For years, 4-H clubs in Maine have helped youngsters learn good old-fashioned do-it-yourself skills like farming, shearing sheep or raising pigs.
These days, you can add sewing to the list.
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The fact that sewing is being taught in 4-H clubs around Maine is a telling sign of the craft’s resurgence. But it’s not the only sign. New sewing businesses are opening, where lessons are taught and group sewing is encouraged. More youngsters are seeing sewing as a gateway to a career in fashion, and more high schools and colleges are offering fashion-based sewing courses.
And more young people say they want to learn sewing as a creative outlet.
One of those is Nada Ibrahim, 18, of Portland, who took a fashion course at Portland Arts and Technology High School to learn to sew, to be able to make things by hand, and to see things in a different way. She hopes to go to college for engineering, but thinks her sewing and fashion skills will help her in whatever she does.
“It helps me to see all things in a more creative way,” said Ibrahim.
People who teach sewing, and parents of young people, say sewing is making a comeback partly because it fits two huge trends — do-it-yourself projects and creating things with one’s hands. Others note the influence of fashion-based TV shows such as “Project Runway,” which depict people who can sew as creative talents — artists, even.
“There’s been such a steady increase in ‘do-it-yourself’ projects, so that’s part of it, but I also think because so many people have sit-down, data-entry jobs, they have this real desire to make things with their hands,” said Cheslye Ventimiglia, who teaches fashion and sewing continuing education classes at the Maine College of Art in Portland. “It’s a form of self-expression.”
A few years ago, Ventimiglia had more middle-aged people wanting to sew, maybe to mend clothes. But lately her classes are filled with younger adults, mostly women, who never learned to sew from their mothers or in school.
HIP TO BE THERE
For a time, sewing was not cool. Many of us remember when it was forced on youngsters as part of home economics classes, and it was viewed by feminists in a negative light.
“Maybe with more girls playing sports and more mothers working, sewing skipped a generation or two,” Ventimiglia said. “But I’m happy to see that there’s something of a renaissance in sewing right now.”
Sewing as a 4-H club activity has developed organically during the past few years. Clubs in Maine are often organized around the interest of the volunteers who run them or the young people in the clubs, said Sarah Sparks, a 4-H professional with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.
Lately, Sparks said, more clubs are being organized around fiber arts generally and sewing specifically. It’s gotten to the point where an annual fashion revue for 4-H members in Cumberland County is held so that youngsters can show off what they’ve made, whether it be clothes, blankets or a jacket for their dog. The most recent was held in Gray in March, and drew some 30 participants.
“In the past few years, I’d say the number of kids we get for the fashion review has easily doubled,” said Sparks. “I think for most of the kids, it’s a form of creativity.”
Jane Krasnow, who teaches the fashion marketing course at PATHS, said many of her students see it as a possible career, while others like Ibrahim are looking to be more creative. Krasnow’s class also recently held a fashion show where students displayed their creations.
“I think there are fashion shows on TV that have piqued kids’ interest,” said Krasnow, “and I think for some, they see this as a possible career, a way to get the skills to be entrepreneurial by making something, marketing it, selling it.”
Giselle LaFrance, 33, has noticed the growing interest in sewing among younger people and decided to open a “sewing lounge” in the State Theatre building in Portland called The Atelier Stitch. She offers weekly lessons to students as young as age 6, and is planning a youth fashion class.
LaFrance also offers her own sewing services for clothing shops and the general public. But her specialty is sewing instruction.
“D.I.Y. culture has really blown up in the past few years. Kids are being taught how to care for their environment and be self-sufficient. So much of what we use every day is held together with stitches,” said LaFrance. “I think that the idea that you can take a raw material and turn it into something useful that you made with your own hands is incredibly gratifying and rewarding, which is what kids strive for.”
Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at: rrouthier@pressherald.com
Twitter: RayRouthier
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