Meet Joan Hemm

We recently connected with Joan Hemm and have shared our conversation below.

Joan, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

My grandmother was a marvelous seamstress who had gone to school for dressmaking at the turn of the 20th century. She didn’t teach me to sew because I was just a small child when she was in her 80s but she instilled a love for creating with fabric in me. I never saw her without some sort of handiwork; she loved crochet, tatting, and quilting.

I started putting Halloween costumes together when I was about 9 and was forced to learn to sew to create what I imagined in my head. As I went from house to house trick-or-treating, the ladies who answered the door would insist that my mother had made my outfit. My mother could barely sew on a button!

In high school I got involved in theater and couldn’t believe my luck in having all those actors to dress and all the castoff evening clothes, drapes, fabric remnants, etc. in the costume shop to work with! When I got to college I majored in theater but soon realized I’d have to go to NY or LA to make a go of it and being a midwesterner, that was a scary prospect so I changed my major to Journalism. I have kept both skills active throughout my life. I have never worked for a newspaper or other media, but have written newsletters at various jobs, as well as for the women’s history theater group I founded here in Colorado.

I founded a women’s history performance group (The Shady Ladies of the Central City Motherlode, now the Legendary Ladies) back in 1992 as a way to have a place to dress up. I made many costumes for myself and helped the other members create their own. When my husband and I moved to Seattle in 2005, I found a costuming group there, Somewhere in Time, Unlimited (SITU) and from them, learned about Costume College in LA. That was a costuming guild that held a “college” over a long weekend where all sorts of costuming skills were taught, from historical fashion timelines to putting LEDs in clothing. I attended for several years until our return to Colorado, taught classes there as well as to a new group I joined in Colorado. Clearly, sewing has been a part of my life from the start!

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

Prior to the pandemic in 2020 I had been looking for a crossbody purse. I hadn’t found one that I liked or that suited my needs. Then being home on the mountain where I live during the pandemic, I decided to create my own. I had lots of fabric from my costuming and sat down to work out a pattern. I did several iterations before coming up with the basic design that I still use. I had always carried a rather large purse but wanted something to carry just the essentials, which is my case was a wallet, comb, tissues, small bottle of hairspray, phone, keys, and lipstick or lip balm. I love pockets and know that most people do so I added as many as the small size would allow. I had always shopped at thrift stores for fabrics for costumes, using draperies, bed skirts, and other home decor items as I had learned to use in high school costuming. Once thrift shops were open again following the pandemic, I began combing them for fabrics with images I could use on my bags as well as home decor fabric remnants that are sturdy enough for a purse.

I made up a lot of crossbody bags over the pandemic and needed a way to find homes for them. I decided to try craft fairs rather than selling online because each of my crossbody bags is unique. I have had my bags available in shops but because each is an individual design it is hard to provide specific images so I no longer pursue that. It is also difficult to accept a wholesale price for my bags as I keep my prices low and I just prefer to sell myself. Buying remnant fabrics and using images I find on sofa pillows or shower curtains means I am limited in what I find to work with. I love making each bag an individual and it keeps doing what I do interesting. I could never mass produce just one design. I do have to continue to search for materials but that is part of the fun!

I usually only sell during the holiday season in the fall, though I had a successful fair this spring. Last year I did 16 fairs but I’m cutting back to half that this year. I always try out new fairs each year and have found some that work very well for me; others not so much. That also keeps what I do interesting. I do have a website but it’s difficult to keep up with it because each bag is unique and if I post a photo of a bag, it will invariably sell at the next fair, so I just keep photos of bags that are representative on the site and ask people to email me if they are interested in a particular color-way or animal. I can then send them photos of what I have or could make up for them as I will do custom bags.. I can’t promise a particular image or animal because it depends on what I am able to find in the thrift stores or other fabric shops. I have found marvelous images of animals on cotton panels designed to be made into quilts which I am using this year for the first time. I have found some online or in quilt shops. I do post photos of bags on my Rejuvenated Remnants facebook page and will sell them, but I prefer to sell in person at craft fairs.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

How is it possible to describe how a passion develops?! It’s sort of like falling in love. You find this thing that really “lights you up.” You want to do it all the time, in any form that might be appropriate at a particular moment in your life. You find ways to make it happen; you find ways to create what you imagine. Following that passion as fully as you are able to, given your other responsibilities such as work or a family, and keeping it alive in your life is not easy. You have to make time for it, and you will find that the time spent doing it can give you a sense of purpose, a release for anxieties, a joy that enriches your life, and maybe even a way to support your habit by selling what you make!
Naturally, for me, knowing how to sew is paramount. But then understanding how to “build” a structure using fabric is also necessary. I used to see the stage in 3D as I was planning costumes for a play and I do that with the fabrics I choose to combine for a bag. Creating costumes gave me a solid background in creating something not always available in a domestic dress pattern. First, I learned how to combine patterns—using the neckline of one, the sleeve of another, and so on. Then I learned to “wing it” and come up with how I could make something without a pattern.
Then knowing how to share the story of how I created what I make is important. Having a background in Journalism I know how to “report” on a project. I can tell people what I do, why I do it, and how I do it. And with my background in theater, I am not afraid to be “onstage” at craft fairs and share in person what I am making and why. I dress in costume at craft fairs which is not only an attention-getter, but is a segue to explain what I do.
And I have a great ability to stick with it. I not only do the creating, but I find how to sell what I make and continue improving on my products. I listen to what people I meet at craft fairs say about my bags and have created new products based on feedback as well. I have figured out what products I use in creating the bags work the best and am always trying to find reliable sources to purchase them.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

I sew all year long in preparation for the fall craft fairs but even as much as I am able to create, when the fairs begin, I almost always feel that I don’t have enough product made up, or I don’t have the right images. I try to have 400 bags ready at the start of the fairs, and usually do, but I sometimes continue sewing madly on the weekdays between fairs and sometimes even stay up late at night sewing. I need to trust that I am prepared but I do find that perhaps I haven’t gotten to a particular piece of fabric that I am sure will sell so I have to stop and get that bag made up! I tell myself I need to just go with it but I get such a high out of creating a new, special bag, that I will succumb to the pressure I put on myself.

Actually, working helps me deal with feeling overwhelmed. I try to budget my time wisely but do find that continuing to sew when I am in a crunch is relaxing for me and makes me feel less overwhelmed. There is a particular “zen” to working with fabric that calms me. I can lose myself in choosing the color combinations, figuring out how to fit a particular image on a flap, or creating a new product, such as evening bags where I combine sumptuous velvets and silks. Mmm!

I suggest that anyone feeling overwhelmed should look at what in their project gives them joy, even when under a deadline. And paying attention to each step along the way can help ground me. I never rush the process; I just keep working at a normal pace, even if I am staying up late to do it!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.rejuvenatedremnants.com
• Facebook: facebook/rejuvenatedremnants
• Other: I encourage people to email me at [email protected] if they are interested in a bag. I can send them photos of the materials and images I have and can create a bag just for them. I do custom work, but I prefer to make bags in the design I have found works best for me without changes to pockets or closures.