Sewing friends with Julie
Tuesday 18 January 2022: Gabriele and Julie are sewing friends from the SewOver50 community.
Gabriele reached out to Julie though a DM. She helped Julie become more comfortable with general Instagram functionality like stories and chatting.
In part 1, you’ll hear how their sewing friendship has grown and grown.
Thursday 28 January 2021: Gabriele admitted that her Instagram name was a twist of words developed by her wonderful husband.
Her sewing journey all started with Gabriele’s objective to learn how to sew couch cushions.
Why did Gabriele want to make cushions in the first place? That came about when Gabriele and her husband left their apartment in Frankfurt in 2010. Her husband had a big pile of old ties that he wanted to throw away. These were ties he had collected since he had first started working. Some ties were wildly patterned ones and he had some really high-priced designer pieces, too. All the ties were silk ties.
I thought these ties were far to pretty as fabric and one should make cushions out of them. So they went into storage and stayed stored for a few years.
In 2016 I saw the sign in Lara @1000stoff store window, that she offered sewing classes. So I started to learn “the trade”, all my first makes were pillows. The silk ties we had were still in storage.
‘I really enjoyed – and still do – stitching the cushions together. Front and backside always in different fabrics. And if possible, include piping. Most will be made from more than two different fabrics – I really enjoy matching fabric types and colours. Not only in pillows, but in everything I sew.
At one point I thought I could make a business out of it. But that failed. People have the 20€ Ikea price tag in mind – which will just pay for fabric, zipper and tax, but not cover any work I put in.
So, I increased my offering over time to making bags, hats and clothes. For myself, husband, nieces, family and friends. I have a small but loyal circle of friends who regularly order pieces. I ask them to pay the cost of the material and donate an amount they find appropriate to a charity of their choosing. Some send her their receipts – makes me very proud how generous they are!
After Lara stopped offering sewing classes, I was on my own for a while.
Participated in two sewing camps, where I had to humbly notice that I am still a very innocent novice when it comes to sewing.
So since last fall (2020), I have a tutor – Lore. Altogether, I have enjoyed 12 sessions with her and learned a lot.
My tutor is a trained dressmaker, certified seamstress /tailor or as we say in Germany “Schneidermeisterin”. This involves 3 years of vocational training and then another 2 or 3 years to take the final exam for the “Master” – which is a word used in the sense of the old guilds.’
Here is a link to the Grimms story about the Brave little tailor. This is a link to the story about Frau Holle, or the lazy girl.
You’ll hear about how Gabrielle and Julie Yost became close friends and have been twinning on Instagram ever since!
Sew organised style podcast 
[…] to keep producing sewing patterns that are different to mainstream patterns. You’ll hear both Gabriele and Julie talk about their first coat twinning experience in their […]
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[…] to keep producing sewing patterns that are different to mainstream patterns. You’ll hear both Gabriele and Julie talk about their first coat twinning experience in their […]
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[…] to keep producing sewing patterns that are different to mainstream patterns. You’ll hear both Gabriele and Julie talk about their first coat twinning experience in their […]
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