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]

Here's two things I find help me with my "You'll put your eye out" and "Machine will eat me" fears. One, the right place to put it so that I can sit up and back a little and see the needle/foot without bending. Sitting back is really important. You can also use things like chopsticks and skewers to poke fabric around the foot if you need to do so.

Two, doing a bunch of stitches on scrap cloth—hands-free, even—and learning how to control the speed. Sewing machines that I've had don't just have ON and OFF. The speed varies with how much you press the pedal. By putting the pedal so that my foot is in the right place (not entirely on the pedal, heel on the floor, knee at a 90* angle) I can make it so that even an accidental foot twitch doesn't send it into overdrive.

[miss_s_b]

Yeah, the one I have has variable speeds, so that is going to be a useful tip. I'm going to have to think about siting fairly carefully. I have a workroom in the cellar, ut at the moment it is very full with other stuff. Perhaps the dining room table?

[0jack]

That's actually where I do a lot of my work, at the dining room table. :) It's a large, stable surface and the chairs let me sit upright. Because it's not too hard to move my machine, I just keep it on a shelf and get it out when I need it.

[miss_s_b]

This is sounding like a plan :)