AboutTSR(old)
Hello, I'm Janine and I'm grateful you've taken a few moments to check out The Sewing Revival. Time is precious and yet we seem to use too little of it to do the things we really love. The things that make our heart sing, the creative things.
Sewing has been a passion of mine since childhood. I grew up in rural New Zealand, a long way from any shops or fashion runways, magazines were a rare treat and the internet wasn't heard of. My mother sewed out of necessity, but it was my grandmother who shared my indulgence for fabric, creativity and clothes. I would encourage her to draw around me so I could make a pattern, and donating her old bed sheets as fabric, she ensured my wild creativity was balanced with the discipline of good old-fashioned dress making skills. I have the fondest memories of my teenage years submerged in a magical world of creativity, exploration and self expression.
Then I went to university to study business.
In practical, conservative, rural New Zealand, fashion was not a serious career choice.
During a career break in my late 20's I escaped to complete a pattern making and design course at AIT, designed and sewed my wedding dress and those of friends whilst always juggling to arrange any spare moment behind the sewing machine. As my children grew older it became clearer to me that sewing skills were becoming a lost. Friends were asking me to teach their young daughters to sew and I realised most of my generation no longer had the skills to pass on. Worse still, is the growing negative impact of "fast fashion" and the destruction it is causing in both the social and physical environments of poorer countries who participate.
The Sewing Revival is my attempt to help revive some of those forgotten skills, to share the intrinsic rewards of creating your own clothes and to help you embrace and celebrate your own style.
More about The Sewing Revival patterns
Introducing teens to sewing with TSR Sewing Gift Packs
Free sewing projects to get you started