Today it was announced that the Home Sewing Association, the trade association representing the sewing/fabric category is folding.

For those of you who don't know, I started in the craft industry in the sewing category and worked for HSA as the director of marketing communications & education for seven years. So I am greeting this news with mixed feelings. It is my hope that the industry will rally and come up with a new and different type of group that promotes the positive benefits of sewing. We need that.

HSA has a proud industry promotion heritage that demands acknowledgement.Following are some of elements that showed a lot of vision for an industry group. I think there are some nuggets of inspiration for the scrapbooking community here.

• In the mid-1980s, association members ponied up $1 million to fund a series of tv commercials promoting sewing. The theme song "It's original, it's one of a kind" was performed by a pop star of the day and the commercials appeared on an upstart television network called MTV.
• HSA provided the seed money and developmental support to create the American Sewing Guild, a now independent club of sewing enthusiasts that is about 20,000 members strong.
• In the mid-1990's HSA commissioned the first-ever clinical study that linked sewing to stress reduction- the sewing is a stress-buster campaign made papers and tv networks around the country.
• HSA worked with youth organizations such as the Girl Scouts of America, Campfire Boys and Girls and National 4- H Council to fund sewing education programs in States across the country resulting in thousands of children learning to sew.
• In the late 1990's HSA raised $1 million for breast cancer research by encouraging retailers and sewing enthusiasts to raise funds for this worthy cause.
• In the new millennium HSA implemented a teacher training program that  taught best practices to people who wanted to teach sewing.
  

There were so many other projects large and small from dramatic runway fashion shows to National Craft Month promotions that urged Each One, Teach One. HSA was a leader among associations when it came to proactive media outreach.

The leaders in the sewing industry saw early on that sewing had to be made relevant to a younger consumer group if the industry were to survive. The industry had to completely reinvent it's message from promoting the benefits of sewing to save, to the benefits of sewing for creative fulfillment. And I truly believe that now, more than in the past decades, there is a renewed interest in young people to learn this age-old art.

What do you think scrapbooking industry? Maybe we could take a page from HSA's book...-Beth