Even though I’ve been sewing for over twenty-five years, I am only an amateur seamstress at best.
I failed the sewing component of home economics at high school – never did finish that stupid skirt!
You’d think that would be the end of it. However, when I started working in an office several years later, I noticed a lot of the other girls were in to sewing, and were always showing off their latest creation … and I caught the bug.
Christmas dress circa 1989
Starting Out as An Amateur Seamstress
I went to some dressmaking classes and made a couple of skirts and dresses, but they never felt “right” and I was paranoid that my terrible sewing would fall apart when I was wearing them. Most of them went straight in the bin.
As a newlywed, I discovered stretch sewing thanks to some Knitwit classes – yes, I’m a certified knitwit! I loved the simplicity of stretch sewing – no need to finish edges, as knit fabric doesn’t fray. However, stretch fabric could be expensive and the fabric was often in dowdy grandma patterns – why sew when you could buy ready made fashion, so cheaply?!
I made this outfit for a wedding in 1991. Check out the hubster’s loud shirt!
What a good little wife I was back in 1992: baking, and wearing a dress I’d made myself 😉
Another Knitwit dress, circa 1993
I even made a maternity dress – 1994
Then Mr 21 arrived, and as a family on one income, every penny counted. I discovered how easy it was to whip up a pair of boy’s shorts with an elastic waist (no fly or pockets necessary for toddlers), with less than half a metre of fabric and an hour of my time. I had so much fun sewing shorts for my boy, and buying bright (cheap!) polo shirts for a great mix and match wardrobe!
I also made myself a couple of dresses, like this 90’s tragedy below … and no, I wasn’t pregnant at the time, that was just the style!
Although I was now able to sew, I always struggled with cutting things out and joining them up the right way, and often had to unpick seams. I loved the end result, and the satisfaction of making something myself – but I didn’t enjoy the process.
25 Years Later …
Still, every now and then I get the sewing “bug” and just HAVE to make something – like the skirt below for Miss 19, or this off the shoulder dress.
And to think my grandmother was a professional dressmaker – obviously that gene didn’t get passed on to me – I’m afraid I’ll always be an amateur seamstress, at best!
Can you – do you – or would you – like to be able to sew? Or do you think “Sew what!”
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