Custom sewing, hand made items

Making and creating has brought me happiness for as long as I can remember. My mother has done many different crafts and taught me to crochet when I was quite young, as well as other things along the way. 

After years in the corporate world, stress was taking a toll on my health, and my hands and mind were desperate to be creative again.
 

Work life and raising children temporarily slowed down my creating and crafting, and then I had the opportunity to manage the Viking Sewing Gallery inside Joann Fabrics in Bangor for several years. I loved being creative again and was sewing pretty much daily. I particularly enjoyed heirloom sewing and teaching classes about it as well as how to use a sewing machine, embroidery machine, and software. It was pretty much a dream job...except for the commute. Driving from Stockton Springs to Stillwater Avenue almost daily eventually burned me out.

Before the Sewing Gallery I had worked for a while in the corporate world, so I decided to return to something else I knew. Over the years though my immune disorder, aggravated by stress, was becoming hard to manage. I decided late in 2019 that it was time to think about doing something that would allow me to have better control of managing stress and my health.
 

At the end of 2019 I began working toward opening a small handcrafts business where I could be a maker and possibly teach again. I leased a very small space in May of 2020, which was much too small to hold classes. In June 2020, just before everything was being shut down for the pandemic, I had the opportunity to lease a larger space, with plenty of room to sell and teach. Since projections at that time were for things to be "back to normal" by fall, I decided to go for it.
 

I tried selling more online, offering classes virtually, and made LOTS of masks. I started getting inquiries about mending and alterations. I'm very process oriented. I love to figure out how something works, or why something is not working and then fix it. So, this being another way to pay the bills, I decided to begin formally offering these services.

By the fall of 2020, it was obvious that things may not get "back to normal" any time soon. I knew that I would have to make the hard decision on whether to renew my lease in the coming May. By March of 2021 I knew I would not be able to renew. I had already had trouble making the lease payment. A conversation with a customer led to a meeting with Alice Seeger, owner of Belfast Fiber Arts on High Street. 

In April of 2021 I joined as a Studio Member of Belfast Fiber Arts. I was fortunate to be surrounded by fiber and wonderful makers! I am now back to working a full time job. Affording healthcare as a small business owner was just impossible. Now I am fitting my crafting and creativity in whenever I can.

I will update the website from time to time with a variety of custom and hand-made items. I make face masks for both adults and children, knitwear items, custom pillows, small quilts, and stitch markers or progress keepers for knitters and crocheters. I recently got a CSM (Circular Sock Machine) and plan to have socks available at some point.  I love everything about fiber and am happy to help or chat about your projects anytime!