I am not much of a sewer. I am a quilter, but not really a sewer. I don’t make my own clothing, I don’t have items throughout the house that I myself have made. I can sew, I have just chosen not to up till this point. Well, that’s not really true. I do not really understand fashion sewing, even though I’ve done some of it myself. The truth is, it never really appealed to me …

See, my mother made all of our clothing. And it drove me NUTS, because the other girls were wearing “designer” clothes when I was in middle & high school, and … who wants to stand out when they’re in middle & high school? I wanted to be like everyone else … buy my clothes at the store. So, one year my mother finally capitulated and told me that she would allow me to spend my “back to school” money she would normally use to make my clothes on ready-to-wear clothing from the store. I was thrilled. With the money, I think I got two or three tops and a pair of jeans. Yep, that’s about all I got. Whereas, in the past, I would start the school year with practically an entire new wardrobe, that year, I had almost nothing. My mom loves this story, but it always ends with me coming to her, shamefaced, asking her to make me some clothes. As badly as I wanted to fit in, I didn’t want to have to wear the same three tops to school all year. I never really had to learn how to sew because … well, because Mom did it for me!

Now, a couple years after high school is over and Mom has stopped making my clothes, I have begun to realize that ready-to-wear doesn’t really satisfy me anymore. Once accustomed to the perfect fit and the one-of-a-kind aspect of the clothes Mom used to make, it’s been a rough transition to ready-to-wear clothes. And wow, are off-the-rack clothes expensive to buy or what?! I was appalled to find that suits cost upwards of $400 … and even on sale they are still well over $100-200 in many cases. Back when I first got out of high school, I could buy suits all day long for less than $75 (ok, so maybe it’s been longer than a couple years since I got out of high school). And those were NOT on sale! When we recently looked at shorts for my husband (who is admittedly a large man, and whose clothes cost more as a result) and found that the average price of shorts for him was $45-50, I lost it. I mean, how hard is it to make shorts?? What to do, what to do?

Well, the answer seems obvious, doesn’t it? At least, it does to me. I have one of the better equipped studios of anyone I know. Maybe it’s time to put the studio to use for something other than quilt construction. I even have many of the tools of fashion sewing. But … there are a couple of problems with this. First of all, I haven’t done any real fashion sewing since my daughter “graduated” from the fifth grade. Seriously, she was in the fifth grade! I made her dress for the ceremony, and it turned out pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. I’ll have to see if I can dig up some pictures of it; I know I took some because I was seriously proud of the outfit. So, it’s been a while since I have done any fashion sewing. And frankly, I was never really “into” fashion sewing, so I never really learned a lot … like how to set buttonholes and buttons to match up, how to put in a zipper, and I never really understood how to set sleeves. I NEVER learned to alter patterns, and I certainly have no idea how to make my own pattern.

That’s a lot to overcome just to make some shorts and stuff, huh? But I am determined. I bought a Threads magazine last night, and in this issue, they have a sidebar about a new online video series they have called Teach Yourself to Sew. This morning, I logged into the site and watched the first few videos. These covered basics such as the purpose for the course, what equipment you will need to sew (a sewing machine is necessary, a serger, not so much), and the notions you will need. It then moves on to patterns and buying fabrics. Then there is a project on how to make a jewelry bag. I haven’t made it that far, yet, but I intend to follow along and make every project they give … I think it will be a great way to learn, and they are still adding episodes. Later episodes include things like how to make darts and how to hem (I cannot do a proper hem, I’m sad to say; I never learned).

If you’re new to sewing, or if you’re self-taught, or if you’ve forgotten more than you know, check it out. So far I’ve really enjoyed it!