News Flash: sewing is fashionable again! Sewing is also eco-friendly, financially friendly, teaches perseverance, is profitable, fun and fulfilling. So, find your sewing machine (that you bought from All Ray’s Vacuum and Sewing), and dust it off because you are missing out on one of the greatest comebacks of all time! The power of handmade never left, but it’s definitely back.
Sewing is Back
Sewing was taught forever ago in home economics classes, or at home for the 4H kids by your mom or grandma until it fell from popularity in the mid to late 1900s. It was an old person’s hobby and you wouldn’t catch a youngster sitting at a machine to save their life.
Back in the day sewing was a necessity. People didn’t have access to department stores; they couldn’t afford brand new clothes. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, mass produced and affordable clothing arrived; therefore, the need for home-sewn garments decreased. In the end, the skill of sewing skipped an entire generation.
Now that handmade is no longer a dirty word, due in large part to the popularity of social media sites such as Etsy, the ability to make things can result in a thriving career selling your creations. Or, if you’re not looking to take things to the career level, one could easily have a lucrative side gig. YouTube has given us a convenient way to learn how to sew practically anything. Pinterest makes sure we’ll never run out of inspiration and/or ideas.
Sewing Saves Money
Sewing your own clothes is eco-friendly. Sewing is a way to take matters into your own hands – figuratively and literally. Will a skill like sewing, you’ll be quite valuable if the lights ever go out. Additionally, there’s a huge sub-culture in the world of sewing that favors up-cycling, or re-using items to make them into new creations.
The ability to sew can save you money in a variety of ways. Hemming your own pants for a few cents worth of thread rather than taking them to a tailor and paying $30 – let alone the time saved. Replacing that missing button on your husband’s dress shirt rather than tossing it in the trash. Even the most basic sewing skills will add up to big savings for a lot of people, and in a shaky economy that’s valuable news.
Sewing is Hip
Finally, sewing is hip! Sewing even looks cool on the hit TV series Project Runway. I think the big takeaway is that every time Tim Gunn says “make it work” he’s really saying everything will work out if you keep trying and don’t give up. Joking aside, it’s important to keep pushing through on your sewing adventure. Things will only get easier; that’s the whole point of sewing – to make our lives easier and more enjoyable.
With respect to the hip element of sewing, we’re back to that time when things are coming full circle as they always do. In a day where literally everything is packaged, manufactured, etc. – people’s perception to anything handmade, custom, or one-of-a-kind is at a new high. The ability to sew something useful – whether for yourself, a family member, a friend, or a customer – is not only rewarding, but much appreciated.
Everyone wants something handmade over something mass-produced – especially when it’s of high quality. With sewing, the quality is up to you. If you want a new hip bag to be reinforced with handles that not only look cool but stay on, you can make the bag as sturdy as you want. No longer do you need your quality to be dictated by the mysterious robots who made it for you (and thousands of other people). Now, you wield the power to take matters in your own hands to make whatever you want, make it to your specifications, and make something no one else has. The power of handmade is real.
Visit All Ray’s for All Your Sewing Needs
We’ve established the facts that sewing is back, sewing saves money, and that sewing is hip, which is inferred by the fact that sewing is indeed back. Like many trends that go away, they seem to inevitably comeback, and they return stronger than they started. The comeback is an enigma in many ways, but as far as sewing we believe this comeback is driven by the power of handmade, which is the power of saving money, and the power of our desires to be unique and self-sufficient.
Additionally, we all want to be thoughtful, and we want others to put thought into us as well. Technology makes the effect of sewing even more profound because it’s still a lost art, but we don’t believe it’ll remain that way so long as sewing continues to regain popularity. Do we foresee hipsters having sewing parties on a Friday night? Believe it or not, they exist, and that’s a powerful thing. People want to be industrial and skilled in the arts of our ancestors because we see vulnerability in not being this way. The love of our roots and the love of something handmade is something no factory can produce. This love is why we sew.
So, we hope you join the All Ray’s family business as we continue to provide your sewing needs as we have for the last 40 years! Visit our knowledgeable staff today!