25 Years & Counting

How “Sewing With Nancy” Influenced an Industry

As a sewer, what do you do when you can’t find the supplies you need?
You start your own mail order business, of course…

For Nancy Zieman, it was an easy answer. In the late 1970s, as she worked as a freelance sewing instructor, she noticed that the sewers she taught were always interested in the tools she used but could never find them in retail stores. Instead of shrugging her shoulders, she decided to solve the problem herself, and, in 1979, began Nancy’s Notions, a mail order catalog and eventually, a retail store.

Such a simple act began a career that would continue for over 25 years, placing Zieman into the sewing spotlight as a role model and mentor for millions of sewers. In 2003, she walked even further into the public eye by becoming a national spokeswoman for Baby Lock sewing machines. Since then, she has taught sewing with a clarity and ease that encourages sewers to develop and strengthen their skills, pushing them to sew for family, for friends, and, more importantly, for themselves. Even during those times when sewing was no longer stylish, Zieman continued teaching, believing in the craft and the benefits it offers to sewers.

It was through this dedication that Sewing With Nancy was born.

Getting to Know Nancy Zieman
Nancy Zieman was raised on a dairy farm in Wisconsin and first learned to sew at age 10. She credits her mother with instilling in her daughter both talent and inspiration, and the local 4H club for the additional skills she acquired. With her passion for sewing a driving force in her life, she moved to Chicago after college and began working for a national sewing chain store, marrying her husband Richard along the way. Through a job transfer, the pair soon found themselves in Minnesota, and Zieman began freelancing, giving seminars for fabric stores and educational groups. Soon after, however, another job transfer sent them back to Wisconsin. Nancy’s Notions emerged from Zieman’s continuous freelance work during this time, and soon, she was completely immersed in the world of sewing.

Because of her freelance work, she caught the eye of a Wisconsin cable television producer, who proposed a sewing show.

“Traveling around, giving seminars across the country gets old. I was ready for a more stable job, so I decided to give it a try,” Zieman said. “In the beginning, we worked with one camera -- a single episode took 13 hours to tape.”

But after 13 episodes, the show was discontinued. Zieman, conscious that sewers appreciated a how-to sewing show, decided to find a way to continue it. She rounded up her own television crew, contracted with another cable network, and began writing and producing Sewing With Nancy herself. What began as a three-month contract for a one-woman production began its evolution into the instructional public television show fans know today.

More Than a TV Show
“Nancy has a fabulous reputation as a sewing teacher who makes everything look easy, fun and classy,” said Mary Mulari, an appliqué designer, teacher and writer of creative sewing books, as well as a frequent guest on Sewing With Nancy. “It’s been my pleasure and an honor to be her frequent guest and also her friend.”

As Mulari suggests, Sewing With Nancy is far more than just a television show. Each week, sewers allow Zieman and her guests into their homes to educate, to instruct and to inspire them with new projects and ideas. Her guidance and dedication to sewing have helped keep the art alive, even during years when sewing seemed tired and out of fashion. And today, as sewing gains popularity with older and younger generations alike, Zieman quietly continues doing what she loves -- teaching sewing and encouraging sewers.

“Nancy taught me how to sew, conduct business in a fair manner, and have fun doing it,” said Eileen Roche, editor, Designs In Machine Embroidery and frequent guest on Sewing With Nancy.

The sewing world has come a long way since the beginning of Sewing With Nancy. Often, sewers give Zieman some of the credit for its survival and continual evolution over the last quarter century.

“Twenty-five years ago, more people sewed for themselves than didn’t,” Zieman contemplated. “Economically, it was much less expensive for a woman to make clothing for her family than to go out and buy it. People needed to create garments to save money. Now, the opposite is true of what sewing once was; our needs have changed dramatically. In 2007, it’s far more economical to buy garments rather than make them. Today, people sew for different reasons -- creative expression for their wardrobe and homes, gift-giving, or creating heirloom pieces. Sewing is no longer a necessity.”

Looking Toward the Future
Today, Zieman believes that creativity drives the industry, as sewing transitions from functional task to artistic outlet. Nancy’s Notions catalog, Web site and retail store now carry patterns, books, DVDs, and a plethora of tools, all to support and inspire every level of creative sewing, embroidering and quilting.

“The sky is the limit,” Zieman tells beginning sewers. “You can make a fleece sweater for your dog or embroider napkins as wedding gifts. Whatever interests you can be inspiration for a project.”

As the times changed, Sewing With Nancy evolved just ahead of them. In recent years, technology has made videotaping easier and sewing much less demanding. Today, the show is taped in high definition so that viewers can clearly see each detail of Zieman’s sewing process. The Baby Lock sewing machines she uses have LCD touch screens, USB ports, and significant memory, making digitizing patterns and complicated stitching much quicker and easier than anything done 25 years ago. In 2003, Nancy’s Notions even became a part of the Tacony Corporation, Baby Lock’s parent company, adding more of an extensive element of technology to the business. Zieman serves as national spokeswoman for Baby Lock machines, many of which include her designs built directly into their hard drives.

Over the past 25 years, Sewing With Nancy has served as a benchmark, an example of what the art of sewing can and should be. Zieman herself has helped lead this movement, quietly assisting the sewers, quilters and embroiderers of the world to pursue their dreams and follow their creativity, wherever it might lead them. From projects dedicated to the benefit of others to projects completed simply for the love of sewing, Nancy Zieman has done her part, ushering the art of sewing into a new millennium.

Behind the Scenes
Take a Backstage Tour of Sewing With Nancy
A day spent videotaping Sewing With Nancy is a full day indeed. Nancy’s team, consisting of production assistants/project designers Donna and Kate, Pat, lead editor, illustrator and quilter Laure, and director Laurie Gorman, works weeks ahead of time to produce new episodes of Sewing With Nancy.

Because the team tapes three episodes each month, Kate and Donna constantly brainstorm with Nancy, researching and testing the newest ideas in sewing and quilting. At the same time, Nancy writes scripts and works on her technique development, preparing herself to walk her viewers through every step of a project.

At the start of each day of taping, Nancy, Donna and Pat begin their morning at 7 a.m. They drive 40 miles from Beaver Dam, the home of Nancy’s Notions, to Wisconsin Public Television studios in Madison where their director and film crew wait to begin production. Each month, the crew works for two full days, usually filming one and a half episodes one day, and one and a half another.

The crew produces 26 episodes of Sewing With Nancy yearly, each episode running 26 minutes and 45 seconds --most are part of a three-part series. Once in the studio, the crew begins blocking out the script on the studio set. This gives Nancy a general idea of where she’ll stand as she talks to the audience. While the opening of every episode is specifically scripted, the rest of the show -- the how-to portion -- is only generally outlined.

The team runs through each episode multiple times. Each time, members of the team offer suggestions, and when everyone feels comfortable, the cameras’ lights go on and filming begins.

As easy as Nancy makes sewing look on television, videotaping Sewing With Nancy is much more complicated than it appears. Nancy has learned to sew with her Baby Lock sewing machine at a 30-degree angle, one shoulder tilted away from the machine -- anything less and the camera wouldn’t be able to get a clear shot.

At the end of the day, Nancy and the Sewing With Nancy team have developed a rough draft of a television episode that sewers around the world will use for instruction and support. And by the end of 2007, over 676 episodes will have been produced. Nancy’s goal -- “to educate and to inspire” -- has surely been fulfilled.

Reprinted from SQE Professional, September 2007