Intro Post

[miss_s_b]

Hello! My name is Jennie and I am trying to get back into sewing, mainly because I am poverty-stricken and need to make/mend clothes rather than buying new ones, and also to make things for cosplay purposes. I dream of a Sixth Doctor costume. I realise that this will involve upping my level of skill significantly.

I am fairly confident with hand-sewing, but I have never used a sewing machine. I am considering going on a course at my local adult education centre to learn sewing machine usage and various other things. I have designed my own patterns before, but only very basic ones, and my main experience is in altering existing clothes with darts etc to fit my shape better. My maternal grandma was a seamstress, and my mum can do various basic sewing machine things, but is at the level of confidence where she's thinking of joining me on the course at the adult education centre...

I am ignorant of technical sewing terms (for instance: what is interfacing? How does one grommit?) but am a quick learner, and am hoping that there are people in this comm who will be able to explain things to me when I am flailing with lack of understanding.

It's nice to meet you all :)

Comments

[0jack]

Going on a course is a great idea if it's in your budget. If you have access to the library, look for the Singer books (by the sewing machine company). They have a wide range of books that cover everything from basic sewing to techniques like tailoring. Fortunately, many libraries maintain a good section of those 'life skill' type books. Also, if you check out sites like Burda Patterns, in the user contribution section I have found guides for drafting shirts and pants (like engineering blueprints for clothing) submitted by fashion/textile students. They're a lot of pages but they're free.

I also recommend checking out reenactment blogs. There's a lot of amateur tailors/seamstresses in those groups and many of them even work by hand. Cosplay blogs are also helpful but I find that reenactors are often more specific about techniques and construction (to the point of being retentive, but that's the hobby!).

Good luck. :)

[miss_s_b]

Thank you! I had actually found a couple of re-enactment sites that seemed to be more geeky than the cosplay sites. But looking for student patterns had never occurred to me. And yes, the library is a good plan too.