Making sewing social

I've long bemoaned the loneliness that comes with sewing, especially garment sewing which is something that is unfortunately still rare these days. I admittedly get pretty jealous every time I see the posts of sewing bloggers meeting up in London or New York and chatting, drinking wine, and going fabric shopping together. Argh! You guys just make me sick (but you're still awesome). I definitely couldn't deal with living in a city that big, though. I would go nuts!

I get mad at quilting for the same reason. It's everywhere! It's like garment sewing barely even exists here.

Lately I've been brainstorming (read: obsessively daydreaming) about ways to connect with others who do what I do. I often wonder if I'm the only garment sewer under the age of 50 in Gainesville, Florida. I had to hide my excitement a few weeks ago when I was browsing through the sale patterns at JoAnn and noticed a girl around my age who was also browsing intently and picking out some for herself. I got up the nerve to ask if she sewed clothes and she said yes. Then my husband butt in and immediately started trying to promote my craft group and blog. I was proud of him but slightly mad at the same time. Dammit Scott, I'm trying to make sewing friends here!

I've finally decided to approach this similarly to the way I got my craft group started - put the word out, start a Facebook group, and see what happens. So that's where I'm at. I think limiting my group to Gainesville might be too small, so I'm including all of Florida. Maybe we can eventually hold a meetup in one of the bigger cities?

So if you happen to be a garment sewer in the great, weird peninsula of Florida please join us on Facebook at Florida Fashion Sewists! Let's start something.

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