When I was about 10 or 11, I was drooling over the clothing coming out of London. Here I was stuck in VERY rural Pennsylvania, with few TV stations that we could get with our antenna, some radio stations, and.....a SEARS catalog, lol. And so I went to school wearing what I'd made copying the Sears catalog styles. I remember they did a wonderful winter catalog in 1966 or 1967, and featured clothing based on all the top London designers (remember Mary Quant?)and the pictures were (supposedly) taken in London. There were beautiful turtlenecks, hip hugging bell bottoms, leather, frilly shirts, lace, and boots...lots and lots of boots. And every time my mother and I would go to a fabric store, I would beg her for fabric I thought could replicate those styles. Including the men's tie, with a white shirt...worn with knickers no less. And yes, the other kids at school called me strange...and weird. But I loved the clothing. So nothing could deter me from making more of it.
Then I hit my twenties. Western Pennsylvania was never a booming area to begin with but by the time I got out of college, the jobs were few and far between. So I picked up and moved to New Jersey...and pretty much stopped sewing. Working in the Metro NY/NJ area gave me lots of opportunity to buy new styles from stores..and I got lazy.
I've tried everything I ever wanted to try in my life and I'm not lazy any more, and am really enjoying putting stylish clothing together for myself. And of course, let us not forget that my phone usually rings when someone has either screwed something up while sewing OR they can't quite get the fabrics right for something they want to make with a "WOW" factor. I will take on outside jobs, and right now, they're mainly design jobs.
Right now, I've got some more animal print, and some really great moleskin in a milk chocolate color, and am trying to decide what to do with it. While moleskin is usually something I would grab for suits...there isn't a suit in my future right now, so something a little more casual is in the works.
Oh, and before I forget, I'm starting back to school for IT. Will be headed there next month, in fact. :-)
