How to make sewing friends

Sewing friends!! We're both wearing Me Mades.

Before I share all the fun I recently had, I want to give you a little back story.

Around 6 or 7 years ago a group of friends and I would get together to sew. We'd meet once a month and head to one hostess' house. Sometimes there would be 3, 4 or even 5 of us. We'd eat, snack, and sew for a few hours while chatting about our lives. You learn a lot about someone if you sew together, because all you do is talk.

Those days and nights were cherished. I would take a pattern I had cut out so I could do some actual sewing. Or, I'd take a pattern to lay on the floor for cutting/ tracing. Ahh, those were the days. Well, over time, one of the friends moved and those sewing nights ended. No reason in particular, but life shifted as it does from time to time. 

Fast forward a couple of years.
Another friend of mine who sews, but lives one state over found a group of sewists. She told me about this sewing social she attended last year. She met wonderful people, discovered new pattern companies and fabric shops that were local to her. It sounded like an overall great time and I knew I wanted to go to the next one! 

I patiently waited for the year to go by and once she shared the event info, I bought my ticket.
It was go time! Or, sew time! ;)
For the sewcial you can bring 1-2 unused patterns and a cut of fabric that measures 1/2 yard or more. I had a pattern and fabric and set them aside for the swap. Such a fun idea!! 

I even sewed up a new dress (blog post coming soon) to wear for the evening. I packed my bag and everything I needed for a quick mini vacation. No kids. No husband. Just me.
I enjoyed the drive and listened to my own music and podcasts. It was glorious!! 

Mood Fabrics donated these bags to use for all the swag bags!! So generous

Saturday evening was here and it was Sewcial time!
This sewing social is called the Arizona Sewcial or AZsewcial. ​​It's a social hour for sewists hosted by Lauren, to talk, meet, and hang out with fellow sewing friends. So. Many. Sewing. Friends! What was inside the magical land of sewing delight? 

• They had swag bags filled with coupon codes, cuts of fabric, little notions, patterns, and other goodies. 
• A photo booth backdrop for all the selfies and group photos you could take. 
• The Queen of charcuterie boards was for snacking. It had everything! 
• A dessert table was piled with sweet nuts, candies and even had the cutest sewing cookies!!
• There was a lovely Italian soda bar complete with maraschino cherries. Yum!! 

Dessert table. Yummy!! Photo by Jillian S.

Queen sized Charcuterie board/ table. This table had everything imaginable on it! Photo by Jillian S.

The Italian Soda bar. So sweet! Photo by Jillian S.

Photo by Jillian S.

You started off the evening by signing in, grabbing a name tag and picking your swag bag. Each bag had a different number. That number was yours for the raffle prize and swap table.

A few ice breaker games got conversations started. Lauren, the hostess would call out a small group of numbers throughout the night. If she called out your number, you went to pick out a raffle prize and then to the fabric and pattern swap table. 
Prizes included Indie patterns, PDF pattern bundles from companies, gift certificates and vouchers for online fabric shops, pattern and fabric bundles, the list goes on.
Such fantastic things to win!!

I ended up winning 3 Free PDF patterns from By Hand London. I was crazy excited, because I love them! I grabbed a cute handbag pattern and some soft blue knit from the swap table too. 

Beautiful fabric from one of the vendor tables. Photo by Jillian S.

A few of the vendors. Vintage April Etsy shop and The Quilt Party. Photo by Jillian S.

Michele gave a talk on tissue fit and pattern adjusting. Photo by Jillian S.

After some time went by, they announced 4 women who were going to talk about their own thing. One woman spoke about tissue fitting and pattern adjustments. One gave a talk on social media and all that entails. Another presented on creating and designing your own fabric. And the last but not least spoke on how to become a pattern tester. I ended up chatting with a new friend so I missed this whole portion. Face-palm. LOL Ah well.

After round 2 of snacking, I visited the vendor booths to check out what they had. I grabbed a Grainline Studio Archer Pattern from one vendor table. I want to hack it into a western shirt for fair this Spring. That post will go up after I make it in a few months, I'm sure. Ha!

At the end of the night as my feet were getting tired, I sat down to sign all of the Thank you cards. The cards were made out to each of the vendors and companies that donated. This was such a thoughtful thing to do. I've never seen that idea and will keep it locked in for future use. I ended the night laughing with another sewist as we signed the thank you cards and spoke on different sewing podcasts we listen to. 

Whew! Such a great night. I was so fortunate that my friend let me join in on the fun even though I don't even live in Arizona. Ha! 
I'm sure I missed a few points from the night, but I truly appreciate what Lauren did. It was amazing and unforgettable. Good job!!! I could tell she put a lot of heart and soul into the whole night.

Thanks Lauren for hosting such a great evening!!

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My swag bag contents, fabric (blue knit), and bag pattern (on the left next to the blue knit) from the swap portion.

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So this brings me to my next point. How do you make sewing friends? There are more of us out there, the hard part is finding them/us.
I have always found my sewing sisters in real life. As a mom, it's easy to start up a conversation... You're sitting next to someone chatting, a topic comes up and you both realize you sew and the rest is history. 

Other ideas are

• Meetup Groups
• American Sewing Guild
• Church Fundraisers and groups
• Instagram hashtags
• Facebook groups
• Craft shops with classes, both local and big box 
• Crafting conferences such as Craftcation 
• Word of mouth- "Oh, I have a friend that sews, I'll give you her number"
• School plays need costumes, you could make friends through that
• Craft shows, maybe you hit it off with a someone who has a sewing booth

Try all of these and see if you can find sewing friends in your area. Sewing is definitely a personal hobby, but it's so much more fun when you can talk fabric and patterns with someone else! Plus, if you run into an issue, maybe someone can help. If you've never made pants, but Suzie Sewsalot has, she can help.

Please share some ways you meet and make sewing friends in your community in the comments below. We all need friends to sew with!! 

Happy seam ripping,
Annette