This is a blog for me. I have been trying to learn to sew for the last three years. I'm late to the game and that's perhaps why it's been so difficult. Oh ya, and I'm also an incredible perfectionist! Too much so. I can't let little things go. It's interesting though. Being a knitter for over 30 years (ouch! How OLD am I?!!) I could just take out the offending stitches and redo them. You create your fabric in knitting. In sewing, you cut out your fabric and once it's cut, there's no going back! And I guess that's the worst part. If it's too small, then it automatically is given away. All that work for naught. So it's hard for me to cut some of my favourite fabrics and then discover that it won't fit - ever! Well, I guess if I lost a zillion pounds, maybe. So, my gorgeous fabrics, sought out and found all over the world, have remained uncut. And the stash is growing.
So, I guess when I started to sew, after the obligatory tote bag and PJ pants, I sewed my first skirt. Ya, that was a mess. I took a class, and it didn't fit. I took another and it didn't fit. Then we finally found Louise. She was a godsend. Louise was in our knitting group. There were three of us taking sewing classes together and failing rather miserably. She felt sorry for the three of us struggling in these classes and offered to teach us to sew a skirt that fit! Wow, what a teacher! She put her whole body and soul into teaching us. She taught the three of us couture methods, which I loved so unbelievably! And, lo and behold, we all got skirts that fit! Then I made another, and another. And soon I was confident and happy. Tracing out and cutting top patterns and anything else that struck my fancy from Burda magazines.
But these things weren't fitting right. Too baggy for my tastes, shoulders too sloppy. I needed a better fit. I struggled by myself, took a "making a sheath dress" class and it just got worse! I found another teacher who helped "fix" that one, but one thing was wrong. It just didn't look right. I was starting to understand my fitting issues. But it hadn't coalesced yet.
That was followed by an "unlined jacket" class. The shoulders were still no good. What was wrong
with me? I struggled some more, making a second jacket that I loved, as long as I ignored the shoulders. But I was afraid to change the pattern, though I researched it endlessly!
Then, after further research I decided on a new tact - I had to be honest about my measurements. They were not "so bad". I guess I had just never seen myself as "pear" shaped. Things happen over time and my middle thickened and gravity to a hold on my butt! My friends and I took each other's measurements. And we decreed that what goes on in the Measuring Room, stays in the Measuring Room! It was actually very freeing. Now with my new measurements in hand (and a good bra fitting and new bras!!) I could admit that my bust was much smaller than I had previously thought, especially in comparison to my waist and hips. But what to do.
The "Aha" moment came sometime over the past year. I started making muslins of everything. I kept telling myself that I didn't HAVE to then make it up in my fashion fabric. It was very freeing. But the real discovery came with understanding that my shoulders are very narrow. I think to look at me they don't seem so narrow, but certainly according to the Big 4 pattern companies they certainly are. And after reading soooo many blogs of incredibly helpful and talented women out there, many more experienced than me, some making the same mistakes as me, and particularly one who casually mentioned that she makes a SMALLER SIZE on the back pattern piece of Big 4 patterns to account for her narrow back, I have come to another learning point. There have been many, but THIS one has been tremendous. So, I've now made muslins of tops with a smaller size on back and they've FIT! Wow! So exciting! And now I'm making adjustments to tops by doing a smaller shoulder size and then increasing it all the way down to my hips. When I was struggling with the "fit" issue and started to think, oh I'll just accept that this is the way it is and that's what I'll wear, my sister made a comment that has really stuck with me. She said, "Cindy, if you want an ill-fitting top, you can just to a store to get one! Why go to the trouble to make one?" And she was oh so right! I keep that in mind when I find myself thinking about just accepting a garment that doesn't fit "quite right".
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