Welcome, Elizabeth! One of our new Fabricistas

I'm excited to get back to our regularly scheduled blog posts. We have a few new sewers around the blog. I will be introducing them all very soon, but wanted to introduce you to our winner in the Fabricista Fashion Challenge -- Elizabeth! I'm excited to have you on board and creating together. 

I am so excited to be a Fabric Mart Fabricista for the next 6 months and would love to share a bit about my sewing journey!

I was first introduced to sewing as a young child when visiting my grandparents deep in the coastal swamps of South Carolina. My grandparents lived off of a dirt road in a teeny township so I was bored, naturally. My mother suggested I learn to sew clothes for my many Barbie's and she taught me the basics using her own vintage Barbie clothes patterns. I loved the idea that I could dream up an outfit for my doll and make it come to life. In recent years I recently rediscovered all the clothes I made for my Barbie's during that season of life and I was prolific. I especially loved embellishing their clothes with bugle beads and fringe. I still love to embellish my garments but with less bugle beads and more piping and contrasting fabrics. As I grew too old to play with Barbies I also quit sewing until the year before I had my first child when a dear friend reintroduced me to sewing. 

When I made the decision to stay home with my first child I quickly realized that parenthood is full of cyclical activities that seem to go on and on, including diapers, baths, meals, cleaning up a bazillion small toys. Sewing became my therapy, it was the one thing that stayed done at the end of the day and it gave me that feeling of doing something to restore my being. 

Another way that sewing is therapeutic for me is in relationship to my job- which I've recently returned to part time after more than 6 years staying at home with my children. I work in the field of hospice (end of life care) as a chaplain and bereavement coordinator. It is a deep privilege to journey with people at the closing of their lives and I am so grateful that people allow me to walk alongside them during that sacred time. To sustain my work/life balance- I sew. My yoga instructor has said, "let your motion be your meditation" and I feel that with sewing- cutting fabric, pinning fabric, feeding it through the machine, ironing it, those are my motions that evolve into meditation. It's restorative to me.   

I am thrilled to be able to share my creations with the readers of Fabric Mart Fabricista blog since I have found that half of the fun of the online sewing community is seeing other's creations and sharing my own. It excites me to see others who share in my sewing geekery- to find others who are equally excited about seeing several people take the same pattern and all achieve a different look, or figuring out a new fitting trick/tip, and perusing fabrics and patterns. I don't have a lot of friends who sew, let alone sew their own clothes, so it's wonderful to get to know others with a similar passion even if they are half a country away.  My friend, Hanni (whom I do indeed live half a country away from), and I originally began our blog I Sew, You Sew in order to share our projects with one another and others. Hanni is soon to have her second child so she is on a bit of a sewing hiatus but I'm sure she'll get the itch to create soon.

My hope is that as I share my projects with you, you will find encouragement to continue your own sewing obsession! If you are like me there are always more sewing ideas (and patterns) crashing around in your head than is humanly possible to complete and I hope that as I work on my projects you will share with me your own. Sharing projects with one another not only inspires, but often elevates my sewing skills since I am always learning something new about this craft from others who are more experienced. This is going to be a fun time!  So let's keep our sewing obsessive minds going, our sewing machines whirring, and our scissors sharp and ready!