The story of how I started sewing a lot

I love to sew. There was a time I didn't have many clothes, but Mum had fabric in her cupboard and a sewing machine, so I sewed my own.

Of course Mum used to make our clothes when we were very little. Back in those days it was much cheaper to do that. And I guess over time she collected large "remnants", end of bolts and such and popped them into the cupboard.

The elderly lady next door also sewed. She made everything. She was always making aprons. She made her own undies. Even bras I think.

I remember the power of creating my own clothes I loved in 1988 (year 9), and I was hooked. It started with pleated shorts, made from black and white stripe fabric, that fastened on the side with a hook and loop type closure.

After that I made myself another two pairs of shorts, from scraps in the cupboard, and in 1989 (year 10) my Christmas and birthday gift from Mum was a sewing course in knitwear. Maybe you heard of it? KnitWit. I absolutely loved it. At age 15 I was the youngest in the class. I made my own collection of clothes as we progressed through the 8 weeks of the course. Mostly in navy, white and a touch of red. And I made a cropped swing jacket in mustard yellow. Oops. (I now know to use earrings and hair accessories in those funky fashion colours, and make my jackets classic navy).

So that was when my sewing journey really started... but also kind of ended... at the end of year 10, Mum said it's time to get serious now and which maths and science was I going to do. Sigh.

I bought half a metre of this tiger fabric from Fabric by Missy Rose. It's a beautiful quality cotton fabric for clothing that holds its colour, doesn't pill, feels soft, 

There wasn't quite enough fabric to make the shirt, so I used a bit of leftover cotton doona cover from the bushfire charity quilts of 2020, and cut as pocket and collars. 

I've also appliqued a tiger onto the pocket to give some congruency.

My old Dad used to call his shirt pocket his front office. And now my son, who never got to meet my dad, loves a front office too.