How I Started Sewing, Part II
This is a continuation of "How I Started Sewing, Part I."
A long time actually went by between the initial discussion of getting the machine and sewing table from my granny and actually learning how to sew. I visit our local libraries quite frequently since I still very much enjoy reading and since one of our libraries is the "genealogy center" and holds our state's DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) library. While at the genealogy center for a DAR event, I noticed the library was holding a "Sewing 101" class. They had their own machines you could use and everything!
While they were full for that day's class (and I was already helping with the DAR event), I looked up their class schedule and signed up for the next class available.
On August 19, I attended an "open lab." Now, open labs are supposed to be for people who need help with a sewing project they have already started, but I didn't even know how to use a sewing machine! In college, I had dabbled in a little hand-sewing (self-taught) to make a pirate costume for a fraternity event. After college, I worked next to a fabric store, and I ended up spending most of my tips on fat quarters of cute patterned fabric. I decided I could make my own fraternity letters out of them.
I made my own patterns for the letters based on my previously purchased shirts, and I cut out all the letters. Then, I bought an embroidery hoop and started sewing the cut-out letters onto the second fabric color.
I didn't know what I was doing, but I just did what looked "right" compared to the letters I had previously bought at the campus embroidery store. I knew store-bought letter shirts were reinforced with something that made them stiff (which I now know is interfacing), so I never actually got brave enough to try to put the letters on the shirts I bought. Instead, I had a drawer full of letters on fabric. I took that drawer with me to the open lab as an example of the only things I had ever done sewing.
The instructor was very helpful. She taught me the different parts of the machine and the terminology used in sewing. She gave me some paper with some straight, bent, and curved lines printed on them that I used to practice sewing lines (without thread) and turning corners.
She showed me how to wind a bobbin and thread the Singer 5400 Sew Mate they use at the library.
Then she gave me some fabric to see how sewing fabric and layers of folded fabric felt as compared to the paper I had just used. She even let me try some of the different stitches the electronic machine can perform.
She asked me what I had sewn before, and I told her I had experimented with some hand-sewing, and I showed her my letters.
She seemed impressed that I had completed my letters by hand, and she said I could do embroidery. (Later, I looked up embroidery, and I think it is something I would enjoy. I also learned that the type of stitch I was doing to make my letters was called a "satin" stitch.) She then said that I could probably do the same thing with the sewing machine. She happened to have a few patterns that she uses for her "beginning applique" class that she let me choose from. I grabbed a letter "R" and cut it out to sew on another piece of fabric.
The next step was to find a stitch that matched the satin stitch that I used to do by hand. Unfortunately, the machine I was using did not seem to have anything comparable. I picked a standard zig-zag stitch and played with the stitch length and stitch width to try to get it as close as I could, but in the end, nothing on the machine matched what I wanted.
I have since come to learn that other machines are able to do a satin stitch, but that specific machine is not one of them.
I wasn't entirely satisfied with the finished product. In fact, in the end, especially after realizing it wasn't going to look at all like I wanted it to, I started just rushing through, and there is an entire portion of the inside of the R not sewn to the background because I curved too quickly. In any case, I was able to leave the class knowing how to at least sew something, even if just some lines, with a sewing machine. Next, it was time to try an actual project!
A long time actually went by between the initial discussion of getting the machine and sewing table from my granny and actually learning how to sew. I visit our local libraries quite frequently since I still very much enjoy reading and since one of our libraries is the "genealogy center" and holds our state's DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) library. While at the genealogy center for a DAR event, I noticed the library was holding a "Sewing 101" class. They had their own machines you could use and everything!
While they were full for that day's class (and I was already helping with the DAR event), I looked up their class schedule and signed up for the next class available.
On August 19, I attended an "open lab." Now, open labs are supposed to be for people who need help with a sewing project they have already started, but I didn't even know how to use a sewing machine! In college, I had dabbled in a little hand-sewing (self-taught) to make a pirate costume for a fraternity event. After college, I worked next to a fabric store, and I ended up spending most of my tips on fat quarters of cute patterned fabric. I decided I could make my own fraternity letters out of them.
 |
| A pair of store-bought letters I own, and a pair made by one of my Brothers |
I made my own patterns for the letters based on my previously purchased shirts, and I cut out all the letters. Then, I bought an embroidery hoop and started sewing the cut-out letters onto the second fabric color.
 |
| Photo of one of the letters I was working on sewing |
I didn't know what I was doing, but I just did what looked "right" compared to the letters I had previously bought at the campus embroidery store. I knew store-bought letter shirts were reinforced with something that made them stiff (which I now know is interfacing), so I never actually got brave enough to try to put the letters on the shirts I bought. Instead, I had a drawer full of letters on fabric. I took that drawer with me to the open lab as an example of the only things I had ever done sewing.
The instructor was very helpful. She taught me the different parts of the machine and the terminology used in sewing. She gave me some paper with some straight, bent, and curved lines printed on them that I used to practice sewing lines (without thread) and turning corners.
 |
| My practice sheets |
She showed me how to wind a bobbin and thread the Singer 5400 Sew Mate they use at the library.
 |
| The Singer 5400 Sew Mate |
Then she gave me some fabric to see how sewing fabric and layers of folded fabric felt as compared to the paper I had just used. She even let me try some of the different stitches the electronic machine can perform.
 |
| Some of the various stitches I tried |
She asked me what I had sewn before, and I told her I had experimented with some hand-sewing, and I showed her my letters.
 |
| One of the letters I made for my shirts |
She seemed impressed that I had completed my letters by hand, and she said I could do embroidery. (Later, I looked up embroidery, and I think it is something I would enjoy. I also learned that the type of stitch I was doing to make my letters was called a "satin" stitch.) She then said that I could probably do the same thing with the sewing machine. She happened to have a few patterns that she uses for her "beginning applique" class that she let me choose from. I grabbed a letter "R" and cut it out to sew on another piece of fabric.
The next step was to find a stitch that matched the satin stitch that I used to do by hand. Unfortunately, the machine I was using did not seem to have anything comparable. I picked a standard zig-zag stitch and played with the stitch length and stitch width to try to get it as close as I could, but in the end, nothing on the machine matched what I wanted.
 |
| Trying some of the zig-zag stitches to try to duplicate the satin stitch |
I have since come to learn that other machines are able to do a satin stitch, but that specific machine is not one of them.
 |
| My attempt at a satin stitch applique |
I wasn't entirely satisfied with the finished product. In fact, in the end, especially after realizing it wasn't going to look at all like I wanted it to, I started just rushing through, and there is an entire portion of the inside of the R not sewn to the background because I curved too quickly. In any case, I was able to leave the class knowing how to at least sew something, even if just some lines, with a sewing machine. Next, it was time to try an actual project!
inspo
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