Welcome to My Stitch Diary: How I fell in love.
When I fell in love with sewing, I fell HARD.
Head over heels hard.
Waking up and laying in bed troubleshooting a garment’s construction kind of love.
Literally dreaming about linens and silks and fabrics kind of love.
For me, it is all in the beauty of making something with my own two hands and a little sewing machine. It’s the power of creation; being able to dream up an idea one day and sew it into being the next. That’s what magic is to me.
This tweet is literal gold, fam.
I started sewing out of necessity - I desperately wanted to wear things that were financially unavailable to me at the time. So I took a sewing machine basics class, hacked a free pattern, and you bet I made myself the wrap jumpsuit of my dreams.
And you bet, that first garment absolutely split across the back three wears in.
One of the only photos I ever got of said jumpsuit before she took her turn for the worst. She *look* good though, don’t she. No seam allowance on the CB lead to trouble in paradise.
I’ve learned a lot since then. I’ve been on an impassioned journey to make the thoughtful, handmade wardrobe of my dreams and have savored the mental challenge of hacking things, learning complex construction, and understanding the science and physics of the way a garment hangs and how a fabric will look in a certain style. I love everything about it. By now, I’ve made just about everything from a basic t-shirt to my couture beaded wedding gown.
About me + the American dream
I was raised by a single mother, a previously undocumented immigrant from the Philippines. My father is a Black American from Detroit. Being a first-generation American and the child of an immigrant has always been a core part of my identity. The allure and pressure of the American dream is something that I live with each day. Immigrants are resourceful, especially those from developing countries, so do it yourself was no new concept to me. Learning to make my own clothes felt natural. After all, my grandmother in the Philippines, the last sewist in our family, clothed her entire family of nine. Now that’s what I call a baddie. I still have one of her pieces, a hand-me-down blouse, and I feel some of her magic every time I wear it.
Handmade Millennial came about out of a wish to see people like me.
Before I fully discovered the magic and niche of the online sewing world, I was craving sewing resources, patterns, and styles that felt fresh, modern, that featured makers of color and the voices of my generation. I decided to curate my own space to share my findings and creations and the pattern designers who were sewing to my kind of style, and celebrate them. I was happily surprised by the warm reception and love of the online sewing community - to this day I swear this is the best, kindest corner of the internet. I gain so much inspiration from the online sewing community every day.
And so! Welcome to my blog. Expect pattern reviews. Expect hacks and tips. Expect a celebration of wonder, of learning, of creation. Expect HONESTY; not just the wins but the fails and the learnings that accompany them.