Miss You Sew Much

"I pledge to buy handmade this holiday season, and request that others do the same for me."

That's the mantra of BuyHandmade.org, supported by a consortium including Etsy, Craftster, Craft: Magazine, and others, calling themselves the "Handmade Consortium". If you feel moved to do so, head over to the web site, and pledge to shop handmade this holiday season! Here's their call to arms:

"The ascendancy of chain store culture and global manufacturing has left people all dressing, furnishing, and decorating alike. The connection between producer and consumer has been lost. Buying handmade helps them reconnect. We created the pledge as a call to action for consumers to be conscious of how they spend their money this holiday season. We want people, whenever possible, to support independent creators and shop outside the big boxes."

I love it. The reason I took up sewing more than ten years ago now is because I truly believed that if uneducated preteen children in Communist countries could sew my clothes, *I* could probably figure out how to do it, too -- and maybe keep those children from having to. I'm up for the pledge, are you?