cleo

I also married and became a mother. In that time, I discovered creative employment could be satisfying, but it was not a replacement for personal creativity. 

I was browsing Etsy one day and saw a pants sewing pattern with an accompanying YouTube video. The world of sewing finally and fully cracked open for me. It was an inspired moment and I ran with it! Sewing was now necessary in my life and my artistic well was filled. I also took photos and started drawing again, and of course, editing videos. I knew enough about a lot of different things, and I could combine it all into the story I wanted to tell.

What was different that I didn’t tap into this in years prior? I am not sure. I can look back and see where I got caught up and held myself back. Maybe you can, too. We all go on journeys in life, yet sewing was always there in the background for me. A part of my background. I was simply ready to claim it as “my thing”.

I decided to make sewing videos to share the process and highlight the beauty in taking things one step at a time. It is not fiddly work that we do! It is attention to detail and care put in from the person behind it. I wanted that all to be visible and seen. Action and intuition.

My hope is to inspire and encourage someone who feels daunted, overwhelmed, underwhelmed, or simply in need of some appreciation. I know it is not easy to keep taking these small steps in any creative practice, sewing or otherwise. You've carried it for so long. It will all come together somehow.

I am honored you are here. Let's stay in touch!

I WORKED AS A graphic designer, visual merchandiser, junior art director, and project manager.

I knew I wanted to make things but my path was not obvious to me. In school, I tried to find my identity in creative writing, drawing, and photography but never developed any of those into a consistent habit. 

When I started college at a traditional university, I felt lost. I sought out creative environments and wanted to be around creative people. I left college early and needed to earn a living. I worked my way to a job as a publicity assistant at a book publisher. It was a creative and positive environment where everyone had an appreciation for artistic and creative visions. It inspired me to take mine, whatever they were, more seriously. In my small apartment then, I had a basic sewing machine and a film camera. I continued to try to turn both into “my thing.” 

I eventually left publishing to finish my degree, at an art school this time. I liked recording and editing videos in film classes, learned how to use an industrial sewing machine in a fashion course, and my senior thesis was an installation I stitched by hand. Sewing and videos would continue to be themes for me.

I finished college and went on to work in creative departments for retailers and agencies in the US and the UK.

SEWING BECAME A THING I KNEW HOW TO DO BUT IT OFTEN REQUIRED MORE THAN I OFTEN HAD AVAILABLE: MONEY, SPACE, OR A PLAN. 

There was an atmosphere of creativity in my home growing up. My grandparents were prolific oil painters and their artwork covered the walls of our house. My dad was into science, engineering, gardening, photography–and his workshop was proof of this! I spent countless days exploring boxes of mechanical parts and remnants from his projects.

My mom was a sewist and made nearly all of our clothes for a time. There wasn’t a household task my parents couldn't do themselves. They set a high bar for a do-it-yourself work ethic and creative problem solving. 

It would be decades before I would even consider sewing clothes myself, but the first hint was when I was ten years old. I was pinching the fabric on pants I was wearing, wanting them to fit in a particular way. I figured I could use the sewing machine in our living room to make it happen. I didn’t call it ‘tailoring’, but the concept was there. I asked my dad to show me how to use the sewing machine and I altered my first pair of pants.

My sewing self-education had begun.

this is my story.

I make sewing videos and offer ideas to help inspire all of us TO TAKE ACTION TOWARDS A CREATIVE LIFE.

Hi there, I'm Cleo.