Sewing the fantasy
Creating clothing to bring me joy
Sewing has always bought me great joy. I am a creative person but prefer crafts that allow me to construct following rules instead of flowing free form.
My sewing journey starts with my mum, who used to make my baby clothes and is a creative person to this day. She has always been able to pick up any medium and turn it into something beautiful. Watching her made me want to be able to do the same.
One day when watching her sew as a baby, I grabbed a pin and swallowed it before she could do anything, causing a great deal of panic. The pin passed through fine much to everyone’s relief, but maybe it actually found its way to my heart and never left.
I started ‘sewing’ myself when I was a young girl, using scraps of fabric and glue to make small bags at school with my friends. Later in school I would take textiles and learn to sew more formally (and with actual needles and thread), creating quilts and costumes as a young teenager.
I stopped sewing for a few years but took it up again at university. I found myself in need of a manual hobby as a break from the constant reading, and rediscovered my joy of sewing. My first few garments were poorly fitted and constructed, but over the years I’ve taught myself better techniques and my sewing game has improved. Now sewing means creating garments precisely for myself, in style and fit. This hasn’t just been a lesson in construction but also design as I’ve discovered colours and fabrics that work best for what I need.
As my sewing has progressed I’ve become more confident in sharing my work with others. I share my makes on Instagram and have started filming videos for YouTube.
As a visual learner myself (a hard thing to be when trying to learn from books), I have really benefitted from instructional videos on YouTube. Once I became more sure of myself I wanted to help give back to this community and share my own tips and tricks.
I have found the community to be amazing and supportive, and interacting with it has brought me a great deal of joy.
This next year presents a whole new sewing challenge. I am getting married in 2022 and have decided to sew my wedding dress, a huge and intimidating project. I also decided to make it more difficult for myself but not just sewing a dress, but sewing multiple layers and creating seperate pieces to achieve the shape I want. My plan is to create a corset, bodice, two skirts and two petticoats.
So far I have sewn my support structure, a corset, and I more recently sewed the dress for my engagement party (attached photo).
My engagement dress is made of white lace and cotton, and uses one of my favourite patterns, a lace party dress created by Gretchen Hirsch. With a love for 50’s style dresses, Gretchen Hirsch is a sewing idol of mine. I find her incredibly talented and inspiring and most of my sewing revolves around her patterns. She was also where I first heard the phrase ‘Sew The Fantasy’, which has become a mantra of mine, and something I use to remind myself to find joy in my creations.
While creating my wedding dress is daunting to say the least, it makes a great deal of sense to me. I get to take my time and input a great deal of energy and love into one of the most important garments of my life. This is truly sewing the fantasy.
About the Creator
Catherine Wayman
Melbourne based sewist. I sew clothing for myself, aiming to live my fantasy as best as I can.
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