Learning Curve...

[Rani Zemirah]

Yes, I am finally ready to learn more... MUCH more... about sewing, garment construction and the techniques used by those who make lovely wearable art... and toward that end I would like to pick all of your brains about the how, when and where you have all learned the things you know! 

Example:
I have recently joined the Craftsy online instructional tutorial community website, filled with all sorts of online classes and tutorials available for purchase, and in come cases, for free.  The first class I have bought is the one for Beginner Serging, although I haven't had time to get started, as of yet. 

I do have some basic sewing skills already, picked up here and there over the course of my life to date.  What I'm more interested in finding out, however, is how/when/where you have all picked up your more advanced skills, tips, tricks and techniques that you all use to make the lovely things you produce so consistently, and so frequently!  Did you learn from a relative, from classes, online tutorials, friends, books... or some other source/resource?

And if any of you have online resources you would like to share with us all, I would be very happy to compile a list of them all here, so that we can all benefit from those wonderful gems of knowledge that have been stumbled across in the effort to expand your skills.  My own are relatively basic compared to the things all of you are capable of, but I would really like to start changing that... soon!   

So... what are some of the important things you've learned that have really advanced your particular sets of skills... and how/when/where did you learn them?

[DonaCatalina]

This one is good reading for the beginner.
Good reading here as well
This one is entertaining

[isabelladangelo]

About the closest thing I have ever used to a tutorial is the book The Art of Manipulating Fabric.  Honestly, the thing that has helped me more than anything is my dress diaries and just going to places, seeing others dressed up, and asking them. 

With the dress diaries, I'm keeping a record not only of what I did but also what mistakes I've made.  I also get feedback from other costumers which helps a lot.  I'm on both LJ/Dreamwidth (everyone crossposts because there are still more people on LJ) and on blogspot.  Right now, I'm in the middle of a rush of 1860's outfits (almost done with the latest dress which I already LOVE) and have been getting a lot of amazing feedback on how to put things together, what else I need, ect. 

At a faire or re-enactment, I just go up to people and ask them if they made it.  If so, most people are more than willing to answer any of the construction questions I have. 

Really, the only other thing I can suggest is doing research to see what techniques were used in period.  We don't have much to go on from the 16th C but we do have some.  However, there is a ton of info on the 18th Century.  I actually have a good sized extant garment collection.  For my 1860's stuff, I keep running upstairs and looking at not only my 1860's stuff, but also the 1850's, 1840's, and 1870's.  Techniques tend to change very slowly over time - although there were a lot of changes in the late 1850's/early 1860's due to the little invention called the sewing machine.  :-) 

Having a personal extant garment collection isn't for everyone (it's not cheap) which is why I have my extant gowns blog.  However, if you live anywhere near a museum or are traveling to one, they typically will allow you to make an appointment to see any artifact you want up close and personal. 

I hope that helps! 

[Lady Kathleen of Olmsted]

My adventures with Sewing began 54 years ago at the tender age of 7, an age when girls of my generation took it up. I was still in Ohio then when the neighborhood where we lived, all the stay at home neighbor ladies sewed. Mrs. Sullivan taught me how to embroider.

A few years later, we moved from Ohio to California. It was there I latched on to more of the neighbor ladies who sewed clothes for themselves and their children. My Mother also wanted to learn. So together we would learn. I would make doll Clothes first, then graduated to making clothes for myself. . My Mother had her first Sewing machine when I was 12. A Singer Touch and Sew.

In Jr. High and High School, I took Sewing Classes in Home Ec because I already knew how to cook. My Sewing teachers were very helpful in teaching me to use patterns and draft patterns for other things. In my Senior year of High School, I took Tailoring and Pattern Drafting. My Teacher, Mrs. Carlisle, had spent 30 years working in the Film Industry in Hollywood. She worked with some of the most famous Film Costume designers of that time, including Edith Head. From her I learned skills I use today.

I continued my sewing well after High School, marrying my husband, having children, making their clothes, crafts,  Halloween costumes, etc. It was not until the early 1980's when I got bitten by the Costume Bug after watching the cult classic, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. From then on, I never looked back. By that time, I was working with a friend doing Alterations, learning different skills that would later set me on my current path of Period Clothing and Costumes.

As for my other skills, mostly self taught. It is a matter of doing the same things over and over again, reading and following instructions. I also asked others when I saw something that caught my eye as to how they did a particular technique. After all these years, I am still learning. THAT is the beauty and mystery of sewing.

[PollyPoPo]

Like Lady Kathleen, I, too, was shown some basics as a young girl, embroidery, quilting, crochet, then sewing in grades 6-8.  It took me many, many, many years to realize the reason I was never any good at it was that it all took PATIENCE!  And practice (never had the $$ to do more than one of something.)

Other people could whip up a simple skirt in 15-20 minutes and it would fit perfectly, with an even hem all around, machine sewn with a blind hem stitch.  Of course, they had probably done dozens of skirts over the years and that's why it was easy for them.

My hat's off to all the ladies (and gents maybe) out there who have the patience and skill to sew straight seams, put lace on, hem it up and still get it to fit.   

[gem]

I learned right here on RF.com, by asking questions and reading the threads!  Alas, many of those members who taught me so much have moved on (Baroness Doune--sob!), but the board is still packed with skill and talent and patient, helpful people who generously share their own hard-learned knowledge.

I tried to take sewing lessons right before joining the boards, and the learning style wasn't right for me at all. I need to learn things by actually applying them to a real project--not just go through a list of abstract techniques I may never need. So how did I learn to make welt pockets? Milord wanted Daniel Craig's vest from "Cowboys & Aliens," which has 4 welt pockets! I learned to make and apply bias binding so I could bind corsets. Ditto piping. I learned a lot about hemming (marking a hem, the effect of hem depth on drape, hem stiffening, hemming gores or curves, etc) every time I made a new skirt or gown. And every time I used a skill that I had learned, I refined my technique and materials until I was proficient... and had my own tips to share.

I learned about fit and fabrics and how to make things look authentic by reading dress diaries, and especially by starting at places like Festive Attyre and the Realm of Venus to look at the top tier of historical costuming... and then Googling the heck out of what I wanted to see. I think my keyboard can now type "Florentine gown" without me! LOL

For general sewing techniques, I tend to look at a lot of mundane sewing tutorials (there are just more of them). Those are easy to Google--and I do an image search so it's easier to see what I'm getting when I click through to a website). But a couple of my go-to period costume tutorials are here:

Making a (men's) doublet using a fitted shirt
Making a kirtle (that's actually the same site!)
All about coifs
The Renaissance Tailor--basic & not-so-basic pattern construction

Basically, launch yourself into a project whose details and construction will challenge you, ask many questions here on the boards, and be prepared to crash Google looking up the rest. 

[Lady Kathleen of Olmsted]

  Welt pockets and Bound Buttonholes I learned in my senior year of High School.

Sometimes I need a refresher to do them again because after 30 years or so of NOT doing them, one forgets. That's normal in this business.

[Rani Zemirah]

These are all great resources!  Glad I asked the question... and I hope there are more to come! 

At this point I'm going to focus mostly on mundane modern techniques, I think, simply because very little of what I make needs to be of period construction, and I would like to gain proficiency in as many basics as possible before I start trying to tackle any of the more obscure or complicated methods out there. 

I also learned what little I do know from relatives (my grandmother and great-grandmother)... and one rather disastrous and highly frustrating home ec class in 6th grade... but I never progressed beyond the very simple techniques needed for making things like chemises, circle, gored or gathered skirts and tunics.  I know next to nothing about setting in sleeves (thanks to that sadistic home ec "teacher" who traumatized me in front of the whole class), and I'm probably doing things like plackets and yokes completely wrong, because I've always had difficulty trying to figure out how to do something by just reading instructions.  I NEED to SEE things done, or at least have very detailed diagrams, because I am a spacial/linguistic/kinesthetic learner, much more so than an aural/mathematical learner... so it really helps me to be able to see someone else do something, especially WHILE I'm also doing it.  Which makes tutorials an almost perfect way for me to learn, since many of them can be paused, then restarted once I've figured out the step.  It's also easier for me to learn some things in a more solitary setting, since I can move at my own pace... although I do really enjoy a classroom setting for the social aspects of learning, as well.  Classes can be difficult for me, though, because once I've learned something I'm ready to move on to the next step, and that's not always in the same time frame as others.  I do like the group accomplishment aspect of classes, however.  I'm just not really very good at fitting into groups, I guess. 

Of course, having said all that, I also LOVE having books for reference, or online resources, as well... and I will frequently print instructions I find (particularly ones with diagrams), just so I can refer back to them while I'm in the middle of a project.  I wish I had a laptop so I could have it open while I'm working on something, but I just don't have a way to have my computer and my workspace occupy the same space... so I have to sort of juggle right now, and switch between the two.  At least they are in the same room, though! 


Tonight I'm going to explore as many of the links you've all posted here as I can, and I'm going to try and paste them all into the original post of this thread, cross-referenced with subject matter, so that anyone who stumbles across it can just click on a link and find the info they are looking for!  Please continue to post any more links you can think of to helpful resources for learning both basic and advanced garment construction techniques, and for embellishment, as well!  Gem, you mentioned piping, and someone mentined embroidery, as well.  There are also a TON of things I don't know about fitting, draping and pattern drafting, as well...    heheh

[LadyStitch]

Rani,
A big thing for me is knowing specific techniques backwards and forwards.  If you can't do the basics correctly there is no way you can make advanced techniques look good. Especially since they build on those basic techniques.

I found this beautiful Heirloom dress pattern for my daughter.  Several years ago I wouldn't have attempted it because of the more difficult techniques required.  Because I learned to keep my stitching straight I can do the fold technique on pin tucks, and they look awesome now. 

One thing that has helped me is having my "Sample book".  If there is a technique I have learned I put directions on how I did it in the book, with an example.  I learn by seeing and going step by step.  This REALLY helps when I have to do a technique I don't normally do.  It saved my back size when I had to put in a dart placket. (Ugh!)  went to my book and found how to do it. 

Books that I recomend to people, and were also text books I had for my advanced classes were:
Signer Sewing Esentials - great basic guide
Readers Digest Sewing : I prefer the 1982 version as it has older techniques in it that newer don't.
Costumer Technician's Handbook - Good reference guide.
Couture Sewing Techniques - this covers some of the more obscure techniques.

[Rani Zemirah]

Oh, those all sound really interesting... and I love the idea of a "sample" book!  I can imagine how huge it could get, though!  heheh


I definitely have a lot of work to do on that whole straight stitching thing, though...    I won't be trying pin tucks any time soon, I think!

[gem]

At this point I'm going to focus mostly on mundane modern techniques, I think... I would like to gain proficiency in as many basics as possible before I start trying to tackle any of the more obscure or complicated methods out there. 

Please continue to post any more links you can think of to helpful resources for learning both basic and advanced garment construction techniques, and for embellishment, as well!  Gem, you mentioned piping, and someone mentioned embroidery, as well.  There are also a TON of things I don't know about fitting, draping and pattern drafting, as well...    heheh

Rani, you need to join Pattern Review! HUGE message board with a tremendous knowledge base.

To get you started,  here's a sticky thread from their Sewing Techniques & Tips subforum: Amazing Tutorials It was started in 2008, so I can't promise all of the links are still active, but it would be worth checking out! There are also individual pinned threads on setting in sleeves, sewing with knits, full bust adjustments (a common alteration, as most mundane patterns are drafted to fit a B cup, and most mundane women  are... not), free downloadable patterns, and more.

[Rani Zemirah]

Oh, thank you, Gem!  I have seen so many links to Pattern Review, and even looked at several things on it, here and there... but it really IS huge, and a little intimidating!    lol  Or maybe I'm just afraid it's going to take too much work to find the info I'm looking for, so I don't even try.    I know it has to be a wonderful resource, though, because so many of you refer to it so often!  I will definitely go have a much better look around over there, and get a better feel for how it's all laid out, so I don't feel so much like a kid wandering the aisles of a huge department store, looking for my mom... 

[gem]

I think it's helpful if you go there with a specific purpose in mind. I started there a few years ago when I was upgrading my sewing machine, so for a while I focused only on the machine reviews. Then I expanded to begin browsing/lurking on the forums. It's like RF.com--lots and lots of subforums, so it's actually pretty easy to navigate (you'll quickly learn which areas you like to visit). The search function can be fussy, so sometimes it's best to start with the sticky threads and reading current posts to get a feel for the community and soak up the knowledge from the current conversations.

Have fun!

[isabelladangelo]

The search function can be fussy, so sometimes it's best to start with the sticky threads and reading current posts to get a feel for the community and soak up the knowledge from the current conversations.

Have fun!

Or learn how to use Google & Bing.     If you want to search a specific site for information just type in your normal keyword then add site:sewing.patternreview.com in this case.  I'm always using the site function to search my own blogs.  It's helpful when I think I've already posted something but can't quite remember.   

[Rani Zemirah]

Well, I'm actually pretty proficient with Google... but I haven't really bothered with Bing, at all.  \


I'm sure I'll just browse for a while, to start. 

[DonaCatalina]

Rani, I hope we start seeing some of your projects in the future. Some of the process is simply trial and error. Don't be daunted if something that works for thinner cotton doesn't work quite the same on denim weight.

[Rani Zemirah]

Thank you, DonaC!  I have a few simple things in the works right now, and I always tell myself that I'm going to take photos and put them in an album online somewhere... but that never seems to happen.  I do seem to spend more time with crafting projects than sewing, these days, as well... but with winter coming I'm hoping I will be able to block out more time with the machine, instead of focusing so much on leather and wire.  Still, I make a little extra money with those things, so it's easy to get caught up in making things that I'm going to sell, as opposed to things that I'm going to wear!  I DO have pieces cut for a couple of different projects right now, though... so maybe I'll have some photos for the "In Progress" thread soon!