The Thread I Follow: Why I Call Myself a Seamstress

People often ask about the difference between a tailor and a seamstress.

It sounds like a small question — a matter of words —but in truth, it touches on lineage, identity, and the quiet rhythm of making.

A tailor is a maker of structure. They cut and shape cloth with precision, crafting garments that follow the body with exacting grace. They know how seams fall, how shoulders sit, how to sculpt fabric into form. Their art lies in precision and balance —garments measured to movement, stitched to fit perfectly.

A seamstress, too, makes garments —but often begins in a different place.

With an idea, a pattern, a sketch, a seamstress builds from the ground up, coaxing something imagined into being. She measures and cuts, adjusts and fits, moving through every stage of creation.

In truth, I am both.

I tailor and I sew; I fit and I design.

But seamstress feels closer to the heart of what I do. It speaks of heritage — of the long line of women who made, mended, and created before me.

It’s a word heavy with history, threaded through the centuries with patience and care. It reminds me of hands bent over cloth by candlelight, of quiet industry, of garments made not just to wear — but to keep.

To call myself a seamstress is to honour that lineage — to take my place in that unbroken thread of craft and care. Because sewing, at its heart, is more than skill. It is devotion. It is presence. It is the gentle art of turning raw material into meaning.

And so I sew, as they did - quietly, faithfully, stitching beauty and usefulness into the everyday.

Through my work, whether designing patterns, teaching others to sew,

or creating bespoke pieces that tell a story, I carry that same thread forward.

Each garment, each workshop, each stitch is part of that living tradition: a celebration of craft, heritage, and the enduring art of making by hand.