Madalynne

I started sewing at a later age than most – eighteen. It was my freshman year of college and I was attending a university that was close to home. My mom died my senior year of high school and some of her stuff was still stored in a linen closet, which I was poking through one day during Christmas break. That’s when I discovered her old sewing machine – a big, old hunk of metal. I was surprised when I came across it because I don’t have memories of my mom sewing. But I had time to spare and jeans to hem.

I brought the sewing machine to the tailor I had been going to since I was young. Her name is Mishka and she is the most insane, crazy, loving, whole-hearted, experienced, and worldly woman I know. She can go from laughter to tears to screaming in a matter of seconds. No joke. When I dropped my sewing machine on her industrial machine and said, “I want to learn how to sew,” she said, “really,” and then, “let’s get started.” For the next two years, I was her apprentice/mentee. She taught me everything and I still talk to her almost one a week.

Yes, and it was poofy and peach and it had a big bow on it.

Go big or go home, that’s always been my motto. When I graduated from hemming jeans to making an actual garment, I didn’t start with an apron or a pencil skirt, I made a fully lined strapless dress with a bubble hem. The shell (or self) was moire taffeta and the lining was silk chiffon. Surprisingly, the dress came together wonderfully and when I finished, my dad took me to dinner at my favorite restaurant. I didn’t wear the dress, I was too shy, but we celebrated with a father-daughter date.

My favorite people in the sewing world are ordinary. I italicize the word ordinary because in my world, the ordinary people are extraordinary. I love Marci not only for her social skills (that girl knows everybody!) but her warmness and her mastery of unique and colorfully crafted sentences. I admire Lauren for ‘keeping it real’ and using curse words and lots of parentheses. I absolutely adore Anto and the weekly emails we send each other. And Sallie… she’s just amazing. She rocks!

Because I live in a big city, space is limited. I lucked out when I moved into my current apartment because for the price, it’s very spacious. You can consider my apartment a one bedroom, one bathroom, and one sewing studio because I transformed my living room into a place where I can sew, cut, and pattern make. I wouldn’t have room to host a dinner party but if I wanted to have friends over to craft, I’d be more than equipped!

I’m one of the few seamstresses who controls her stash – I don’t own more fabric than I need. In most areas of my life, I’m practical, frugal, and realistic (or at least I try to be). I keep a few basic fabrics on hand for muslins but for the most part, I buy fabric on a project by project basis. The only exception is when I go to New York City. When I’m there, I stock up on fabrics but even then, I only buy for a couple of projects ahead.

What is playing in the background while I sew, whether it is music, a podcast, or a movie, depends. Just like the seasons, I go through trends. Sometimes I’ll watch reruns of Friends, The Honeymooners, or Sex and The City and sometimes I watch an oldie like Girl Happy (it has Elvis in it!). Other times, I’m more in the mood for music, in which case I could play anything from Kings of Leon to The Lumineers, Lana Del Rey, Cole Porter, Alicia Keys, Pink, or Alanis Morissette.

I try to be as worldly and well-rounded as I can so even though my primary hobby is sewing, pattern making, and blogging, I try to dip my toe into learning other forms of art such as photography, painting, web design, scrapbooking, cars, sports, etc. I read newspapers a lot to expose myself to all different kinds of information and because of a wonderful thing called Groupon/Living Social, I attend lots of workshops.