About Me

Hello and welcome to Remains to be sewn! This blog is a labor of love, and a one woman show, run by me, MJ DiLorenzo. I’m an American expat living in northern Sweden with my partner and kids. From a young age, I found I had two strong passions: creating and preserving. My love for crafting, specifically sewing, followed me through my life as I began a degree in apparel design. However, I quickly became disillusioned with the fashion industry. The waste, the over-consumption, and the impacts both environmental and human were staggering and disheartening. My passion for preservation and environmentalism were digging their way to the forefront of my mind. After two years I switched majors and, for a long time, the desire to sew anything at all sat on the shelf with so many dusty pattern making books. It wasn’t until years later, when I moved to a new country and started my life over, that I picked up a cheap sewing machine and some scraps and got to work. I found in those early projects a reawakening, this time something stronger and capable of taking a shape to fit my ideals as well as my desires. Now my hope is to share those little scraps of happiness with anyone who stops by. Remains to be sewn is a place to see what’s possible by picking up what’s left behind and creating something new, something treasured, or just, simply, something. I believe we have more than enough on this planet to sustain life far more efficiently and comfortably than we do now. I believe in a world where small things are considered, where little acts of sustainability and intention make a difference, and where something as simple as reusing or repurposing something old is an act of resistance to a system that tells us to consume rather than conserve. So, stop by, follow along, and create with me using the remains.