Hi, I'm Emily. Sewing has been in my family for as long as anyone can remember. My great-grandma was a dressmaker. Both of my grandmas sewed too (my grandma aka "Gamma" still quilts to this day; my grandma on my mom's side aka "Nanni"). My mom went to fashion school, sewed over a dozen wedding dresses, and made countless other things over the years.
Gamma's sewing saga, in her own words
Gamma at her sewing machine, and holding some of the dresses she's made over the years.
A little dress Gamma made me when I was young.
I asked Gamma to write down her own sewing story for this page. Here's what she sent me.
My sewing roots are deep. I was a little girl during World War II and liked having pretty new dresses. Nice fabrics were hard to obtain and certainly a store-bought dress was out of the question for my family. Thus, my mother sewed some lovely creations for me from pretty farm feed sacks! Not uncommon in those days!
Her creativity sparked mine into making some of my own clothes and sewing some for my 3 sons. However, later, making girls' dresses allowed more creativity as I discovered when I made dresses for granddaughters. This segwayed into a little cottage business of creating dresses to sell, sometimes with matching doll dresses.
Eventually though my sewing passion turned to quilts, which enabled me to create memory quilts from scraps of fabric from my past. Currently I am making tied lap quilts for veterans who are patients at the local VA Hospital. This is done through my membership in DAR and is the culmination of many charity quilts I have done over the years for various groups.
My two grandmothers and a great aunt were quilters, probably the basis of my passion. I prefer not to follow a pattern, but to put pieces together like in a puzzle to create an attractive quilt.
— Gamma
More about my mom
My mom learned to sew in 7th grade in her Home Ec class. Her first project was a green frog pillow, then a drawstring skirt, and that's when she got the bug. She was an exchange student in Belgium and took pattern drafting and design classes while she was there. She's gone on to design and make a ton of wedding and bridesmaid dresses over the years, and started quilting at some point too.
And then there's Nanni. Nanni was always sewing. She made puppets, and when my mom got to high school, Nanni started reading Vogue magazines and thought runway clothes were "street clothes." She'd make my mom wild and crazy "runway outfits" because she knew my mom would wear whatever she made. My mom was her muse. The favorite was a long teal green dress with a puffy hot pink jacket. I would love to see that one. And going back even further, my mom's nana (my great-grandma) used to hand sew doll dresses.
And this is Nanni.
My mom in an outfit Nanni made her, and in a retro romper she sewed for herself. Looks like wearing your own makes runs in the family.
And here I am in high school, playing dress up in my mom's old prom dress that Nanni made her.
Growing up, my mom made all kinds of things for us. Matching pajamas, Halloween costumes, cute little dresses, you name it. I was really fortunate to grow up with someone who had that kind of expertise.
My first communion dress, made by my mom. She's the person I call when I get stuck.
It was always around, but it didn't click
With all of that around me growing up, you'd think I'd have picked it up earlier. I even took a sewing class at Joann's as a kid and made a pair of pajama pants, and my mom helped me sew my first tote bag. But for whatever reason, the actual sewing didn't really click for me back then.
Exhibit A: my 2nd grade school project. I had a vision.
That said, the interest in fashion was very clearly there. Every online account I made as a kid had some version of "Fashion Diva" or "In Style Diva" in it, and I watched a ton of Project Runway growing up. Embarrassing now, sure, but it was definitely part of the path.
Then right before COVID, something shifted
I felt this pull to actually pick it up, kind of like it was calling me. I didn't act on it right away though. Then COVID hit and the world shut down, and that's when I finally went out and bought a sewing machine.
The first time I used it was at Gamma's house. We made a pillowcase together.
At Gamma's, working on that first pillowcase.
I spent a lot of those quiet hours learning everything I could from YouTube. There are so many sewing tutorials out there, and I just worked my way through them, one at a time. Whenever I got stuck on something, I'd call my mom. Being able to ask her questions while I was figuring things out made the whole process feel a lot less lonely.
I was also pretty ballsy about what I tried right off the bat. I'd see something I liked and just go for it, even if it was way above my skill level. My first bucket hat is a good example.
My first bucket hat. Did not go well.
A bag and a mask, two of my early COVID makes. Everyone was sewing masks back then.
That time at home ended up giving me something I'll have forever. I've always loved making things with my hands, and sewing turned out to be the craft that stuck. There's really nothing like starting with a piece of fabric and ending up with something you can actually wear.
What I'm doing now
These days I sew most of my own clothes, sell smaller things on my Etsy shop, and post a lot of what I'm working on over on Instagram and TikTok. The blog is the most recent piece. I wanted somewhere to write things down a little more, and somewhere to share patterns I love and projects that took me longer than expected.
Honestly, I'm a producer at heart. I love taking chaos and turning it into something structured and organized and wearable. It's wearable art. I love playing with textiles and turning them into something beautiful.
If you're new here, thanks for clicking in. I'm really glad you're here.