comm necromancy!
Dec. 28th, 2023 12:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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sewing101...I had forgotten not only that this comm existed but that I'm the mod; looking at the date of the last activity, that's almost certainly because 2016 was the year I was flooded out and lost the sewing machine I had then.
My next attempt at getting back into machine sewing was in 2020. I was gearing up to take lessons and you can guess what happened. :p
However! Tonight I had my first lesson (Sewing Machine 101 for n00bs, not her term) from Fair Fit Studio in Baton Rouge, and I LOVED IT. I brought my essentially unused sewing machine, a Janome Magnolia 7318.
ETA: for a sense of Andrea Eastin's credentials:
My mental image of "sewing machine" is my mom's venerable 1970s Singer, which as of a few years ago was still working despite some parts being held on with duct tape. This newfangled thing with computerized machines is wild to me. Like machines that thread the needle for you?! OTOH my eyesight is ass so this could be a boon, but I've threaded a lot of needles for cross stitch and hand sewing.
Anyway! The instructor, Andrea, is terrific. I loved her immediately. She's patient and cheerful and great at explaining, and she's very interested in hearing about what you would love to do, no matter how ambitious, so she can tailor (ha, ha) her instruction accordingly and also her opinion is that you have to go after what you REALLY want to do (vs. pillowcases lol) because then you'll put in the effort and keep doing it.
(Ironically, I do kind of want to sew myself nicer pillowcases, since ours are old.)
She said my Janome is a terrific model for my use case - good enough for me to grow into, comparatively easy to use, but not so fancy (lol one-step buttonholes) that it's stupid expensive. The idea that the machine does buttonhole ANYTHING for you is also wild to me! I still remember my mom showing me how to sew buttonholes on her ancient Singer "manually."
I could NOW afford a stupid expensive machine if I budgeted for it; less so at the time I got it. I tend to doubt I'll want a stupid expensive machine for some time anyway. Also, aside from a bit of dust, my Janome was essentially unused and sews GREAT. Way back when, I failed to figure out how to get the bobbin-winding to work, and then failed to get a hand-wound bobbin - I remember helping my mom with that as a kid! - to work to get the machine to sew, concluded I wanted lessons, and, well, it was 2020 so you can guess what happened.
What was unexpectedly gratifying was that in this lesson, we covered winding the bobbin (THIS IS MAGICAL and way less annoying than doing it by hand lolsob), threading the machine, straight stitch, zigsaw stitch, some settings, and backstitch to secure the straight stitch, plus exercises. Andrea said that especially for a beginner, my stitching is very straight and my control of tension/fabric management is very good.
ETA: photographic evidence of a seam. This could be straighter, but for day 1 I don't think it's too shabby?
After spending years as THAT PERSON WHO SUCKS AT THINGS this was very gratifying! But of course, it did not come ex nihilo. My mother sewed ENDLESSLY when I was a child. I helped her with small tasks (or "helped" - Andrea laughed in wry recognition when I told her the first thing I learned from Mom as a smol child was DO NOT USE THE GOOD SEWING SCISSORS ON YOUR CONSTRUCTION PAPER). I know the sound of the sewing machine, and I don't just mean nostalgia; the machine will tell you how it's doing like a musical instrument, and it will tell you from the sound if certain steps are forgotten, and for things like seams or sewing straight, that's hand-eye of a type I do have.
Ditto tension management, which people have commented that I seem to be "naturally" good at even as a beginner in e.g. knitting - but it's not "natural"; my mom the terrifying perfectionist taught me about tension management as a small child when I was sewing embroidery samplers and so on.
Anyway, Andrea also showed me how to sew a basic straight seam, that 5/8" seam allowance is commercial sewing standard (the kinds of patterns that home sewists buy) but I should also learn 3/8" (possibly smaller) for industry patterns.
I had also brought three patterns as examples of what I am eventually hoping to do with patterns once I have a basic control over the machine - one that looked like mostly rectangles and possibly doable in the near future, one that looked more complicated, and a Japanese military/utility jacket pattern book that has text in Japanese and looks EXTREMELY advanced but is what I would love to be able to sew down the line. (Well, also drafting my own patterns, but I need to understand pattern 101 first. I cannot currently read/figure out patterns.)
I have a surprising about of head-knowledge about sewing construction and techniques even for things I don't know how to do because my mom would explain everything she did. My ~issue is that my mom doesn't speak English (although she did use some industry standard English-language terminology) so I have bunches of things in my head that I don't know the English term so I can look up more information. It's very disconcerting to find myself thinking in Korea about sewing things, because my brain is essentially playing back my mom's words of wisdom!
So, the patterns I brought as a sampler (because I didn't want to unload my entire aspirational stash during an intro lesson):
- Kwik Sew K3715 Misses' Blazer - this looked like one of the simpler patterns in my aspirational hoard, because mostly rectangles; I'm guessing the more complicated things I would need to be shown how to wrangle are the shoulders, collar, lapel; I'm not seeing a shoulder yoke on this design, although I'm guessing with more experience, adding one would probably not be too bad. Andrea suggested I try this for my first pattern after I've had some practice with my machine, if I'd like to book a Pattern 101 lesson with her at that time (I would!), given that this is what I want to do and I'm already sewing with a relatively good level of control/accuracy for a beginner.
- Folkwear #133 Belgian Military Chef's Jacket - she's sewn some Folkwear patterns, says their instructions are pretty clear, this should be approachable once I have a bit of experience.
- NIGHTMARE MODE because advanced construction techniques (I could tell just looking at the diagrams) and the book is in Japanese, which I don't read, but: Ryuichiro Shimazaki's Men's Military Jacket Pattern Book. Andrea LOVED this book; her opinion was that yes, this would be something to work up to but the diagrams would make it absolutely doable for a sewist who knew the techniques. The one annoying thing is that ALL the pattern pieces are overlapping each other on a single sheet that you have to trace, for efficiency's sake, but it is what it is. I mean. I'm screwing around with 2D animation. A little tracing will probably be a relief.
I see now that Japanese Creative Books has a bunch of intriguing pattern books, but shipping from Japan is going to be YIKES.
Down the line, I do hope to bring my pattern stash in during some future lesson and ask Andrea to help me figure out which pattern to try in a "progression of skills" sense. But that's for the future. :)
Andrea suggested, for home exercises:
- practice winding bobbins (I have a bunch), threading the machine (I also have a bunch of thread from my mom)
- straight lines
- straight seams
- find some different fabrics and experiment with sewing different ones
- cut some shapes, especially circles, and practice sewing curves, along different shapes, etc.
Signed, I have just dug out my Bunka Fashion Series Garment Design Textbooks in an aspirational kind of way. :)
What have your sewing adventures been? Do you have sewing hopes/plans for 2024?
My next attempt at getting back into machine sewing was in 2020. I was gearing up to take lessons and you can guess what happened. :p
However! Tonight I had my first lesson (Sewing Machine 101 for n00bs, not her term) from Fair Fit Studio in Baton Rouge, and I LOVED IT. I brought my essentially unused sewing machine, a Janome Magnolia 7318.
ETA: for a sense of Andrea Eastin's credentials:
I have worked as a professional seamstress in film and television, notably working as a stitcher for Pitch Perfect 2 and the television show Underground season 1. I have worked as a tailor’s first hand picking up interesting pattern making methods, learning alteration and fit methods from industry professionals, as well as streamlined production secrets for efficient and professional sewing. I’ve also produced and curated fashion shows for the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and spent 2 years in each spring and summer season creating runways shows and presentations for my clothing collections in New Orleans.
My mental image of "sewing machine" is my mom's venerable 1970s Singer, which as of a few years ago was still working despite some parts being held on with duct tape. This newfangled thing with computerized machines is wild to me. Like machines that thread the needle for you?! OTOH my eyesight is ass so this could be a boon, but I've threaded a lot of needles for cross stitch and hand sewing.
Anyway! The instructor, Andrea, is terrific. I loved her immediately. She's patient and cheerful and great at explaining, and she's very interested in hearing about what you would love to do, no matter how ambitious, so she can tailor (ha, ha) her instruction accordingly and also her opinion is that you have to go after what you REALLY want to do (vs. pillowcases lol) because then you'll put in the effort and keep doing it.
(Ironically, I do kind of want to sew myself nicer pillowcases, since ours are old.)
She said my Janome is a terrific model for my use case - good enough for me to grow into, comparatively easy to use, but not so fancy (lol one-step buttonholes) that it's stupid expensive. The idea that the machine does buttonhole ANYTHING for you is also wild to me! I still remember my mom showing me how to sew buttonholes on her ancient Singer "manually."
I could NOW afford a stupid expensive machine if I budgeted for it; less so at the time I got it. I tend to doubt I'll want a stupid expensive machine for some time anyway. Also, aside from a bit of dust, my Janome was essentially unused and sews GREAT. Way back when, I failed to figure out how to get the bobbin-winding to work, and then failed to get a hand-wound bobbin - I remember helping my mom with that as a kid! - to work to get the machine to sew, concluded I wanted lessons, and, well, it was 2020 so you can guess what happened.
What was unexpectedly gratifying was that in this lesson, we covered winding the bobbin (THIS IS MAGICAL and way less annoying than doing it by hand lolsob), threading the machine, straight stitch, zigsaw stitch, some settings, and backstitch to secure the straight stitch, plus exercises. Andrea said that especially for a beginner, my stitching is very straight and my control of tension/fabric management is very good.
ETA: photographic evidence of a seam. This could be straighter, but for day 1 I don't think it's too shabby?
After spending years as THAT PERSON WHO SUCKS AT THINGS this was very gratifying! But of course, it did not come ex nihilo. My mother sewed ENDLESSLY when I was a child. I helped her with small tasks (or "helped" - Andrea laughed in wry recognition when I told her the first thing I learned from Mom as a smol child was DO NOT USE THE GOOD SEWING SCISSORS ON YOUR CONSTRUCTION PAPER). I know the sound of the sewing machine, and I don't just mean nostalgia; the machine will tell you how it's doing like a musical instrument, and it will tell you from the sound if certain steps are forgotten, and for things like seams or sewing straight, that's hand-eye of a type I do have.
Ditto tension management, which people have commented that I seem to be "naturally" good at even as a beginner in e.g. knitting - but it's not "natural"; my mom the terrifying perfectionist taught me about tension management as a small child when I was sewing embroidery samplers and so on.
Anyway, Andrea also showed me how to sew a basic straight seam, that 5/8" seam allowance is commercial sewing standard (the kinds of patterns that home sewists buy) but I should also learn 3/8" (possibly smaller) for industry patterns.
I had also brought three patterns as examples of what I am eventually hoping to do with patterns once I have a basic control over the machine - one that looked like mostly rectangles and possibly doable in the near future, one that looked more complicated, and a Japanese military/utility jacket pattern book that has text in Japanese and looks EXTREMELY advanced but is what I would love to be able to sew down the line. (Well, also drafting my own patterns, but I need to understand pattern 101 first. I cannot currently read/figure out patterns.)
I have a surprising about of head-knowledge about sewing construction and techniques even for things I don't know how to do because my mom would explain everything she did. My ~issue is that my mom doesn't speak English (although she did use some industry standard English-language terminology) so I have bunches of things in my head that I don't know the English term so I can look up more information. It's very disconcerting to find myself thinking in Korea about sewing things, because my brain is essentially playing back my mom's words of wisdom!
So, the patterns I brought as a sampler (because I didn't want to unload my entire aspirational stash during an intro lesson):
- Kwik Sew K3715 Misses' Blazer - this looked like one of the simpler patterns in my aspirational hoard, because mostly rectangles; I'm guessing the more complicated things I would need to be shown how to wrangle are the shoulders, collar, lapel; I'm not seeing a shoulder yoke on this design, although I'm guessing with more experience, adding one would probably not be too bad. Andrea suggested I try this for my first pattern after I've had some practice with my machine, if I'd like to book a Pattern 101 lesson with her at that time (I would!), given that this is what I want to do and I'm already sewing with a relatively good level of control/accuracy for a beginner.
- Folkwear #133 Belgian Military Chef's Jacket - she's sewn some Folkwear patterns, says their instructions are pretty clear, this should be approachable once I have a bit of experience.
- NIGHTMARE MODE because advanced construction techniques (I could tell just looking at the diagrams) and the book is in Japanese, which I don't read, but: Ryuichiro Shimazaki's Men's Military Jacket Pattern Book. Andrea LOVED this book; her opinion was that yes, this would be something to work up to but the diagrams would make it absolutely doable for a sewist who knew the techniques. The one annoying thing is that ALL the pattern pieces are overlapping each other on a single sheet that you have to trace, for efficiency's sake, but it is what it is. I mean. I'm screwing around with 2D animation. A little tracing will probably be a relief.
I see now that Japanese Creative Books has a bunch of intriguing pattern books, but shipping from Japan is going to be YIKES.
Down the line, I do hope to bring my pattern stash in during some future lesson and ask Andrea to help me figure out which pattern to try in a "progression of skills" sense. But that's for the future. :)
Andrea suggested, for home exercises:
- practice winding bobbins (I have a bunch), threading the machine (I also have a bunch of thread from my mom)
- straight lines
- straight seams
- find some different fabrics and experiment with sewing different ones
- cut some shapes, especially circles, and practice sewing curves, along different shapes, etc.
Signed, I have just dug out my Bunka Fashion Series Garment Design Textbooks in an aspirational kind of way. :)
What have your sewing adventures been? Do you have sewing hopes/plans for 2024?
no subject
Date: 2023-12-28 10:00 am (UTC)My sewing machine is a fairly basic Brother — no computerised anything — but I like it because it does the job and I can easily lift it with one hand (which is important given that I use the same surface for sewing and pressing, so being able to just pop it down onto the floor is helpful).
I got into sewing around... 2015 I think? A friend came round with a pattern and talked me through making my first pair of trousers, and now I make all my own clothes including underwear (but not socks, because although I can knit, I don’t like wearing anything but the thinnest of socks, and those would be ridiculous to handknit, and in any case sourcing socks that please me is pretty trivial so it wouldn’t be worth the work).
(I also want to sew myself a pillowcase, but out of silk, in an attempt to make my hair better-behaved. This is waiting on my being able to source some cheap silk satin in an acceptable colour — I got some from a deadstock place for £15/metre a couple of years ago, so I know it’s possible. I am aware of the existence of imitation silk but unfortunately I don’t like the feel of it.)
Your day 1 seam looks very good to me!
Do you know about Freesewing? It’s a community of people who release free bespoke sewing patterns. You input your measurements, choose a pattern, and then some javascript magic happens and it spits out a pattern tailored to your measurements. (I don’t actually use their patterns because I make my own, but I love the idea of it and the community is super-helpful, so I hang out on the Discord a lot and I always tell other sewists about it.)
My sewing hopes for 2024 are to finish the current range of improvements I’m making to my top and trousers patterns, and then sew myself (a) a fancy top with the purple rayon/cotton sateen fabric I bought back in 2021 (I’m embroidering it too) and (b) a pair of burnt orange silk dupion trousers (lined with cotton poplin).
no subject
Date: 2023-12-28 11:04 am (UTC)Trousers/pants are on my list too! Mainly because I am short and stubby and shopping for pants that fit me is a giant PITA lol. Also the hideous pain that is finding women's pants WITH FUNCTIONAL POCKETS lol.
I also love silk and, uh, yeah. Spendy. I used to do some silk painting in college, which was surprisingly doable even on a student budget if one didn't expect to create haute couture for the ages and stuck to smaller items; in the US I sourced stuff through Dharma Trading, but bolts/yards of silk are still spendy and I imagine shipping would be A LOT.
I did not know about Freesewing, thank you! In fact, I think I should start compiling a sticky resources post for the comm. :D
no subject
Date: 2023-12-28 05:51 pm (UTC)I got my previous cheap silk from Simply Fabrics (bought online, though I did go to their shop in person before the pandemic started).
I’ve heard good things about Dharma Trading (mainly in the context of things for dyeing — I’ve done some dyeing in the past and spent a lot of time reading Paula Burch’s website) but yeah, wrong country for me.
A resources post would be great, maybe also including recommendations of places to buy fabric and places to get PDF patterns printed? I can contribute UK recommendations for both categories.
no subject
Date: 2023-12-28 05:06 pm (UTC)I paused a smallish handsewing project in 2021 (I think it was 2021) for health reasons. It's a simple bag; an intermediate person using a machine (such as former me, vintage 2019) could've finished it within an afternoon. 2021-ish me turned it into a semi-embroidery project with handstitched decorative reinforcement, then paused the whole thing. But I know where its parts are, and the vision-related obstacles that blocked me are less obstructive lately. Fingers crossed for resuming it in 2024.
no subject
Date: 2023-12-28 05:55 pm (UTC)(This is not intended as advice.) I use a headlamp for embroidery, but haven’t found exactly the right one for me yet. I have one that provides diffuse-enough light but runs on batteries (and goes through them fast enough that it’s taken several rechargeable batteries to their end of life), and another one that just charges over USB but has a very focused beam that isn’t really ideal. I feel sure that my ideal headlamp is out there somewhere, but I haven’t found it yet.
no subject
Date: 2023-12-29 04:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-12-29 07:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-09 08:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-12-29 11:46 am (UTC)I do some bits of hand sewing, largely visible mending of existing garments.
no subject
Date: 2024-01-09 08:50 pm (UTC)(I apologize to folks for the nonlinear responses - I'm having Chaotic Life stuff right now lolsob.)
no subject
Date: 2024-01-09 08:37 pm (UTC)I learned to sew when I was little (from my mom, on her late-'60s Singer), mostly did mending and hemming but managed to make a few things for myself: a few skirts (back when I wore those!), a fairly nice vest, a voluminous hooded cloak for RenFaire purposes. I didn't have a machine with me in college, but after I graduated I got myself a mid-'90s Bernina Bernette mechanical -- good quality for the price -- and used it mostly for mending, occasionally for altering or otherwise modding thrift store finds.
And then I fell out of the habit and didn't so much as touch that machine for... at least fifteen years? Possibly closer to twenty. But when the pandemic hit and I was restless and bored and needed to learn something new, I decided on quilting, because why not.
So I have been teaching myself to quilt with the help of some reference books and a few websites and the occasional YouTube video. My first quilt took me a while; the piecing went reasonably quickly, and then I got intimidated by the actual quilting-and-binding part and didn't touch the project for, like, six months. But once I actually got up the nerve to attempt it, it went fairly well. The second one (a baby quilt for a friend) went much more quickly, and the third one is coming along all right, though it's taking longer because I'm practicing some new things with the piecing.
The little Bernina has been handling this newfound activity like a champ, though it has its limits; it's great for piecing, but the throat is small enough (in terms of both width and height) that anything larger than a lap quilt is going to be difficult to quilt, just because there's only so much fabric I can squish in there, even if I roll it up pretty tightly. Fortunately the next several projects I have on tap are in fact baby quilts and lap quilts; it's not like I'm trying to get a king-sized bed quilt in there or anything. So new machine is not urgent, which is good because my sewing machine wishlist is pretty idiosyncratic. Ex: I really don't care about fancy stitches or computerized whatever, but I do want a machine that lets me choose whether the needle stops in the up or down position. Can I have such a thing? I have no idea. Heh.
Anyway! This community looks like it may be more garment-oriented than quilt-oriented, but I'm still happy to have found it. :D
no subject
Date: 2024-01-09 10:10 pm (UTC)hopefully to give advice to n00bs like me, it's okitty. :)I have heard such good things about Berninas! My husband pointed out a Bernina store in our neighborhood so if I am ever in the market for a machine upgrade, I may investigate it. :)
Quilting talk absolutely welcome! Really anything sewing is fair game, and I'm about to put up (per suggestion/polling) a quarterly (?) thread for allied fiber/crafts EXCEPT knitting/crochet (because they are well-served elsewhere). I think it's just an accident of fate (?) that early comm members have been more garment-oriented; I personally got into sewing because I am desperate to sew jackets. But, for example, I grew up watching my mom quilt so I have osmosed a tiny bit of quilting talk, and am definitely excited to hear about your quilting adventures!