I read this article online at Yahoo on Friday where The Mattel Company made Barbies of celebrities to honor them for National Shero Day, which just happens to be today.
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The article made me ponder on who my Sewing Sheros are...because of course all roads lead back to sewing for me! *LOL* I broke it down to two categories...personal and professional because I'm not easy...no really because I have more than one sewing shero and I want to honor them all!
First and foremost the Sewing Shero who changed my sewing the most would be ~ Colleen Jones.
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I'm sure she doesn't even realize what an important part she played in my sewing life. I've written about her influence in my life before but let me briefly highlight the reasons why here again:
1. She encouraged me to sew better
2. Gave me my first Adele Margolis book
3. Turned me onto Mary Brooks Pickens
4. Made me realize that collecting fabric was a good thing!
5. Was generous to me when I was struggling financially
6. Turned me onto Kenneth King
7. Taught me so much about sewing with a smile and a funny story
If there is any one person to whom I owe my sewing to today, it would be Colleen ~ one of the kindest, gentlest women I know...whom my daughters as grown women adore and speak so lovingly of...you made such an impact on my life when things were falling apart in my personal life and you encouraged me to sew through it all! If I can encourage another to sew and stay true to the course of life when the storms gather, I still won't give out as much as you put into my life! You are truly my sewing shero!
Professional Sewing Teacher Sheros ~
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There are two sewing celebrities (true sewing celebrities!) that also affected my sewing. They don't know me from Adam but they deserve a nod ~ a very big nod ~ Nancy Zieman and Sandra Betzina. Both had sewing shows on TV (PBS and HGTV respectively) and for the 30 minutes each show lasted, I was engrossed, soaking up every piece of knowledge that I could.
See I've been sewing since I was 11 years old. I started when there wasn't an internet or computers, computerized sewing machines, rotary cutters, fusible interfacing and most fabric widths were 45" wide. You learned to sew from your mother or grandmother or at school in Home Ec. Almost every home had a sewing machine in it and you sewed to save money because clothing wasn't made overseas for slave wages, couldn't be purchased in WalMarts for $10 or less and most importantly the manufacture of fabric and clothing was a thriving business in the United States.
So to see women who taught sewing on television was a very big deal to me because it made sewing and learning about sewing accessible again. Now both of these awesome women contributed considerably to help me sew better. To not just sew in a bubble which was so easy to do pre-internet days.
These days, sewists can learn to sew by googling anything sewing related, or following sewists on a blog, sewing board and/or speak to them via social media. It's a very different experience than when I and my fellow contemporaries learned to sew. However, it's awesome to see and experience how sewing is going forth into the future.
So tell me...do you have any sewing sheros? Professional Teachers, Certified Sewing Celebrities, Social Media Sewing Sheros? Which woman has spoken so profoundly into your life that she has changed the course of your sewing? Share in the comments here or on your own blog! Tweet it, Facebook it, Pin it but let's honor our Sewing Sheros today on National Shero Day!
...as always more later!
The article made me ponder on who my Sewing Sheros are...because of course all roads lead back to sewing for me! *LOL* I broke it down to two categories...personal and professional because I'm not easy...no really because I have more than one sewing shero and I want to honor them all!
First and foremost the Sewing Shero who changed my sewing the most would be ~ Colleen Jones.
I'm sure she doesn't even realize what an important part she played in my sewing life. I've written about her influence in my life before but let me briefly highlight the reasons why here again:
1. She encouraged me to sew better
2. Gave me my first Adele Margolis book
3. Turned me onto Mary Brooks Pickens
4. Made me realize that collecting fabric was a good thing!
5. Was generous to me when I was struggling financially
6. Turned me onto Kenneth King
7. Taught me so much about sewing with a smile and a funny story
If there is any one person to whom I owe my sewing to today, it would be Colleen ~ one of the kindest, gentlest women I know...whom my daughters as grown women adore and speak so lovingly of...you made such an impact on my life when things were falling apart in my personal life and you encouraged me to sew through it all! If I can encourage another to sew and stay true to the course of life when the storms gather, I still won't give out as much as you put into my life! You are truly my sewing shero!
Professional Sewing Teacher Sheros ~
There are two sewing celebrities (true sewing celebrities!) that also affected my sewing. They don't know me from Adam but they deserve a nod ~ a very big nod ~ Nancy Zieman and Sandra Betzina. Both had sewing shows on TV (PBS and HGTV respectively) and for the 30 minutes each show lasted, I was engrossed, soaking up every piece of knowledge that I could.
See I've been sewing since I was 11 years old. I started when there wasn't an internet or computers, computerized sewing machines, rotary cutters, fusible interfacing and most fabric widths were 45" wide. You learned to sew from your mother or grandmother or at school in Home Ec. Almost every home had a sewing machine in it and you sewed to save money because clothing wasn't made overseas for slave wages, couldn't be purchased in WalMarts for $10 or less and most importantly the manufacture of fabric and clothing was a thriving business in the United States.
So to see women who taught sewing on television was a very big deal to me because it made sewing and learning about sewing accessible again. Now both of these awesome women contributed considerably to help me sew better. To not just sew in a bubble which was so easy to do pre-internet days.
These days, sewists can learn to sew by googling anything sewing related, or following sewists on a blog, sewing board and/or speak to them via social media. It's a very different experience than when I and my fellow contemporaries learned to sew. However, it's awesome to see and experience how sewing is going forth into the future.
So tell me...do you have any sewing sheros? Professional Teachers, Certified Sewing Celebrities, Social Media Sewing Sheros? Which woman has spoken so profoundly into your life that she has changed the course of your sewing? Share in the comments here or on your own blog! Tweet it, Facebook it, Pin it but let's honor our Sewing Sheros today on National Shero Day!
...as always more later!