The "head stuff" with Felicia Semple
Seamwork Radio: Sewing and Creativity
Colette Media
4.9 • 830 Ratings
🗓️ 1 June 2016
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Felicia Semple is the creator of The Craft Sessions, an incredible sewing retreat she created to help teach women to find joy and meaning – not perfection – in the practice of craft. In this episode, I talk to Felicia about her path to creating the sewing retreat she dreamed of, and how the "head stuff" around sewing and creating has affected her life.
Related links from this episode:
- The Craft Sessions, Felicia's blog
- The Craft Sessions Retreat, where you can learn more about attending the event
- The Craft Sessions Manifesto offers an overview of Felicia's philosophy
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We use craft as a mental health support system. |
| 0:04.4 | So you're using it for when you feel pressured or when you feel sad or when you feel bored |
| 0:08.4 | or when you feel, you know, you're using it as a way to be present in those situations. |
| 0:20.1 | From Seamwork magazine, I'm Sarah Mnick, and this is Seamwork Radio, where we tell stories from people who make clothing. |
| 0:30.1 | Last year, I took a trip to Australia, and I had the chance to meet up with Felicia Semple, the creator of the craft sessions, a crafting retreat that takes place annually outside of Melbourne. If you've ever been to Felicia Semple, the creator of the Craft Sessions, a crafting retreat that takes |
| 0:37.9 | place annually outside of Melbourne. If you've ever been to Felicia's blog, thecraftsessions.com, |
| 0:43.6 | you know she spends a lot of time thinking about what she calls the headstuff around craft. |
| 0:48.4 | Crafting and creating are central parts of her life. There are a lens through which she views her |
| 0:52.8 | whole life in a way. Felicia's mom has long been a sewing teacher, so she grew up around craft. |
| 0:58.0 | Her mom would let her and her siblings design whatever they wanted, and then they'd create it and wear it. |
| 1:04.0 | So we got around looking fairly crazy, but yeah, it was, we also ended up working with her. |
| 1:14.4 | So she would have classes that she needed to run. |
| 1:20.1 | And she would have us drawing patterns out, helping her do her prep because they ended up being six kids. |
| 1:25.8 | So one of the things that happened with us getting remarried was that there was two kids from my mom, two kids from my stepfather. |
| 1:26.9 | And then they had two kids. |
| 1:28.6 | So there was six of us. |
| 1:33.6 | So that led to a fairly chaotic situation where she's trying to manage six kids and work. |
| 1:37.7 | So we used to have to actually help. It was just part of our life, I guess. |
| 1:42.3 | She never worried about the things she made being perfect or about being good enough at whatever she made. As a kid, it was making for the pure |
| 1:45.4 | joy of creating something from the imagination. It's just another form of play. And explore, |
| 1:50.1 | there was never a right or a wrong. There was not, you know, there's a lot of rules around sewing |
| 1:56.3 | you learn as you grow up and we didn't have those. You know, she'd teach you technique over time, |
... |
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