How to be a self taught sewer

Disclaimer: my mom is an OUTSTANDING seamstress. She is absolutely amazing. She smocks and tats and knits and quits and can do just about anything with a sewing machine (from prom dresses to dolls). She's good. And while I didn't really sew much myself growing up, I watched her a awful lot. Sitting on the floor of her sewing room while she works on a project is, in fact, still one of my favorite spots in my parent's house. I've seen her make a lot of things. So I guess you could say that some parts of sewing are absolutely intuitive for me.  I've seen her do it so many times that I automatically know what to do myself. It helps.

With that said, two years ago (just two folks!) I was pleasantly surprised to be given a sewing machine for Christmas. Surprised, I say, because I hadn't sat down at one in roughly 10 years. My sewing experiences up to that point included one quilt, made in high school. All straight lines. All sewing heavily supervised. It was, you could say, a leap of hope on my mom's part that I would put my new machine to any kind of use. She was even willing to be ok with the idea that I might not take it out of the box. Like I said, my mom rocks.

I went home (to Blanding, at the time) and decided to set it up on my desk in my room.

It was pushed out of the way, but it was there. Staring me in the face every morning when I got up and every night when I went to bed.  It was incredibly accessible. Best move I ever made.

Step one: Get your machine out of the box and put it somewhere you can access it.

I started slow. I decided to waste a needle by practicing on paper. I practiced straight lines for a few weeks. A little here, a little there. Then I started cooking up ideas in my head of things I could make. Little bags and such. I went to the store and bought some fabrics. A little here, a little there.

I am a believer in trial and error. I made four or five bags and only used one. The rest just weren't that cute. Or the handle was too long. Or the dimensions were wrong. No matter. I'd make another.

Step two: Turn the machine on. Practice, I say.

I was (am?) incredibly slow back then. A bag would take a few hours (shocking but true!). But no matter. It was part of the process. To learn to sew you've got to sew. Turn on the machine, you know? Get out your handy-dandy unpicking tool and dive in.

I used to be totally scared of sewing curves. Not that I'm any huge expert now, but sew a few bibs and frogs and birds and you definitely get more confident. And faster.

Step three: Trust yourself.

Now there are good things to be said about following a pattern. But I'm usually brave enough to just figure things out. Hello online tutorials (here's a good site to start with). They're everywhere. I'm a big fan of just jumping in. Make it up. Follow someone else's picture directions. Follow your own. Don't be afraid of messing up (like I said, become friends with the unpicker). And most importantly, don't be afraid of taking the machine out of the box. Turn it on. Think of the possibilities. I sew so much because it's easy to get to my machine (it's still on the desk where I do my scripture study and pay the bills... just pushed to the corner when not in use).

Step four: Stretch yourself. Try new (and hard!) things.

There are still plenty of things I'm not good at, or that I'm nervous to try (hello zippers... you make me uncomfortable! And for some reason elastic scares me. Guess that means I need to get my hands on some and give it a whirl).

I get comments all the time from people saying they "can't sew."  It's a falacy folks. I bet you can, you just don't know how yet.  I totally support taking a class, sitting down with a friend who knows, or reading a book on it. But I MOST support starting. Wherever that needs to be for you. You won't be good right away. Your first project will probably be a bit wobbly. That's ok! Don't expect it to look like it came straight out of the Pottery Barn Catalog. The more you sew, however, the better you'll be.

Ready??  Big G, little o, let's Go sew!