Learning to Sew, A Retrospective



Start with a beginner project, maybe in fleece. Have someone lovingly walk you through the process.

Move on to new projects with reckless abandon. Sew knits with a straight stitch and wear them until the seams pop. Steal your mom's vintage patterns. Don't finish any of your seams. Love every minute.

Take a home ec class. Learn how to properly insert a zipper. Ignore all of this for years while you bedazzle all your high school shirts. Sew your prom dress. Develop a reputation as a crafty seamstress.

Get your first sewing machine. Buy all the patterns. Buy all the feet. Sew exposed zippers with invisible zips. Pink all your seams. Know that you will crumple up every project you make and throw it across the room at least once every time you sew. Do it anyway. Cultivate a closet of handmade dresses and wear them proudly.

Take a class on how to properly finish your seams (again). Start a blog and take pictures in your bathroom, anywhere with a blank wall. Sew five hours a night. Become obsessed.

Stop making party dresses and figure out what you really like to wear. Make a pair of pants and fail at it. Miserably. Make a woven shirt that's too tight because you used a knit pattern. Make a Japanese pattern without understanding a single word and a BurdaStyle pattern with bad instructions. Succeed.

Make a pair of pants again. And again. And again. Wear them everywhere because they are comfier than anything you've ever bought in a store. Make 14 bras and don't wear any of them because none of them are comfy. Meet up with others who sew like you do - on their living room floors - and follow their journeys.

Learn from the masters. Read about fit. Sew and unpick and tweak and sew again. Cover your house in loose threads and your closet in your favorite things. Don't imagine your life any other way. 

15 comments:

  1. Such a lovely (and accurate) post!! Thank you!!

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  2. I love this post. I'm sure this is so many of our experiences, it certainly made me smile about mine.

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  3. Yeah, rings a bell! Nicely written.

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  4. Great post. One of the most heartfelt blogs I've read. Well done Meg

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  5. Great post Meg. I only started sewing at the age of 57 and my second project I chose a vogue vintage cocktail dress pattern!

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  6. Love this!!! I'm at the sew knits with straight stitch phase and loving it all the same!

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  7. The best journey a person can ever have!!! Well done and keep it up.

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  8. It's a wonderful journey and one that continues to flow.

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