I have been interested in sewing since around the 8th grade when I started making my first quilt as well as making garments in home-ec and then moving on to making my own clothes without them being a class assignment. It was only when I saw Nancy Zieman's "Sewing With Nancy" over our PBS that I started to realize there was a right way and a wrong way to sew. The wrong way meant I might have something to wear at the end of the project, but I bet anyone looking could tell I had made the garment. The right way to sew was the way that Nancy showed us. Taking the time to do things carefully and well. I never got to see as many of her shows as I would have liked, but I do have many of her books to refer to. Her show was the first for me to see what an awesome thing a top of the line sewing machine could be (I learned to sew on a straight stitch only Singer). I believe that she sewed on a Viking at that point in time. I wanted a top of the line sewing machine from then on and, happily, I eventually got one. However, I still can't sew as well as she did.
Nancy died today, November 15, 2017, after a long battle with cancer. She will be missed. She was a special woman; one that showed she could handle a career, handle raising a family as well as walk in her faith with God. She is no longer with us, but has left behind a body of work in her taped TV shows and books she has written and the Nancy's Notions business she started. Many women in the US can sew now thanks to her. For those of us with the same faith that she had, it is nice to know that whether alive or dead, her good-bye to viewers at the end of her show is just as true now.
Bye for now......"