With the current atmosphere of female empowerment and the vehement rejection of all things “domestic,” it’s easy to forget just how helpful knowing the basic task of sewing can be. 

When I was younger, I went through a bit of a crafting phase (as preteens often do), despite the fact that I was horrendous at all things artistic. My mom taught me a few, very basic fundamentals of sewing, and my overall experience was largely limited to sloppily crafted clothes for plush and homemade sock monkeys. 

I hadn’t thought (much less practiced) much about sewing since those early days, only mourning the loss of my pitiful skills on the occasional day that I would discover a rip in a favorite shirt or dress. So when I saw the seminar with SA Beverly, I thought it would be fun to revisit that crafty side from my past.

The seminar itself was incredibly helpful, and was able to show me sewing in a modern and very applicable light. It was no longer just a tool to explore my creativity, but with the techniques demonstrated by Beverly herself and taught meticulously by her mother over the platform of a Skype call, sewing became an easily applied tool to revamp articles of clothing I had previously believed destined for the trash. We learned ways to hem, in case pants were too long, to fix holes, create sturdy backwards stitches, and even something known as an invisible stitch if we wanted to keep our mending efforts as subtle as possible. I’ve never been confident enough in my crafting capabilities to apply my skills to actual clothes that I wear, but after this seminar I feel much more empowered with the ability to handle fabric-based issues all on my own.