We're noticing a pattern here: Sewing a craze again

The sewing circle has come back 'round, so to speak, and this time, a federal prosecutor wants in. There's also interest from a 200-pound bartender and an art-book buyer. The latter already makes and sells hand-stitched doughnuts, beaded sprinkles and all, through his "Sewdorky" online shop.

Call it the "Project Runway" effect. Or, maybe, just being fed up with always having to pay someone to alter your pants.

A new generation of sewers is singing the praises of Singer and snagging advice, as well as old sewing machines, from mom.

Why the "serge" in sewing?

"I like the idea of creating. I love the feel of the fabric," says Tessa Gorman, 34, the prosecutor. After work and still in her lawyerly dress, Gorman wore a pincushion on her wrist while assembling a pink cotton skirt at Stitches, a sewing shop on Seattle's Capitol Hill that also offers classes.

Jamie Carroll was in the store, shopping for ribbon to accessorize a sweater.

"I've always taken apart things and remade things," said the 38-year-old, who recently pilfered a machine from mom.

"I'm obsessed about DIY culture," chimed in Kimberlee Redman, 17, another Stitches devotee. That obsession has meant a spike in her monthly rent. In the apartment she shares with three others, she also pays rent on a spare bedroom used exclusively for sewing.

Sewing and its crafty cousins now account for retail sales of more than $30 billion a year, according to the Craft and Hobby Association. We're more than likely to be the ones pulling needle and thread: When queried, folks in the Seattle metro area, according to Scarborough Research market data, were nearly twice as likely than the national average to say they had sewed in the past year.

Sew what?

What are people sewing, you ask?

Blue corduroy skirts. Burping cloths. Pajama bottoms. Handbags.

Stuart Bloomfield, 33, sewed several pairs of curtains before finding his one true love: doughnuts. Homemade, from scratch.

In her new sewing room, Redman ripped up a men's XXXL T-shirt and fashioned it into a dress. "It's very short but it turned out quite nice," she says. "I cannot say the same for the petticoat I attempted last night."

Industry watchers list a variety of reasons behind the newfound interest in YKK zippers and bias cuts. There's the popular reality show "Project Runway," a testament that high fashion begins with the mundane. There's the determination to be self-sufficient, a desire to channel creativity, to create a one-of-a-kind look.

And in this day and age, there's the possibility that you might even be able to make a living, or at least recoup the cost of some bobbins, by selling the things you've made.

"With places like etsy.com, you can have a regular job, but you can open up a little online store," says Nikola Davidson, local crafter. She and her "Urban Craft Uprising" group host the monthly "I Heart Rummage" sales at the Crocodile Cafe, and this summer they're launching the "Indie Market" at Bumbershoot.

"There's a slew of craft blogs on the Internet that are about sewing and creating, and there's a lot of instruction available," says Megan Reardon, who sews and sells her own line of knitting needle kits. She's also the creator of notmartha.org, a blog for all things crafty, including instructions on making a skirt out of a pair of jeans, and constructing a cutting table.

"Look what I made"

With its bolts of faux fur, tulle and stretch cotton denim, Capitol Hill's Stitches caters to a new set of enthusiast, even if the sewing industry hasn't yet found them.

"My fingers are too fat for thimbles," said Anouk Rawkson, 32, a hefty bartender/toymaker. Rawkson's a transplant from New York and he learned sewing from his fashion school-trained friends.

"It kind of, like, hypnotizes me. You're just in a zone. You just do it and you just know at the end you'll have a finished project and you can say, 'Look what I made.' "

Amy Ellsworth, 33, opened Stitches in 2004, tired of having to trek to Ballard or Northgate whenever she needed a zipper. Her mother used to teach sewing for Singer so the hum of a sewing machine was always a given at home.

Her store features photos of Harajuku fashionistas — "for inspiration," she says — as well as sewing machines free for use (just bring your own fabric and notions) and sewing classes, which always fill up and sell out quick.

Stitches' customers are largely home sewers in their 30s, she says. Fashion apparel students from nearby Seattle Central also shop here. So do burlesque performers, Burning Man disciples and, now, an artistic attorney.

Sewing, Gorman says, rekindles childhood memories. "Mom would come home with this blue fuzzy material and all of a sudden it was a Cookie Monster costume."

What's also appealing is how she's now able to share the hobby with her mom, which is why she recently purchased her first machine and enrolled in classes.

Her beginning project, a pair of pajama pants, weren't perfect.

"A little tight," she says. She hasn't yet finished her intermediate sewing project, that pink skirt. But on her lunch break the other day she bought a chicken print fabric for much-anticipated skirt No. 2.

Times researcher Gene Balk contributed to this report.

Florangela Davila: 206-464-2916 or fdavila@seattletimes.com