the start

I have been making things for my daughter Adeline to wear off and on for a year now (she just turned two in May). I started last summer with a simple pillowcase-type dress after dusting off the sewing machine my Grandmother gave me five years or more ago. 

I have never had a sewing lesson. In fact I have never even sat down with anyone and been shown anything about a sewing machine. Basically I just decided I wanted to sew and pulled out the manual and taught myself. As I was learning, I also found some great online tutorials that helped me figure out some of the important steps to making clothes. It has been amazing how fast the learning curve has been for me once I jumped in and got started. 

The process of sewing a dress, for instance, is much like making a model in architecture. With each model you make, your craft gets better and better. You start to learn where you can take shortcuts and when and where it is best to give extra time and attention. 

I am clearly not a professional seamstress. In fact, I am actually a licensed architect. Some of my favorite projects so far in my career are those where I was able to work with the original architecture to renovate it into something new and hopefully better- functionally and aesthetically.  From this, it just makes sense that the sewing projects I was beginning to enjoy the most were those where I would use an existing article of clothing and repurpose it into something new for Adeline. My first repurposed project was a cardigan that was ill-fitting on me, but had nice colors and good buttons. 

I was so very, very proud of this jumper for many reasons. One, it fit her! Two, the seams and stitches were nice and straight! Three, I recycled something instead of buying something new! And four, it made Adeline super soft when I hugged her! All good things. This was when the bug really bit and I started scouring the internet for inspiration on what I should make next. 


Unfortunately, I found so many ideas that I was nearly paralyzed. Instead of actually making anything, I would spend hours looking at what other people had made. I stock-piled clothes that would have gone to Goodwill with the promise that I would turn each piece into something new for Adeline to wear. Collecting and looking, but not making. This is the key. You have to MAKE. I tell my students this all the time. It's not enough to think about your idea; you have to MAKE IT. Draw it. Model it. Make it. Stop talking and make something. 

So I did. I took one of my husband's old dress shirts and made it into a dress. This design inspired what is now Little Grey Line.