Wednesday, May 23, 2012

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?

23 comments:

  1. I used to hate pressing, too. Or even worse, not really realise it was that important.
    I don't know if I had other "stages". The finishing work is probably the current one (beside the sleeves I voted for in Dreamstress's poll). You sew the whole thing up, you could, more or less, wear it, but you know you still have to do finish all the seams... I don't mind hems that much, but finishing seams - eugh. I usually zigzag them because I'm too lazy (and cheap) for anything else, but at the same time I don't like the look of that much.

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    1. Yeah, sewing each seam multiple times because of seam finishing feels so tedious, especially when you could just wear the garment out and no one would know but you! I, too, hate the look of zig-zagged seams, and can't wait til I can afford a serger!

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  2. Great post. I love pressing. I hate hemming and hand sewing but I know I got to overcome that

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    1. I love pressing now, but it didn't always use to be so!

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  3. there's lots of things that i've learned to suck up and do, but i still hate most of them: hemming, zippers, binding armscye seams on sleeveless tops, and sewing on buttons. any one of those things can leave a piece in the UFO pile for embarassing amounts of time!

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    1. Oooh, sewing on buttons, I forgot to mention that! I guess the good thing is it doesn't technically take that much time to bring something out of the UFO pile, and then you feel like you just got a brand new garment...

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  4. I'm similar to House of Pinheiro, I love pressing - crisp creases are a thing to behold, but I cannot stand hemming. If I can, I tend to just leave the cut edges (I know, it's not good practise but no one's going to be looking at the hem!) and hope they don't unravel. I can't stand sewing on buttons either. I think I do it wrong because the re-sewn-by-me ones are always the first to fall off! The thing I've learnt to love is zips but mainly I think that's because they are less fiddly than buttons!

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    1. That is very courageous of you, to just leave the cut hem! I don't love zippers, but yeah, I love them more than buttons!

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  5. Hmmmm....the list is fairly long, where to begin? ;-) I hate (in no particular order) BUTTONHOLES, hemming, hand sewing, marking the pattern pieces, did I mention hand sewing? And buttonholes? ;-) I'm always a bit embarrassed by how easily those particular things can scare me away from finishing (or starting) a project. Once I discovered how much better the finished project looked with proper pressing, I was SOLD, but before that, I kind of thought it was a waste of time.

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    1. Yes! Marking pattern pieces is the worst! Which is why I usually don't bother...and since I never do it, that would explain why I forgot to even include it in the list of things I hate.

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  6. I hate hemming dress pants. HATE IT. I'm almost never happy with them. I don't like making buttonholes because my machine isn't really very good at making them consistently. And I really hate fusing interfacing. zzzzzz.

    I do like hand sewing. I like seeing the thread pull through and then finally knotting the end. Plus there are times when it's absolutely necessary. I remember one blogger who made a deep red Burda Style skirt that had unusual pleats. It would have been gorgeous if she hadn't done the hem (badly) by machine.

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    1. Hehe, fusing interfacing is fun for me, because it's so easy and the results are obvious! And yes, the hem can totally make or break (usually just the latter) a garment.

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  7. I used to hate a lot of the same things you mentioned. I think as you learn to appreciate the details, you stop hating things a little less. And if you can sew with someone else, the things you hate aren't quite so bad because you have someone to talk to and things just seem to go faster.

    Sounds like you need to read a book on the different types of presser feet you can get for your machine - almost everything you listed as a current "hate" is something you can use a special foot to do more easily. =)

    One thing I will never learn to enjoy is what I call "plier sewing" - I absolutely hate having to use pliers to force the needle through something (and a lot of times it involves a curved needle). I've had to do a lot of that kind of work in costume shops and I always hate it because it makes my hand sore. And a little less annoying is sewing snaps and hooks & eyes/bars - I always find that kind of hand-sewing boring.

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    1. Oh, I wish I had a sewing buddy to talk to! I do have a rolled hem foot and buttonhole foot, but I can never get consistent results, it seems. Probably I just need to practice more.

      I have never heard of plier sewing, or curved needles for that matter, but then I don't sew with very exotic materials. I do not look forward to ever doing so!

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    2. You've probably never heard of "plier sewing" because that's just what I call it. =)

      Curved needles are used mostly for upholstery and millinery sewing. And weird things like that end up in costume shops. (There are also leather needles which are really scary looking.)

      If you ever come visit the Dallas, TX area, you can come sew with me! We'd have loads of geeky sewing fun!

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  8. I totally went through the same stages as you - although I still find sewing hooks and eyes tedious (hand sewing beads, sequins, and rhinestones is perfectly fine, but utilitarian things like hooks and eyes not so much). And I think I will always hate cutting out the paper pattern (so big, so boring), but other things seem to get better with time.

    Oh, and as for invisible zippers - do you have an invisible zipper foot? I used to hate them, but then my sister got the foot for me for my birthday and now they are my favorite type of closure because they are *so easy* to sew. Also, try inserting the zipper first, then sewing the rest of the seam - this always makes the results much better.

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    1. Hmmm, I have yet to try hand-beading (hand-sequinning? hand-rhinestoning?), but maybe someday! I don't have an invisible zipper foot, but maybe I should try one...I can't even imagine loving invisible zippers right now.

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  9. I still hate pressing, because my iron and board is one floor below the room I sew in, and I hate having to run up and down!

    I don't really dislike anything else except unpicking silly mistakes. Time with my hobbies is precious so I try to enjoy every step, even tracing patterns off the paper!

    I second the invisible zipper foot - makes them a dream!

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    1. Oh wow, running to the guest bathroom across the hall sounds peasly compared to running down a flight of stairs to the ironing board! I, too, get frustrated with unpicking, but I didn't list it since it's not what I would really consider a vital step in the course of a project ;)

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    2. Heh I am much a pessimist - unpicking for me is par for the course! Perhaps I just need to get better at what I'm doing :)

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  10. I hate:
    -trimming SA
    -clipping curves
    -sewing hooks and eyes
    -darts (love/hate relationship that one!)

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    1. Yes, I hear you on the trimming of seam allowances! But if you have a serger, doesn't it just chop it off for you?

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  11. <3 <3 <3 The Fall - I'm going to watch it again soon - thanks for the reminder!

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