November’s theme month is The Giving Challenge (#givesewmuch). Here at Sewicalists, we often look for wide-open, accessible challenges that can be interpreted in multiple ways, to make sure that as many people can take part as possible. The flip-side is that keeping it broad can make challenge ideas harder to grasp hold of and feel cohesive.
To help with this, our announcement post had a bunch of great ideas and suggestions for how to take part in The Giving Challenge, in terms of both charity sewing suggestions, and gift-giving for special individuals in our lives. We are also going to be posting a few ideas of how the theme could be interpreted in the lead up to November — this kicked off already with Wednesday’s gift ideas post from Gillian, and there’s lots more to come.
Giving can also be a funny beast. Many of us draw amazing satisfaction and fulfillment from sewing for others, but it can sometimes be a double-edged sword. Sewing time is precious and carefully-guarded for many of us, so any sense that our gift isn’t appreciated can be pretty hard to overlook. Sewing for charity, family and others can even sometimes be another source of pressure to “keep up” with the unrealistic expectations and ideals of social media.
With all this in mind, we encourage you to do what you always do and make this yours. Be as creative as you like with the definition, and feel free to follow none of our suggestions if you don’t want to! This community is always creative and inventive beyond our wildest expectations — we suspect this time won’t be any different!
How will you interpret November’s Giving Challenge? Let us know below and help share ideas on how to #givesewmuch!
I offer to sew for immediate family members every other Christmas, and start talking to them about plans in October. This year, I sent my grandma a link to Seamwork and asked her to choose something and my boyfriend is getting a button up shirt. I just bought fabric for a wearable muslin for the shirt, and he’s delighted. I’m excited; sewing for them means working with them to find what they enjoy and what fits them, and I love that process.
I do include my husband in my giving projects because he is a big guy and hard to fit, both in RTW and in patterns. My first shirt for him took combining three patterns (two of those “custom made” for him) and five muslins! He is always grateful and says thank you because he knows it’s a lot more work for me. I also like to sew or embroider gifts for others, but I would rather make things they would use regularly.
I offert to sew for an association which actes for waste réduction. For the zéro waste week, they will sell zd kit. So I sew some pièces, ans will participate at the workshop, to teach how to sew zd pièces.