I have just created my new blog, have registered my own domain, which is absolutely new experience for me, and am very excited about all of my future creations that I will be sharing with the readers! Surely, it is somewhat humbling to start a new blog – there is no content yet on it, there is no traffic, and, most importantly, readers have not yet discovered my piece of land on the internet. I have high hopes, though, that the content that I will be sharing on my new beautiful site, will become useful to the large and growing sewers community! So – very warm welcome to those of you who are my guests!
As I am writing this post in the autumn of 2020, I already have quite a bit of portfolio. During last 6 months, since March, when I started actively sewing, I have made 17 garments – tops, dresses, jumpsuits and a coat. I will now be writing few blog posts about my projects from this summer, so that there is certain content on my site, when it is going to be finally launched.
For this first post, I would like to share a bit of a background as to why I am here.
I am from Lithuania, was born here and our family of four lives in the capital city of Vilnius. We have two sons who keep us occupied most of the time. My husband and I have full time jobs, thus our life is usually very busy and at times also hectic. The rest of my family is very much into tennis – our older son is by now among the best tennis players in the country. Whereas myself am not too much into sports. Instead, I love cooking, am amateur semi-serious photographer, love all sorts of crafts, gardening, and lately – I sew, a lot!
My sewing journey started in school years, back in eighties and early nineties. Grandma was a seamstress and my mom also sewed quite a bit, which is why it was rather natural for me to learn the basic sewing skills. I do not quite recall any particular learning activity happening, instead it came naturally, through my sincere interest. Back then patterns were scarce, my grandma and mom would be happy if they could get hold of Burda magazines, which were already available in stores back in eighties. Later on, as grandma became older, I started helping her with basic garment construction tasks.
When our children were little, I sewed mostly straight line kind of pieces – blankets, quilts, pillowcases or duvet covers. In order to be able to do that, I had bought rather basic sewing machine – did not want to invest into something that might not last.
When the quarantine hit us in the spring of 2020, it became apparent that in order to stay sane I had to engage in something creative. Sewing clothes had always seemed a bit intimidating to me, so first of all I watched loads of Youtube videos and only then accumulated enough courage to actually start. First makes were, well, modest. And not too neat. But I went on. Bought myself a better, more advanced sewing machine, an overlocker, a dress form, loads of haberdashery and step by step became better at what I was doing.
I am still mostly using commercial patterns or Burda magazine patterns – have not yet reached the point of self-drafting clothes. However, I am on my way towards that, I think. By now I am rather comfortable with amending patterns, changing sleeves styles, adding different types of pockets or the lining without particular instructions. So all is good, I’ll get there! Will probably need to read more or take some online courses, which is fine. Meanwhile, am having loads of fun with all the nice high quality fabrics that I am buying from all over the world online and all these patterns that I have collected by now.
This year I have bought fewer clothes than I’ve sewed. That’s quite an achievement, I think. Let’s see what tomorrow is gonna bring!
Let’s all stay healthy! 🤍
~Giedre~
Giedre Style 