Episode Summary: In this episode of Stitch Please, Lisa and Serena talk about Serena’s vintage style, how she got into it, and the inspiration behind her transformation. Serena describes her style and practice, what inspires her to create her pieces, and her favorite style in the vintage decade. Finally, she talks about the people who inspire her and who she hopes to inspire through her pieces.
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Serena
Serena sews and collects vintage patterns and sewing machines. She enjoys creating vintage content from the 1940s-1950s for Instagram and YouTube to help encourage diversity in the vintage world and share her passion for vintage style. She enjoys dressing up and creating her vintage reality.
Lisa Woolfork
Lisa Woolfork is an associate professor of English, specializing in African American literature and culture. Her teaching and research explore Black women writers, Black identity, trauma theory and American slavery. She is the convener and founder of Black Women Stitch, the sewing group where Black lives matter. She is also the host/producer of Stitch Please, a weekly audio podcast that centers Black women, girls, and femmes in sewing. In the summer of 2017, she actively resisted the white supremacist marches in her community, Charlottesville Virginia. The city became a symbol of lethal resurging white supremacist violence. #Charlottesville. She remains active in a variety of university and community initiatives, including the Community Engaged Scholars program. She believes in the power of creative liberation.
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Lisa Woolfork
Instagram: Lisa Woolfork
Twitter: Lisa Woolfork
Serena
Instagram: Sewrena
YouTube: SewRena
This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.
Lisa Woolfork 0:00
Hello everybody, it is Blacktober, and we are starting off this month with vintage sewing with Sewrena. This is one of those episodes where you are going to want to see the video, so become a Patreon subscriber and you can see these amazing projects that Sewrena is discussing. Here we go.
Hello stitchers. Welcome to Stitch Please, the official podcast of Black Women Stitch, the sewing group where Black lives matter. I'm your host, Lisa Woolfork. I'm a fourth generation sewing enthusiast with more than 20 years of sewing experience. I am looking forward to today's conversation. So sit back, relax, and get ready to get your stitch together.
Hello everybody, and welcome to the Stitch Please podcast. And as I say every week, this is a very special episode, because I am talking with none other than Sewrena. You all, Sewrena, she's an icon. She is the moment. But also, this is someone who has revolutionized vintage style without vintage values. And she is looking stunning in a dress and a headpiece that I'm sure she can talk about. But listen, y'all, I went to a estate sale yesterday trying to impress Sewrena, because I sent her a picture of the sewing machine that I was very excited about. And she said, Oh, that's rare. That's amazing. And so I was like, Oh my gosh, if I get this machine, I can show Serena today for the interview. And then she'll be impressed with me, and then we can be friends! And it didn't work out, because someone got that machine before me because they planned better. But in the meantime, Sewrena still agreed to talk to me in light of that horrible failure. So thank you so much, Sewrena, for being with us today. We are so, so glad to have you, and welcome to the Stitch Please podcast.
Sewrena 2:04
Thank you for having me. I'm really, really happy to be here.
Lisa Woolfork 2:07
Can you describe this wonderful look? Because I think one of the great things about your work is that it is historical, it looks archival, and yet you bring it to the present day and it's just so striking. So tell me a bit about the pieces you're wearing.
Sewrena 2:23
All right. I made this house dress: it's like a pinafore dress without all the ruffles, because I took that off. I hacked it to be like a maternity dress. So I don't know if you've seen it - like a couple of years ago, when I first made it, I left the side piece open so that way I could nurse. And so I just decided to put that on today because it's, like, really early in the morning, and I didn't want to, like, do the most, but still get dressed. So it's a very convenient house dress, you just throw on like a little accessory and then you kind of dress it up a bit. And then I did, I guess it's called, like, a Gibson roll type thing with my hair.
Lisa Woolfork 2:55
A Gibson roll. Okay.
Sewrena 2:57
Yeah, I think that's what it's called. Since I time hop, I can't have, like, a permanent hairstyle. So I always have to find ways to make my natural hair shorter, or - never really longer. Because a lot of vintage styles, they had shorter hair. And this is a good way to, like, make your hair look shorter. And if you don't set your hair you can do like a couple twists at the top to get that look. So I'm always, like, manipulating my hair and things like that, so that way I can still jump from decade to decade as I like. And then I topped it off with some hair flowers. I got some flowers from the craft store, and then some earrings from my friend at Retro Shimmer. She made these for me.
Lisa Woolfork 2:57
Retro Shimmer. Beautiful. Wow, thank you so much for walking us through that. And you use the phrase "time hop," and this leads me to a question that I was really curious about, and I would love to hear your thoughts. What do you see as the difference between historical costuming, and cosplay, or historical reenactment? I'm trying to think about your work, or just your style, as a form of costuming. And I'm wondering if you wouldn't mind talking a little bit about cosplay versus - like you said the time hop, which also, when you say it, sounds like one of those dances that they would do back in the fifties. Like "let's do the time hop." I think that's from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. But do you know what I'm saying? I just would love to hear your thoughts about how you approach looking at the past, because you really do it so beautifully. And so, do you see yourself as a costumer, as a cosplayer, as just a person with a beautiful, elegant sense of style? Like, how do you describe your practice?
Sewrena 4:42
I don't really know the differences because I am new to the community in general, like the vintage dressing or vintage community. I hadn't really been a part of it prior to having an Instagram account. But I do think to some extent, a lot of the costumers do it solely as a hobby. So maybe some of them will be dressed like this every day, whereas this is just - this is my wardrobe. Like, I am not doing this temporarily. This is what I'm going to look like the majority of the day. But I do feel like there are costumers who maybe, they do experiments; wear this dress for maybe a year, or a couple of weeks or so. Like, I think that it varies. I think there's different levels to everything, how far people take things. But I don't consider myself a costumer, and maybe I will down the road. I haven't been in the community long, so I haven't been to like, events and things that brought these communities together. I haven't had the opportunity just yet. So, I just find myself to just be a normal person who likes older clothing and style and fashion.
Lisa Woolfork 5:39
Yes, like an aficionado. But I really feel like you are setting the mark and doing it really beautifully. So, it looks like you started your journey to transforming your modern wardrobe to vintage about two to three years ago. And at that time, you were Red Ribbon Slim. What's the origin story of Red Ribbon Slim, and then what made you start this transformation?
Sewrena 6:01
Well, that was just, like, an old email account for high school. Because I'm younger, I've always grown up with tech. But is it my most favorite thing ever? No. So when it came to like, opening Instagram, or doing a YouTube, whatever, and I used that email; I just left everything that email because it's easy to remember, I'm not going to forget. But once my Instagram started to grow, I felt like that one was too long and irrelevant. It just, like, it needs to be shorter, something that people think Sewrena, because it's linked to my name. It blends well. As it started to grow, people didn't have to remember my whole email address. They could just be like, Oh, if you remember my Sewrena names, and you remember my actual name, and if you remember my actual name, you'll remember my screenname. So it just made more sense.
Lisa Woolfork 6:44
That is really beautiful. And it's absolutely accurate. Once you see Sewrena, it's like, you're not going to forget that. I mean, absolutely beautiful. So, what motivated you to start this beautiful transformation from more modern or contemporary today's clothes to the style that you're using now?
Sewrena 7:02
I felt comfortable with myself as a person. I've always been into vintage. When I was younger, late elementary school getting into junior high middle school, I played with my look. So I dressed 1970s most of the time. I always had my bell bottoms and my platforms, like that was my thing, I wore my hair naturally, in like a ponytail. But then as you get older, of course, you become more aware, right? No one cared that I dressed like I was in the seventies. And other students didn't care. We were all just weird little children, creative children create a mess around in life, right? You get to stay creative, and nobody cares. And then, like, when you get to middle school is when you start caring. And then, so, I guess at that point is when I brushed off what I wanted, and kind of just wanted to be ignored, and conformed. And I kind of went on like that for most of my life up until I made the switch where I felt comfortable. It was like: modern dress, while I do find it attractive on the people who like it, I find modern-dressing people to be just as beautiful, just as stylish. That's just their expression. I feel more comfortable this way. And I felt more comfortable presenting myself this way the older I got. So I was just like, I don't want to do that anymore. All the stars aligned. Three years ago, I had kids. My body started to change, so my old clothes didn't really fit the same. And it was just like, if ever there was a time to redo my wardrobe, it's right now because I have to replace my clothes anyway.
Lisa Woolfork 8:18
Wow, that is wonderful. So you decided to concentrate on the vintage timeframe. But you said because you time hop, you aren't prioritizing, like, everything has to be from 1945-55. You have a much broader expanse of time that you engage with. I wonder, because you take your vintage style inspiration from so many decades: do you have a favorite? And because your vintage interest spans such a wide frame, do you have a favorite decade that you like, Okay, this is my jam. I know when I get to these, I'm going to just go into overdrive and that's going to be it. So what is your favorite vintage decade that you sew from?
Sewrena 9:00
It started out with '50s for sure. I think that's the easiest one to get into because it's the most iconic, and that's the one that universally everyone likes, even if you don't dress vintage, because everyone likes the icons from the time. Everyone likes the Marilyns and stuff like that. So that was the easiest to get into. And then you have like Grease ‘70s, mid ‘50s. You have all these style references. But as I got into it, I started to appreciate the simplicity of the '40s, and then the Art Deco, the style of the '30s. And then I am more recently getting into '60s, because I have a lot of fabric in my stash that needs busting. They're like smaller cuts. So because the hemlines got a little shorter in the '60s and the more fitted dresses and stuff, so I've started to like the '60s a little bit more, but I don't think I have a favorite. I choose my style and seasons, if that makes sense. So, it's really hot right now, so I don't want to wear a whole lot of clothes. So I'm not really going to be wearing a whole lot of '50s right now, I'm going to be wearing more '40s or '60s where the silhouettes start to get a little bit smaller; the '40s, because of the war, there wasn't a lot of fabric. So a lot of the dresses take like two yards, so I'm just wearing less. So I gravitate to the '40s for the hotter seasons, and then I'll wear more '50s around December in the winter months where I can just pile on the layers and things like that. It's more seasonal for me. And when I get into the season, I'm great. Now this is where I'm going to have more of my '40s accessories, things accessible to me. And that's when I'm going to tailor my looks to certain things. So I don't really have a favorite because I love different things about different decades. I allow myself to love them all and not have to choose, because I don't have to choose. I don't live in any of those decades, I can do what I want.
Lisa Woolfork 10:41
I love it. I love that your creative genius is not going to be encumbered by the historical demand of the time, or whatever that might be. One of the things I appreciate about what you're describing here is that sometimes it seems for historical reenactments, there's this very strong appeal, it seems, to precision or accuracy. What some would call "canon" in the cosplay comics world. It has to be exactly the same, and goodness forbid you have this glove which they would never have had in that time - out, you bastard! It can be a lot of gatekeeping.
Sewrena 11:18
Yeah, that exists a lot.
Lisa Woolfork 11:19
And so that's something that I feel like, when I look at your work and speaking with you now, is that you have a much more open approach, it seems, than a closed one. Can you talk a little bit about that, as you were saying, it seems like some policing that seems to go on, and a lot of assumptions that people put onto you based on your wardrobe that I've seen you discuss? I have a feeling that people come to you and say, "Oh my goodness, thank goodness. I am so glad that someone here cares about values, and about the way America used to be a moral pillar. That's right. Look at all these - we got hot girl summer, and the girls with the booty cheeks showing and they are twerking. And finally, we've got Serena here, who is going to show us the way back to modesty and American values." And Serena is like, Oh, hold on now. Hold on.
Sewrena 12:06
Not this one.
Lisa Woolfork 12:08
Can you talk a little bit about that, about the way that your approach just seems so beautifully open? It feels open and warm and just inviting. And I think the word "authentic" is a word that gets absolutely beaten to death. It gets overused. There are some folks that will have you think that authenticity is a thing that you do, rather than who you are. And so I wonder if you could talk just a little bit about that, about some of the feedback that you've gotten, and some surprising responses - or maybe not so surprising.
Sewrena 12:39
Mm hmm. So first, I'm a creator first. I like to dress in the past, but I like to leave room for creativity. So if I'm following the set frame, I have to recreate this look, that doesn't leave room for my creativity and I might as well just be wearing modern clothes, like what's available to me, because this is what is available to me. I don't want to do that. I don't feel like I need to recreate...I think 100% historical accuracy is not realistic. Because just like today, I am a modern woman living in a modern world. And when history talks about our fashion, I will be excluded because the majority of the people don't dress like me. But I am still a modern person in 2022. I am not the first outlier in history, there are going to be people who were in the '50s who may have appeared better in the '40s. And they decided, I could cut my hair like everyone else, but this looks good on me. I believe those people exist. I know those people exist. I don't have that whole - to do something that, to me, is very unnatural. People have been people, everyone was not always fashionable. And not everyone had access to media back then; especially back then. Right? Not everybody was up to the times, not everybody had TV. Not everybody had access to the magazines, or stores that kept the magazines. There's no reason for me to be historically accurate, because this is probably reserved mostly for people who were rich, and movie stars who are trying to influence the masses like they do now. The most hip people are the people that you're going to see the most. I don't believe normal people were all hip. Most of them, yeah, but all of them probably not. There was probably a Serena of yesteryear who really liked '20s in the '40s, right? I don't feel like I have to be held to that, because that's not even true today. I've got people telling me like my home isn't historically accurate.
Lisa Woolfork 14:24
What? My gosh.
Sewrena 14:26
I have furniture for different decades. I do use mostly vintage items in my home. But also that's what I think makes it historically accurate. I've been in homes where the original owners lived in their mid-century homes, and they have things throughout the decades. They didn't throw away everything they owned because it wasn't a decade. My mom's not a vintage woman and she still has things from when I was a kid, so would that make her house less modern? It just doesn't make any sense. Your refrigerator's not going to be from the year you're in. Your stove isn't going to be from the year you're in. These are things that go with you until they don't work anymore. So those people, while they don't harm me, I feel like they suck the fun out of it for themselves. Like they are so miserable with what they have created for themselves that they're just, "You don't get to have fun. You don't get to have fun. Come be miserable with me." And just, I don't have to do that.
Lisa Woolfork 15:13
"Like, you know what, I could. I really could. But I'm not because I don't want to. I just don't want to."
Sewrena 15:20
So yeah, gatekeepers, they gatekeep themselves. Also, I'm not asking you to open the gate. Like, I'm going to do what I want to do regardless.
Lisa Woolfork 15:28
Exactly. It's like, "Oh, there's a gate here? I didn't even notice. I stepped right over that. I thought it was a curb, because your gate is not going to keep me out. And also, I like to think about the gate keeping all y'all in there. So please stay in and let me be free out here." I absolutely love that.
Hey, friends, hey. I wanted to share a little bit about the abundance of the Stitch Please podcast. The growth of the podcast has been so exponential that the work has exceeded what I am able to do. And this is where you come in. To retain the joy practice and the liberatory vision of the podcast, and to not have it reproduce capitalist extraction and overwhelm, I am recalibrating the Black Women Stitch Patreon for increased sustained financial support. You can find links to the Black Women Stitch Patreon in the show notes, and be on the lookout for more information as the recalibration unfolds. And thank you for your support.
I also wonder sometimes, and I think that I've seen this in some of your comments, that there's folks who, I think, want to imagine you - and this, I think, for me, returns to this shocking, in my opinion, comment that someone would say something about your house is historically inaccurate. Like, who are you, person on Instagram, to weigh in as if I have asked you, first of all, what do you think? I don't think in this entire caption I said, Your opinion really matters, and I will change my behavior based on it, so feel free to share any and every thought. At the same time. I think it's because you know, you're a modern Black woman, I'm a modern Nlack woman, and we have survived Trump presidency where there were folks who wanted to make America great again. And for some, the great again era was the '50s and the '40s before we had any civil rights. And so, I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about some of that kind of commentary that in some ways might not come from historical people, but just from regular folks who are like, Oh my gosh, I really remember - what was that show, I'm blanking on it, with the Fonz. Happy Days, right? "Oh, I remember Happy Days so well," or "I remember this, and the '40s, times were so much simpler then, and the farther you go back in the past, the better America was. And look at you, thank you so much for reminding us of our true values." And you're like, Um, not - I guess, how do you respond to that, when someone is like, Yes, the '50s were way better than now, and the '40s were way better than now. And you are proof of that.
Sewrena 18:04
Okay, so I try and make my page very open that I'm liberal to begin with. So I try not to entertain people individually when they have those types of comments, because a lot of times, you're not going to change their mind, and I'm not going to waste my time to do it. I just delete and block for the most part, because I've gotten into conversations in the past. And these comments are few and far between, because I do try and make it look very obvious that this is just the dress, and these are not my beliefs, so that people aren't really trying to chill out on my page who have that thought process. But every once in a while they'll slip into the cracks. And I try not to address them on an individual level because we're going to go back and forth, and they're going to feel like "Oh, such a shame. I thought you were a certain kind of way, blah blah blah," and I'm just not engaging that. I'm just not. Even back then, I am not the first person to have these views and things like that. I'm just more free to express them now than they were in the past. And I am not going to throw my people under the bus for your compliments. I'm not going to do that.
Lisa Woolfork 19:03
That's what makes you, at least in my mind, so inspirational. Just so inspirational. And I wanted to ask you a question about your inspiration. Like we don't see a whole lot of Black vintage inspiration. I think there's some pages; there's some photography that I really enjoyed looking at; the New York Public Library has this really great free database of images. It's wonderful. But in terms of like on the daily on IG, for example, it's hard to find a lot of Black vintage inspiration. Who inspires you and who do you hope to inspire?
Sewrena 19:37
I really like Diahann Carroll. I did a project for her for Black History Month. I got to read her biography, and I saw a lot of overlap. Not a whole lot. But like, the parts that mattered to me, there was a lot of overlap between the two of us. I thought hearing her narrate her own story was amazing, I was just blown away with that. Her approach to style and fashion, I do feel like to some point she was a little bit out of touch, and I hope to never be that woman. But in general, the way that she liked to dress and style things, and the bond that she had with her mother over those things, I loved that about her. I try not to be too inspired by people that I can't talk to. and usually that's not going to be celebrities; I try and find inspiration in everyday things and people. I'm still finding that as my platform grows, I find while my dress isn't usually inspired by people, the want and the need to create - I get that inspiration from other people. And other things, too. I really like crafting in general. So maybe sometimes I'll follow accounts, just like - why would you follow an account that is like, a garden account, you don't really garden here. But I find beauty in everything. If I see you making, I don't know, whatever you've decided to garden. And then like, those flowers make a lovely dress. I hope I find fabric like that. I try to find inspiration from all types of people and walks of life, because I don't want to live in like this tunnel of monotony. I accept inspiration from everywhere. And it doesn't have to be simply from where I craft and sew, but if you're looking for more vintage people on my Instagram, I have a full highlight of Black vintage creators, dressers, and I think I have a couple of costumers on there, too. So I have a lot of people stored there. And then I have another one, everyday normal vintage people on there too, because a lot of people like to pretend that we didn't really exist. So I wanted to not necessarily showcase Black celebrities, because somehow they can believe that all the Black celebrities and entertainers were there solely to make you happy but the normal everyday people were not there. So I have a whole highlight of just everyday Black people just being Black in America, whether it's going to church or posing next to the Christmas tree, you know, just being people. As I find new photos I add to that highlight. And as I find new creators, I add to that creator list, because people like, "I've never found, like, I've never seen another black vintage dresser." And I'm like, We're out there, there's not a lot of us. So I want to make sure that there's places where you can go through the whole spectrum of people.
Lisa Woolfork 22:07
And that's why you are both an inspiration and a resource. So thank you very much for that. And we'll make sure that folks know about your highlights and some of the other features you've described to us. We also see you working with a lot of vintage tools and patterns. Are there any techniques or tools in the vintage space that modern tools and techniques cannot compare to? Are there certain machines or certain features of the vintage sewing style that you're like, Oh my gosh, this is so much better than what we do today.
Sewrena 22:42
I like the patterns better, because the pattern information is, to me, more detailed. A lot of people say that they aren't, and that they are very scarce, the pattern instructions are. I didn't find that, because I started reading vintage patterns early on in my sewing career, so it wasn't like I had a whole lot of knowledge. And I was able to make the pattern. But one main difference I see between the vintage patterns and modern patterns, is the vintage patterns are really trying to make sure that you know how to use this pattern no matter what your skill set, because people weren't as wasteful back then. So these patterns will show you how to manipulate the pattern, it will show you how to tissue fit the pattern, it will show you if you have to cut the pattern and how to, like, splice and spread it. It will show you how to manipulate that pattern. Vintage patterns don't do that because they are multi-sized patterns for the most part. So if it doesn't fit. You just cut the other sides up, or you bring the sides in. That's good and all, but, like, what if you do actually need to manipulate the pattern? What if it's on the sides, but you need to do a small bust adjustment? What if you need form fitting, and you're not going to get that given to you with the pattern? You're going to have to probably buy a book, or look on YouTube. But with the vintage pattern, you bought the pattern and it gives you a little bit of an overview of how to do it with a diagram on how to do it and adjust your pattern yourself. And I think that goes a lot further, especially for me where those are the only patterns I use. So if I can only find one size that I need to manipulate that size to fit me, I think overall I end up with a stronger sewing foundation as someone who's a home seamstress, because I didn't go to school and I don't have a teacher to call. I can use what I have and figure it out and they're writing it out, and I think with modern patterns they give you so much that you don't have to build upon techniques if you don't want to, because it's all really just given to you. Like if you don't like the size, then buy the size, you know what I'm saying? Also, you had to learn more techniques using vintage tools because they are so simple and basic. I think with computerized sewing machines, the machines do so much that you don't have to learn a lot about your machine itself, or certain techniques. Some techniques are a little bit more manual with vintage sewing machines. I haven't come across anything that a modern machine cannot do that my machines can't do, right? But it depends on technique: do I know the techniques to get it done, because my machine isn't going to do it for me. I just get to immerse myself more into the craft. And I like that.
Lisa Woolfork 25:09
I love that. I'm a big fan of notions. I love notions. I love - well, notions. So that's rulers and seam allowance and seam gauges and tracing wheels and all these kinds of great stuff. And so, one of the things I often look for when I go to an estate sale is the sewing space because, as you said, people collect things over the years. And so that's one of the reasons I'm going to share these books that I shared earlier. But do you have a favorite notion from the past that you're like, "Oh, this one is my jam. And I'm glad I found this one. And I wouldn't give this one up." Do you have a particular notion that you encountered or use that you're like, This is great.
Sewrena 25:50
Maybe not much a notion, but machine attachment. But I do have a lot of vintage notions, I actually display them in my room. I have like a floor-to-ceiling pegboard. And I collect sewing machines and their tables that usually come with notions inside, so as long as they're in their original packaging, and I can, like, put them up like a little store. I have vintage elastics, I have tracing wheels. I will say the notions are a better quality because Singer's been around forever. I have a Singer gauged, sewing gauge, that I got when I first started. And then of course, I have a true vintage, two vintage Singers, the one on my modern one, that paint and the numbers, they're completely wiped. I've only had it for like, six years. And then the other one was brand new, never been used, and it's three times the age of the original one. So it's just to see how the quality has really gone down, because we're not expected to have kept our gauges or any of our things for so long that they're falling apart. Because we really live in a throwaway society now; maybe someone who sews now, they would never even have owned a gauge so long to notice that it's not that great.
Lisa Woolfork 26:52
Right. Right, that you can't really gauge it without numbers. You got to be able to see those.
Sewrena 26:57
Vintage shears...a lot of my vintage things, if they're still in the package, I like to leave them in the package. But if they're not, I will just go ahead and use it. So I'll use my shears, my pinking shears, all of the things I'll use as long as they're not in their packages.
Lisa Woolfork 27:08
Oh, that's wonderful. Now, what has been your most satisfying make? If you could think of just one thing, or top two, that you would be like, I'm making this and: wow. Do you have something that's just like, this is it.
Sewrena 27:22
My quilted housecoat that I made. Started it last year, finished it this spring, I think it was? Yeah, it's right here.
Lisa Woolfork 27:30
Oh, I'd love to see it. Oh, oh my gosh. Yes. Yes. I saw those photographs. Yes.
Sewrena 27:37
Button snaps, true vintage button snaps on the beginning, and then I have like regular buttons down here.
Lisa Woolfork 27:46
Oh, it's absolutely stunning. And the covered buttons too.
Sewrena 27:50
Yeah. Covered button snaps, and then like, regular covered button snaps. Two-tone fabric, we have...
Lisa Woolfork 27:57
Oh, it's stunning. It is just stunning.
Sewrena 28:01
And all the quilting was handquilted by me.
Lisa Woolfork 28:04
Oh my good gosh! You all, if you're not a Patreon supporter, get on the Patreon because first of all, #PayBlackWomen. And second, you get to see this. I mean, y'all, I seen the photographs. I've seen her modeling it. Her holding it, and with this beautiful smile on her face of satisfaction? Oh my gosh, the lighting. It looks so clean in there too, the sewing is so clean.
Sewrena 28:31
My best work. Hands down my best work. It took me some time because I was really nervous throughout the whole process, because you know, it’s not very forgiving. With all this quilting, if I screwed up, then I'd have to start over. Also, I usually try to stick to budget-friendly projects, and this was not that, so I wanted to take great care. So it took me a really long time just to get over my nerves, like, this is definitely a lot of doubt. I feel like I was able to combine all the years, all my efforts, into one project and this was it. I'm really excited. I'm really proud of it. I love housecoats when I'm not dressed up, to like leave the house, and I'm wearing a housecoat. So I've invested in having nice housecoats because I still want to look nice even when I'm dressed down.
Lisa Woolfork 29:16
Listen, y'all, whatever image in your mind the word housecoat conjures for you. Because I know what housecoat conjures for me. Because when my Nana and Mimi, they would put on their house coats, they weren't going anywhere. It was a housecoat for the house. It didn't look like what we're seeing right now. Let's just say, it does not look, like, you know, wow. You all, to see this image, and to see the joy on Serena's face, and to look at this gorgeous housecoat - and she says there's a lot of doubt in it? Like, we see nothing. And this is the difference between process and outcome, that the process might have a lot of, Oh my gosh, ahhh, you know? But the outcome, it's really beautiful. And even the process you describe is beautiful. Because as you said before, satin is not forgiving. It's kind of like leather. When you poke a hole in it, hello hole. That's it. That says like, Hey, you're the one that put the hole here. I guess you wanted it for a reason. And so, you did so beautifully. It's really quite wonderful. I wanted to show you the books. Y'all, I showed her these earlier, but I think I'll put pictures of these up. What I'm showing are actual McGraw Hill textbooks that I found at the estate sale from 1956 on creative clothing, construction and tailoring. And so, I'm also a nerd and I love stuff. I remember when I was a kid, we had the set of World Book Encyclopedias, and I would actually read them. Because the books were just so pretty! It was for kids. I forgot the name of what that was. But this has been such a beautiful conversation. And I'm so grateful. I want to ask you the question that I asked all the guests that come on the show in the last few months: the slogan of the Stitch Please podcast is, we will help you get your stitch together. Serena, I'm going to ask you, what advice would you have for our listening audience to help us get our stitch together?
Sewrena 31:13
First of all, never believe you're ever done learning. I hardly consider myself a seamstress. I always feel like that's a word for someone who has it all figured out. And I realized that like, I'm never going to be that person, because I want to learn so much. I'm always going to be learning. And one thing that really got me here is to try. I started out with no teacher, no real direction, and the only thing that got me here was trying. The willingness to try, the willingness to fail. And that housecoat I was terrified of, but I was like, I'm going to try. And I kept trying until it was done. So don't underestimate the power of just trying, because you really don't know if you're capable until you actually try. Trying is my thing. Like if you haven't tried yet, then what are you waiting for?
Lisa Woolfork 31:57
And on that note, Sewrena, thank you. Where can we find you on the socials? Where can folks find you and support you?
Sewrena 32:04
So you can find me on Instagram at @sewrina_ . And then you can also find me on YouTube at Sewrena, I don't upload that frequently on YouTube. Vlog content is extremely time-consuming for me. But I did have the making of that beautiful housecoat on there. And you can hear in real-time, like, me going through the steps in the process. Mostly Instagram is where I'm most frequent. That's when I'm on there the most, because it's so easy to just pop on and then pop off in my busy mom lifestyle. But yeah, you can find me in those three places right now.
Lisa Woolfork 32:34
Thank you so much. This was wonderful.
Sewrena 32:37
Thank you so much for having me.
Lisa Woolfork 32:40
Hey, everybody, look, I'm experimenting with bonus content for Patreon people. Because I need more Patreon people, and one of the reasons why I think so is Serena, in one of your posts. You were talking about either a fabric, I'm not sure what it was because you said, "This is something, I got this from this store, or from this company or whatever, that I am not paid to mention."
Sewrena 33:01
Probably everything.
Lisa Woolfork 33:05
And I was like, Oh my gosh. I don't know why it clicked for me when you said this is a company I am not paid to mention. And I mean, I say #PayBlackWomen, I believe in #PayBlackWomen. I'm a Patreon supporter of Black women, artists and podcasters and whatever, because I believe in that. But when you said, I am not being paid to mention this company, so I am not mentioning this company, I was like...
You've been listening to Stitch Please, the official podcast of Black Women Stitch, the sewing group where Black lives matter. We appreciate you joining us this week and every week for stories that center Black women, girls and femmes in sewing. We invite you to join the Black Women Stitch Patreon community with giving levels beginning at $5 a month. Your contributions help us bring the Stitch Please podcast to you every week. Thank you for listening. Thank you for your support, and come back next week and we'll help you get your stitch together.