Over the past year, Soaring Circle’s Sewcase skills program has opened up more opportunities for Indigenous youth in sewing, fashion and textiles.

Our educational platform, Sewcase.ca, officially launched to connect students and teachers with mentors and resources from sewing professionals, Indigenous artists and fashion industry experts. This allows us to support even more Indigenous schools with their sewing programs.

Our main objectives:

• Connecting students to cultural knowledge and identity
• Introducing youth to careers in the fashion and textiles industry
• Showcasing youth projects to bridge a gap in cultural understanding
• Supporting mental health, employability and entrepreneurship
• Providing direct coaching and in-class workshops
• Providing materials and equipment supplies and support
• Organizing industry field trips
• Mobilizing Canadians in direct participation
• Advancing sustainability through upcycling

Last year, we opened four new skills labs, so we now have 22 in total. We welcomed around 5,000 students to our labs, worked with 1,000 sewists and heard from 16 students who want to go to fashion school. Also, we began building a new lab in Ottawa to help students continue their education.

We lowered our carbon footprint by moving our warehouse to Saskatchewan, which also helped us save on transportation costs. Plus, we upcycled more than 6,000 pounds of fabric and notions.

During the past year, we:

• Helped present two community fashion shows
• Featured a student on prominent Toronto billboards
• Showcased our students’creations on the Saskatchewan Fashion Week runway
• Delivered 180 hours of direct training to teachers and students online
• Delivered three weeks of in-person training in four remote communities
• Created videos with Indigenous creators (Stephanie Tenasco, Wyatt Miller and are currently working with designer Amy McPherson) with support from sponsors PVH and Janome Canada.
• Were featured in various media: French CBC Radio-Canada, Canada Travel magazine, Global Heroes magazine, Janome blogs, Canada Quilter and social media.
• Supported 11 Indigenous creators, manufacturers and suppliers
• Helped to create culturally based competition categories in sewing and beading at the provincial level Skills Canada Saskatchewan competitions
• Appreciated the Syilx Okanagan community of Penticton Indian Band and the Algonquin community of Kitigan Zibi Anishinàbeg for hosting student fashion shows.

Students sold their creations at booths at entrepreneurship fairs in their schools and communities. Learning business skills remains key to this program. That’s why we delivered a two-hour session with more than 80 students during Power Play, an entrepreneurship initiative for youths living in remote northern communities.

We are grateful to our partners who help us achieve so much.

Janome Canada HQ once again organized an annual fabric collection via its dealerships across Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan. This mobilizes donors and volunteers to bring in more supplies for our students, which lasted beyond a year.

We worked with Skills Canada to create the first Provincial Ribbon Skirt competition in Saskatchewan, in view of adding the event to the national competition. Before it only happened on a regional level. I proudly serve on this committee.

How to help Sewcase soar even more

If you wish to support our work, you can do so in various ways:

• Purchase a gift card from your local Janome dealer through the Soaring Circle website
• Host or attend a work bee to cut fabric shapes for Sewcase teachers
• Donate $700 for discounted Janome sewing machines and sergers
• Donate $500 to purchase a dress form for the program

Provide some of the following items:

• Basic sewing tools, such as needles (machine and hand sewing), straight pins, sewing clips, measuring tapes, seam rippers, multipurpose threads (no vintage thread please!), small and large fabric scissors and snips.
• Fabric supplies: 100% cotton (quilting cottons, twill, denim), fleece, wool, leather, fur, ribbon, fringe, bias binding, batting (cotton or 80/20) and Polyfil. No silky synthetics, knits or scraps please!
• Sewing patterns and books for winter coats, pants, skirts, men’s shirts, simple dresses, hoodies, pajamas, babies clothing, mitts, hats, aprons, bags, teddy bears, toys and other stuffies.
• Tracing paper (or tracing cloth), Heat n’ Bond, basting tape, marking pens, chalk, tracing wheel, rotary cutters and mats, quilting rulers, steam irons, ironing boards, hand embroidery hoops and threads.

Jenny Ambrose is a self-employed sewist and teacher based in Big River, Saskatchewan. She has been described as an irrepressibly enthusiastic and inspirational team member who understands the importance of building positive relationships.