If you know where the fabric came from and you can choose organic or free-trade materials, and you are the laborer, you can have more control over your impact on the world and you can lighten your footprint. Lastly, I think we are in an era of personalization, when just buying mass-produced items everyone in the neighborhood has is finally losing its cache, and instead, when you make something for yourself to wear or to decorate your home, you can express your own personality through your creation rather than passively allowing a corporation to do it for you.
Tina S
Random Facts About You?All the buttons I use are vintage - either from my mother's button box, antique stores, or button collectors
I love cats but keep living with dogs.
I love sour-tasting things, like lemons and vinegar, and I will add them to just about anything.
I live in a beach town but only go to the beach a few times a year.
What got you started crafting?
I grew up in the Bay Area but in a very small coastal town at the end of a dirt road without much in the way of TV or other passive forms of entertainment. I was a big reader (still am!), but if I was with friends or my sister, if we weren’t outside playing, then we were usually playing at some project or another. I embroidered a sampler under my mother’s supervision when I was about six or seven, and have dabbled in various projects involving needle and thread ever since.
In terms of the items I am selling in my shop now, it is a recent obsession! When I was about 12, I began a sewing project under my mother's guidance: she quilts, mends, embroiders, and knits, so she has lots of fabric and threads. My friend and I decided to make a vest out of yoyos... Last fall, my mom found this old project, and rather than throw it out, I decided to repurpose it. I thought of all the fabric-button and fabric-flower hairpins and pins I had seen and decided to try it with yoyos, and made a few pins and hairpins for my sister and cousins for Christmas in 2010. They liked them a lot, and I still had tons of yoyos left over, so I thought I could try to make them and sell them to other people, too! A couple of my very creative friends have shops on Etsy, so I thought it seemed like a great venue to try out. I have had a lot of fun with it in the last couple months, and hope to keep it up for a while.
What is your source of inspiration?
The found and thrifted and upcycled materials and buttons I have found. I like being constrained by what I can find cheaply and repurpose.
What have you made recently?
I made a lovely tea-stained, rust-orange, and brown flower pin. My mom had this big, old wooden button in her collection, and I knew it would look great with equally vintage-y fabric, so I picked out the perfect soft orange yoyo and paired it with a length of cotton I had dyed with black tea to age it.
Where do you sell your crafts presently?
Etsy!
Why are handmade crafts important to you?
I think there is a huge trend toward DIY in fashion and in culture in the wake of the recession, and knowing how to sew means I can save money by hemming my own pants, repairing the holes in my jeans, or adding new decorations to refresh something old. Beyond that, in an era when so many of the clothing and accessories we buy are made in China or other developing nations, where human rights are sacrificed to make our clothes cheaper, I think there is also an ethical reason to turn to making items yourself. If you know where the fabric came from and you can choose organic or free-trade materials, and you are the laborer, you can have more control over your impact on the world and you can lighten your footprint. Lastly, I think we are in an era of personalization, when just buying mass-produced items everyone in the neighborhood has is finally losing its cache, and instead, when you make something for yourself to wear or to decorate your home, you can express your own personality through your creation rather than passively allowing a corporation to do it for you.
Find Me
LocationSanta Barbara, CA
Email Address
Tina S
Personal Website
http://www.stitchingincircles.blogspot.com
Store Website
http://stitchingincircles.etsy.com
@stitchNcircles
