As I mentioned, up until now I have attempted a few projects, which I'll try to get photos of. Most successfully I think were the bib and smock from Bend-the-Rules Sewing by Amy Karol. I think these are great beginning projects - easy, super-cute, and best of all, since there aren't really any corners or straight lines, it doesn't matter that much if you can't sew straight. Good confidence booster!
But now that I have my own sewing machine (so proud!), I figured I should back up a bit and get the basics down. So I brought out my other new book, Sew Everything Workshop by Diana Rupp. Without much practical experience to back it up, I'd say that just from reading through it this book is pretty helpful. It explained such basic concepts as what "on the grain" means and how to achieve it. And one of the earliest projects (more of a tip, really) is to practice sewing without thread on lined paper until you can sew reliably in a straight line.
Practice - what a novel concept! This is the type of thing I would normally totally blow off and skip, but I decided to give it a try, and even did her one better by using graph paper so I could practice pivoting at the corners, too.
And I have to say, I found it pretty helpful in giving me a feel for my machine - for example, how to sew at a speed I'm comfortable with (my machine doesn't allow me to set the speed, and sometimes I start off a little heavy on the old gas pedal). After a while, I found that I could feel when the paper was pulling to one side before I could see it, so that I could correct it before I got too far off course. And because I was taking it so slow, it reinforced things like remembering to put the presser foot down (which I often forget, to disastrous results). And I also picked up from this book that one can use the flywheel by hand for those last few stitches for precision.
Now we'll see if my practice translates into beautiful, straight hems!
NOTES TO SELF:
Practice sewing without thread on lined paper.
Turn the flywheel by hand for the last few stitches if you want the stitching line to end in a precise spot.
Comments