These Are A Few of My Least Favorite Things

Inspired by The Dreamstress' post on her most hated sewing-related task and my most recent sewing project (back to chiffon, that tricky devil!), I thought I'd trace my journey in learning to sew by looking at what tasks I hated most at the time. It's funny remembering what used to stall me, and how I learned to move past those barriers.

When I first started sewing, I hated pressing. I mean, it's called sewing; I couldn't understand why I spent so little time actually sewing! It seemed I was always heading over to my dinky little table-top ironing board, which, due to lack of space, was set up over the sink in our guest bathroom. Running back and forth to iron on that tiny surface and not being able to slip anything over the end (because of the arrangement of the little legs it stood on) was the pits! But once we moved to TCOCC, we had enough space for a full-sized ironing board in my sewing room, and I began to take pleasure in beautifully pressed seams. It's amazing how a good pressing makes even the wonkiest seam look better.

Once I got over all the time I spent at the ironing board, my hatred of darts bubbled to the surface. Literally. My dart tips were always bubbly or pointy, until I learned about how to angle my stitching line so that it would taper off correctly. But the good thing about hating darts was that I perfected my TNT princess seam bodice, New Look 6723!

After I figured out darts, I was able to properly focus my hatred on hems. They're just so...long. And tedious. But if you mess it up it might throw off the whole garment, so then I had to make sure I was paying attention for the whole nine yards (literally, for some of my circle skirts!). And to be honest, there wasn't anything that made me magically love hems; I just...stopped hating them one day. Which meant I was no longer leaving dresses lingering sadly on the back of my chair, waiting only for their hems so that they could be worn. Now, when I get to the hem, I get excited because it's easy and and when I'm finished, I'm done with the garment!

Oh, except for sewing hooks and eyes at the tops of zippers. I couldn't stand that either, or any hand-sewing for that matter. Then I took up embroidery because it was the most portable needlecraft I could think of for Christmas vacation up north, and now I find hand-sewing quite relaxing. Good thing, too, or else I never could have bound all the tabs on my pair of bodies, or worked all the eyelets on my kirtle by hand. 

My seam binding of choice.

While I was getting over hand-sewing, I was simultaneously falling in love with pretty seam finishing, thanks to the discovery of rayon seam binding. I've since gotten much better about taking care of my raw edges, either with the seam binding or by using French seams. Although, I must confess that if it's a sturdy fabric and I don't foresee wearing a garment that much, I'll still just pink the seam allowances.

And all this time, I thought that pants would be my Waterloo...well, that war is far from over, but I think I've got a good start. Let's hope it doesn't end up being a Pyrrhic victory (what would that even look like? Maybe I perfected fitting pants, but managed to stab myself in the femoral artery as I stitched the last button?)...

Which brings me to the current state of affairs: there are still a lot of parts of sewing that I'm not a fan of, haven't mastered yet, or haven't even attempted. In the first category would be tasks like gathering wide skirts (I can do it, but I don't like it), making pintucks (measuring constantly is not my forte; I'm more of a just-eyeball-it kind of pintucker), and rolled hems on chiffon (much better after my last two projects, but still not fun). Under the yet-to-master umbrella would be inserting invisible zippers (I just can't make mine look nice! Maybe I need to just buy a bunch and practice inserting them all in a row), getting the grain straight on slippery fabrics and ultra-drapey knits, and setting in sleeves (the few times I'm tried, they are always poofy at the top, or I can't raise my arms). And I haven't even tried working with wool or silk, or anything approaching tailoring. I managed to rescue a couple of lengths of gorgeous wool suiting from the thrift store, but they are sitting in a corner, unused and unloved (except by Walnut, who does them the favor of sniffing them every once in a while), waiting for me to work up the courage and skill to approach them. Maybe I need to make a silk satin dress with random invisible zippers inserted into all the seams, with pintucks everywhere and two perfect sleeves (with gussets, of course, because that's another thing that causes me to quake in my boots).

I just watched The Fall and absolutely fell (ha!) in love with the
costumes. I am kind of smitten with the idea of making this one.

I remember feeling so psyched when I made my first real dress a year ago, and that I could sew anything I could think of if I just tried hard enough. I still hold to that belief, but that is tempered with awareness now of what I don't know. Sewing is just like any other skill -- the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know. But sometimes you just have to look back at what you've learned and overcome, and allow yourself to feel just a little accomplished, before you go back to staring wide-eyed at the work of Eiko Ishioka.

Incidentally, SHB is at the gosh-why-is-there-so-much-ironing stage. Not that my stages are the set progression by any means, but it's just the tiniest bit funny to me that that's her first sewing hang up, too.

Is there anything that you used to dislike about sewing that you've since moved past? Did you move through stages like me, and if so, what were they?