Has sewing changed my life?

Tilly asks in a recent blog post "Has sewing changed your life?"  She is writing a paper discussing the impact that sewing has had, not only on her life, but on the lives of other sewists too.  Thinking about this I thought a post of my own was perhaps the best way in which to address this question.

Like many other sewists I learned to sew when I was young.  I learnt because I wanted to and became quite proficient at it.  Then...... I had to take classes during my years in high school.  This turned out badly for me as I knew more than the teacher.  I found it so boring because I had to make what the class was making; this put me off which resulted in me not sewing much for a long while.  Sewing after that came in waves I had times where I would make clothes then my interest would wane and I wouldn't sew at all.  I have now returned to sewing and it has taken over my life, I can't get enough of it.  I'm addicted!

So...has sewing changed my life?  The answer to this question is definitely YES!  How, you might ask.  Well, let me see...

Sewing has saved my sanity!  It has become my lifeline.  Before I came back to sewing my life was spiralling into a depressive state.  There was no time for anything; it was all study, work and home duties.  I was constantly grumpy or in tears over nothing due to the stress these things were creating.  I had no time for anything, all craft work was non-existent.  There was no 'me' time.  Something had to give so, I became a high school tertiary drop-out.  It was the best thing I could have done.  Now I have time to sew and I can't believe the difference it has made to my disposition.  Everyone is happy!

I love sewing, it gives me great pleasure to be able to make something useful especially clothing that I can wear and be proud of.  I love that I'm not relying on the whims of the clothing industry to choose the styles or colours I wear each season.  And the feeling of achievement when I complete a garment or master a new technique.  A sense of self worth.

Sewing saves me money!  My spending was getting insanely out of control so I made a promise to myself that I would no longer spend my money on badly made, ill-fitting RTW (except for a few essentials like tights, underwear, shoes etc) but I would try to make everything I need.  This equally was the best thing I could have done.  When I go to the shops now, I may look at the styles in the windows for inspiration but I haven't even walked into a clothing store for about two months.

Sewing is helping me to define my look!  Personal style has always been a huge challenge for me and sadly I was letting myself fall into a rut, not caring what I wore or how I looked.  I have always been conscious of what I wear, not wanting to dress as so many others my age do.  I have a young attitude to life and like my look to be current, but now, being in my early fifties I'm afraid that I will look like 'mutton dressed as lamb'.  Sewing has changed my focus and I now look for styles that actually suit my body type and personality.  I never wore dresses or skirts before; I didn't even own any.  Now I have several  which I love wearing and tend to choose them over trousers and jeans.  I also have quite a few on my 'to make list'.  Wow! This must be the biggest change yet.

Finally, since my return to sewing I have discovered the most wonderful friendly, supportive and knowledgeable on-line community.  The accomplishments, ability and the willingness to share their knowledge is so inspiring it just blows my mind!  Having my own blog and connecting with like-minded people has had an extremely positive impact on me.  I no longer place importance on things that really don't matter.  I focus more on the beauty of a simply made garment or a lovely fabric.  I enjoy participating and sharing with others in the knowledge that I'm making new friends, friends I know I would get on with if we should someday meet in person.  After all, why wouldn't we get along, we have so much in common.

Now here are a few specific questions Tilly asks which I will endeavour to answer.

What does the online sewing community mean to you?  Why do you participate?
Other than myself I don't know anyone who sews clothing, so for me, this is a way to talk with other people who share my addiction obsession passion for sewing and understand what I am talking about.  It is also a means to learn new techniques, find inspiration and hopefully make lots of new friends through the many blogs I read. It's my support/therapy group and we all need that I'm sure ;)  hehehe!

What are your favourite examples of projects initiated by sewing bloggers that capture this spirit of collaboration, creativity and innovation?
I would have to say definitely So, Zo's me-made months.  I have only participated in one and fell short on the challenge but I learned a lot about myself and my wardrobe.  Then there are the sew alongs and tutorials.  All of these things show the creativity and innovation of those leading them and they inspire everyone following along to allow their inner creative spirit to be free.

Who are the "leaders" in the sewing blogosphere?  Is everyone / can anyone be a leader?
For me the leaders are those whom everyone turns to for inspiration such as Casey, Gertie, So Zo, with their sewalongs, tutorials and me-made months. The ones who post often and write on topics of interest to many people.  Who interact with their readers and ask what they want then take that information and apply it to their blogs.  Blogging takes a lot of time but I think anyone willing to invest that time can be a leader in the blogging community.

Are you involved in any other network of makers, whether online or offline?  What makes sewing blogs unique?
I belong to the Australian Sewing Guild which has groups that meet monthly.  I find my group to be a lot of fun and there is much to be learned from other members.  It has more of a social feel and there is always something to talk about.  But blogs are far more than just a social group as ideas and inspiration come from around the world and we can make friends we would otherwise never meet.

In conclusion, has sewing changed my life?  Yes it has!  I am a much happier person who shares a passion for creativity with many others around the world.  I am in constant awe of the talent of those around me and feel lucky to be part of such a wonderful community.

What are you reading...

As you may or may not know, 'I love to read!'  I read on many topics and  recently in my quest to gain knowledge of how life was in the past I came across a book in my local library.  Now, this is not a book review but, I guess, a small account of some of the things I found interesting.

The book contains excerpts from the Good Housekeeping Magazine which was allowed to continue publishing despite the rationing of paper during the war years.  These were hard times.  Times that I would not like to live in but also times where we can learn to appreciate the small things.  It contained much useful information for women trying to manage the household giving ideas on meal planning with quantities to buy for two people.  How to plan for and use leftovers.  It gave recipes for dinner, soups, preserves and even some for managing without milk.  Things I think many people could put to good use today without being wasteful.  Ooops....there's the thrifty side of me showing.  hehe!

1940

1943

There were articles on how to launder a shirt with instructions on the ironing procedure for a conventional iron and also a rotary ironer as seen in the right hand page below.  This is something I have never heard of, have you?  It certainly seems to be an interesting concept. Right down to how you should fold the shirt.

1940

To keep fit we should give "Dry Swimming" a try.  I felt this one was quite amusing as you actually put your face into the basin of water in step 1. Other steps are done either standing or laying on a bench.  Step 7 finishes with "Mr. Lawson's method of Dry Swimming the American Back Crawl was adopted by  Fifth Avenue beauty salon as a means of developing that good posture so sought after as an essential to beauty, poise and confidence.  Vary your strokes from day to day.  Allow five minutes for each stroke."

Now I think I might have to try this!  ; )  hehehe!

1944

We are also given advice for our clothing choices.  'Good "Buys" for the holidays and later' asks us "Will it be practical?" "Will it last?" "Is it the best possible value for the money?"  Then goes on to describe the outfits on the two pages including the cost.  These in my opinion are very good questions to ask even in today's throw away society.  Why should we waste our hard earned money. Don't you agree?

1940

There are many other articles in the book including short stories, question and answer, adoption, beauty tips and furnishing the home.  To me, it seems that things have not changed much; that much of the advice given in these articles is sound and still relevant today.  It's been a great insight for how harsh life was during the war years and that we perhaps should implement many of these ideas into our current lifestyles.

So, this is just one of the books I have been reading lately.  What are you currently reading?

How Long Does it Take...

You may remember that I did a workshop on getting the most out of my Overlocker blogged about here. I decided I should put those skills to use before I forget them again.  I thought the gathering would be a useful technique, one I would most likely be using many times in the future.   First, what to make; where could I use some gathering?  This is where I started.

I chose to practice this technique on bias cut fabric (my sample from the workshop was stitched on fabric cut following the grain line). It seems to me there is little/no difference between the two.  I have used the gathering on a frill here and as you can see it works very well.  I also used the technique at the waist.

This apron is the end result of my practice session.   I didn't have a pattern.  I wanted to use the measurements from one I have which belonged to my mother but alas, it is no-where to be found so I designed my own.  To get a vintage feel I used a cotton gingham and ric-rac  I'm very happy with how this apron turned out and I will definitely use this technique again.

Who knew one small garment could take so long to finish.  When I started I thought it would be a quick couple of hours sewing, but NO.....!  Five days later and I have finally finished.   Do you have times when something small and simple seems to take forever?  Or is it just me?

Re-learning skills

Hello friends.  Do you ever have those moments when you would like to use a skill you learned years ago but can't remember how?  You have samples of what you want but no instructions on how to achieve the desired result.  Well, this has happened to me many times especially since I learned those skills a long time ago.

Now, I use my overlocker a lot as most of my sewing in the past has been knits.  However, there is so much more that can be done with the overlocker than just sewing or neatening seams.  I have samples to prove it but no notes on creating them.  (I have learned over the years that it is necessary to make notes as you won't remember how you did things when it comes time to do them especially if it's been a while since gaining these skills)  So, when my group of the Sewing Guild decided to invite Kate Marra to conduct a workshop on 'Overlocking with Confidence' I jumped at the chance to re-learn the skills I had undoubtedly forgotten.

We started the day by setting up our machines and going over the basics of looking after our machine such as keeping it clean and dust free (something we all apparently do ha ha!), having regular services,  using the correct size needles for the weight of fabric we are using, using good quality thread, and speaking to our overlocker nicely. After all it has feelings too! giggle ;)  Also Kate explained the differential feed.  This was something I knew about but had become confused with over the years in the way it worked.  We were also given a folder to keep our samples in for easy future reference.  What a great idea!  We then started sewing our samples.

Four thread seams using different fabrics

Overlocking outside corners and inside corners

Attaching stabiliser to a seam eg. shoulder

Three thread Rolled Hem on Chiffon

Lettuce Edge - Three thread Rolled Hem on knit fabric

Gathering

These are just a few of the great samples we made.  You may be able to see in the photos, there was space in our books to write down the settings used to achieve the best results for our individual machines.  For those who had extra feet for their machine (something I do not have, I didn't even know you could purchase extra feet for an overlocker - shows how much I do with mine!) we were shown how to make and add piping, make and join  gathering in one step.  We also attached elastic and made spaghetti straps.  The day was finished by practicing our newly found or re-learned skills.

In all I had a great day, learned a lot and can't wait to try some of the skills I have re-learned especially stabilising seams, the gathering and rolled hems.