My interest in sewing began at the tender age of eight years old when I began making clothes for my Skipper doll. I learned how to use a sewing machine when I took home ec in 7th grade. By then I had the basic skills to put clothes together. They were simply larger than the minute doll clothes I fashioned out of my head. Once I mastered reading a pattern, the rest came naturally. Not so with others in my class.
I excelled at sewing. I was adept and much more advanced than my peers, whom during gym class would make sport of my height (I never mastered basketball), then would come to me for help with their sewing projects in home ec. If that was me today, I'd tell them to take a long walk on a short peer.
My home ec teacher didn't encourage my advanced sewing skills. In fact, she got quite angry when I completed a dress long before the class did, so to prove her point, she made me take the entire dress apart and start all over. My mother was very angry about this and came to the school to speak with the teacher, who had threatened to fail me for not following instructions. My mother's anger must have had an effect on the teacher who grudgingly gave me a "B" for the semester. I wasn't at all discouraged as I knew my sewing skills would continue to excel in spite of my teacher's pissy attitude.
After all these years, my passion for sewing is still there. I'm continuously learning new tricks, discovering new gadgets and finding new ways to do things I've done for years that now save me a great deal of time and make sewing even more pleasurable. Purchasing my first serger earlier this year was a wonderful treat. I'd wanted one for years but couldn't justify having one. Now that I have one, I can't imagine how I survived without one for so long. It's absolutely a fabulous enhancement to sewing lending a professional look to home made garments.
I also recently bought something else I've wanted for a long time...a stippling foot for my Husqvarna sewing machine. This attachment allows a "free form" type of stitching. Similar to doodling with a pencil, the stippling foot allows you to doodle with thread. You can create limitless designs. You can embroider, quilt, write names or make pictures. This opens a whole new world of sewing adventures and possibilities for designing anything from quilts to place mats with ease.
I've gone through spurts of sewing frenzies, where I'd buy tons of material and make a lot of things, then for a long time I wouldn't even look at my sewing machine. Over the years I've gotten involved in other hobbies which I also enjoy; mosaics, painting on glass, digital photography (another passion to which I've dedicated many blog articles), but sewing has been a constant that I return to and enjoy more than ever before. It's probably a combination of the new gadgets on the market and years of experience behind me that make it more fun now than ever.
My background in graphic design has proved to be a useful skill when sewing. Sewing melds my skills; design, creative thinking, layout, problem solving, using color, organizational and computer. These skills combined make sewing not just fun, but challenging and ever-changing.
I still struggle with some patterns and believe that the people that write the patterns don't necessarily know how to sew because much of what they say makes no sense. I've often wondered how someone new to sewing could possibly follow some of the complicated patterns out there. I've come across patterns that have their steps either reversed or completely left out! I've also learned the hard way that putting scotch tape on a zipper seam as a guide not only doesn't work, but takes forever to remove the scotch tape once you stitch over it! Bad idea, Coats & Clarks!! So much for a hint to save time. It took me well over 45 minutes to take out the minute pieces of tape stuck underneath the stitches.
I've also discovered a love of hand-sewing as a great way to relax if I'm not up to sitting at the machine. My sister showed me how to make a "Cathedral Windows" quilt, which involves cutting a 7" square piece of muslin, stitching the sides, turning it inside out and folding it in a way to make a little ravioli-looking square which is then stitched to 3 more little squares to form a block. Then you place 2x2 scraps of material in the centers to form a pattern that ultimately will resemble a stained glass window.
The quilt is made entirely by hand except for the initial side-seam sewing of the block, which I use my machine for. I imagine I'll finish that quilt when my granddaughter gets married. (She turned four years old in August.) In the meantime, I'm going to attempt to make an attic windows quilt. It has much larger pieces and won't take that long to put together. Plus I'll be able to use my cool new stippling foot to do machine quilting all over it. Very exciting!
I believe sewing will always play an important role in my life. Of course, like anything else you enjoy, there have been times I wondered what devil has taken over my brain to attempt certain projects as they've caused me a lot of grief, such as the "leather" jacket I made this spring. It was a grand undertaking, a lot harder than I thought it would be, but the end result was something I will be proud to wear for years to come. (I'll also never make another one.)
I truly believe you reap what you sew....in more ways than one.
No comments:
Post a Comment