From A Sewist to Creating Designs

Anyone who has followed me on Facebook the past few years is well aware that I spend time playing with a sewing machine, serger, an iron, and all the things needed to create and construct garments. Creating and constructing garments is one of the most soothing things for me to do. Like with music, I feel centred and the time passes by so quickly. It feels so awesome to be able to take a length of fabric and transform it into a dress or a skirt or a jacket or a pair of jeans. It is such a satisfying accomplishment, particularly since I am now at the point where I am no longer restricted by what patterns I can find. I now create my own.

So, how did I get there? This is the story of how I went from being a home sewist that did up other people’s patterns to creating my own.

I started sewing as a kid. My mother showed me how to make clothing for my dolls, starting with making them by hand stitching and then showing me how to use the sewing machine. Once I outgrew dolls, I stopped sewing. In fact, the subject of me sewing did not come up again until my grade 12 prom dress was the topic. My father suggested that I should make the dress, but my mother pointed out that I did not have the skills for a project like that. (Not to mention, I had very little interest in going to the prom to begin with!) So, my mother made the dress.

That was the end of any discussions regarding me and anything major related to sewing, until I finished my undergraduate degree. I did the odd small project like curtains or pillows for my university apartments, although my mother usually did them. I did not have a job the summer after my bachelor’s graduation and was at a bit of a loss as to what to do with myself. I got it into my head that I would like to make a dress. Mom and I had found a basic dress pattern and then we headed to the fabric shop that was on Broadway Street in Kensington for the material, which ended up being a purple and white cotton print. That shop has long since closed, but thinking of how fabric shops were once more common than they are today makes me feel sad. That will have to be a topic for another post.

So, I made the dress. It was my first substantial project since I was a kid. I did wear it a few times, but it proved that I could make something if I really wanted to. I went off to graduate school and never thought anything more of sewing - instead focusing on engineering and playing trumpet for the next couple of years.

Needless to say, it was somewhat a bit of a surprise that my graduation gift from my Masters degree was a sewing machine. I was quite delighted. I always thought it would be fun to create my own clothes and have a wardrobe that was unique to me. I had so many ideas for projects!

I was living and working in Knoxville, Tennessee when I finished my Masters degree and at the time of graduation, I was in the process of moving to Port Hope, Ontario to start a new job. As to be expected, I did not have much money starting out, and then moving to a new place. I did not know many people and I was also struggling with finding things to fill my life with now that I worked 35 hours per week instead of the non-stop work found in engineering school. The sewing machine was the first piece. The rest was filled in with a trip to the local fabric shop.

I quickly discovered that for $10, I could get the fabric and materials to keep me occupied with the sewing machine for the entire weekend. My skills with the machine clearly needed some work, but it was a place to start and I found that it made me happy. I had the time to learn, and so I started on this new journey of discovery.

I tried all sorts of different projects and fabrics. I explored a wide range of patterns, and started dreaming of the day when I might have the skills to create my own. I kept going. I made tons and tons of mistakes. I had projects that really didn’t turn out quite so good, but then I had other projects where there were obvious wins. I took classes when I stumbled across them and could fit them into my schedule. I even planned a couple of my vacations around courses.

I kept working on my construction skills. I had the goal that it was not going to be obvious that I had made it. My projects were going to look like they came from a store in the mall. That was the goal. I wanted quality results. After lots and lots of practice and mistakes, I got there.

And then, I got bored. The challenge was gone. My body started changing with the expected middle age hormone changes, which meant that the pattern adjustments were starting to become more extensive and just more onerous to do. I had that added frustration, and so, I stopped sewing for a while. I started thinking about creating my own custom patterns to get around the tedious pattern adjustment stage of my sewing projects.

Following the Fort McMurray wildfire in 2016, I started to make an effort to find out how to create my own patterns. I signed up for online courses and started acquiring textbooks to start down this path. I didn’t make it very far before I decided it was going to be too much work. It was going to take a ton of effort and it was going to take a ton of time to do this. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend all that time and effort. The thought made me feel tired and exhausted, but then my internal devil’s advocate piped up, “What else are you going to do with your time?”

Such a valid question! “What else was I going to do with my time?” Fort McMurray has a long winter with super cold temperatures. I didn’t mind going out skiing, but that still left time to kill. I wasn’t as busy musically as I had been in other places that I had lived, so there was definitely time available to spend. Then my internal devil’s advocate piped up some more, “Even 5 minutes a day for a month works out to more than 2 hours, and so even small blocks of time start to add up. And to repeat, what else are you going to do with your time?”

So, I started. I began the journey. I was not wrong. It did take a lot of time and effort. There were a ton of duds, but there were also enough wins to keep me going. Because every mistake or failed project added more pieces to the puzzle and were invaluable for learning and developing my patterns. Most importantly, I expanded my skills and it ended up being one of the most satisfying ways to spend my time.

Happily, I now can say that I no longer buy pants, or skirts, or jeans. I also make blouses, and have made t-shirts, undergarments. There is now no limit to what I can make. My suggestion, when you think you can’t do something because it is going to require time and effort, let your inner voice ask the question, “What else are you going to do with your time?” It worked for me!