Note: This is a repeat of an earlier post that didn’t go out in its entirety. (There’s an additional paragraph at the end.) This is our final test. Thanks for your patience.
Welcome, new friends! As I introduce my enterprise, Mo Sews Memories, I’d like to share my background in sewing and my love for creating treasured heirlooms.
As a young girl, I watched the women in my family create beautiful masterpieces to wear and to decorate their homes. I was fascinated by their process. It was understood that if something could be made by hand, these ladies wouldn’t hesitate to attempt the project. Most of the time, they didn’t purchase a commercial pattern —a cereal-box, cut to shape, and their own imaginations were the only things needed to duplicate just about anything they saw. Thus began my love for creating beautiful things with fabric and thread.
My aunt taught me to sew. She sat me down at an, even then antique, Singer sewing machine in the store-room of her feed store & hatchery. She handed me a spool of thread, a pair of scissors, a measuring tape, and a seam ripper. Then she showed me how to insert the bobbin and needle, thread the machine, and how to rip out mistakes without destroying the work. She patiently instructed me on the mechanics of sewing.
My first project was a 12×18 inch placemat made from cotton calico sackcloth—purple, orange, and yellow flowers on a white background. This fabric had literally been used, many years before, as a feed sack that, when empty, was laundered and stored away. I measured and cut a rectangle, making sure the fabric grain was straight. Then I carefully sewed a straight seam, 1/2 inch from the edge all the way around. I unraveled the warp and weft (crossing) threads from all four sides to form a pretty edge. To those of you who know the mechanics, this project might not seem complicated or even worthwhile, but to 10-year-old me, it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen! I could finally join the ranks of those special ladies and create my own masterpieces.
Today, as Momma to five and Nana to sixteen (including 2 great-granddaughters) I’ve had many years’ experience and many opportunities to sew for my own family. I’ve created clothing pieces and numerous keepsakes to pass down to my future generations.
Please consider this your personal invitation to benefit from my talent and expertise for your own family. Tell me your ideas about how I can use your cherished items to create heirlooms for you. Click on the Your Ideas tab to contact me.
Also, subscribe to my blog. In it, I’ll go into specifics about the heirlooms I’ve crafted, including the back stories of some of the ones pictured on my website, http://MoSewsMemories.com/. Maybe that will kick-start your imagination.
Oh, and by the way… this blogging stuff is completely new to me. If you like what you see, please pass this information along to your friends via Twitter, Face Book, Linked In, and any other accounts you have. I look forward to hearing from you—Over the Back Fence!
Mona