Sarah Ramberg - Everything Old is New Again

Sew & So...

Sarah Ramberg worked for an environmental engineering and consulting firm for 15 years. After being laid off in 2017, she decided to turn her passion for sewing with flannel and upcycling into a full-time career. Sarah was bitten by the antiquing, thrifting, and garage sale bug when she was in Junior High. Today, she feels a fundamental need to repurpose and recycle broken and neglected items in lieu of buying new things whenever possible.

She describes upcycling as taking something that already exists and improving it to your own personal tastes. Maybe you want to transform one style into another, or infuse more color into something, or create something that’s distinctly you. Sarah shares some of her own projects and says that an upcycling project can be anything from turning old flannel shirts into a wreath to painting a picture frame or turning a bed frame into a bench. Whether simple or complex, you’re taking something old and turning it into a wonderful creation that’s borne from your imagination.

Her suggestion for those just getting started is to go to a local thrift store and look around to see what you feel drawn to. She also encourages aspiring upcyclers to check out Pinterest or YouTube for inspiration, and shares that, as a vlogger, she loves getting emails from people who share photos of their finds, be it a window or a funk flannel shirt. (2:25-17:19)

Sarah’s love of flannel likely began in the early 90s when grunge was the rage and flannel was virtually a social icon. Having done several flannel projects on her blog, she was excited when she was approached by a publisher who wanted to create a book about flannel crafts. Crafting with Flannel is full of creative and engaging craft tutorials, designed to motivate and inspire.

Another great source of inspiration is her website and blog, Sadie Seasongoods, which is about, “Living a firsthand life using secondhand things.” Sarah loves traveling, and many of her blogs are about projects that came out of her travels and the discoveries she made at thrift shops along the way. Through her travels, she also discovered a new phenomenon called “creative reuse.” These creative reuse stores and organizations are popping up everywhere and are like craft thrift shops. Sarah describes them as having oodles and oodles of great crafts and art supplies and strange items that have been donated.

She is excited that more people are taking an interest in upcycling, and the implications that could have for our planet. “I think there are just an unlimited number of ways that we could all kind of take a breath and look at our impact and our footprint.” (17:25-25:58)

Sarah is committed to living a more creative, less disposable life and this podcast exemplifies her passion and vision. If you’re ready to be inspired, kick back and listen, and then keep the inspiration going by connecting with Sarah at sadieseasongoods.com, on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You can also email her at [e-mail]

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