I used to not really know how to deal with my sewing abilities. It wasn't really a love or a passion or anything like that. But I did like to wear clothes that I had made. It was like, you'd have this idea in your head of what the perfect dress would look like. Then, you'd make it and it would fit perfectly and be everything that you'd imagined it would be.
I'm not really sure how it was that I learned that I could sew or what's really up with that. I guess I've never felt in my life that there was something that I couldn't do, so when I tried it, I realized I could. I think it also helped that my stepmother sewed clothes. I think that watching her gave me a fairly basic idea of how clothes got put together. My first dress, I used a pattern for. I had been going through my best friend's mother's patterns from the 60s and 70s and borrowed a pattern for a simple dress. It was supposed to be made out of a round tablecloth and was basically an a-line dress with big huge funky sleeves. I didn't have the tablecloth, but I made do with some material I had. The dress didn't take too long and when I put it on, I looked fabulous!
But let's face it-sewing has a pretty girly reputation as far as activities or hobbies go. It calls to mind "Little House on the Prairie" days where they men would go to work in the fields and the women would stay at home and cook and clean and sew. Or suburban stay-at-home moms. And the clothes that I made were equally feminine-whether the mini skirts that Cosmo kept telling me would catch me the man of my dreams, or the long flowing dresses that turned me into a princess. It offended both my liberal feminist notion that to be truly equal I needed to focus energy away from traditional domesticity and my riot grrrl sensibilities which told me to fuck the system by rejecting traditional femininity.
My attitude now about all things in life is more post-feminist, I would say. I know why gender can be both an effect of genetics and social upbringing. I know enough not to let people fuck with me just because I'm a girl. But I'm comfortable with myself too. And I like sewing. And I like wearing pretty dresses. And I like kicking ass.
And the more I think about it, the more I think of sewing as rebel girl activity. Here are some reasons why:

1. Made for you=fits you: Get a group of girls together and at some point someone is gonna start the conversation about how hard it is to find clothes that fit. We all do this cuz clothing sizes for women suck. Women's bodies are just too varied; you can have big boobs but a small waist; or a big waist and small boobs; whatever. Clothes that you buy in a store just aren't going to fit you exactly the way that you want them to ever. But if you make clothes for yourself, (or if someone is making clothes especially for you), then they will always fit your unique proportions.
2. You can get exactly what you want: exactly the right color, the right fabric, the right size.
3. You're not supporting bad companies: now I don't want to name specific companies cuz honestly, I haven't done the research myself and don't want to be spreading untrue rumors, but at least once a month I hear about why you shouldn't buy from Company X because they are destroying the environment/abusing child labor laws/underpaying their employees/giving to money to whatever evil cause/etc. If you are making your own clothes, then you can be sure that you aren't supporting any company that is going against your beliefs.
4. Increase your self-esteem: ok so I hesitate to talk about this one, because I don't want it to really be an issue, but I think that it is. Ever since I was little I would read in books about such and such character who was a "perfect size 6" and it would always make me feel less than perfect when I would go to a store and only be able to fit into a size 11. I think that there is a lot of mention in books, magazines, tv, and whatnot to specific sizes that characters/actresses wear. And this sucks. And I once even heard that some of the more expensive department stores will make their sizes seem smaller so that the same woman can fit into a size 8 pair of department store pants and yet a size 12 pair of K-Mart pants. So then of course the woman wants to buy her clothes from the department store cuz it makes her feel skinnier. This is fucked up. And if you're making your own clothes, you don't need to know what "size" you wear. You can look in the mirror and see that you look good in it and it doesn't matter what "size" it is.
5. Creativity: When sewing, anything goes. You can let your imagination run wild. And you can be damn proud of what you've made, especially when someone tells you "hey I really like that skirt you're wearing."
6. Cost: Generally, it's cheaper to make something yourself than to buy something at the store.

So you see, there's lots of reasons to take up sewing. And lots of reasons why this is rebel grrrl activity.

i am always willing to make trades or to sell clothes. i will put up pictures soon.

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