How to sew faster, better, stronger.

When I first started this blog my concept was that in some way I would try and reduce the amount of time wasting and trauma involved with many home sewers projects. It occurred to me that people who sewed for a hobby were set up to fail simply because they were just following instructions. I have failed at this because I have been lured offtrack by my shoemaking hobby and its likely most posts in the future will be about that but I am going to try as I think of them to posts ideas that will make you more successful in your sewing endeavors.

Hint #1: Learn all that is learnable.

Sewing and pattern making is a skill. It can be learned but you need to practice. Create a notebook and start picking techniques out of your favorite sewing books and sewing little samples. Try different variations on the same skill until you find one you like or start internalizing the skill. This will save you time because you will make less mistakes, you'll pick the right method the first time and you won't spend time looking things up because you'll already know what to do. This is what they have you do when you study fashion/apparel production.

Don't limit it to a sewing notebook though. This concept can be applied to pattern adjustments or pattern making. Print yourself a set of 1/4 blocks and work your way through your fitting and alterations reference or through a pattern making text. Really get those pattern manipulations into your fingers so when its time to work on something you can be confident and spend less time.

A good portion of sewing well is knowing how to choose the right fabric for the job and how to handle it. What am I going to suggest? Yes make a notebook. In design school you have to buy this very expensive notebook with 2-300 swatches in them and then study them all. I'm not suggesting that level of dedication but it certainly would behoove you to keep as many swatches in a little notebook for future reference.

Professional results often mean thinking like a professional. I know these don't really seem like they make things faster and if you thinking of time saving hints for a specific thing they are not. What they do is help you develop your own bank of shortcuts.

If you think sewing is fun it'll be even more fun after. The better you are the more enjoyable it is. Knowledge is freedom.