2024 & Hello 2025
Thank you.
We could not have done any of what we accomplished this year without your contributions - your donations of fabrics, notions, sewing machines, cash and Patreon subscriptions.
This year, we hosted 10 Pop-Up Shops, a Fill-A-Bag Sale, as well as Live Online sales and Instagram Story Sales. We also held 11 project-based sewing classes for beginner and intermediate sewists to make decorative and useful items like reusable tote bags, belly-bags, zipper-cover throw pillows and tank tops. We also taught sewing-machine basics, and kicked off the year of studio classes with an open-studio session, where you were able to work on your own project from our stash of materials and get hands-on guidance from our sewist expert teachers.
The Sewist Society hosted nine Stitch ‘n’ Bitch sessions - a completely free community event held on the second Monday of each month for sewists of all ability levels to come together IRL, work on their projects, get the advice of expert sewing teachers, and connect with each other.
2024 Highlights:
We punctuated Tampa’s Pride Weekend in March with the launch of our collaborative Craftivism piece, “Sewists Unite” - a pro-LGBT-rights flag focusing especially on the T. Stitched with the mantra “We Will Not Be Silent” by The Disco Dolls and The Sewist Society, a total of 33 individual hand-sewn hearts attached to the flag with supportive messages from sewists all over the Tampa Bay area.
SEWISTS UNITE
Close-up of the “Sewists Unite” collaborative craftivist art piece in support of LGBT+ humans as part of Tampa Bay Pride Weekend. This piece is still on view at The Disco Dolls art gallery.
Fashion Revolution Week in April is at the beating heart of The Sewist Society’s mission*. In collaboration with The Disco Dolls and other community partners, TSS is happy to be a local Tampa Bay part of this annual international initiative towards a global fashion industry that conserves and restores the environment and values people over growth and profit.
2024’s Fashion Rev week was a smash hit. We hosted three key events:
Visible Mending Workshop
Clothing Swap
Mend-in-Public Event
*It is the mission, duty and purpose of The Sewist Society to uplift sewing as skilled labor and bring awareness to how textiles are made, who makes them, and why sewing is a valuable and necessary skill.
#mendinpublic
Part of Fashion Revolution Week, Mend in Public is our annual day of collective action. The idea is simple: get out into your local community and stitch in protest against disposable fashion. Amidst busy Saturday shoppers, we repair our torn pockets and broken seams and spark conversations on making Loved Clothes Last.
Mend in Public Day stands as a beacon of change in a world inundated with fashion waste. By participating, you are part of a global creative action resisting the cycle of excess through repair and reuse.
We spent the summer and fall sewing and teaching and, oh yeah, doing our best to deal with the aftermath of two massive hurricanes. On November 21st, Co-Founder Leigh Anne Balzekas represented The Sewist Society at The Great American Teach-In with a presentation at Blake High School, discussing the impact of overconsumption in the fashion industry, with a special focus on fast fashion and textiles.
Key Takeaways for Blake students:
92 million tons of clothes are thrown away every year.
Synthetic fabrics make up 65% of clothing and take 400+ years to decompose and release microplastics into waterways with every wash.
We can fight back by:
Buying second-hand first
Mending and repairing clothes to extend their wearable life
Buying less, and choosing better-made items
Sew
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Mend
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Repair
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Sew 〰️ Mend 〰️ Repair 〰️
We capped off 2024 taking care of administrative details for our non-profit, admitting a new member to our Board, writer and educator Elizabeth Brackman, (hi! I am the author of this post) and learning that we had to move out of our community space at University Mall. More on that later. We refused to let that dampen our spirits as we wrapped up the year with our Annual FUNdraiser at New World Tampa, where we raised almost $1800.
The Sewist Society Annual FUNdraiser at New World Tampa
✂️FREE DIY Crafts Table: take-home items from an assortment of fabric scraps and supplies.
📝50/50 BINGO
📋Silent Auction on select items donated from some of our favorite local artists and small businesses.
🎫Quilt Raffle - for a gorgeous handmade quilt by More Than Life Art. 38” x 47”, created entirely from reclaimed textile scraps and donated fabric.
✨Astrology Readings- with Post-Saturn Astrology
Close up photo of Raffle Quilt
Sewn by Sarah H, More Than Life Art
photo credit: Sarah H
In 2025, we:
will teach sewing classes and host free community events like Stitch ‘n’ Bitch to support our local sewists
will add more online content and knowledge-sharing to support the global collective
are already planning Fashion Rev 2025 🧵
are researching and applying for non-profit grants
are searching for a new space
Ideally, we need a space that is a minimum of 800 sq feet. Do you know someone with that kind of space willing to rent it to us at low or no cost? Do you know of a non-profit grant we should apply for? Is there a sewing skill you’d like to see us teach? Email us today! You can also directly fund our work of diverting waste from landfills, providing jobs, and teaching sustainable practices to individuals of all ages and skill levels. Sign up for classes, subscribe to our Patreon channel, or by make a sustaining or one-time tax deductible donation today. Thank you for everything you do for The Sewist Society to support our mission. We appreciate you!
Donate to our capital campaign by February 28, 2025 to get a charitable donations deduction on your 2024 taxes!
Zeffy.com hosts our capital campaign because they are the only 100% free fundraising platform for nonprofits.
