Tailoring - Final Project

This past spring term I was lucky enough to take a Tailoring class from the Advanced Sewing professor, Dr. Burnham.  Technically to fulfill the prerequisites for the class you have to have taken Beginning Sewing Construction, Intermediate Construction, and either Patternmaking or Advanced Construction, but since the class is only taught once every other year Dr. Burnham graciously made an exception and allowed me to participate anyway.
The class was a great learning experience, and the samples and final project were extremely intense. We learned how to pad stitch, mark roll lines in collars, create and insert a lining in to a jacket, sew bound buttonholes, and many other useful and interesting techniques.  After that we made a tailored jacket for ourselves.  I selected a beautiful deep purple wool fabric from an awesome store called Yellow Bird Fabrics found in Salt Lake County, and found my fun lining on fashionfabricsclub.com.  All in all I think the jacket turned out alright, although I have to admit I'm not sure how often I'll end up wearing it.  While it was interesting to learn Tailoring techniques, they create a rather hard shape that I don't totally love.

Finished jacket

Jacket inside - shows fun lining!

Advanced Construction - Hooded Sweatshirt

Our first project, after learning about and completing some various pattern alterations, was to sew a hooded sweatshirt for ourselves.  I was so excited from the moment I heard about this project, which probably says something about how I typically dress :)  I searched everywhere for the perfect sweatshirt fabric material with matching ribbing. It proved to be much more difficult than I originally expected! After about a week of online and in store research, I concluded that JoAnns would probably be my best bet, and so I purchased a navy blue piece of fabric and got started.  I also selected a fun polka-dot print to go on the inside of the hood.
I think the thing that made this project most worthwhile for me was the fact that I was able to fit it to my size exactly.the only thing I would change for next time is just that I would try and select a thinner more pliable fabric, as this one is rather stiff and doesn't look as good on.  More pictures to follow once my nice camera is working again.

Finished Sweatshirt

Beginning Sewing

I guess you could say SFL 185R - BYU's Beginning Sewing Construction Class - was the start of my sewing career. Previous to this I had dabbled in some sewing when I was younger, but nothing very significant.  A baby carrier for my stuffed cat, a purple dress I created for myself by draping some fabric across my body and throwing a few stitches to hold it in place...for a few hours. And of course, a few blankets for friends.  Though these experiences were pleasurable and probably contributed to my desire to learn about sewing, I can honestly say I had no idea when I entered this class how much it would change my life and how much I would enjoy what I was doing.  The semester even yielded a few wearable projects, although I mostly felt the things that I made were learning experiences, and it inspired me to sew more and improve my skill level. The rest of this blog will be dedicated to documenting my sewing adventures, and sharing some tips and tricks I have found useful to improve your skills in sewing. I'll include some pictures of the projects I made in beginning sewing, so you can see that you shouldn't get discouraged when sewing, because often in the beginning projects won't turn out quite as well as you'd like.

Final Advanced Sewing Project - Dress from McCalls Pattern