We were lucky to catch up with Sheryl Belson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sheryl, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

There are actually a few projects that come to mind when I think of meaningful projects. Honestly, I am usually just making a garment to wear, trying to add my own unique spin through color or embellishment. But I can think of 3 projects that have a story, and stories are what make them most meaningful to me.

* Several years ago I went to a workshop in Portland, OR to learn the Koos style of collaging. I made a black wool/cashmere coat and chose fabrics from some of our world travels to create the collaging. Of course, those fabrics carry with them the adventures of each trip as well as the adventures of finding the fabric while we were there. But one fabric I used was offered to me by a classmate who was using deconstructed tie fabric from her late husband’s tie collection. She noticed the colors in his tie matched my color scheme and asked if I would like to use it. I told it would be an honor. It truly was a perfect addition to the color scheme, but much more than that, the story of her generosity and carrying his memory on my coat is more meaningful than all of my travel fabrics combined.
* A few years later, I decided to challenge myself to create a garment based on the famous National Geographic picture of an Afghan woman with piercing blue eyes. She wore traditional clothing in a teal blue with a red head covering. The picture seems to tell a story of the struggle of living in a war-torn land, with her eyes speaking to me the most. I wanted to honor both the colors and the culture so I made a tunic style dress in teal blue with a red tipped neck ruffle so it would surround my face in similar fashion to how her headscarf had surrounded hers. I wore it to a gala and each time anyone asked about my dress, I was able to tell her story.

The last project, and the one I will focus on, is a more recent one, created in 2023 as part of an American Sewing Guild challenge. The challenge was to create something inspired by Gustav Klimt’s painting commonly referred to as The Woman in Gold.

I was most inspired by the history of the painting. When the Nazi’s came in, destroyed the family, and stole the painting, their lives fell apart. It was several decades later, after an intense legal battle, that a descendant of the family was finally able to reclaim the painting. I decided to explore deconstructing fabric to tell the story on the surface of a quilted jacket. Starting with Grainline Studio’s Tamarak Jacket pattern, I decided to make a knee length quilted jacket.

I discovered that Robert Kaufman had a fabric collection called Klimt’s Woman in Gold, so I bought 2 coordinating fabrics plus 2 portrait panels. My biggest challenge was finding just the right stitches to get the effect I was looking for. I had to test several machine stitches to find a stitch that would maintain its shape inside the tight curves of the spirals; I definitely found it difficult to maintain a smooth line inside the tighter spiral curves. In fact, I used a few appliques and tear drop stitch additions strategically to hide some of the more glaring mistakes.

My favorite part of participating in the challenge and making this piece was exploring ways to lay out the appliqued pieces in a way that would truly express the story I wanted to tell. I spent a lot of time playing around with this before I ever started stitching them on. I landed on the idea of having the painting cut apart and appear to be falling down the coat before finally coming back together in a whole painting at the bottom. I hope the piece, titled Lost Hope Reconstructed, honors the history of this amazing painting.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have been an active member of American Sewing Guild since 2012. I was looking for a place to reacquaint myself with some very rusty sewing skills as I was returning to sewing after a 15+ year hiatus. I quickly discovered this was the place for me, both to learn and get back to sewing as well as a place to connect with like-minded people who loved the craft.

Since that time, I have served the organization in a local chapter in Texas, then on the national Board of Directors, and currently in the local chapter in Atlanta, GA. My assignments at the local levels have included Special Event/Workshop planning, Social Media/Publicity, and President.

My greatest desire in every role I have held is to promote the art and life-skill of sewing in a way that welcomes all who want learn and grow their sewing skills and creativity. I love exploring new ways to connect with younger sewists. What better way to contribute to the continuation of the craft than to have those of us who are further down the path in our sewing journey alongside those who are just beginning or returning to it?

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

So many of us had to pivot when the world shut down in 2020 due to Covid. American Sewing Guild is no different. Our organization has historically centered around local monthly gatherings where we present programs teaching techniques and inspiration. We bring projects we are working on or recently finished and share them with each other after each monthly program, which is an inspiring “program” of its own. But as we all know, those in-person gatherings came to a screeching halt in March of 2020. We needed a way to connect and stay inspired without gathering.

From that challenge, at the national level, we began hosting several virtual learning and gathering opportunities, but the one I was most involved in personally is a series of 12 interviews with sewing personalities that we published about once a month called Fireside Chats. I had the privilege of spending time interviewing these sewists and hearing their stories, both sewing and life related. And an unexpected benefit was all I learned about video editing that I ultimately have continued to use in a variety of ways. This was a small way we felt we could provide our membership with a replacement for the lost in-person interactions that had traditionally been our hallmark. We didn’t continue producing the Fireside Chats long term, but other virtual things we added like like online workshops and presentations has become a normal part of our ongoing membership offerings.

If you would like to watch any of the Fireside Chats, you can link to the playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAHfjEN1JyjIMcrVfOzWYT8oGo69eX_kX

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

The resources that have most impacted my thinking have been in-person conferences. I know in this digital age, this format isn’t always as successful as it once was, especially in the post-Covid virtual world. And while virtual resources are quite valuable and easily accessible, I love the energy and networking that happens when people gather together.

From a sewing perspective, the American Sewing Guild National conferences have been some of my biggest source of expanding my knowledge, skills, and exposure to new things and new people. The final in-person conference was held this past summer in San Francisco, but smaller, more regional conferences are being explored and I am hopeful they will become a reality.

From a social media standpoint, I started from behind in about 2018 when I became convinced that we needed to expand our presence beyond in-person and expand to include online. First I took a few continuing education courses at a local university to learn how to apply social media marketing to small business. Even though American Sewing Guild is a non-profit, I felt the principles would be quite similar. From there I attended 2 Social Shakeup conferences where I had the opportunity mix with other people using social media to promote their companies and organizations. I felt energized and empowered to try new things, like live and recorded video.

And from a marketing standpoint, though not in person, I participated in a Storybrand conference where we not only heard presentations about how to use stories to promote our products and organizations, but also worked with small teams and a coach to help us take the first steps toward building a storied message to draw people into our offerings.

In all of these examples, the impact has gone far beyond the conference experience and influenced multiple areas of my own experience. Perhaps the biggest impact is the courage I gained to just try. Fail sometimes, and learn from that attempt, but always try.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.asgatlanta.org
• Instagram: @sherylbelson and @asgatlanta
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/asgatlanta
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2fMtI_WCh1xzWZSyF1W7xg
• Other: At the national level:

  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2fMtI_WCh1xzWZSyF1W7xg
  Instagram: @asguildhq
  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sewingguild
  Website: www.asg.org

Image Credits

All photos taken by me.