Why do you sew? And answer honestly. Do you sew to feel more confident about your natural shape? Do you sew clothes that replicate those that are otherwise beyond your budget? Is it for sustainability, or to leave a legacy, or a need to create? Or is it for your mental health, physical health, both…
Whatever your reasoning, you’re sewing to solve a problem. You’re Making a Difference.
I started to sew by following a natural curiosity, to create and to sew a wardrobe I couldn’t afford and felt was more sustainable than high street fashion. Over time my need to create has ebbed and flowed and my reasons for sewing have changed.
But right now, it feels really hard to dig deep and enjoy sewing when outside of my front door it feels a bit like the world is falling apart. Actually, it’s especially at these times that we need to dig deeper and find the good that gets hidden beneath the detritus, and I promise it really is there.
I’ve had an unplanned hiatus from social media - I had planned a break from the shop, Fleur et Ours, but not from Social Media, but the quiet was so luxury, I couldn’t resist staying off for a while. What I discovered was when I hopped back on something really jumped out at me - a lot of posts are complaining about something, so I’ve made it my objective this year to cut out the noise of that and just deliver good stuff. Why not? Yes, there is a lot of rubbish (and I say that in order to be PC) going on at the moment, but I choose to be the good energy in the world, because we do have a choice. Maybe being offline has melted my brain a bit, but I feel like we do have a choice, to be the light or the dark energy in the world. We don’t have to be ignorant to the plight, it isn’t about closing your eyes in the dark to dream of being elsewhere, it is about being the candle, shining a little bit of light.
How does all that garble link back to sewing? Well in my spicey mind it is absolutely related, but to translate: I create to create beauty, to play, to challenge my mind, to show love to friends and family, to help strangers, to show love to myself. This is how I am Making a Difference, and we can share this light in multiple aspects of our lives:
- My clothes are made for me, my shape, my taste, and I feel like a cloud of fantastic in them, when I wear them I smile, my mood is better and they’re bright. Did you ever hear that smiles are contagious? Wear a fun dress out just for the hell of “it’s this or I’m naked”, and get asked in a Morrisons car park where you got your dress from. The fun is shared. The happiness is shared.
- Controversial opinion: Buying and hoarding fabric may NOT be more sustainable than High street fashion – I can’t quote statistics, because I’m not sure there is a single source we can really rely on. But I can confirm as a fact that buying fabric from small businesses rather than buying ready-to-wear high-street fashion brands is still better because you are supporting a small business, not a corporation; small businesses support other small businesses and taxes are paid locally. You’re also in control of how much fabric is used to make your garments, all depending on the pattern you use, but it is likely much less wastage than garment factories, as we all play pattern tetris!
- We are the most supportive, loving, warm community on the planet. Naturally made up of kind, loving, warm people, we have so many initiatives, fundraisers and awareness campaigns going on throughout the year - WE ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE just by supporting one another’s needs to make a difference too
- We make for our friends and families - it may take five years in some cases *coughs, I speak from experience, cough*. Making for others is like a physical manifestation of love: you chose to spend your time on making something for someone else, and they get to be reminded of you everytime you wear it, pretty awesome.
Hopefully you get the idea.
So this year I will be hosting some charity sew-a-longs at our Fleur et Ours Sewcials, and also a “fabric swap”. I’ll also be doing my best to keep a new Podcast going called “Making a Difference” highlighting some of the things that have shone a light in the darkness each month.
At some point over Christmas it dawned on me that I don’t have to move mountains to make a difference, I can move one pebble at a time and eventually I will have a massive pile of pebbles, and maybe, just maybe I may inspire others to do the same. Together, we might move a mountain.