I should have gone with the pajamas
What Fifteen Hours of Sewing 101 Taught Me:
1. Patience is far more critical to sewing than knitting, even though sewing produces results faster.
2. A garment is wearable and comfortable despite the crooked seams.
3. If interested in a good fit, it is always helpful to look beyond chest measurements, to things like ease, length, etc.
4. Do not rely on the sewing store experts or the teacher to pick the right size for you, even if you tell them you are absolutely new to published patterns.
5. Still, it is possible to be imaginative and view sleeves large enough to accommodate the family as a fashion detail.
6. Reading, cutting, ironing and pinning wafer-thin paper patterns is extremely fiddly, but when you painstakingly finish the fifteen hundred complicated steps, and the bands fall nicely into place, it’s really a very good feeling.
7. Pinning is absolutely KEY. It’s the gauge of sewing, that without which you are doomed.
8. Topstitch is a bitch. But the ninth time you try it after ripping it eight times and being close to tears, you can learn to live with it.
9. Motorised sewing machines are not at all scary. In fact the Jenome Heart is quite handy.
10. This is addictive, and browsing for second-hand machines on Ebay and Craigslist is bewildering but fun. What’s stressful is figuring out how to find the time to indulge this new craze in your busiest semester ever.
