First up I thought I d share my first creation. Warning, what comes next it not a success
story L
About a year ago, all excited with my sparkly
new Janome & a slightly over eager fabric haul meaning I had enough to keep
sewing for months on end I decided to jump right in. No sewing experience
whatsoever, except hours of watching my mum sew when I was a kid and even more
hours shopping thinking ‘that doesn’t look too hard to make’. So I guess at this point most people do a
sewing class or buy an ‘easy’ pattern, some cheap cotton and start at the
beginning. Lacking patience to practice and with a slight over dose of optimism
I jumped straight in on trying to make a skirt from a beautiful, but delicate
teal herringbone tweed wool fabric. Oh
and I decided against using a pattern, I had in my head a simple pencil style
skirt with a few front pleats that I
thought I could create . And of course I
wanted to line it. I hadn’t got a clue
what type of needles, thread or anything else was needed (I don’t even think I
knew that different needles existed!)
Well it was slow progress.
Sew. Unpick, Sew, Unpick some more. Watch the delicate fabric start to give up on
me in places. Take it in a bit to cover
those bits. I started with the skirt
then did a lining to match afterwards
(not sure why I didn’t think it logical to experiment on my lining
fabric but hindsight is a wonderful thing!).
After many hours of sewing (I mean many hours. Not many hours on one day, but many hours on
several days) A skirt started to emerge. It was a little on the tight side as
I’d taken it in too much – but it was still a skirt and looking quite good!
I’d no idea how to put a zipper in so I did watch a few You
Tube videos. One thing I failed to spot
is that there is such a thing as a zipper foot.
So there is me trying to put the stupid thing in with a normal foot –
which obviously doesn’t work too well. I
ended up kind of trying to sew it in by hand because I couldn’t work out how to
sew close enough to the zipper (oh Zipper foot where were you!!)
So I got that far and then did the waistband. Well it didn’t go to well. I just cut a big strip of fabric and sewed it
on (that’s all there is to it , right?!)
It gaped at one side, looking terrible (and since I d already bought a
rather expensive shirt to wear tucked into this skirt I needed it to look ok. So
then I tried to alter it and made a mess of it, cue my next addition, a little
flap over with some buttons added to cover my mess. I was quite happy that it managed to look ok.
And then it was pretty much done. One final press of the iron and it was ready
for its debut. Oh and maybe you can
guess what comes next, first touch of the iron and I get that dreaded burning
smell. Iron too hot, straight through
the fabric. My tears start to hiss as
they patter onto the iron. Its on the
dreaded waistband.
I ve kept the skirt.
Never worn it. Its got the burn
hole, its too small and frankly I think it’s a bit fragile that I think if I
did try to wear it, there is a distinct possibility it doesn’t keep me modestly
covered for long. I ll keep it. For memories sake. It actually looks quite nice when you excuse
the minor detail of the burn and the fact it doesn’t it.
So needless to say, since then I generally use a
pattern. I often hack a pattern or cut
off an existing favourite item, but starting with a blank sheet of paper, not
for me- well at least until I get a bit better at this sewing thing! Oh and I ve bought needles for different
jobs and feet that do different things too.
What a revolution! Who knew putting an invisible zip in could be so
straightforward!!!
Anyway I got the bug.
I took a little rest from sewing for a few days, but armed with my new
supplies, project 2 was a little more successful I’m happy to report. More on that another day.
Messy Essy xx
