Grandma Betty was of a generation that was taught how to sew, just for, like, life-ing. When Grandma Betty was just Betty, she wore perfectly coordinated outfits, all day long, every single fucking day. Coordinated, as in, matching dress, hat, purse, gloves, jewelry, and shoes. Like, she only used this one purse when she wore this one outfit, etc. She was also absolutely horrified whenever a feminine-hygiene commercial aired on television. Ladybug bless her.
Anyway, Grandma Betty taught me how to hand-sew a lot of things, and she taught me how to embroider, crochet and knit. I think that my Aunt Nina taught me how to cross-stitch, but i think Grandma Betty also went over it with me, but it's so straightforward, i don't remember spending any time with her cross-stitching, etc. I really took to crochet and sewing (the two activities in which I still partake), and I sewed a lot of things when I was a growing person. I made a lot of things in general. Grandma Betty was the woman who taught my mind how to see in three-dimensions.
In seventh grade, my friend [name redacted] and I had a dream to build a fashion house (I would be the fashion designer) along with a cosmetics line (she would be the artistic director) called FLY Fashion and RYAN Cosmetics, lol. We had a logo and everything.
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| Little Tiffany w/ Grandma Betty |
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| on the left are my "T-Bags" [i know, i was a sheltered child] on the right i volunteered to sew up some costumes for my amazing dance teacher Jeni (who sewed up all the other costumes, by herself) i think i made three sets (vest/pant) in each color &it was the first time i made something off a store-bought paper pattern |
My very first job was a job that my mom got for me through a friend of a friend of a friend who was an alterationist [this word has come up as "misspelled" my entire life, but this is what she called herself]. I was fifteen. Over the summer between freshman and sophomore year I had my driver's permit, and I vividly remember "driving myself" to this lady's house, and then my mom would go do whatever and then pick me up after four or five hours depending on the day. The lady paid me $10/hr., and I think I worked one maybe two days a week. The job taught me how to alter clothes to fit people better or to alter them to change them in a way to make something old new again. I loved that job. I ruined a client's pair of pants at that job. The lady was nice but not friendly, but I guess, looking back, I can say that she was patient with me.
In short, I learned a lot.
I learned so much, in fact, that I ended up hemming a lot of church ladies' pants over the course of the next year or two, charging $5 a pair, lol. Seriously, I charged $5/pair to hem up pants, and I hemmed up a lot of pants. I was so thrilled the day I printed off an invoice for $20! Four whole pairs! Twenty whole dollars! All mine! I also made a lot of "handbags" (this was before tiny totes were as prolific as they are now), but I never tried to sell them, because I didn't think that the quality was high enough to even try, and so, I just wore them around myself and was happy (there are pics of the other bags, but ima be lazy).
And all of this was happening on an antique, full-metal Singer sewing machine (that tangled like a mother-fucker), until about, maybe tenth grade, when my adopted mom upgraded me to a modern Brother sewing machine, and I used that machine until I moved to Daegu, South Korea with it, only to find out that my american plug was ill-suited to foreign-style electricity, and the thing blew up, sorta.
Before the first-modern Brother died its death in Daegu, it sewed a lot of the first clothes that I made myself in Denver during the years after college before Korea. My first job out of college was another alterationist/sewing job, lol. And this is the job that would change my life forever after being hit over the head with a steel pole, etc., etc., etc. After I recovered from my 90% disability declaration, the bodybuddy/lifemate and I, obviously, mulled my jobbing options, and it was during this time that my dream of designing wearable things cropped up again. I took on whatever part-time/temp jobs I could, and the bodybuddy/lifemate bought me my very first mannequin, and I made myself a little summer wardrobe.
And then we moved to Korea.
And I guess this is the one long stretch of time in my life when I did not have a sewing machine, and, you guessed it, I did not do much sewing.
And then we moved back Stateside.
And my adopted mom and her sister gave me their youngest sister's sewing machine, because after she died, they saved her machine for me, because they knew that I would use it. I immediately fixed up some of the clothes that I had been wanting to make changes on, and I sewed up a bunch of masks when Covid rolled in. I didn't really end up sewing much in the way of clothing with my Aunt's machine, but I sewed some other things, and when we moved here, I donated my Aunt's machine to a local art shop in Longmont, along with a long note explaining the machine and how my Aunt would just want the machine to be used, and so, if nobody there wants to use it please, please contact me, and I will send for it. Nobody has contacted me, yet *cheers*
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| here i am with my Aunt's machine back in Longmont, Colorado [&this pic is on my "in pictures page"] |
And now, here we are, on the precipice of my launch toward my dream.
I know why I put it off. I know all of the logic that I put behind not pursuing such a silly thing, and I'm honestly really grateful that I did put it off. I've learned a lot of things on my journey of beating around the bush, and I know that this will make me a great designer. I've been places. I've seen things. I know stuff.
With regards to the business side of my wearable designs, there's not a lot to share, sorry :( This is not a start-up per se, because our business is structured to pump out anything (and everything) that I might make, as an artist. Does that make sense? But as far as this being a new-type of thing that I am now going to create and what I create will be for sale, my launch as an actual designer of things wearable is not really a launch in the sense that I will not be making clothes for a living.
I will also be making clothes for a living.
Everything I make with my sewing machine will be treated like everything that I make with my words, and my camera, and with paper, etc., etc., etc.
I am simply introducing a new medium.
And so, I do have a plan as far as a timeline, along with goal posts for execution, etc., and they are as follows [this list might get tweaked] ::
- Stretch One - Equipment Basics + Self-Guided/Self-Motivated Training + Tailoring
- Basic table-top quick-sewing machine
- Mannequin
- Iron/Ironing board
- Muslin bolts, white thread and needles
- Make patterns for everything
- Make everything at least twice in muslin
- Stretch Two - Equipment Professional Grade + Fashion Fabrics
- The Machine
- Thread cones in every color
- Fasteners, binders training
- Real fabrics
- Stretch Three - Equipment Salable + Fine Fabrics
- Serger
- Fabric fine enough to sell
We found the basic machine that I want, and priced bolts of muslin and mannequins, and we're vaguely familiar with the price of common household goods, etc., and so, Stretch One can be accomplished with about $300 and lots and lots of Time. Stretch One will (in my estimation) be the longest stretch, and, if all goes to plan, will be about one year long. Everything I know about how to make clothes I've taught myself. I was taught about how clothes were constructed by the lady who first employed me as a seamstress, but she was not a designer. She was more like a mechanic. So, yea, I need to go to fashion-mechanic school, and I am going to put myself through that school.
My plan is to go to the library and find out what I can learn about what I need to know from the books in the library. Then I will make a syllabus of all of the types of things I learn that I need to learn how to sew, and then I will work my way through my syllabus. This, apparently, will all be ephwhyell vol 0.3, yay!
In the meantime, we will pick up the machine we found, soon, along with the other basic startup equipment, and for the first week or so I will fix up all the of the clothes that I want/need to change! I will also open for business as an alterationist. At the moment, it will most-likely be a favor for friends sorta thing, starting with people I've met here, until it becomes a word-of-mouth sorta thing where I can charge other people a real fee, lol.
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| honestly, i did not expect to start with all of this so soon but i am starting to see things in a new way &so it's time to build the funnel into which all of this may pour so that it can become what it will be |
Stretch Two is when I will buy the machine of my dreams, and I will begin to actually make clothes that, ideally, can be worn, lol, and Stretch Three will begin as soon as I'm making clothes at a quality that I will be proud to sell, which means that I will need a serger, at this time, so that I can professionally finish all of the items I make for sale.
*phew*
We did it. We made it through this weird Story/Log.
Until next time \\//.