Last weekend Johanna from The Last Stitch had a sewing class at the Norwegian craft fair SewNordic2020 and she used my pattern for t-shirts and joggers as course material. I am so happy that she wanted to use my designs and this is a great opportunity for me to test the fit on different people. If the fair had been a little closer, I’d love to have participated in the class, but Umeå and Oslo are quite far from each other. So why would I want to take a class where my own patterns are used?
Well.
Can I admit one thing? Or actually two things. I think sewing is fun, but only most of the time. In some cases working with your hands can be fun, meditative and wonderful. But, I’m pretty impatient and get easily annoyed when things don’t go fast enough and I’d like to be done right away. The project should preferably be completed in one session. I hope I can still be part of the sewing community after this confession? In my defense, I work as a pattern maker and it is to make patterns that is my great passion. Sewing clothes is a way to test the patterns so that I can either improve them or continue working on new patterns. Sewing is thus secondary, it is the patterns I want to make. I would love if someone else made all the samples…
My second confession is that even after studying design for 4.5 years and working in the industry for over 10 years, I am not an expert on the acutal practical sewing. My job includes commenting on garment sewing, explaining how we want it, what needs to be improved and if something needs to be done in a different way. But being able to do it myself and sew? Well, my practical knowledge is not on that level… I’m good at sewing ”what I know” within my comfort zone, but that it is a rather limited area so to speak. I always sew a t-shirt neckline in a sertain way and I do very well. Of course, I know roughtly how to do it in other ways, but I haven’t actually done it myself. (And in my defens, it can also differ quite a lot how it’s done by factory supliers that I’m used to and how to sew it yourself on a home-sewing machine …) If something is outside my comfort zone I need to google and check youtube to know how to do it. I’m a bit embaressed to say this, which I know I shouldn’t be. Being a pattern maker and being a seamstress or a tailor are different professions and you can’t know everything (I wish though). I have, for example no problem doing pattern for a collar or cuff for a shirt and could easily comment on whether the sewing on a sample was good or not. And I do have sewn a shirt myself, I think, like 15 years ago… But if I were to sew a shirt today I would have to read instructions quite carefully and probably watch some tutaroals while sewing, even though I made the pattern for the shirt myself …
That’s why this class with Johanna would have been so great to join. She has a broader sewing knowledge than I have and knows better how you can make things in different ways. Luckily, I have her book ”Sewing Activewear” where she clearly illustrates in both pictures and text the different ways you can sew. The diffiuclt part is just to take the time to move outside of your comfort zone and try out new sewing solutions. I mean, there are just so many other patterns that are more appealing to work on…
What is your sewing confession?