After graduating from college in 2008 at the age of twenty seven, nothing interested me because certain events in the last years had stressed me out. I wanted everything to be the way it was before chaos in my life, but things became worse. I was so used to being controlled by others that people who I thought were my friends used me and my husband. One lady offered to teach me how to sew but only wanted to gossip about others. She got mad because I couldn't decide on what to sew, and I gave up on her. Then to make matters worse I made friends in our neighborhood who were not like me. We practically had to leave in the middle of the night because my husband and I were afraid of being tracked down. The good news was I had a sewing machine, but no reason to sew anything except to practice.
Fast forward to May 2010. One day I started watching Golden Girls on the television. Memories of my childhood came back to me. Our neighbor in my hometown was a fan of Golden Girls. For this blog post, I will call her Eden. Eden was not only my family's neighbor, but also a lifelong member of the church my father ministered to in my hometown. After my maternal grandmother passed away thirty one years ago in April of this year, Eden was her replacement. Even though my paternal grandmother also lived in my hometown, I was not close to her, but as a five year old, I went to Eden's house everyday and just hung out. Eden, as I am sure could easily get annoyed by a five year old, seem to not mind that I came over to her house everyday. Each time, I brought home a present from her house....I probably asked for these presents, but I was five years old. When Eden passed away in 1994, my father mentioned how I would visit her house everyday until I got older and we moved to the rural part of my hometown. The day Eden passed away, I was consumed with guilt because I felt I had used her and abandoned her. As a married woman many years later, I began to have dreams about my childhood and Eden. Broken over events that had happened after my wedding also consumed me with guilt. Until one day, I turned on the TV to watch Golden Girls.
When I walked around my new neighborhood in 2010, I thought about the times I would walk to Eden's house. Betty White who played Rose Nyland on Golden Girls was gaining popularity again in the media. Tears would fall down my face because thoughts about Eden came back to me. I also spent time practicing sewing a stitch on my sewing machine I had purchased a year earlier. Yet, I was afraid to ask for help. My confidence level was at a zero to ask someone to help me learn how to sew children's clothes.
Fast forward to FOUR years later when I had to courage to ask for help. The local Hancock Fabrics (before it went out of business) was offering sewing lessons. The teacher let me sew whatever I wanted, but this time it was clothes for adults, or assuming it was me. After gaining some confidence, I decided I wanted to learn how to sew children's clothes, but my teacher moved back to Michigan. Then my dog Oliver passed away. Despite my loss and grief, I knew I wanted to learn how to sew children's clothes. When I had a different and much better instructor, I had to have my gallbladder removed, and it was the most painful and scariest thing to go through. But I persisted on learning how to sew garments, but my project this time was a purple dress for a female adult. Finally one summer day, I knew for sure I was going to become a children's clothes seamstress. I had taken me five LONG years to get where I was, but the wait was worth it. The next thing to do was to come up with a name for my business.
Many years ago, my mother found a cassette tape with my grandparents' voices on the tape. It was two different Christmases spent at two of their sons's homes. My aunt asked my grandmother on the tape if my cousin could sleep in a handmade outfit my grandmother made for my cousin. My grandmother's response was, "I think they are too cute to sleep in." That for me, was the beginning of a new chapter in my life.
