As a SAHM I was always able to enjoy a lot of sewing time but now that my kids are grown and flown from the house I have even more time to sew. I often spend 10 hour days sewing. While I love this I’m also a very social person. Recently I was having a difficult time with the solitude in my sewing room. I had a brilliant idea… “FIND A NEIGHBORHOOD GROUP MEETING AND GO”! I went to our ASG Houston website and clicked on the Neighborhood Groups tab at the top of the page. I clicked through the areas of Houston to find the soonest meeting on the calendar. It turned out there was a meeting the very next day!
Wild Women Stitchers – West Houston
West Houston – Wild Women Stitchers had a luncheon meeting scheduled for March 19th. Clicking on the tab for the group I was able to find the group leader, Sandra Joiner’s phone number. I called her to find out if a spontaneous member attending the luncheon would be a problem and to make sure the times listed were accurate. She was very welcoming and encouraged me to attend the meeting being held at Southern Dough Baking Company in Old Katy. I Googled the restaurant and realized I’d be getting a good lunch as a bonus! The photos online showed the restaurant to be a very cute diner. I was not disappointed.
Southern Dough Baking Company
Photos from Google Reviews. I forgot to take photos of the meeting speakers or our show-and-tell so please enjoy these photos of pie!
They have a good menu of daily specials, with regular items offered every day. They also have some amazing pies and ice cream. BONUS INFO: The back of the diner is decorated with beautiful art by local artist, Anna Pruchina-Pasenko, who also hosts art classes in the meeting room on Fridays. Call the restaurant for details at (832) 437-1771.
The ASG NG MEETING
The topic for this meeting was Reuse and Recycle. Two lovely ladies from Katy Christian Ministries attended to talk about their thrift shop, food pantry, community outreach and process for donating items for either of these important endeavors. They are always in need of volunteers so if you live in the Katy area and are looking for new ways to volunteer please reach out to them. You can volunteer by filling out an application on their website.
Thrifters who cut-and-sew sometimes get a bad rap on the internet. I think the purpose of thrifting is to find interesting garments at a discount and keep items out of the landfill. In the end, whether you buy a thrifted item to wear or to cut and sew another usable piece the end result is the same: You’ve kept something out of the landfill.
Reuse and Recycle
Poppy Lu Clothing has a huge following of almost 1M on Instagram. She finds (or gets donations in the mail) vintage pieces and makes some stunning garments. Her website has an interesting graphic about garments in the landfill or ‘recycled’ garments that end up in developing countries as garbage. It’s a sobering reminder to reuse and recycle as much as possible. Sometimes all we need to do that is a little inspiration.
Poppyluclothing Is the Instagram page for Poppy Lu Clothing. I follow her there and her makes are truly beautiful. Some of her thrift finds are oddballs but she turns them into stunning pieces. The jaguar fleece blanket transformation is one such piece.
Rosery Apparel is another sewist with beautiful makes for a bit of inspiration.
Artfully Sew has some nice videos on her recycling projects.
Who inspires you to Reuse/Recycle? Please share your recommendations in the comments below.