My Creative Story

I was born and grew up in Fresno, CA. My grandma lived four houses down the street from us and I would roller skate down the street very often to eat her Reece’s peanut butter cups and dill pickles and enjoy her presence. She was a smoker and loved cheering on her favorite football team (loudly), but she also crocheted.  Eventually she taught me a few crochet stitches and I proudly took it to my 2nd grade class for show and tell. Later on I made my sister a Calico Kitty Cat, just like the pet we had at the time, and stuffed it with pink paper napkins!

Not long after, all the girls at school were making friendship bracelets from embroidery floss. You remember the ones. The kind with multi colors and spiral designs, made thick and thin or thick splitting into multiple thin strands and then joining again in a thick row. It was a GREAT hobby because embroidery floss is so affordable and the colors so lovely and plentiful. There was a Beverly’s, I think, at a nearby shopping center where I could always get my Papa or parents to stop for a few skeins.

Sometime later, I was given an old craft book. I looked through each page and marked the projects I wanted to complete. I made a yard doll, among other projects and used my old crochet skills to make my sister a stuffed calico kitty cat, stuffed with pink napkins. As I got older I began to watch Aileen’s craft show and as soon as I got a job, I ordered one of her books. My mom pulled out her old sewing machine for me and got it serviced and I spent whole summers sewing from sun up to sun down, sometimes not even stopping to eat. I made a quilt, several dresses, a purse made from old jeans and when my mom went to the Parent View weekend at the college I was hoping to attend, she suggested I take a look at the Home Economics Degree.

It was at that point, at 18 years old, that I began formal sewing training. But I’ve never stopped learning, finding a better/quicker/more enjoyable way to sew something and I love that I get the chance now to teach others how to sew. By the time I got to high school, we had moved to a small town and the only sewing shop in town was a Sew & Vac. I visited Debbie there pretty frequently and she was very helpful to me on my sewing journey, but I know that not everyone has a Debbie. Not everyone is in a city with great fabric stores and someone to show them the basics.

Sewing Machine 101

With that in mind, I’ve released my first Online Course, Sewing Machine 101. I run into so many people who tell me they have a machine but don’t know how to use it or it doesn’t work and only gives them headaches. My goal with Sewing Machine 101 is to take the fear out of interacting with your sewing machine, to address some of the things that may be causing those headaches, and instill confidence so you can boldly move toward creating the things you’ve saved on your Pinterest Boards. You can preview the introduction here.

In Sewing Machine 101 we will cover:

• Dials, Buttons & Features – if it’s on your machine, I’ll tell you what it is and what it’s for
• Basic Accessories – those items that came in the box with your machine
• Winding the Bobbin
• Threading the Needle
• Stitch It Out – playing with stitches, the stitch width and stitch length, seeing how it all stitches out
• Class Project – I’ll take you step by step through how to make your own tote bag, any size!
• Cleaning & Maintenance
• Bonus: About Needles
• Bonus: About Thread

There are two ways you can take the Sewing Machine 101 class.  One way is through Skillshare. Skillshare is a subscription based online learning community with thousands of classes in design, business, tech, and more. If you browse the categories, you’ll find classes on animation, fine arts, graphic design, writing, photography, accounting, marketing, web development, crafts & culinary and that’s just a few of them! If you’re a business owner or home schooler or someone who just likes to learn new things, Skillshare might be a great option for you! When you subscribe to Skillshare, you get unlimited access to all their classes for as long as you have a subscription! If you want to check it out, use my link and I will earn a small commission.

If subscriptions aren’t your thing, you can also purchase Sewing Machine 101 as a stand-alone class class right here on my website. I’ve installed a new learning format on my site very similar to the skillshare format. You can skip around, go in order, revisit what you’d like, and it will keep your spot for when you log in next time.

I’d love your help to spread the word! Just use the share buttons at the bottom of this post. And if you have any class ideas you’d like to see as video classes in the future, be sure to leave a comment!