You Can Find Me in Da Club…the Sewing Club

I’m pretty sure when Fifty Cent sang his famous song “In Da Club” he didn’t mean the Sewing Club. Well in this case you CAN find me in da club. American Sewing Guild, that is.

One of my personal goals for my new birthday year is to put myself out there a little more. Sewing has been a solitary “sport” and I’ve been fine doing things solo in the comfort of my own home. Although I’ve learned so much about sewing on the internet- specifically through patternreview.com and through reading books- the need for IN PERSON interaction is vital.

One can go crazy staying home all day and not talking to anyone. Or in my case, talking to the dolls (totally joking, LOL) Humans are social beings after all.

Last August, out of curiosity, I attended my first American Sewing Guild neighborhood group meeting.

What is American Sewing Guild? ASG is a nationwide sewing club made of local chapters. Each local chapter has neighborhood groups. It’s really neat because once you pay the yearly membership fee, you can attend all the meetings in the entire chapter…or anywhere nationwide! It’s actually really cool because some neighborhood groups are more garment based and others are more quilting focused. Others focus on learning new techniques. Some even use that meeting time just to sew with each other. Since I don’t really have a sewing niche, I find value in all of them.

Some Things I Loved:

1 Learning about everyone’s favorite notions. Some I had never even heard of! I basically created a shopping list, haha.

2. Show and Tell. Seeing what other people are making gets me so excited and inspired. Some even asked questions for help on a certain part of their project. Everyone was so willing to explain the solution. I’m so grateful for those who are so generous with their knowledge!

3.  Charity Sewing. ASG uses their talents to help others around the world. This is something I’d like to do more of.

4.  Sew-along Activities. My local chapter just did a rope bowl event. They took clothesline and sewed it around and around and around and created a bowl. How cool!

Upon arriving home I felt like I had found my people. I Immediately paid the membership fee to officially join my local ASG. (The first two meetings are free) I really should have joined a long time ago.

I enjoyed the experience so much I went to ANOTHER neighborhood meeting the following week. This group was smaller but equally fun. They even invited me out to lunch after the meeting and I got to know the members a little more. It was wonderful!

Being able to share the sewing excitement with others in person really makes my heart feel full. It is a great feeling. I plan to get more involved in my local chapter and to make more sewing friends. 🙂

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P.S. Speaking of putting yourself out there, I’m trying to post more on Instagram if you’d like to follow me there: @rosiesewstoo