Courage

Courage was something I needed when it came to wanting to become a tailor in the arts of sewing. Throughout my years of growing up I had seen that men were to work outside and women do the house work, the very sad stereotypes that the world faded to. When I was growing up I use to watch my grandma in her sewing room stitching and working with the fabrics and threads that poured from the drawers of her sewing table. My mother was another seamstress of the family and she also worked at seaming together fabrics to create items that could be used in our household. When I was older I found out that many of the stereotypes that seemed to be the "norm" were very different in my family. A lot of my family members had passed away before I was born or when I was very young. Now we still had the men in my family that worked outside, but I also learned that many of the males in my family also cooked in the kitchen with my great grandma. One uncle that stood out to me in particular was the one that worked the arts of tailoring, he was a great tailor that made many works of art such as buckskin dresses, moccasins and many other native themed art pieces. Many of my family members didn't go by the stereotypes of the past, lots of my family seemed to do the opposite. Many of my uncles worked the kitchen as well as outside, many of my aunties worked outside as well as the kitchen. 

Wanting to become a tailor was put into my mind when I was forced to take a sewing class in grade nine. This was the only time I decided to try out the works with a sewing machine. It took awhile to get into the whole ideal of sewing and working with fabrics, this was a big step to take and was a very risky step I was taking. After the class was done I looked the other way and decided not to keep working with it. It wasn't till my grandma asked me to help her with curtains that she needed hemmed up that I took a interest in the art of tailoring and sewing. After helping I took a very big interest in sewing and tailoring, so I worked up the courage to start sewing and working with fabrics to create large works of art that I didn't know I was going to love. 

It took me a week to get fully into sewing; I started sewing dresses and quilts for the fun of it and loved how I could take a piece of fabric and by simple cutting it and sewing it together the pieces and make something that was wearable. I created so many garments that I started taking them apart and reworking them into other pieces. I had to work up the courage to show others what I could create and showing others was a big step that really bothered me for some reason. Taking such a big risk got me to work on many different projects which really got me into the tailoring mood even more.  Taking risks and jumping into sewing head on gave me the chance to have my work shown in a production that was showing in the Yates theatre. I had made a corset and a few dresses for the production and it featured them on the "big stage". By taking this risk I was able to show others what I could do and seeing that they weren't bother by a male sewer it really showed me that it wasn't the big problem that I thought it was. 

Now I work on gowns of period clothing, my favourite years of fashion are 1830-1860's. A big lesson I also learned is that many great fashion artist were males. Now I have the courage to do anything when it comes to sewing and working with fabrics.  It took a lot of courage to step outside my comfort zone but taking the risky step I have been able to do tons and experience lots of new things that I would have never done without my interest in sewing.     

By Jacob Spear Chief