My experience in sewing

Sewing is a unique art. It can entertain, enlighten and be enjoyed. The creative process is one that doesn't have to take many years to perfect and it's easily one that applies in everyday life.

What do I mean by all that? Well, let's look at the fundamentals of sewing and the materials involved. If you look around any room in a house, office or store, you'll see sewing everywhere. In a house, you have the clothes you're wearing, the couch, the chair cushion, curtains, blankets on a bed, and probably even pillows, right? All those things had sewing involved. In an office, usually an office chair has a cloth seat for soft sitting, you still have the clothes you're wearing and the clothes of those around you. No matter where you go, sewing is a fact of life. Without it, people would be arrested constantly for indecent exposure.

So, what does all this have to do with my experiences sewing? Simple: I learned to make my own clothes, I can make curtains, I have made pillows, stuffed animals, and a whole lot more out of cloth. The benefits are many and the rewards great.

For example, a benefit might be to have increased patience, longer attention span and even improve hand-eye coordination. Rewards could come from a simple county fair: a blue ribbon is quite a reward for hard work.

Now admittedly, sewing does take some time to learn. Just like everything else, patience is the key. Just as with anything, art, painting, playing games, included, sewing is something that comes with time but is very, very rewarding.

Take me for example: I grew up making at least four dresses a year and entering at least two of those in the county fair on some years. I made a multitude of stuffed animals of all types and doll costumes, too. One ideal example I use most favorably is a Barbie costume I made when I was fourteen. It was a character design that sparked a lifelong love of mine: Dream Angel. The character is Katrilina. The costume won a blue ribbon and was apparently so popular that someone stole it. The character herself is one that's lasted past almost all others since then. For that doll, I picked out the fabric, drafted the patterns myself and did all the sewing by hand. I've maintained that creed with my current character designs. All my current human characters are Barbie and Ken dolls dressed in hand-made costumes. For the nonhuman characters, I intend to make stuffed versions. These have served faithfully as the best models for my comic book drawings. Just one way I like to combine my skills. To see these characters, visit my site and explore my characters. You'll soon see how combining my skills has come in handy.

Mom on the other hand hasn't had to worry so much about combining skills. She simply used the immortal words "I can do that." More than ten years later, almost twenty in point of fact, she's still sewing things people request along with her own creations. Naturally, for full details, visit her site. She wasn't much older than I was when she started sewing. She made a point of passing the skill down to my older sister, who passed it down to me. I later passed it down to my niece Ashley (also on my site in the About section) who enjoyed the process of drafting patterns, cutting them out and sewing together her project. She was three just like me when I introduced her to my domestic sewing machine. She couldn't reach the foot pedal, so I had that much control, but I pointed out to her that the needle is sharp and showed her how to guide the fabric. From there I got to sit back and watch her sew. She only did four straight seams for that first costume of Sailor Luna from the Sailor Moon live action series, but she enjoyed every bit of it and insisted on trying on the incomplete costume to show it off downstairs to her grandmothers who thought it was the greatest thing in the world to see her, even half dressed in the costume, having fun. It was Ashley's idea for the most part to join an anime convention's costume contest where all she won was a collective "AWWWWWWWW" from the crowd. It was more than enough for her as she had the time of her life that day.

So sewing does have its rewards, doesn't it? Well, that would be the idea. "Happiness is the time when you're in pursuit of happiness" Makoto Kino, Sailor Moon SuperS the Movie.