The third time’s a charm!

Welcome to Sewspire! This is the new and improved version of my wee-bit selfish dream to teach and inspire women from all walks of life to embrace their femininity and take up or even return to the art of sewing.

If we have not had the pleasure of meeting, prior to today, my name is Andrea and I am so happy you have found our secret and wee bit selfish sewing circle! In this forum, we will design and create many beautiful treasures.

Outside of this creative community, I operate a Main Street boutique which features handmade goods that are largely produced by women entrepreneurs, like myself. I also teach quilting and sewing lessons at our local community center and have created a line of sewing tutorials which feature my original bag designs. While all of these endeavors are richly rewarding, they are also very time consuming, and leave me little time to indulge my selfish sewing desires. Hence the formation of Sewspire (the third edition)!

When I first launched Sewspire.com I set the lofty goal of teaching 10,000 women to sew. Six months into the project I had reach exactly 72 women. Initially, I found that number to be somewhat underwhelming when held in comparison to my larger dream of teaching 10,000 women. Then a eureka moment occurred. I realized each of these 72 women have the power to reach and/or impact another 1,000 individuals via their mere existence. Which means, in theory, I may have actually have impacted 7200 women. That, in my opinion, is phenomenal and would put me very close to my goal and way ahead of schedule. Then, I looked at my purpose and started asking some deeper questions as to what it would actually mean to achieve the goal. The truth, which took me a bit by surprise, is NOTHING. It wouldn’t mean anything, to anyone, that I taught 10,000 people to sew. There are no awards, no honors, no dubious distinctions to be bestowed upon my sweet little head. And, so I regroup, redefine and repurpose my intentions.

What I really want to do, more than anything, and what was really at the crux of the 10,000 women is to create a community of creatives who can gather to make beautiful things in which they share a source of pride and satisfaction that not only lights them up and inspires them as individuals; but, more importantly spreads, like magic, unto, onto and through the 1,000 people who come under their sphere of influence. Now, that is a goal and a dream which I can really get behind! Yes! Thank you!

So, let’s toss out that random number and instead focus on building a thriving and supportive community of creative women who are simply committed to setting aside a little selfish time to make beautiful goodies. Hence, our new tag line: A secret and wee bit selfish sewing circle.

No need, to share or to subscribe (unless you want to) and absolutely no pressure or guilt. Just think of this as a small, intimate group of women, coming together to create and spread beauty across the land.

And so it is and so it shall be!

xoxo,

Andrea

P.S. Logistically, you may be wondering how and when we will convene. I took all of your feedback into consideration and the general consensus was that you enjoyed the weekly projects; so, I will continue to post new video content on Friday as well as send out a short email to summarize the video. The only big change is going to be in the level and complexity of our projects. I personally want to feel challenged and want to be proud of the finished product. So, we are going to jump right in and make the things which are what I would consider to be highly marketable and professionally made. The caveat, if there is one, is that I am only able to commit 30 minutes per week. So, every Friday, we will work on the current project for 30 minutes, via video. I know many of you share my time constraints and so there will be no set number of lessons or time frame for completion. We simply show up, once a week for 30 minutes, to sew, chat and share our thoughts and skills with one another. The sharing will largely take place in the comments here, on Facebook, Instagram or maybe even a few live feeds on YouTube (now that is exciting!) At some point in the journey we will come together virtually in celebration of our finely finished piece, so everyone can share their project. There is absolutely no pressure, no deadlines, just pure unfiltered creativity at its best! Our first big project will be announced this Friday, March 25th. For those of you who are new to sewing, and would like to get comfortable with your machine, I have unlocked all of the simple easy to sew tutorials created to date and you can download those here . The corresponding posts and larger photos can all be found under the “Instant Gratification” link in the top navigation.