In my most recent podcast episode I shared my plans to venture (slowly and tentatively) into the world of garment sewing. For all intents and purposes I am a novice. Though I have a few afternoons of experience behind me I have never really sewed something to completion that I was actually able to use or wear. My Grandma is a skilled quilter, and I remember making a doll quilt with her once when I was 8 or 9. I loved historical fashion as a teenager and tried making a muslin for a steel boned corset, but that project didn’t go very well and I was quickly and unsurprisingly overwhelmed by it. I did sew a dress from a pattern to completion, but so much went wrong with it that it started falling apart right away. I think I wore it once. Clothing construction seems like such a daunting, huge task, but lately it has become more intriguing to me than ever.
My mother in law is a skilled sewist and has made trunkfuls of sweet little outfits for Esmeralda. One afternoon I decided to ask her if she would be open to helping me try sewing my own dress. She graciously agreed, offered to guide me through any part of the process that I wanted, and event lent me an older sewing machine she wasn’t using. It is such a privilege to have someone experienced available for support and one on one guidance in the process of learning a new skill or craft. I felt like not taking her up on her generous offer right away would be a huge missed opportunity, so I took the machine home with me right away and we planned a trip to a local fabric shop.
A couple of days later we were perusing shelves of cotton, linen, and viscose. I ended up going home with 4 meters (!!) of a lovely patterned (embroidered?) terracotta double gauze cotton muslin for the Poppy Dress pattern by indie designer Hubba Ding.
We decided that I would cut the fabric with my mother in law present, as that is the first truly intimidating task on my list. So as of now I have bought the pattern and have the paper pattern pieces cut, but am waiting until the weekend when I will go over and really begin under an experienced eye. My fingers were itching when I got home, so I decided to get some practice in on some bits of fabric I had in my crafting box.
I had a couple of half meters of tulle tucked away from an abandoned hand sewing project, and decided to revive the original idea of sewing an oversized fancy-feminine scrunchy- this time with the help of the borrowed sewing machine. I watched a couple of youtube tutorials and got to work. My first scrunchy was finished within an hour. The threading of the bobbin and sewing machine is included in that hour, so all things considered I am sure that the next scrunchy would take even less time. Being a slow knitter prone to choosing longer term projects, I was impressed with how quickly I had a whole “project” finished and at how lovely the scrunchy turned out! A much better introduction to sewing than trying to wrap one’s head around corset construction.
One last note on the pattern- I had the A0 paper sized version printed, assuming that it might be easier for a beginner than having to assemble all of the pieces with A4/letter sized paper. I hope the assumption is right! We will go to my in-laws on Sunday and start the real dress making process then. I can’t wait to share that with you as I go! I already have fantasies of my very own completely me-made capsule wardrobe. Let’s see if those fantasies survive this first project!
Merryweather Living 