My heart breaks for our black friends. In my privileged life, I will admit that I didn’t know how much I didn’t know. In an effort to become a better ally, I have dove head first into as much research as I can, and have been led, to many great resources through the emotional labor of black sewists in the sewing communities I participate in on facebook. I’m hoping to compile and share those resources here so we (non-BPOC) can continue to learn, and make a conscious effort to change our ways, our systems, and our communities. We MUST do better.
I will continue to add to this list as more resources are discovered.
Quick Info
Educate yourself – Reading lists
- A Reading List On Race For Allies Who Want To Do Better by Arielle Gray
- A Shareable anti-racism guide by Tasha K. Ryals, including suggested pre-reading, memoirs, essays, and resources on immigration, indigenous studies, Latinx studies, and more.
- The Guardian, Do the work: an anti-racist reading list
- Left Bank Books – A list of books on Civil rights history and issues, novels, memoirs, and kids books
- Distractify List – Educate yourself BLM
- An Anti-Racism Resource List by Marie Forleo
Educate your kids
- Your Kids Aren’t Too Young to Talk About Race: Resource Roundup
- 31 Children’s books to support conversations on race, racism and resistance
Examining yourself as a white person
- White Fragility: https://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/article/viewFile/249/116
- What NOT to Say, and why it is wrong
- If You ‘Don’t See Race,’ You’re Not Paying Attention
- Colorblindness is a form of racism, a nemesis, and a barrier to dismantling it

Black Owned Businesses
Black Owned Sewing-Related Businesses
- Shut Up and Sew Vendor/Store List – Shops for fabric, notions, patterns, etc
Facebook group threads of black-owned businesses to support (you must be a part of these sewing groups to see the posts)
- List from Black Sheep Fabrics
- List from Rad Patterns
- List from Rockerbye Destash
- List from Blended Thread Fabrics
- List from PDF Pattern Sales and Promotions
- List from Wolf and Rabbit
- List from Wanderlust Designs
