I started sewing when I was about 8 years old with printed barbies clothes, the ones that were printed on fabric and you just sewed them together. Then did the sewing in Jr High and High School with teachers that either helped or really needed to learn what they were doing. Things really got started when I was pregnant with our first child and on very tight income. I had about 10 yards of fabric and no money for baby clothes. So I used what I had bought for me and we did baby clothes. Pink flannel I had for a nightgown and a few other things. My mother broke down one day and bought me some blue flannel, just in case I had a son. Good thing, poor boy had at least 3 blue outfits in all that pink.
Then started helping my sister with costumes for a ballet school, Then had 7 more children, sewed for all of them, costumes for Halloween, special days, every day. One summer, I cut out enough shorts and t's for my kids for the summer and every morning got up and sewed one for each of them to wear that day, within two weeks had all their summer clothes done.
Now it has progressed to I do costuming, sew for family, design, teach and have a great deal of fun. All my kids have grown up doing homework on the side of my sewing table, sitting on the cutting table and learning along with Mom and others. Have a son currently working on learning to draft patterns with me. Not bad for a 24 year old man of today. My little ones are learning quilting with me so we all have warm blankets to share from now on. Even my cross stitch supplies get raided when one of the kids gets the urge to sew. They have their supplies in my kit and they love to sew with me and their Dad. Taught him to sew in the early days of marriage too, then he became an upholsterer for years. As it is said in this family, I dress the people, he dresses the couches. What can I say, it works.