Celebrate With Me…It’s Free!

Today is the 3rd anniversary of this blog and I thought you might like to know how it all started.

About 6 years ago, a customer came to my door needing his suit jacket altered. As I spoke to him about the changes that needed to be made on it, he asked me if I had written a book on how to alter clothing. That was the spark. After thinking through the details, I realized that with the incredible amount of photos it would take to do the job well, no publisher would touch the project. It would just be too expensive to print. So, I put the idea on the shelf of my mind.

It wasn’t long after that when my friend, Sharon, asked if I wanted to take a blogging class with her to learn how to start a blog. I thought it would be fun to learn something new, but really didn’t think I would ever really follow through with it. The instructor asked us to each create a blog designed around a passion of ours. He asked us to think of some subject that we were interested in or that we knew something about. He also said it would be beneficial if our blogs were on a unique subject that not everyone else was writing about.

That’s when it hit me that I could blog about all this information that I had stored in my head just waiting to come out. There were a lot of details to setting up the format and learning how to use WordPress, but it wasn’t too difficult. The next challenge was coming up with a unique name for the blog.  So, on April 27, 2009,  Sewfordough was born! (This blog got a new name -The Sewing Garden-and face lift in the fall of 2017.)

This site is the culmination of 55 years of sewing experience.  Most of the techniques you see here were learned from just doing what seemed to make sense. My dad taught me how to sew at age 7 and I took a Singer sewing class soon afterward. Then, I just practiced and practiced and by the time I was 28, I was making bridesmaid dresses for customers. Not long afterward, I realized that many people needed alterations done. At the time, there were hardly any books on this subject.

Because my dad was an inventor, I think I got that gene from him and I began to start thinking through how to do various difficult alterations and the ideas seemed to just jump in my head. Probably from alot of sewing over the years, and because of the way God wired me, I had a passion to understand how things fit the human body and how clothing is constructed.

Because there were not many books on the subject, or on more complicated alterations, I knew I wanted to teach others what I had learned. So, the goal of this website was to make each step of every technique easy to follow and understand.

Many people ask me why I don’t charge for all this information and instruction. When I was setting up the blog, my husband helped me process through that. He is great at that. And great at helping me to set goals, looking at the motives behind what I do.

If you’ve been on this blog for any length of time you know about my faith. Well, one of the things I want to do is serve others with the gifts God has given me. I feel pretty blessed that He has given me so many incredible people and things in my life and I just wanted to say “thank you” to Him for that. My hope is that you have received great benefit from all you have been learning here and it is my prayer that your sewing business (or hobby) is thriving.  So, that is my free gift to you.

But there is another free gift available to you that is much more important than this blog. It is the free gift of eternal life that God offers to anyone who asks. Did you know that God loves you? Did you know that God is perfect and without sin? That He has a son named Jesus? Many people have heard of Jesus but they don’t know why He came to earth about 2000 years ago. And many have rejected God even though they have never heard the Gospel. They just think they know it. So…

Let me ask you two questions:

1. If you died tonight, do you know, for certain, that you would go to heaven?
2. Let’s say you did die tonight and you stood before God and He said to you, “Why should I let you into My heaven?” What would you say to Him? (Before you read on, have an answer to those questions in your mind.)

Most people I’ve talked to in the last 30 years say that they are not sure if they are going to heaven. The Bible says “These things were written that you may know that you have eternal life.” Isn’t that cool that God wants us to know for sure!

When most people answer the 2nd question, they say that they have been a good person and done good things, or some version of that answer. They say they haven’t murdered anyone or done anything as bad as alot of other people.

Well, I’ve got a little bad news first, and them some really great news, so hang with me!

The Bible says that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. A sin is anything that God says is wrong. And the Bible says that death is wages for that sin. “For the wages of sin is death”. Some examples of sin are: telling a lie, stealing, taking God’s name in vain (using it as a cuss word). Did you know that the Bible says that if you sin one time, you are guilty. That’s you and me.

Have you ever lied? What do you call a person who lies? A liar. Have you ever stolen anything, even if it is of little value? What do you call a person who steals? A thief. Have you ever taken God’s name in vain and used it as a cuss word? The Bible calls that blasphemy and it was punishable by death in the Old Testament. The Bible says if we have ever looked with lust at someone, we have committed adultery with them in our heart. Have you ever had lust for someone? If you said “yes” to those four questions, then I’m not judging you, but you’ve just admitted that you are a lying, thieving, blasphemous, adulterer at heart and you must face God on judgement day. If He judged you by those standards (they are actually 4 of the 10 commandments), would you be innocent or guilty? You’d be guilty like the rest of us! Whoa, right?

Now the good news……God is perfect and He can’t stand sin. “He will by no means clear the guilty,” the Bible says. We would have to be perfect and we cannot be. But the Bible also tells us that God loves us. There was a “dilemma”. God loves us so much, He doesn’t want to punish us, but He must punish sin. Do you know what He did to solve this problem?

He sent His son Jesus to earth. Jesus came to die on the cross, in our place. When He hung upon the cross, as He was dying, He said, “It is finished.” That means there is nothing else you or I can do to add to what Jesus did for us. You and I broke the moral law (the 10 commandments) and Jesus paid the fine. Do you see that our good works and trying to be a good person don’t count in the eternal equation? We can’t do anything to earn our salvation and we don’t deserve it because of our sin. It was a free gift from God.

Does everyone get this free gift? No. The key has to do with faith, but not just any faith. There are 3 kinds of faith:

1. Intellectual faith: this means that you believe in God. While that is foundational, it is not the only thing you need, because satan, the devil, believes in God and he’s not going to heaven.
2. Temporary faith: this kind of faith, for example, is when you think you’re about to be in a car accident and you pray that God will save you, and when He does, you forget about Him until the next stressful event in life. So, you’re thinking of God as a genie in a bottle, granting wishes whenever you need them.
3. Saving faith: This is the kind you need…saving faith is transferring the trusting in yourself to get to heaven by being a good person to trusting in what Jesus did on the cross for you and in your place. And it means that you are repenting of your sin. You are turning 180 degrees away from sin and turning to God.

To receive the gift of eternal life, you are turning away from religion (trying on your own to get to heaven. By the way, just how many good things DO we have to do to get to heaven? The answer is zero because that’s never been God’s plan!) and turning to a relationship with God.

When we repent of our sin and trust in Jesus for what He did, the Bible says we can be sure of eternal life with Him. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears My word and trusts in Him who sent Me, has eternal life and will not be condemned. He has crossed over from death to life.” John 5:24

Then, what is the reason we would do good works? We do them to say “thank you” to God for what He has done for us!

You can pray to God Himself directly and tell Him in your own words about this decision, if you are ready.

Then, begin to read the Bible. I’d recommend reading the book of John first. Talk to God in prayer and tell Him what’s on your heart. And then, tell someone about your decision. It is the most important decision of your life and it determines where you will spend eternity! Don’t wait until tomorrow…you may not have a tomorrow. If you’d like to, please write and tell me about your decision, as I’d love to know. Or write me with any questions you have. You can leave a comment at the very botoom of this page or you can reach me at: TheSewingGarden@gmail.com