Chapter 1 - Beginning To Sew

One of the greatest pleasures and most happy experiences people can have is in creating something beautiful and useful by themselves. Sewing satisfies your unfulfilled desires by giving you an opportunity to design, and to play with colors and textures for your family and your home. Making a skirt or a dress is a stimulating experience that will cause you to feel very proud of having created something wearable and useful, and of having saved money over the price of a bought article.

Sewing requires patience and planning. Many people who start to sew want to get finished too quickly. They seem to forget that haste makes waste and that if it's worth doing at all, it's worth doing well. In school, teachers discover that the boys do much better in sewing than the girls because they first read the pattern thoroughly, almost as though it were a blueprint in one of their shop classes.

A first principle is to proceed slowly and carefully. Know what you are going to do before you do it. There is no pleasure in ripping, and careful planning and a clear notion of the steps involved will prevent frayed nerves and a feeling of frustration. There is no profit in throwing away something half finished because you are weary of ripping and redoing. Sewing is practical work and you will have a tremendous sense of satisfaction if you are enthusiastic and are willing to be patient. Nothing succeeds like success, so practice first to develop confidence. Have your mind free of worries and get your other chores out of the way before you start to sew. Make a date with yourself to sew and prepare to enjoy yourself.

Be sure to choose styles that you know look well on you and that you will want to wear. And by all means pick a material that you really like. You will naturally not want to start with a fabric that is very expensive, but you can find something pretty and to your taste in an inexpensive material.

Be sure to start with good equipment. It pays for itself many times over in better workmanship, time-saving, and ease of working. Selection of equipment will be discussed more fully a little later on, but perhaps you will want to turn to p. 4 now to see what you will need. Sit on a chair with a back and remember that good posture prevents quick tiring. Good light is a first and foremost requirement for your comfort. Place your light carefully to avoid glare and shadows and to prevent eyestrain. Ventilate your room properly. Get all your equipment together and have it nearby

and handy before you start to work.

Don't try to work in a very tiny space. Make sure that you have room to work easily. Your dining table, protected with pads, makes a good cutting table. If you possibly can, sew in a place in which you can leave the unfinished work neatly arranged ready to pick up the next time you're going to sew.

Start with a simple project (see Chapter 8) or a garment with only a few pattern pieces. You want to get good results without struggling too hard the first time. Later on, you can try more difficult patterns. You will do well to choose patterns that you can use several times. Many give directions for more than one item, for example: a dress and jacket, or a skirt, blouse, and bolero all in one pattern. For your first experience with a pattern, you will find it easier to work with a printed rather than a perforated one.

Learn something about the fabrics you will use. For your first try, buy a closely woven material that will not ravel too readily. Probably a cotton fabric is your best bet for an initial garment. Cultivate an awareness of fashion changes and try to learn to visualize what fabrics will best create the effect you want to get.

Enthusiasm and a desire to be successful are your tickets to success. Have fun!

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