Member of the month

Hi,

My name is Emma Smith, and I confess I'm a fabric hoarder and compulsive sewer!

This is me wearing the Wear anywhere dress by So Sew Easy

My journey started as a child - my mum used to make me and my sister dresses and I had a bag of scraps which I used to hand sew clothes for my Sindy dolls. I progressed to mini hand sewn patchwork using hexagonal blocks and eventually moved on to clothes.
I took needlework o-level (my only "A" grade!), a B-tech in fashion and textiles, finishing with a fashion and textiles degree.
For 8 years after I graduated I worked for various UK manufacturers, designing mainly childrens wear. A job I loved, but the UK retailers priced the UK manufacturers out of the market by using cheap offshore producers and after 3 redundancies I made the decision to change direction I to a more sensible industry.

So that's my potted history.
After I moved into my role in  IT services I continued to sew for pleasure and was lucky to live in a flat where I could have a dedicated sewing room. But once I met and moved in with my husband I no longer had that luxury and in the flush of a new relationship my sewing waned.

I decided that in order to meet people in my new home and to give myself a creative outlet I'd try painting, and spent quite a few years expressing my creativity via watercolour and acrylic painting classes - it was a great outlet away from work and a rear stress buster.

It was the need to shorten a curtain that got me back to sewing. I got my machine out and couldn't remember how to use it! I was devastated as sewing had been a big part of my life and what had shaped my early years and career. Well that spurred me on, I not only got the machine under control but determined to change my creativity from painting back to sewing.
That was three years ago and pretty much tied in with series 1 of the GBSB, and since then there is no stopping me!

So on to what you really want to see - the photos!

I make dresses...

This one is the Sew Over It Tea Dress

 This is the Bella dress that came free with Love Sewing magazine

                                                              

And this one from Salme - their buttonless shirt dress



I also make accessories:

this was a self drafted knitting needle case as a gift for a friends birthday

 another self drafted bag for my niece
             

And a cushion for other friends who had their 40th just a few days apart

And things for my nieces and nephew:

     

I have so many patterns i could never hope to make them all and similarly so much fabric that I don't know what to do with it all. Neither of which stops me adding more to my stash at every opportunity

Hope you enjoyed my story! There's lots to come still as I work my way through my stashes.