Sew On and Sew On....

I'm not sure when I started this blog if I posted my frustrations with patterns. If not I'll reiterate....

When I first started sewing around 25 years ago, my mother gave me some patterns to work with. She then put me in some sewing classes to learn how to use the patterns. I got really frustrated with patterns not really giving me what I wanted and even more frustrated when I would follow a pattern exactly and the garment turn out too big or too small. My father sewed (I didn't know this). His mother had been a seamstress and taught her children, girls and boys, how to sew and crochet. Daddy taught me that I didn't need patterns to create the clothes tht I wanted. Which was very freeing. and basically that's how I have sewed since then. Lately I have been reading a lot of sewing blogs and all these people used patterns. So after 25 years I decided to give patterns another try. Initially I found them jokers very expensive. So expensive in fact that if you account for the pattern, fabric, the notions and labor, garments are cheaper to purchase rather than make. The ability to sew now a days, is not something to be proud of. But that's another blog.

Anywho... Thanks to the goodness of a hood fabric shop, I have acquired several new patterns on the low low and have discovred for my self how to work and personalize patterns to my needs. Why didn't that class say that? Why didn't they tell me I could take the top from one and add it to the bottom of another? I used to feel like patterns stifled my creativity. I feel differently now. I see patterns as a template jumping off point. I will still sketch what is in my mind, but then I will look through my pattern stash to see if there is anything that I have there that will work with my vision. If so, I use it, if not I create my own patterns with newspaper. Now my sewing is still creative and authentically me, but it has also become incredibly prolific. I don't have to reinvent the wheel for every project. And I don't get as frustrated during production like I used to because I have no idea how to proceed.

I'm not a pattern hater anymore. That is until my hood connection dries up and I have to pay full price for them jokers.


Peace