7 January 2013

Coming Up... More Learn to Sew!


Last year I wrote a series of blog posts called Learn to Sew aimed at complete novices. They turned out to be pretty popular. After a lot of writing, editing, photographing, more editing, rephotographing, rewriting… I finally have some more posts in the series ready to go. Hooray!

I’m a big advocate of maker culture (in case you hadn’t noticed), and I get such a buzz every time I get a comment or an email from a reader saying that the blog has inspired them to start making their own clothing. With that in mind, Learn to Sew is written in an accessible, fun and encouraging tone, without bombarding readers with too much information in one go.

I find it really sad that so many people say they have been put off sewing by a scary, overly-dogmatic teacher they once had, or by really long and boring instructions manuals, by not being able to afford to take a class, or by people telling them that sewing is best left to the fashion industry. More and more of us are baking our own cakes, putting up our own shelves, growing our own vegetables… why not make our own clothing too? The ethos of this blog is that sewing is for everyone. You can make it as easy or as difficult as you like. And it doesn’t have to turn out perfect – you made it yourself!


The next  Learn to Sew posts will include answers to “stupid” questions I’ve had from both blog readers and friends (hi Louisa, hi Sarah!). There are no “stupid” questions in my mind, you understand – it’s just that sometimes we forget what it’s like to be a beginner at something and to not have a grasp of how to get started doing things. Once you've been sewing for a while, you take so many things for granted that can totally stump a complete novice. You know, questions like, “Do you cut the pattern first?”, “What does ‘Cut 1 + 1’ mean?” and, “What’s a seam allowance?”. (If you have any “stupid” questions of your own, please let me know!)

So over the next few weeks, you’ll see some more Learn to Sew posts going up on the ole’ blog. For my readers who already know how to sew, I hope you won’t mind me going over the basics. I’ve got some exciting posts in the works for you too, I promise ☺

Learn to Sew posts to date include:

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Let’s get the world stitching!