This week I jumped right into actually sewing. It was definitely more of a challenge than I expected it to be. I focused mostly on the simple stuff, learning the parts of my sewing machine and all of the terminology that goes with it, and then I moved on to practicing a very simple straight stitch.
I used the following video to get me started. It was extremely helpful, it laid out where everything is, how to thread my machine, and how to make a simple and useful item to practice my sewing with!
Major Mistakes and a Bump in the Road
For the first few minutes, everything was going so very well. And then I made a mistake that I repeated several times over the course of the day. I forgot to put down my presser foot! If you forget to put down the presser foot, it means that your stitches pile up and you get a thread jam.
One panicked FaceTime call later and I had everything back to the way it was supposed to be. I swore I wouldn’t make the mistake again.
So what happened about 3 more times over the course of the day? You guessed it, I continued to forget about the presser foot. It wasn’t all bad though, because through this mistake, I learned how to fix it. I gained a lot more than I would’ve if I had done everything correctly the first time.
The next little bump I ran into was not having an iron. I’m sure that there’s one hiding somewhere in my house but I could not find it! So I improvised a bit and used my hair straightener to press the folds and seams that I needed to. I have to say, it worked pretty well!
Lots of New Things in not a lot of Time
I did a lot of learning this week, and not just learning about how to sew. I also decided to tackle videomaking and editing. It’s a sort of rough around the edges, but here’s a little something documenting my sewing progress this week.
What Comes Next?
Next week, I tackle the slightly less simple project of creating a pillow case. I’m looking forward to making more mistakes and more progress.
To those of you who have jumped in to learning a new skill, what were or are some of the mistakes you have made? What were some of the problems or issues that you ran into that you really didn’t see coming or think of when you got started?
Until next time!
6 Comments
bsa898
Hey Abby,
Sewing is such a handy skill to be comfortable with! But it is a skill I, unfortunately, do not have. I am constantly bringing clothes and blankets over to my grandma’s house so she can fix things up for me. I do have a little experience with it though. In my grade 9 home ec class, half of the year we focused on sewing a blanket, and I still have said blanket today. I should have kept up with it because there have been so many circumstances where it would have come in handy. Good luck with the rest of your learning project; I look forward to seeing how your pillowcase turns out!
-Branden
Courtney
Hi Abby,
Sewing is such a good idea for your learning project. it will be so useful once you get it figured out! I have done little pieces of fixing things with a needle and thread but have never used a sewing machine so I can’t wait to follow along and learn a few things from your learning process.
I like how you said the mistakes helped you learn, it is so true. I defiantly learn way more from making a mistake, and then I remember the mistake so I don’t do it again.
Trista Kennett
Abby,
I love your honesty about the struggles that come alongside learning how to sew. For a similar assignment I had last year I also tried to learn how to sew. Let’s just say that it didn’t go great. I did not follow any online videos, I just read blogs. So, I would continue to encourage you to keep watching videos. Also, it is awesome that you have someone in your life that you can call and get help from! Good luck in this coming week!
Shana Blenkin
Hey Abby,
Sewing will be such a great skill to have over the course of your educational career and life! What grades are you wanting to teach when you are finished university? I remember in grade 7/8/9 we had a class called Home Ec,
I made some pretty awful looking pajama pants! It would be awesome to apply your new learned skill with your class and you can show them the struggles you’ve had to over come them. It would help the students relate to you!
So far in my learning experience I made Cinnamon buns, I found them fairly simple, but do wish I didn’t roll my dough out so thin!
Keep up the great work and can’t wait to see your pillow case!
-Shana
Sarah Stroeder
Hi Abby!
So glad to see you embracing your mistakes, as there will be a lot of those in the beginning! So true that sometimes we have to make a mistake many times before we fully learn from it. Love that you added a video so we could actually see what you were talking about in your post, really helpful for people who don’t know a lot about sewing (aka me haha). Once again, love to see that you have a clear goal going forward. Keep up the fantastic work!
Kara Miskolczi
Hi, Abby,
I love that you are using your mistakes to learn from them. That is so important. We will always have mistakes and you are choosing to lift yourself up instead of let them drag you down. I love that you added a video too, it makes everything you are talking about so much clearer. I also really like your sewing puns!