Getting to Know Me

Everybody has that thing that they do when they don’t have to do or think about anything else. In our family, it’s watching maker videos. We love to watch these well-edited videos about projects that we could see ourselves doing. We have been Jimmy DiResta fans for a long, long time and as he met other makers and collaborated with them or mentioned them we added to our list of makers we liked watching. Then one day Jimmy got a new industrial sewing machine and started experimenting with sewing leather.

I have been sewing forever. My Mom was a great seamstress and I watched her and helped her from the time I was really small. As I got older I ended up being really tall. A lot of stuff in the stores wasn’t long enough for my sensibilities. My Mom offered to buy me fabric and she bought me way more than I would have gotten in pre-made clothes and I was hooked! I started sewing clothes for myself in Junior high and I never looked back. I sewed for my college self, my newly married self, my pregnant self and I sewed a ton for my kids when they were little. As my kids got older and didn’t need (or want!) as many Mom-made clothes, I just kind of puttered. I made things up for my daughter with disabilities. I surfed Pinterest for something fun to try. I just kind of dabbled here and there with this or that. And then I found bag makers. People who were sewing these gorgeous purses and bags.

I don’t remember what my first finished bag was because I got so excited, I did a whole bunch all at once! I surfed the remnant bins at my favorite fabric store and researched stablizer and really had a lot of fun creating. I made bags for family and friends at first. Filling needs they had. When I tried to sell them, I found the market saturated with bag makers and it was really difficult to get a foothold. For me, personally, though they really filled me up inside. They were a challenge and I felt so accomplished when I finished one! I loved figuring out these tricky things and ending up with a beautiful, useful bag. But I couldn’t just keep making bags to fill up my house with.

The first time I saw Jimmy DiResta sew leather I thought, “this is never going to work out!” He was just slicing things and throwing stuff together and just going for it! I am such a pattern person. I would rather Frankenstein two patterns together than just make it up. But the way he just tries it and figures it out as he goes is mesmerizing. And the leather! I was really intrigued at the thought of learning how to work leather. And, of course, in true Jimmy style the cell phone pencil holder that clips to your belt that he was making turned out amazing.

So, I started clicking around and watching different people working with and sew leather. Coming from a sewing machine background, that’s the direction I leaned into rather than hand sewing. Hand sewing is amazing and maybe I’ll get there one day. But I’ve been able to sew whatever you put in front of me so long that that is my wheelhouse. So, I researched and soaked it all in and invested in an industrial sewing machine. The first thing I sewed on the industrial machine wasn’t leather, though. I sewed my daughter a memory quilt out of clothes she wore growing up. I had stabilized everything and my regular machine was struggling a bit. It was a dream to run through the industrial machine. I sewed the blocks together and then quilted it after it was put together. It was a great project to tune into my new co-worker.

Leather is a dream for me to work with. I love the amazing textures. I love that you can finish the edges or not and it all wears in so beautifully. I love making these gorgeous linings that are useful and beautiful without taking away from how incredible the leather is. And, believe it or not, I love winging it! Using the principles I learned while following patterns to sew bags, I have now created my own linings with details that I’ve sewn through before and trying things I’ve seen in other bags that I’ve never sewn before. The possibilities are endless!

There is a huge space in my heart that will always have sewing in it. It’s my “thing.” The thing I’m good at. The thing that I do that almost always turns out well. The thing I feel SO great about finishing. The thing that is so fun to show off what I just accomplished. Sewing leather bags fills up that piece of me and just feels so good.

Thanks for being here. Thanks for going on this journey with me. Thanks for visiting Rusty Daisy!!