age is just a number and style is ageless!

Thursday 6 August 2020 for Sewover50: This week in Part 2, Karen delves more into finding your signature style. Of course, we did get side tracked and talked about online fabric shopping as well. The two topics go hand in hand.

Thursday 30 July 2020 for Sewover50: Many of you will know Karen as IntoStitches on Instagram through Sewover50. Part 1 of her podcast is about her sewing history and how sewing gets her out of her dark times.

Have a look at Karen’s Signature style board on Pintrest for more ideas.

Here’s a tip I love – “AGE IS ONLY A NUMBER”!  If you want to have some fun, Google “What Not to Wear Over 50” 😱 There are quite a few articles, some with helpful pointers, but way more that made me realize, we have a lot of RULE BREAKERS amongst our community – and I LOVE IT.  When it comes to trying a trend or rocking a piece that catches our eye, many of us aren’t letting a number prevent us from trying something new. You’ll hear about this in next week’s podcast.

Karen has been a guest editor for our Sewover50 community. Her posts were about finding your style.

Hi, it’s Karen,
Thanking you for giving me the honor of guest editing for this amazing Instagram community.  I realize that many of us have found our way to sewing through a variety of roads.  To be perfectly honest my beginnings weren’t to noble, I had to prove to myself that if the 8-year-old across the street was going to learn to sew, I was going to learn to sew as well, and that’s how it all started. Pride and fear-of-missing-out may have gotten me started, but passion, the joy seeing a flat piece of fabric become a three-dimensional garment, and my love of fashion and style, kept me going, growing and experimenting for the next 56 years.

I have been lucky enough to work in the Style Maker Fabrics booth at Sew Expo for the last 3 years and getting to meet people who love sewing and help them pick fabric is like a high for me.

I’m blessed to be part of the SewOver50 community and have made many wonderful friends.

Karen’s background:
Karen has never had time for a blog because she works over 50 hours a week in a commercial mortgage banking business.
Karen bought my first sewing machine in 1974 on a layaway plan which landing her a second sewing job.
Married in 1976, moved to Virginia and got her third sewing job teaching classes, and making draperies.
Moved to Washington and Karen had her own Custom Interior business working for interior designers from 1978 – 1994
Her husband got very sick and she had to get a job that she could count on financially which is how Karen ended up in the finance industry and sewing everything has been her therapy for the last 25 years.
Karen loves fashion and style.
Karen does commercial modelling on the side for Seattle Models Guild (you can see her on their website).
She belonged to ASG for a few years but can’t attend meetings much because of her hectic work schedule.

Her Style tips IG post! Part 1:
Let’s talk about STYLE. I love fashion tips, trends, styling secrets and helpful advice. 
I thought it would be fun to see how many of our group are intuitively applying a Style tip you may or may not be familiar with: “THE RULE OF THREE”.
It’s quite simple and most of you probably already practice this daily.  It involves pulling out your top and bottom or dress, then adding an additional piece or two (depending on what you started with) which takes your clothes and turns them into a stylish outfit.  So, what is the third piece?  Here are a few options:
Blazers, Vests, Cardigans, Jackets, Accessories – hats, scarves, necklaces, belts…..statement shoes. 
Sometimes an extra piece/accessory takes it up even another notch.
I realize that many times when posting something new, we are focusing on the details of a piece we just made, so we may not show a full outfit (which is why we call ourselves “Sewover50”) but I do always enjoy when people talk about the plans they have to style it up In Real Life.
Let’s take a look at a few of the folks I found that are knocking this styling concept out of the park (don’t forget to check their tags for more inspiration):
Couldn’t write this post without a nod to my favorite color YELLOW 💛
1 @ellensewingpassion Ellen has paired a very stylish top with a matching denim skirt and taken it over the top with her statement yellow boots!
@rxforstyle Gwendolyn’s yellow dress (it’s actually a skirt and top) with the addition of some great colorful accessories, along with some red lining and statement shoes is just styling perfection.
2 @frkwibergab_sewing Susanna’s Street Style Bomber, skirt and top look, is still going to be great when she takes off her overcoat and scarf
@pucciemma Emma’s jeans jacket and statement earrings give her skirt and tee-shirt a very cool vibe 😎
3 @lynnsewsnow Lynn looks perfectly put together after adding her third piece statement necklace, and for some cooler weather (or an office job) she can change up the look with this cardigan!

@workspacefads Sarah had the three pieces going strong even before adding the red accessories ❤️ @marcialoisriddington What can I say – Marcia Lois is a “Rule of Three” Queen
@sheilasewsherclothes I love how Sheila has taken this classic two piece black top and pant look and elevated it with this perfect sized statement necklace and the fun shoes.
@raquel_sewing_knitting_in_asia Look what happens when Raquel adds a woven hat, tote and necklace to a fun summer dress. (These two gals look cool, comfy, stylish, and ready for anything the day may bring.)
Simple formula: black pants, top of your choice, statement necklace – Boom Done 💥
@finishedseams Maria with her mustard and black, and Carol from a Sew Kansas @sewingworkshop in her pink Picasso top and amazing necklace are nailing this formula.
@madame.ete WOW – I discovered Alicia while searching through thousands of hashtags and all I can say is go check her feed out! She definitely has a gifted Styling eye 😍
Can’t end without including some of the SewOver50 Style Divas I always keep my eye on for inspiration:
@groovygreylook I want to see her collection of glasses – don’t they make this simple, fun look pop with the addition of those great earrings 👏👏
@blakandblanca styles a lot of her looks with fun accessories, wears a lot of hats, makes great use of color and almost always has her shades 😎 She is just the queen of cool!
So there you have it – a bit of styling fun from me. I had a blast scrolling through all of your posts. The best part is, when we see styles on the street, in the shops, magazines, movies, etc… we can copy the ideas ourselves! Because we are special and we are MAKERS 😘