Meet host CJ Helenski of CJ Sews!

CJ is a lover of life and a seamstress who feels lucky to have learned how to create clothing and, in many ways, a new way of living for herself. She is a speech-language pathologist and seamstress who calls the Mountain State home.

Her sewing journey began in the suburbs of Philadelphia at the age of eight, when she and her mom took “mommy and me” sewing classes together.

While attending college in Pittsburgh, she “borrowed” her mom’s sewing machine to make scrunchies for her friends and earn a little extra beer money. After completing her undergraduate degree, she moved to West Virginia for graduate school, where she fell in love with the rolling hills and the opportunities to connect with kindred spirits and the natural world.

West Virginia is where she learned to slow down and feel the earth beneath her feet. Living in a welcoming community with immediate access to nature continues to inspire her to live creatively and intentionally.

She is considered a self-taught seamstress, with no formal professional training in clothing design—but no one learns alone. She credits Mom, Anne, Lory, and Nellie for helping her develop her sewing skills. She carries deep gratitude for these women and for all the hands that have stitched the quilts she now reinvents, breathing new life into these textiles through her work.