughters make look completely different? Will they think of us as traditional old fart sewers? Of course they will, because that is the cycle of things. The point is, people will always be sewing and making things for themselves and their loved ones. Even when it is easier or sometimes cheaper to just buy something.
Someone came in the other day to sign up for a beginners class and we actually had to tell her to wait until the September schedule came out because all of the beginning classes for August are already full. She made a remark about sewing being such a great thing in this economy or whatever. But I don't really think people want to learn how to sew because gas prices are high so they have to put the squeeze on their clothing budget. (You guys know that fabric can be a much more expensive addiction!) I think they just want to put their hands to good use. How many people actually make a living manufacturing anything anymore? Not a high percentage. We all have great minds that we put to great use behind computer screens, which is all great and necessary. But hands want to make something, something that can be touched and used and called good. Sewing is just one way that hands get put to good use, but it's my way.
Geez, I really didn't mean to get all philosophizy on you. I mostly wanted us all to admit that we are dorky grandmas, apparently. (And I also wanted us all to laugh at the weird camera angle they put on my friend Sarah. Heehee.)
Completely unrelated... we are going to see Sir Paul McCartney tonight in the Reds' ballpark. I don't know if this makes me cool, or even more like an old person. I think maybe the correct answer is that I'm like a really cool old person. Either way, I'M SO EXCITED!
I love this post. I work in a newsroom and could see this same story being assigned. I do think there is something "new" going on. I mean, yes, people have always sewn, but I think you hit the nail on the head -- for a long while now, a lot of people have been sucked into technology and all the staring at screens that comes with it. I think people are a little desperate to get their hands dirty and actually make something tangible and touchable again. I know that's true for me!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your small-time "fame!" ;)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Krista. My job is full of me doing things that don't produce a tangible result - I really feel like, at the end of the day, I've just pushed paperwork around in circles for eight hours!
With sewing and quilting, though, I can sit for an hour and say "Hey! Look! A pair of shorts!" or whatever project I happened to have been working on. I recently gave my first finished quilt to a co-worker, whose wife is having their first little girl soon - the first words out of his mouth were "You didn't have to get anything..." and mine were "Um, I made it..." I was so happy and proud to be able to say that... I think it's worth of a news story! :)
Sewing being "great thing" in this economy? So not my experience. The cost of material and supplies typically ends up being equivalent to the cost of a brand-new garment for me. That's not counting the cost of my time. The difference is the quality and the fit. I can make myself something exactly how I want it to be.
ReplyDeleteThe article really did make it seem like sewing is a skill revived - as if it's been dead for decades or generations. Not so. It's just the internets have made quality goods and independent and vintage patterns much more accessible to me. I was never much inspired by the JoAnn's variety of fabrics and the majority of patterns available through Butterick, etc. So, dead? No. Given a new life? Yes.
Found you from fresh lemons
ReplyDeleteYer funny! I likey!
Nice segment! What a fun little shop!!
ReplyDeleteOk, I'm laughing too at the perspective of that news-piece that sewing is so unusual. Most people my age (youngish, I guess) are totally interested when they here I sew and either share that they've done a little or that they wish they could. Something along those lines. No one thinks it's Grandma. Now, making quilts... that people often don't know what to make of.
ReplyDeleteOh that has me giggling. I guess I'm an old fart. Really, though among my friends I am the lone wolf. I am the only one that really sews. I mean more than a fixed hem or re-attach a button. Since my daughter got her first sewing machine at 6 I guess she is the future old fart!
ReplyDeleteSure wish the store in Cinci was there when we lived there. I was in sewing hibernation back then. Maybe this store would have brought me out of my shell.