It doesn't take you very long when you first start sewing
that you realize that well,
learning to sew is way more than just learning to use
your machine.
And so these are the boarding things that I wish someone
told me drilled into me,
made me realize that I really needed to know about when
I was just beginning to learn to.
So it's a,
hopefully I think you can relate,
and this might save you a few of the trial and
errors that perhaps I had to go welcome back.
My sewing friends is delightful to see you again as always,
if you're actually just seeing here for the first time,
then welcome.
My name is Evelyn Wood.
And here on this channel,
we do everything vintage sewing skills for modern day sewing.
So it's not about vintage style,
but the vintage skills,
the skill,
the craft,
the art of dressmaking.
That is what we talk about here on this channel.
So if it's something that you're interested,
interested in,
hit the subscribe button,
so you can get all the feature videos because this one
is, well,
I get,
I so asked.
It's so funny.
So what these things that we just,
we wish someone told us when we started to learn to.
So I can't tell you the amount of sort of those
light bulb moments that you have in your sewing journey as
you go along.
And it's quite comical sometimes when you look back,
because you just think it's so obvious,
but why didn't anyone tell you about this?
Or maybe they did tell you about it,
but you just didn't really listen or think it was so
important and,
you know,
skipping things and you know,
it's. So I wish someone told me when I first started
sewing, do you know that there are different needles for different
kinds of fabric,
right? Secondly,
I really wish someone had mentioned that.
I mean,
they'd tell you about different fabrics suggestions on the pattern envelope,
but they don't tell you about different needles,
suggestions. Do they?
How are you supposed to know this?
And on that note,
change your needle.
How long have you been sewing with that same needle in
your machine?
I know I had it in there for a very long
time before I realized that yes,
they get blunt and it causes all sorts of issues.
I do have in fact,
have videos on a sewing machine needles and changing when to
know when to change it,
I'll link all of these extra videos down below,
because basically this whole list is a list of videos that
I've made about all of these topics.
So they're all going to be linked down below.
Don't worry about that.
I wish someone told me not to be scared of fabric.
It's just fabric.
You can get more.
I mean,
what's the worst that can happen.
Having anxiety over cutting into the fabric is one thing that
really does hold us back.
And I know it held me back for such a long
time, just being that you're going to ruin it or ruin
your fabric,
waste your fabric,
right? Yes.
So there's points that we're going to cover in these next
few items that will help mitigate this fear of cutting into
our fabric,
but it really does hold us back as new Sowers.
And don't be scared of fabric.
It's just fabric.
Nothing bad is going to happen.
As I said,
you can always get more.
It's okay to make mistakes.
I really wish someone had sat me down and told me
that mistakes are part of the process.
Also made a video here.
If this is what you're struggling with right now,
that video will definitely help.
The mistakes are part of the learning process.
It is how we learn,
and it is to be expected that we will make mistakes.
It's not going to turn out the first time we all
fall into the trap of,
I think feeling like we're terrible at this sewing thing,
because we're making all of these mistakes and it's just not
turning out perfect the first time.
Like you see everybody else doing,
apparently they're not,
there's always mistakes.
It's the,
you learn the ability to just sort of laugh at,
at giggle and just move on.
Just unpick,
just redo it and just move on.
It's part of it.
It's don't even give it a second thought your sewing will
improve a lot more when you just,
when you just take it as part of the sewing process,
take your time.
It's not a race.
Did you know that you can actually,
so at a snail's pace on your sewing machine,
you don't have to go pedal to the metal and just
floor it the entire way who knew such a thing.
Yeah. Wish someone told me that it is totally okay and
acceptable to just so really,
really slowly one stitch at a time,
particularly in all those difficult areas,
that's how you get a good result.
It is not a pedal to the metal flooring it the
whole way.
And it's a speed race kind of thing.
No, Nope.
Definitely not.
It's okay to go really slow.
Trust me.
I do all the time.
Don't you wish someone sat you down and told you that
patterns actually need to be adjusted to fit your body.
I know we kind of have that,
this idea that,
because we're making it ourselves,
it'll somehow just mean that it fits our body,
right? Because we've made it ourselves.
What you kind of don't think about and realize at that
time, is that well,
yes, but you need to do what the whole fitting process
in between here and here,
making it yourself to actually make it fit you.
So yeah,
you need to adjust those patterns to actually fit.
Just like you go into a store.
If you just randomly pick out sizes like you do with
patterns and just pattern companies,
randomly pick out sizes,
they're not going to fit you straight away.
And then we go to the effort of making up a
garment, like the whole way without realizing that we need to
fit it along the way and put it on and think
why doesn't this fit?
I made it myself.
I think we all have that experience.
The very first garment we make,
because we don't realize just how much fitting and adjusting goes
into making a couture custom made one of a kind garment
to our bodies.
But that is the half the fun in the process of
learning to.
So I think,
but it would be really nice if someone actually really explained
that. I know I would have appreciated it when I very
first started.
So Clean your machine.
Yeah. We have all been here and experienced this.
Remember that moment that you realized that the metal plate comes
off the top of the machine,
and then you saw what is underneath.
One of my favorite quotes is from someone who left a
comment somewhere on social media.
I can't remember where,
and again,
I have a video on,
so machine maintenance that you will really love if you're just
thinking clean my machine.
I didn't know this.
The quote is that she was talking about taking the metal
plate off and someone was pointing.
She's like,
see, those felt plates.
See those felt pads under the metal plate.
They're not supposed to be there.
There's no such thing as felt Plates felt pads on your
metal plate.
Yeah. That's I just thought that was hilarious because that's what
it there's so much.
It's just felt it up into these little plates and yeah,
I always appreciate people.
Send me a tags all the time of all of the
fluff they get out of their machine from that sewing machine
maintenance video,
because often we don't realize that we're supposed to clean our
machines regularly.
Yes. Take a break when you're tired,
stop sewing,
come back the next day.
This is a really big one.
Nothing, nothing good is sewn after midnight or,
you know,
when, you know,
whenever, whatever that time is for you,
whenever you hit that point and you're tired,
you're getting frustrated.
Something's not working out.
If you,
I know from personal experience,
you keep going,
trying to push through really late at night.
And it just turns into even more of a duster disaster.
It's best to just fold it up,
put it down,
put it away,
come back the next day,
Fresh, fresh slept Recovered with a nice fresh eyes.
Again, I have just some sleep and some rest it's definitely
best. I really wish someone would have pointed out just how
much more sewing is then just learning to use your machine.
That is,
but a speck of what sewing actually involves.
And you just don't realize this when you start again.
I have videos here about,
I believe sewing is about 70% preparation,
25% actually sewing and then 5% of unsiloing or unpicking or
seam ripping.
So there's actually little selling involved as it's,
it's actually learning a whole lot of other skills.
And I definitely did not realize that when I first started
sewing, pinning is way more important than it seems the first
time, right?
Oh my goodness.
This is how I think we're go where we think we're
going to start with penny is where we end up with
painting, but we have to go through this whole learning curve
in between when you first get these two bits of fabric
and you think,
what do I need to put all those pins in there?
I mean,
I'll just hold them together and run it through the machine.
Easy peasy.
Of course not A,
it turns into a disaster,
of course.
And then you decide to use a few pins and it
turns out a bit better and you think,
okay, then you use all the pins and you think,
wow, I've seen the light.
I realize what these pins are here for.
And so of course you pin everything,
lots of pins all the time and you get better and
better at sewing.
And then as you come to sort of getting quite good,
you use less pins and a few less pins.
And when you get very much at the other end,
you can then so without pins and put two bits of
fabric together,
because you've learned how to manipulate the fabric and hold it
together. And yeah,
but painting is so important and it's just,
it's so overlooked.
You think,
well, why bother?
It'll be fine.
It's never fine.
Lots of pins are always good.
I really wish someone told me to test everything.
I so wish.
I luckily sort of experienced this intuitively and that when I
would test and like get anything new,
I would always do test stitches,
but I really wish someone sat me down and told me
just, this is actually what happens,
but it's just not talked about,
I've made videos on this test,
the stitches that you're going to use.
If you've got new fabric,
test the stitches,
the same finish,
make sure everything's going to work on that fabric.
If you know,
twelves are so important.
They're, mock-ups,
they're not a waste of time.
Test the,
like sewing up the garment first,
test the fit.
It is absolutely worth it in the long run.
And that is how you not be scared of cutting into
your fabric and how you get results the first time,
because it's not actually the first time because you've tested things
that was such a big learning curve.
When I realized to take the time and do that,
just improved my sewing so much,
but it's something that there's no one sort of sits you
down and tells you about just like how important pressing is.
Don't skip it ever.
Whenever I was so tempted,
we seen on the pattern instructions,
and it's just this one word,
do this or this press.
And you think,
ah, it'll be right.
I'll just hold this themes down and just keep going.
Boy, sewing makes,
pressing makes up for so much lack of sewing skills.
I wish that it had been drilled into me or someone
showed me just what a big difference pressing makes.
Again. I have videos here.
If you're interested in watching those on just,
just press.
If you think you're sewing,
it looks terrible,
good pressing.
We'll make it look a hundred times better.
I promise before we get to the last two,
if you experiencing all these things and we're not alone,
no that you're not alone.
We all go through these things.
And well,
sometimes it helps to have a community of people that understand
all this as well and can laugh at as well as
learn. I'm about to actually launch a new community feature inside
I've mentored song school.
That's my online sewing school,
where I have a whole community of people and we're all
in there together.
There's the,
all the courses you need to learn,
how to sew,
to get better at sewing and progress your skill levels.
It's for everyone at every level to really learn the skills
of sewing,
understanding what you're doing.
So you can create anything you want.
I'm just about to actually launch a new community feature in
the coming weeks that I am so excited about.
It is going to be amazing.
If you're looking for a community of people where you can
exchange ideas and love at these silly things that we all
do and really learn and build your sewing skills,
then I think spinach,
sewing school might just be for you.
I would love to have you there.
I do invite you to join me.
I put some links down below as well.
And then of course,
no one tells you just how important green line is.
I really wish that I was able to understand how important
Greenland is when I started sewing,
because I think we've all have gotten the pattern pieces and
just move them all around and push them all down to
make them fit on the fabric,
because what difference would it make?
Right? I know,
you know exactly what I'm talking about because we have all
done this.
I think every single sewist can relate to that one green
line is so important.
It's a big difference between having a garment look right,
and it just looks wrong.
And sometimes just turns into a complete disaster when you move
all your different pattern pieces around on gray mine.
So I wish someone told me that and that it is
not a race be patient with your sowing.
Just, it actually takes a long time to make up a
garment. If you see that one,
our top,
that five-hour dress times that by about five and that is
likely more the time it will take to make up a
Garmin. So just release those ideas that you'll just whip something
up in an afternoon and slow down to enjoy the process
because it is about the process in learning the craft and
the art and creating something really beautiful at the end of
it, I really wish someone told me that it wasn't a
race and that it's okay to slow down and really work
on the craft and the art of making something really,
really well because it does take a long time to make
up a proper gamut.
And it is absolutely worth all the extra effort and time
at the end,
when you have that gorgeous garment that just fits you.
Lovely, it looks beautiful on the inside and you can just
really feel proud in wearing,
I know,
you know,
that feeling or you're about to experience that feeling very soon.
I love to hear which ones of these that you can
relate to the most.
I think it's something we all experience and of course,
leave your comments below and add in ones that I might
have forgotten about.
Do read all comments because there is going to be absolute
golden nuggets of sowing wisdom down there from all of you
sharing is how we all learn our sewing.
And I really look forward to reading all those.
Thank you so much for watching and until next time happy
sewing. Bye.