It's been more than thirty years since I got my first sewing machine and though machines have changed drastically over the years, my love of sewing will never change.
These days, I have a completely modern sewing room in my home complete with an electronic machine for embroidery and a computer for designing.
UPDATE: I have my own store again, Yay!
It's locate at 52 Conception Bay Highway in Holyrood here in Newfoundland, about 20 minutes outside of St. John's.
It's primarily a tailor shop. I had intended for it to be a tailor/craft shop but have decided that it's going to be a tailor shop with a boutique for my own fashion creations.
I have an industrial 191D that can handle any type of fabric and I've sewn to the moon and back on this sewing machine .
It's been my trusty ole workhorse for more than 20 years and tho he's showing signs of wear and tear, he's not going anywhere!
It has, however, recently been fitted with a new Sew Quiet 5000 motor. This is a far cry from how my sewing career began.
I started sewing as a child, as many girls did, making clothes for dolls and then eventually myself.
My mother Jean had one of those old hand-crank Singer table top machines and one day while she was trying to sew curtains, she got up to answer the phone (no such thing as cell phones then) and when she returned, to her dismay, I was sat at her machine, merrily sewing away, lol
Duly chastising me, until she saw that what I had sewn was straighter than what she had sewn, she took me immediately to the Simpson Sear's Store in downtown St. John's and bought me the best sewing machine they had, lol
This is the ACTUAL sewing machine my mother bought me, I still have it (out on loan).
My father thought she'd taken leave of her senses, buying a top-of-the-line machine for a girl still in junior high school, but it proved a wise investment.
My mother was always so very proud of my sewing and always appreciated the clothing and projects I sewed for her.
I think of her every time I use that sewing machine.
My mom, Jean, at home.
I learned to make my own clothing on this sewing machine and I used it for gathering miles of taffeta and satin for grad dresses when I began my first design studio downtown. In fact, I feel like I have sewn to the moon and back on this sewing machine, lol
By the time I was in my early teens, I was making most of my own clothing. A good thing, considering I was by then 5'10" and it was impossible to buy clothes long enough in my age bracket.
All through high school and into trades school, I continued to develop my own style, sewing every stitch myself. I've been sewing for the public since the early 1980's and always yearned to learn more about the Fashion Industry which did not and still does not exist here in Newfoundland, not like it does in larger urban cities.
More than once in secretarial school, I was mistaken for an instructor as I owned more suits (I've always loved a tailored suit) than any young woman needed, lol
Paired with softer more feminine fabrics such as satin, silk or lace, it was a preview of my career in formal fashion that was yet to come.
After working in the secretarial world for less than two years, during which I continued to sew for a select clientele I was bored to tears with office work and I applied to Fashion Design school. Once I started to get requests for custom-designed wedding and prom dresses, I wanted to learn the Fashion Design trade.
Absolutely devouring my course of studies at PEI's Holland College in beautiful Summerside, I graduated with honours from a two-year course in merely five months. My instructor and good friend Aggie-Rose helped make my time at Holland College truly the most enjoyable period of my life.
Returning to St. John's, Newfoundland in 1986, I began designing graduation and wedding dresses from my apartment in my parent's home.
The hours were long and I wasn't always absolutely sure what I was doing, but I loved it and it help strengthen my design and pattern making skills, laying the foundation for the next phase of my fashion design career.
I opened my first design studio Oldford Originals (with the help of a dear uncle) in downtown St. John's and after several years, founded my own full-service bridal salon named The Victorian Bridal which eventually carried my own full line of women's formal wear, samples of which are on another page on this blog.
I've worked in the textile industry for more than twenty years, most of that time self-employed. I've sewed for people from all walks of life. Grads who could barely scrape together the cost of a high school gown and wives of Lieutenant Governors of Newfoundland and Labrador.
As challenging and fulfilling as custom-design was, it wasn't until I started designing for larger sizes that I felt I truly found my own unique design niche. I refer to those of us who don't fit into single digits as 'the forgotten segment of the fashion industry'. We are, in fact, the majority yet fashion seems obsessed with thinness, often to the detriment of one's health.
Many times, a bride or bridesmaid who not only could not be fitted at other stores, but was treated unnecessarily discourteously because of size, found what they needed at my store and it only served to further my determination to design with a good and thankful heart.
But these are all clientele of my work of the past.
Now, I begin to build a new clientele for the work that I want to accomplish in this part of my life, after much personal and professional upset and adjustment.
This part of my blog, is more to keep a record of my leisure textile projects, which might and might not become the next phase of my fashion career.
I will be glad to hear from others with similar interests such as:
- Sewing of all types
- Knitting by both hand and machine
- Needlework of all types
- Watercolour Painting
- Miniature Woodworking
or even those who don't work with their hands but appreciate fine craftsmanship.
I enjoy quilting, embellishing fabrics with beads and decorative threads and making one-of-a-kind bears (still self-learning this craft) from synthetic and real fur which I reclaim from vintage coats.
May 24th, 2013
While I'm job searching, I quilt and sew teddy bears to help keep myself relatively sane, lol
With each quilt and bear I make, I learn something new. A few hundred more, and I might even know what I'm doing.
Here, my teddy bears are helping to sort my quilting fabrics:
I did say 'relatively sane', lol
Actually, my sense of humour is one of the qualities from which I draw strength.
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PLEASE NOTE: Any and all commercial and/or political endorsements and/or links will be IMMEDIATELY removed upon detection and reported to the appropriate authorities.
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This is MY personal blog, sewing projects and career, property of Linda J. Clarke only, it is not for anyone's personal or professional use. (PS: I don't employ a cook or anyone to 'bake cookies', never have and I never will, especially not for books, no matter what BS Google plants on my page or anywhere else.)
