About

I started sewing in 1998 after a chance encounter with a vintage sewing pattern during a routine thrift store run with my grandma. Deep in the throws of teenage chaos & a broken heart I found that pattern to be the perfect vessel to pour all of my emotions into. 

I had harshly rejected the skill of sewing in Home Ec class seven years prior. But this... this was different. Sewing wasn't just something that I was expected to do because of my gender. Ohh no no.. In reality it actually made me a fashion wizard. I could literally CREATE the dresses that I'd spent most of the 90's scouring every Goodwill & Salvation Army for. It was truly a revelation. 

Growing up watching my ultra fashionista, single working mom sew herself (and myself) many fabulous things you'd think I would've already realized this. Alas, I was too blinded by the memories of rage I felt on holidays when all the men would sit on their butts, stuffing their faces, while all of the women in my family slaved over the meal & cleanup. There was no way I was going to partake in a stereotypical lady skill. 

But unlike the firm stance I took to never wear a scrunchie or Skechers or to lose my lisp, I completely caved to Simplicity 7852. 

My mom had remarried a few years prior & was able to get a brand new sewing machine in 1998. She was also able to stay home with my brand new baby brother which meant she would also be around to teach me her sewing ways. "Make practice washcloths or pillowcases" she would say. "Nooooooahhh" I would dramatically whine. I wanted to make that dress more than anything & make that dress I would. View 3 in Joann's red quilting cotton with tiny white polka dots and a white Peter Pan collar; dainty little white plastic star buttons on the front faux placket to top it all off. It was a total case of If You Want Something Badly Enough. My mom couldn't believe how well it turned out. I couldn't believe I was on the precipice of creating every life costume that I could ever dream up. 

In 2004 I started My Best Sunday Dress to sell the dresses that I made. My life was pretty much a mess but I would always make a new cute outfit to go out drinking in & people kept asking me to make them things. I was a really good advert for myself before the blackouts & repressed anger kicked in. I had fun seeing people in things that I made, but wow was it stressful on a sensitive little perfectionist like my 26 year old self. 

I continued on & off with custom dresses over the years, never quite committing one way or another. Bulk sewing was not something that I had any interest in & I would get overwhelmed and start hating the act of my beloved sewing. I am truly the slowest of slow fashion. If lots of people started ordering the same thing, I refused to make it anymore. My dresses were/are like paintings or stories to me, not a mass production fashion line. 

Today I have big dreams of my own sewing pattern/fabric/notions line, a podcast, and books. I've also been sober since 2006 & am now married to the guy that broke my heart at the beginning of this story. 

I'm here to create a place for all my fellow artsy outsiders that also run on the sensitive, emotional & moody side. The ones that have a flair for the fashion dramatics and find it easier to make a statement without saying a word. The ones who all the weird kids in school found a little odd.

Sewing has come a long way from when I started in 1998 when it was just 19 year old trash goth me & a bunch of sewing lifers in handmade bespangled fleece vests, but I still don't feel represented in it. Which means a lot of others probably feel the same way.

 

So put on your Best Sunday Dress & let's waltz into this mess.