martha

Today Martha Stewart, a huge inspiration of mine, released her new book, Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts. I was very excited when I first heard about this book coming out since I have her book Encycolpedia of Crafts which came out last year and just love it!

Unfortunately Martha sets us all up for failure cause she comes off as if she is coming up with all her ideas and pulling it off all alone with such ease when in actuality she has a staff of thousands. I grew up with a creative mother and gradmother and they are even more of an inspiration since they pull off their work all alone! I feel I was destined to follow in their footsteps. Growing up my mom used to let us pick out a pattern for our Halloween costume and then she would sew it for us. She also needlepointed my Christmas stocking and sewed a beautiful lace flower girl dress for my sister and I. I didn't realize until later in life that this was not a normal occurance for other children and that I was very lucky!

I got the bug for sewing when I was 7 years old in the 2nd grade. My teacher that year was very creative and among the many projects we did throughout the year, she taught us how to cross stitch. Over the next few years I got more into art and crafts, taking classes in art and during summer school would always sign up for the craft and sewing classes. At some point my mom also taught me how to hand stitch. I started off making pillows for my dolls, bedding for my Barbies, and little bags that couldn't hold much because the stitching was so big. Sometime around 10, 11, or 12 I begged her to show me how to use her sewing machine, she obliged and taught me the basic straight stitch.  She would get very annoyed when I would sew because everytime the thread got stuck (which happened frequently, ok very frequently) I would call out for her to help me fix it, and this usually happened while she was getting dinner ready. In highschool I needed an extra class for the credits so I took Home Ec. It was an absolute joke and I got an A+ with no effort needed. I made my first pair of wearable pants in this class too!  Around this time I asked for a sewing machine of my own which I got for my birthday or Christmas one year. Since then I have started experimenting on my own and rarely use patterns for my creations. You can find some of my creations below in past posts.

Stay tuned to see which of the 150 projects from the book I attempt to make! I cannot wait!