I wish I could say that I am really good a sewing, but I am not by any means as good as I wish! Today, after at least a year of attempts at sewing, I actually made a pair of pants that fit and look like they are supposed to look! Yeah me! Ok. They don’t look exactly like they should. I may have tweaked the design a little. This however, worked out for the better, this time. My recent attempts at sewing resulted in a pair of pants that were too tight in the legs and too big in the waist and butt, a skirt that ended up lopsided, a jacket that never was, a shirt only an anorexic with huge boobs could wear, and some other unfortunate mutilations. I can sew blankets, but that’s not really that difficult since the fabric clerk at Wal-mart does the hardest part for you. Last week I made a skirt and I could NOT figure out why, even though it was made exactly as the directions required, it did not fit. I researched fitting yourself online and discovered that you can’t just sew something in your retail size. Generally you are about 2 sizes bigger in a pattern. Now that required a little bit of pride swallowing and some tears. It was easy to recover quickly once I realized that no one knows what pattern size I use. That’s between me and my sewing machine; and it isn’t talking! Knowing this new nugget of information I set out to make a pair of pants. I am currently waging war against facing and that weird piece of fabric you hem over the top edges of things. I refuse to sew or cut more than is absolutely necessary and I can NEVER get that edging stuff to sew right. It always ends up bunched up somewhere! Anyway, since I don’t do facing or edging I had to be creative on the waist of the pants. I managed to Tim Gun it and “Make it Work.” Here’s a couple of things to know if you want to sew like Me:
1. Captain and Hunter are very good at holding the fabric down and making sure it doesn’t go anywhere or have anything under it.
2. Lucy will need to supervise everything as she is the resident fashionista in the house
3. Your husband will lie and tell you it looks good no matter what, as he should
4. Edging and facing require more cutting and sewing, avoid them and make some shit up
5. A good shirt can cover up any oopsies on the waist of the pants
6. black string leaves black dust on your fingers
7. get a good sewing machine b/c if you don’t you’ll end up throwing it across the room
8 Go a size bigger than you think b/c you can always take something in
9. sew the zipper after you have fitted the item (trust me…or don’t and buy extra zippers)
10. Why worry about button holes when you can sew a button on the outside and use a hidden hook-and-eye or snap. Trust me. That shit is way easier than sewing a button hole.
