Announcement: Anyone interested in drinking with me? If any of you DC-area sewers (or readers) are interested in commandeering the back of a bar after work or sitting on a porch somewhere on a weekend afternoon, then shout me a holler here or at seamripped@gmail.com. I am only sort of using you for companionship. I’m not calling it a meet-up, but a “let’s kick it over sazeracs and see where the evening takes us.” That sounds like I’m hitting on you. Let’s keep it that way.
Per usual, I’m answering old comments late, but you should find responses (t)here shortly. End of announcements.
I’m trying out a new sewing philosophy—you may have heard of it. Giving no fucks? No? Unfamiliar? I’m going for the proverbial quantity over quality, in hopes of technical improvement over time. So, I’m taking a lot of deep breaths and just sighing through the suckage. Usually, I rip seams and throw tantrums and agonize over the topstitching. Now, I’m just sewing through it. Waistband didn’t catch with topstitching? Just slipstitch it down. Topstitching uneven? You’re the only one who cares about that. Collar stand a little lumpy? Character is what that’s called. Naturally, it’s healthier than my old hair-pulling ways. Obviously, it’s killing me.
All of this preamble to say: This dress sucks. I know it does. You probably won’t, just looking at it from afar, but deep in my soul, I understand that this is not my best. It’s all made up in a Japanese salt-shrunk cotton gingham (read: those ain’t wrinkles, but are intentional). It is the second of three M6696s I’d made within a seven-day span, and for some strange reason, the calamity kept coming. (The other two are bangin’, if I may say so myself.) Skirt pieces were attached the wrong way, the hem grew unevenly, my perfectly matched skirt rebelled against me. That waistband comment was not a joke, this em-effer would. not. catch. because I ran out of fabric glue. (Let’s bow our heads and thank the universe for glue basting.) But, you know what? I’m going to wear the shit out of it this summer, I just know it.
Plus, after I put the buttons on, the pattern in the front just stopped matching up. Don’t get me started on how every single thread I snip seems to have a dozen more rise up to come to its funeral.
And the waistband! It actually, believe or not, lines up when I line it, the collarband, and the hem up, but because one side is 1/8″ larger than the other (for serious). But! The buttonholes ruined everything.
And speaking of good old Bernina buttonholes:
My machine went ape on the last one, which happened to be the uppermost buttonhole. APE.
This gets me to thinking about the Coletterie post on being a beginner. Now, there is a part of me that thinks this is a gender thing, but the more I think about it, the more I think that it is a U-shaped curve. True, rank beginners, in my experience, tend to be really confident. As in, “I’m going to make an evening gown on a Saturday” confident. Some people can do that, sure, but it takes a while to know your strengths, and to actually sew rather than simply put together a wearable-enough garment. Then, after a while, you start realizing that it’s not that easy.
Then, you see really good sewing. I mean, really good home sewing. Then, you realize that your stuff just isn’t that. At the same time, you’ve got the cacophony of sewing noise, the Susan Khaljes (who is still mean in my head, I don’t care what you all say), the Threads features. You start really looking at your department store finds, and not just comparing your stuff to the goods at Forever 21. This, friends, is the nadir. The quitting point, even. Some people get so discouraged here that they either stick themselves in a playpen, never to expand their skills outside of pinking and a whole bunch of the same garment, or they just flat-out quit. Others see this as a challenge.
All of a sudden, after a really long time pounding at it, you lift up your head and see. Hey, your topstitching isn’t that bad. Same goes for your hand-stitched hems. What’s that over there? Is that a welt pocket? You did that without a second thought? Yeah you did. And up that little ladder you climb.
I think that a lot of people end up in the doldrums, and either keep that doldrums mindset as their skills develop, or corral themselves into a certain sort of sewing that does not leave room for a lot of development. I think I’m in the doldrums right now, and I’m trying to power through with sheer volume and force of will. But, truth be told, I wonder if that welt pocket moment is going to come. We can’t all be Ann of the Sewing Bee, can we? But, should we try?
Seam Ripped 