From her youth, Jaleyna Tompkins has always had a strong infatuation with sewing. Every day begging her parents to give her permission to sew napkins together, to hone her talent at a young age.
But she didn’t pick it back up until years later. One day, she was suddenly inspired by a DIY TikTok she had seen, and she scooped up her friend to help her. She was more than satisfied with the product, resuscitating her childhood sp
ark and love for sewing. Her specific choice of stitching is patchwork.
“With patchwork you can be very creative and do just about anything you can think of. With other types of sewing, they can take more time and skill, quilting and embroidery, take more time to learn and be good at. With patchwork, it doesn’t matter if you mess up because it will just add more character. Overall, I like patchwork more because it gives you more freedom to mess up.” Said Jaleyna
Patchwork may be her trademark, but with every individual stitch stems from her sources of inspiration.
Jaleyna states that she has many places she goes to for inspiration, from things like music, nature, and online. One of her favorite places to go when she is having an art block is Pinterest.
”When sewing, especially if I am making something for somebody, I find a pin on Pinterest or sketch out an idea that I am thinking of, sometimes I combine my ideas with things I see on Pinterest too.”
Some of her creations also depend on the material she’s working with. She can be seen with some of her more fun creations with a very funky base pattern fabric. Some of her work she has done is her sweaters from different colleges with more colors that pertain to it.
And from a more ethical standpoint, Jaleyna explains that for the most part she buys her fabrics second hand. Whether it be quilts, curtains, old clothing from the thrift, etc. She stresses that it’s important to use what we already have available to us, but that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t buy newer fabric from places like Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and Joanne’s. Especially when she is in a rush.
But no matter how much time she put into her work, each one is more beautiful than the last. One of her favorite creations she explains the feeling is nothing less than fulfilling, in her words,
“I love everything that I have made, but one thing that I made for myself that I love is a sweatshirt that was inspired by a Beatles song. I used a quilt for the fabric, so it was time-consuming, but the hard work put into it makes the finished product feel more rewarding. One thing that I made for someone else that I love was a college pennant hoodie. I loved the school colors and overall aesthetic of the inspo that was sent to me so it was fun seeing what I could do to make other people’s visions come true.”
With every single little stitch that goes into her creations, she pours her heart out into them. She hopes to help inspire others as well!