Holding It Together

When your sewing there are some areas on your clothes that you want to make sure has an EXTRA STRONG hold. Luckily there is a stitch for that! It is called the BACKSTITCH. Your going to use this in practically anything you make, not only clothing.

The backstitch happens at the beginning and end of each seam. When you start your seam you should do 4 or 5 stitches and then backstitch back to the beginning. Most machines have a button that looks kinda like a u-turn symbol. (My machine I have to press it in while I sew, my mom’s super cool new machine stitches all on its own when you press the button). This gives the stitch a little extra hold so the threads aren’t able to unravel. Some people do this multiple times, I think one time up, one back, and back up is sufficient. 

Your New Best Friend...

The seam ripper! This nice little tool helps you rip out ALL of the mistakes you make. 

I was working really hard on my dress last night, and suddenly realized that I had messed up. So I whipped out my handy dandy seam ripper, and tore out all of the messed up parts. “Fixed” the pieces, trying to closely follow all the instructions… but guess what! I messed up once again… so I had to seam rip all of it apart. After two tries I figured it was time to call in the big guns, mom. Then I drove the whole 5 mins to momma’s house and she figured it out!!! We pinned the two pieces and I went home and sewed the pieces together! Mission Accomplished! :) 

THE ART OF SEAM RIPPING:

• Find the seam the needs to go away
• Pull out your handy dandy seam ripper
• Slip the pointy end of the tool under one of the stitches
• Push until the string rips
• Do this to every 3-4 stitches 
• Pull the fabric apart carefully
• Pull all the string out and throw it away

* Be very careful that you aren’t cutting the fabric as you seam rip 

* Don’t pull or stretch to much during the process, it makes the stitch holes bigger and ugly. 

GOOD LUCK!!!

Cutting Patterns

It seems like it took FOR-EV-ER for everything to get cut and pinned and cut once again, but I think I got it! Sewing has exploded all over my house, but luckily my boyfriend loves me and doesn't care. So the tips I have for the cutting stage (most of these are general knowledge and pretty obvious but saying it again can't hurt):  

• Do a rough cut on your pattern before you really get started so you aren't fighting with a huge piece of paper (and worrying about tearing it) 
• I ironed the patter after I finished cutting it out, but it would be easier to cut (and not fight with all the creases when your cutting if you iron before) This also helped pin all of it flat on the fabric. ** make sure your iron is on low before trying to iron your patterns!
• I read like a million times to wash, dry, and press your fabric before cutting so I guess I will say it too. This will prevent any shrinking or stretching later on. 
• (super obvious) Have your "paper" scissors and your "cloth" scissors. Maybe it is just obvious to me because since I can remember my mom has been yelling at my brother and I that we used the wrong scissors and made her cloth scissors dull. But its true, it works best to have 2 different pairs. I marked my paper scissors with a little piece of tape, and told my live-in boyfriend that if he ABSOLUTELY had to use my scissors to use those ones, I am truly becoming my mother (its kinda scary lol).

OK my last two tips are personal preferences but I find them VERY important!

• Time! Time! Time! I guess when I went into the cutting stage I thought it would be a piece of cake and wouldn't take long at all. WRONG! Thus, I ended up cutting for a long period of time, here and there and then something would come up. Give yourself some "me" time, and get ready to cut! 
• Music! Music! Music! Put something on that can help pass the time, because (for me at least) sitting and cutting is not very fun, but once I turned on some jams time seemed to go by a lot faster! Granted, I am a big fan of music all day long, no matter what I am doing. 

All of my pictures are on my camera (at home), so here is a picture of my kitty cat, Sirius Black AKA kitten, monster, monkey man, when he is helping me sew! 

I'm Gonna TRY!!!

However, in other news I have decided to learn how to sew. I see all of these cute clothes all the time and when I go to the websites to order one of the adorable dresses I find out that the sizes stop at 12! Ok, so I am definitely not a size twelve, as much as I would like to be, so sewing some of the amazing dresses is my only option. 

So, naturally I got online and found a super cute fabric store in Denver that gives sewing lessons and signed my happy little self up for the next class (which happened to be that day!).  I went to the class, struggled through the whole thing... BUT made a fabulous pillow case!

The very next day... being my ambitious self I decided one class was enough and I could go get a pattern and start sewing this super cute dress! I got a "EASY" pattern, picked out my fabric (with the help of my loving boyfriend), got some scissors, and other little sewing tools. I went home, pumped and ready to sew, and opened the pattern. This is when I started thinking that maybe, just maybe, one sewing class isn't enough. I read through all of the instructions, looked at the pattern pieces, folded them all back up, and stuck them back into the nice little Joannes bag! 

The dress! Butterick See and Sew B5307

After a little break, and the initial shock of how hard this might be I have pulled everything out and started cutting out the pieces. It does help that I have this super amazing MOM who can help me if I have any major problems... Once everything is cut, I will post some of the tips that I have learned so far!