For my birthday my Mom found a lady who teaches sewing lessons right by my house and paid for my first two months. I went to my first lesson yesterday! Sorry to all those seamstresses out there, but I am DEFINITELY a beginner! I'm still learning basic terms like baste and surge that you find in patterns and also in the every-day conversations of seamstresses (by the way, baste means sew together [why can't they just say "sew together" it's not like 2 words takes that much longer to say or write than one!] and, honestly, I'm still not quite sure what a surger actually does! Don't tell my teacher! I'm using her machine next week! haha)
My lessons are on Thursdays so each week I'll share a few things that I learned at my lesson.
Lesson #1: I already shared this one above, but Baste just means to sew two things together. I should be able to remember that one!
Lesson #2: The thread take up (or take up lever) should always be at its highest position before you start sewing a new line. A lot of my most frequent mistakes can all be traced to this problem. The thread take up is the thing at the top of your sewing machine right above the needle and if you start sewing with it in the middle then it has a stitch started and it will hook another one right away so you end up with a knot right at the beginning of your line (this happens all the time to me!) It can also cause your thread to come out of your needle thus requiring you to thread the stupid thing again and again!
Lesson #3: You should sit so that your nose is lined up with the needle. Don't sit in the middle of your sewing machine because then you have to lean to the side to see the needle. Keep your back straight and then you can sew for hours and hours without getting back pain.
Lesson #4: Your seam-ripper (the un-picker) is your best friend :)
I'm making a tank-top and I think I'll be able to finish at my next lesson. So I will post a picture next week!
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