Dear Spotlight….
Sigh. That is all.
All posts filed under: Miscellenia
So, you hate to sew it, but why?
This week’s poll is about your sewing bête noir – the thing that you just hate doing. I know a lot of seamstresses of various skill levels who hate doing zips, buttons, or sleeves, but those don’t fuss me. What I really loathe, stuff-up all the time, and try to avoid, is gathering. I did not enjoy making the skirt of this dress! I know! It seems so simple! But my gathering lines are always breaking, and going wonky, and when I sew the gathered pieces together somehow I always get a big pleat caught up in the gathering. It’s horrible and evil I tell you, evil. That’s why I love corded gathering so much. I was so, so excited when I discovered it. It’s so much easier! And my desire to avoid gathering is also why I am willing to pleat metres and metres of silk organza into tiny pin pleats by hand. Anything is good as long as it means I don’t have to machine gather! My very first garment that I learned …
Open sewing*
Do you ever get stuck with your sewing? Just get to a place where you can’t figure out how to set in those sleeves, or why the waist just won’t sit right, or how to do bound buttonholes or a side zip? Or you’re trying to turn a design into a reality, and can’t figure out how many gores the skirt should have (or should you cut it as a circle?), or if the jacket needs flat lining or not, or if it will work in a tissue, or if you really should buy a crepe chiffon after all? I do this all the time. It used to be about not knowing the techniques, but now it’s about knowing too much – getting stuck in my head because there are so many options. The solution to this is a sewing community. These days I am indebted to you, dear readers, to local sewing friends like Mrs C and the Baha’i seamstresses, to the fashion experts at Massey university, and to wider sewing-blogging friends like Steph. …