Meet your Sewcialists Editorial Team!

Running the Sewcialists is a lot of work – but with these folks on board, I know we can keep growing!

Meet your Editorial Team!

Hi. I’m Becky. No, the irony is not lost on me that I’m a middle-class, 40-something CIS, hetero, “standard-block sized” (whatever that means), white woman named Becky on a site called Sewcialists. I invite you to laugh with me, find the humor in activism, and use it to fuel positive change. I hope together we can have those uncomfortable talks, because it isn’t all sunshine, unicorns, and rainbows, is it? I would define my job here as: “Inclusivity is an action.” Let’s talk about messy life stuff, and finding your style and sewing groove in all that mess. Want to find me outside of here? Instagram is a good bet. My life is on @sewbeckyjo and I launched @portlandfrocktails this year.

Click here to read some Sewciaists posts Becky wrote this year! 

Hi, I’m Kate, a London based home seamstress, textile addict and sustainability enthusiast. My mission is to live a more earth friendly life through my clothes and sewing.  I want to understand and demystify what is behind the fabrics in our clothes and the stuff we sew with everyday. Where does it come from? How is it made? If we knew, would we act any differently? On my blog Time to Sew you will find textile information; interviews with fellow makers and those driving positive change in fashion; and opinion pieces on making our sewing hobby more sustainable. I also co-hosted the recent #makeyourstash sewing challenge to encourage using fabric already in the stash before buying anything new.

For the rest, I am a 30 something that works in the City of London, mother to a delightful toddler and girlfriend of a handsome Dutchman. My sewing makes can be found on instagram: @timetosew. And I’ve just started tweeting about sustainable fashion and general environmental issues here: @timetosew_uk

Check out two posts Kate wrote for the Sewcialists about sustainable sewing!

Hey!  I’m Chloe and as you can tell, I don’t own a printer 🙂

I am an originally-English, now partially Taswegian (it’s totally a thing) who is living in Sydney and loving it.  I have two small-ish people and a husband for company, plus a strong need for a dog around at all times!  I have been sewing for a long time, but have only recently moved to sewing almost entirely for me!  Loving that too 🙂

I love the sewing community and how it reaches out and gives you a high five just when you feel a bit crap and insignificant.  I like how sewing combines the emotional and the science and the brain power and the collaboration all in one – and that’s a bit how I feel about the Sewcialists too.

You can mostly find me on Instagram as chloe_deadlycraft and also less often at http://deadlycraft.blogspot.com.

Chloe wrote a lot of Sewcialists posts this year, which you can check our here!

Hey Everyone! I’m Martha aka GariChild, born and raised in New York City but rooted in the foundation created by my Guatemalan parents. First generation Garifuna princess (declared by me because I am totally convinced I come from royalty and I don’t need papers to prove so #winkwink).

I’ve always been intrigued by the art of sewing garments but continuously found a way to quiet the voice within and push the thought aside for years. Learning how to sew has been such a rewarding experience and I absolutely love it!!! The sewing community amazes me every day and I am always inspired. I am self-taught and still learning which can definitely be an adventure as I traverse the art of sewing for my curvy body. There are days I get it right and then there are times I get it ohhhhh so wrong but I can only hope that I too can be an inspiration to someone else to just try. You can follow my sewing journey and shenanigans on Instagram @GariChild.

Can’t wait to see what adventures we get into with my fellow Sewcialists😍

Martha wrote a great post for the Sew Stripes challenge!

Hi! I’m Anya Cooper, and I can be found @anna.zoe.sewing and anna-zoe.net. I am sewing out of Calgary, Alberta, but I was born and raised in St. Petersburg, Russia. I moved to Canada when I was 17.  I started sewing as a child, watching the women in my family sew. My grandmother and mother taught me how to sew and the basics of garment making. I took a sewing class as a 12 year old, and I can’t remember much about it other than a pair of red velvet pants I tried to make!

I share the house with my husband, two dogs and a cat. During the day I am a contracts analyst. I used to dabble in paining,dance, martial arts and horseback riding, but decided to narrow the focus down quite a bit. Besides sewing, I love wood working, upholstery and renovating our old house!

Go read Anya’s Sewcialists posts here!

I’m Gillian, your friendly Head Sewcialist! I’ve been working on Sewcialists since 2013, when it was founded by some friends and I. Never doubt what you can accomplish on the internet if you just give your ideas a try!

I blog at Crafting a Rainbow, where I make comfy, colourful knit clothing. As I explained in this post at the start of the Who We Are series, I fit the “mainstream” mould in many ways… but in other ways I feel I represent some minorities within the sewing world! I’m cusp-sized, and was an Editor for the Curvy Sewing Collective; I’m Canadian, not American; I’ve lived with chronic pain that affect my hobbies; and as an ESL teacher, I work with students who are isolated because of language, nationality, and religion. Running the Sewcialists lets me combine my passions for social justice and facilitating conversations all in one!

I’ve written an awful lot of Sewcialists posts, so instead I’ll link you to one of my favourites! 

And that’s the team! Anya, Chloe and Becky are permanently on the editorial team – they’ve all proven that they are hardworking, organised, and able to make time for Sewcialists projects over the last year! We are so happy to have Martha and Kate on board from July-December 2018, then we’ll invite some other Sewcialists to take over those rotating positions.

Honestly, it was so hard and so easy to pick this team! We are spoiled for choice here at the Sewcialists, with all of our amazing volunteers! There are so many people that I know could step in and help out. In the end, I tried to pick a team that represented a range of skill sets (business, IT, writing, and more) and also represented different countries, backgrounds, and experiences. We’ve got exciting plans coming up!

Say hello to our editors! And come back on Monday to join in our first annual Sewcialists Survey!