True Confessions, Vol. 1
We thought it would be fun to share some of our little secrets around sewing. Feel free to share yours!
Nadia: I hate the beginning stages of any project. Don’t get me wrong, fabric shopping is wonderful, and imagining what I’m going to do with what I buy is always a blast. But then I get to the cutting table with my sketch, fabric, maybe a few pencils, and I get a little anxious. During these moments my train of thought usually goes like this: I spent a ton of money on fabric, really beautiful fabric, what if I mess it up? What if my design isn’t tasteful? I kinda want to get ice cream now instead of delving into a new project that will involve a ton of hours hunched over my sewing machine and ripping out seams. But give me about an hour of spacing out and the soothing rhythm of jazz music (and ice cream too!) and then I am a happy worker. I’ve found that the best way for me to get in the zone is to just dive in, enjoy learning from my mistakes, and appreciate the problem solving process that makes a beautiful project.
Adrianna: I have a slight phobia of quilting. Although I love the idea and can talk through a quilt process with others, and help others plan and get materials for their quilts, when I do that for myself it takes me a hot minute to figure out what fabric I am even going to start with. I have made 2 quilts (ha!) and they took me an embarrassingly long time to make, and I made sure to work on them every day… They were also just whole cloth quilts -__- one with some iron on applique for excitement. For some reason, handling a large square footage of fabric blows my mind, yet when sewing apparel and dealing with 1/16ths of an inch or curved flat felled seams, that makes sense. I guess I’m just wired a little differently!
Cameron: In my heart of hearts, I don’t believe in making a true muslin. Life is too short! I’ll sew up a pattern in a less favorite fabric first, but I’ve never actually made a garment I had no intention of wearing. And it’s not that I’m so skilled at alterations that I don’t need a trial run, it’s just that I’m too impatient to put hours into something that’s not going to get some use.
Gina: I am not a very patient seamstress. I barely passed Home Ec in high school because my sewing was messy!