As I was talking to Julie (from All About M.E.) one evening, trying to confirm what I’m supposed to write, she told me that I needed to write a little bit about what I feel about my “company.” I’m not comfortable with that word. I don’t want to have a “company.” She said, “Endeavor, then.” Nah, although that sounds better than “company.” I enjoy what I do, and the minute someone would call it a job it would become work, and therefore not enjoyable to me. This is not a company, it is a joy.

I LOVE to sew.

Quilts are my favorite thing to do, especially patchwork quilts because I love taking a bunch of “junk” material and turning it into something pretty. Last April, Julie was here visiting and I had gathered up a bunch of blue material and we cut it up and made a perfect quilt top. It was so much prettier than I ever imagined it would be. I loved it even more because it didn’t cost me a cent to make. It was all material that was either scraps from something I had already made or hand-me down material from my mother or friends. The material was sitting in my basement taking up space. Some might call me a packrat, but I have my limit. My home isn’t lined with boxes with only a pathway to get to each room :)

I know what I have the room for and what I need to say “no” to, but I’ll admit to having a hard time saying no to material. You can ALWAYS make something out of someone’s undesirable material.

As for the name of my “Joy”, (Just The Scraps, Ma’am) – I take pride knowing my skirts took something that someone was prepared to throw away and now you can wear it! The name may go over some heads (I’m not even old enough to have watched the original TV series, Dragnet), but I know it’s my name. I read on some other websites or Etsy that their skirts are made from a popular material designer. I am not competing with them. These skirts are mine, and I’ve enjoyed every minute I’ve spent behind my sewing machine because I’ve had to put on a creative hat to get the skirt done.

I’m basically a self-learner; my mom helped me make my wedding dress and since then I did buy a pattern and figured it out myself, lingo and all. But with these skirts, I haven’t used a pattern. I have “winged it.” I enjoy that too, playing around with something and hoping it turns out. It’s like cooking. I like to take a recipe and tweek it to conform to the ingredients I have.

I want these skirts to simply be FUN! I want a little girl to slip into it and be happy. They are all going to be different, one of a kind. I really take pride in making something cute out of something that someone else would have thrown away.

I’m a happily married mother of six, and use the four youngest as the models for my skirts. (Note that my youngest is a boy, but even he loves to twirl in these skirts.) My five-year old loves these skirts and would change into one of them when I was in process of making another. She’s a pretty princess, and I know there are others out there that would like these skirts as much as she does. To be honest, if they ended up not selling, she wouldn’t be disappointed to be able to have a new skirt or two!

Thanks for your support,

Melody
Just The Scraps, Ma’am

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