Love to Sew

Serena (a.k.a. Sewrena) makes her fabulous vintage wardrobe using vintage patterns and vintage machines! We chat with her about her favourite vintage styles, the differences between vintage and modern patterns, and what to look for in a vintage machine. Plus, vintage maternity clothes, making amazing hats, and #VintageStyleNotVintageValues.

The transcript for this episode is on this page at the end of the show notes.

Find Serena online: 

Serena’s work: 

A post shared by Serena (@sewrena_)

A post shared by Serena (@sewrena_)

Black Icon Homages

Patterns and pattern-related:

Vintage accounts Serena loves to follow:

Other mentions:

A post shared by Serena (@sewrena_)

A post shared by Serena (@sewrena_)

Transcript: 

Helen: We are recording today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, including Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and K’ómoks first nations.

Caroline: Hello, and welcome to Love to Sew. I’m Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics.

Helen: And I’m Helen, the designer behind Helen’s Closet Patterns.

Caroline: We’re two sewing buds who love to sew our own clothes and want to encourage you on your sewing journey, too.

Helen: Join us for today’s interview with Serena AKA Sewrena.

Hello, Serena. Thank you so much for coming on the show today.

Serena: Hi, thank you so much for having me.

Helen: We’re so excited to chat with you and get to know you. Can you please introduce yourself to our listeners?

Serena: Sure. Um, I’m Serena and I run the Instagram account @SewRena_ as well as the YouTube channel by the same name, without the underscore. And basically, I sew vintage sewing patterns with vintage sewing machines. I’m from Georgia, so the south.

And I learned how to sew pretty much by myself. I taught myself how to sew, but my grandmother taught me how to use a sewing machine, like, the very basics of a sewing machine. And my mother-in-law taught me how to read my first pattern. And then with that knowledge, I, kind of, just started sewing and teaching myself everything else after that.

Caroline: Awesome. And how long, how long ago was that when you first started getting into sewing?

Serena: Six years ago.

Caroline: Awesome.

Serena: Six years ago sewing, like, clothing and things like that. I learned how to use the machine maybe a couple years before that, but I was, like, a teenager. I was, like, 18 or 19 when my grandmother showed me how to use a sewing machine. So I was very impatient, and I thought that because I knew how to, like, reverse stitch and, like, stitch straight, I should have been able to make a whole outfit after that. So I quit for a couple of years.

Helen: Do you remember what the first thing was that you made when you got back into sewing?

Serena: Yeah, I pretty sure I made, well, when I first started getting into sewing, I was still dressing like an average modern person would. So I reached for knit fabrics because that was a lot of what I was wearing at the time. And I, kind of, I think I cloned, like, a crop top or something like that. Like, I just used the crop top that I already had and, like, put it on the fold and, kind of, made a crop top for the first, the first time. It was awful.

Helen: I think crop tops are surprisingly the entry point for a lot of people.

Caroline: That’s so funny. Well, Serena now you sew incredible vintage outfits, and I, kind of, love hearing that sewing, it sounds like sewing was what introduced you to the vintage style or at least got you into dressing that way. So can we just start off by you describing your style for our listeners?

Serena: Yeah. So sewing didn’t get me into vintage. I always liked vintage, but it didn’t seem achievable without sewing because I already have very weird measurements to begin with. So it was hard to fit modern clothes and then finding rare clothes made it worse. So, um, sewing was my opportunity, but I started with modern clothes because, like, that’s what I was wearing at the time. It felt safe.

So I actually found a box of patterns at my husband’s grandmother’s house, and everyone was throwing away her things because she lived in a nursing home. So the things that no one else in the family wanted, like vintage patterns and, like, just random things that she had around her house that no one needed or wanted. And I decided to keep them. I was just like, one day, I’m going to make these, like, I don’t know when, but one day I’m going to make these patterns.

And so, like, my whole reason for putting in the effort to learning how to sew even though I started with modern clothes was to be able to, like, use those patterns again, but then finally be able to dress the way that I’ve always wanted to dress, but just felt like I couldn’t, like, it was out of my reach. Sewing was, like, my opportunity to be able to do that.

Caroline: Awesome. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. And so tell our listeners, like, how, how do you dress right now? What is your, what, how would you describe your style?

Serena: I would describe my style as, well, I’m a mom first. So I, I wear things that I feel like are vintage, but also, I want to say practical. So my style is very as flashy as I can get while still being practical because I still have to be able to put my clothes in the laundry. So, um, I wouldn’t call it thrifty, but, like, as close as you can be, while still trying to be glamorous.

So somewhere in between there cause, you know, you, when you have children, you don’t want to have your heart broken when your favourite outfit’s stained, but you also don’t want to lose who you are style-wise by not dressing the way that you want to. So it’s just, I don’t know, like, mom-vintage, mom-glamour or something like that.

Caroline: I love that! Vintage-mom-glam. What is it that drew you into vintage styles? Like, why did you want to, and why do you want to dress this way?

Serena: Kind of an evolution of myself. When I was younger, my earliest time dressing vintage, I was in elementary school, and I dressed like the seventies. I was in love with Grease and I just thought it was, I don’t know, I was just mesmerised by Grease. I wore chunky platforms and bell-bottoms and all of the things, like, a little weird child would, and, um, I guess as I matured, I fell in love with the not so colourful sparkly of, like, the seventies and the sixties, and started getting into the forties and the fifties.

Uh, I, I am drawn to the lines, and also, I like that the clothes take the focus off of the wearer’s body. Like, I really like that aspect of vintage. Like, a lot of people say that with vintage clothes, you change the outfit, whether it be your garments and stuff to fit the clothes, like, you, you change the garment to fit your body as opposed to your body to fit the garment.

And that really attracts me because I used to be teased a lot for being really skinny. And when I dress vintage, it’s always about the clothes. No one sees my body, they see the clothes and how they fit me instead. So that really drew me in.

Helen: Oh, that makes a lot of sense. So has your vintage style evolved over the years? Have you found, like you mentioned that you were into the seventies and then more into the fifties, sixties, where are you at now? Do you tend to dress from all different decades?

Serena: I do jump around, um, for decades, and it really depends. Now it’s seasonal. When I first started, I thought that I wanted to stay in the fifties. Um, but then, because I do have to dress for practicality, wearing a big puffy skirt is not always going to be the practical thing to do.

So then I started just pulling from different decades for different reasons. So, um, in the summertime, I tend to wear sixties and forties more because it’s just less fabric. So if I’m in and out in a very hot weather, it’s just easier not to have a crinoline and all that stuff underneath my dress.

Whereas in the winter or a fall, I’ll start wearing the poofier skirts and, um, the more layers. So I just jumped around decades depending on, like, how I feel and just what’s practical for my day-to-day life.

On the weekends, I’m more likely to wear a big puffy outfit because, like, my husband’s around to help with the kids. Whereas, like, during the weekdays I’m gonna wear something that has, like, a more simple line, more forties, just more I can run around the house and do things without assistance.

Helen: And you seem very committed to this style of dressing. Like, I, I need to know, do you ever just wear sweatpants?

Serena: I do. But when I do, I don’t necessarily want to. I’m trying to phase it out. So I’ve been focusing a lot on, like, vintage loungewear because when I dress vintage, I feel better. I feel happier. And so when I have to put on a sweatpant and stuff like that, it’s just, like, I’m wearing this because I have to, not necessarily because I want to.

And that’s just because I don’t have the vintage equivalent in my wardrobe yet. So I eventually hope to completely phase it all out. Like, that is my hope with it, but I gave myself until, like, June to get it all out.

Helen: Oh, wow. It’s coming up.

Serena: Yeah, it is.

Caroline: I’d love to talk about that for a second though cause, like, personally, I love the look of vintage clothes, but I’m definitely used to dressing, like, modern, stretchy, comfy. That’s definitely the vibe for me. So what do you think are, like, the comfiest vintage styles? And it sounds like you’re incorporating that maybe more into your wardrobe, looking for sweatpants alternatives. So what are you doing to, to fill that gap?

Serena: Um, I like the loungewear. Well, part of me getting rid of the sweatpants and, like, the stretchy stuff of modern clothes has a lot to do with my skin changed a lot after having kids. So I got, having the whatever material, I haven’t quite figured it out yet, but whatever material, I don’t know if it’s a spandex or the elastic, I don’t know, makes me very itchy and uncomfortable. So it was some, I would have had to find an alternative anyway.

So, um, what I do to negate that is, like, I am huge into housecoats. Like, I will throw on a housecoat in a heartbeat. I will take the trash out in the house, go out, go grab the mail in a housecoat and I’ll wear them around the house. So I try to keep a variety of those things, especially, like, the tent shaped ones where they don’t really touch you. They kind of just, like, hang off of you from, like, the late fifties, early sixties housecoat.

And then you do have like, uh, they have, like, a, kind of, like, a pencil pant, but they’re not so tight. Um, so I’ll wear pants like that. And then vintage pyjamas, not the cute, sexy ones, but, like, the regular old button down pyjamas with the matching pants. They don’t zip on the side. They have, like, a little placket and then you just button it on the side, so they’re very roomy, too. And so I try to make those things where they’re very lightweight, and they have a wide leg, like, the 1940s wide leg pants. I wear those types of pyjamas around the house all the time.

Helen: Oh, this sounds pretty good actually. I could get on board with it.

Serena: There’s alternatives to looking really cute and, like, pent up all the time. And that’s what I’m trying to swap those things out for the sweatpants and things like that.

Helen: Are there vintage styles that have elastic waists in them? Is that something that comes up much?

Serena: That started to happen. I mean, children’s clothes, they have them. And then, um, for adults, I didn’t start noticing them until maternity clothes in the early seventies, late sixties. But even then I would still prefer to have that, like, tight, stable waistband. I prefer that.

Helen: Yeah.

Serena: It’s just so comfortable once you’re already used to having the waistband of your skirt and things like that. And then I think you just, it just becomes a part of, like, what you’re used to feeling.

Helen: Yeah. That’s so true. Okay. And this is maybe TMI, but what about the undergarment situation?

Serena: That’s so hard for me. I want to wear true vintage undergarments, but it’s hard for me to find. Cause, like I mentioned before, my measurements are not quite that, of, like, a very proportionate person. I have a short torso. I have long legs. Because of breastfeeding, I have no boobs. I have a little bit of a pouch of a stomach cause I have a lot of loose skin. So it’s just, like, those things affect the fit.

And so being able to just go online and say, okay, I need a long line bra that’s, like, a 32 B, but, like, my boobs are different sizes. And, like, my stomach is too small. It’s just like, it’s really hard for me right now. So right now I wear a panty girdle. I’ll wear, um, a slip. I have a A-line petticoat, and then I have, like, a more fluffy petticoat that I’ve made.

But as far as the bra, unless it’s, like, a bullet bra that I’ve made already, I will just wear, like, a nursing bra or no bra at all. Because as a modern person, I never wore bras, and that’s really a hard habit to kick. Like, I am so used to just being free. It’s really hard to be, like, ugh, I have to put on a bra.

Caroline: I relate.

Helen: I mean, I love that. Go free under those vintage garments. It suits a lot of them.

Caroline: Oh, that’s so funny. Um, and can we talk about maternity sewing a little bit because you’ve made some amazing maternity outfits from vintage patterns. So I’d love to know how vintage maternity clothes are different from modern maternity clothes.

Serena: Okay. So I can’t compare it too much because I never wore modern maternity clothes. The first time I wore my regular clothes until I pretty much gave birth.

So the second time around, I decided to go vintage because once I was pregnant the first time, the comments about, like, my body came back, and the worst time ever because now it’s changing for the first time. So it was, like, all those insecurities of people constantly talking about my size. It really, I struggled with that.

So the second time I was like, I don’t want that anymore. Like, I don’t want that to happen again. So I decided to dress vintage, and I figured with the way that the smocks are really loose and flowy over you, it’s not fitted. And so people really couldn’t tell that I was pregnant until I was, like, about to give birth. But even then, because the clothing was so unusual, people were still just commenting my outfit, like, oh my gosh, that’s so cool. I didn’t know clothes were like this back then. It’s so much better.

But one main difference that I can tell between modern maternity and vintage maternity is vintage maternity clothes was intended to be worn from the moment you found out you were pregnant until the day you gave birth. So it was all adjustable. So it was more like a one-time thing.

Whereas modern maternity clothes is just like regular, modern clothes. Like, once you grow out of it, you have to buy another size, and you have to buy another size and another size. And, like, if you, if you are, I don’t know, eight weeks pregnant on your second kid, of course, you get this bloat that you didn’t have the first time. You might be too big to wear your normal clothes, but too small to wear maternity clothes.

There is, there’s no gap like that with vintage maternity clothes because it’s all adjustable. I could wear my vintage maternity clothes now, which is also what I wear for loungewear. I, um, I will wear my old maternity clothes, like the smocks and, like, the loose fitting pants and things like that, that’s adjustable at the waist because I can just move the buttons and make the waistband tighter.

So yeah, there’s just, it’s more adjustable, and it was intended for you not to just like, get rid of them. You could wear it postpartum until you got back down to your regular size. You could wear it now.

Caroline: Mhm. Yeah. I’m looking at some photos on your Instagram right now, and there’s a really cool pair of shorts that you made that convert, you mentioned that they convert back down to your pre-pregnancy waist so you can wear them forever. And it’s such a cool construction with these, like, ties inside. So we’ll have to show some pictures of this on our Instagram the week your episode comes out cause I’ve never seen construction like this. It’s very cool.

Serena: They’re so cool. Like, I can’t even get rid of those patterns right now because though I’m never going to have another child. I just think they’re so innovative, and they’re so nice. And I wish we wouldn’t have backed away from that style because with my skin sensitivity, I was able to avoid wearing elastic. I didn’t have to have that stretchy waistband.

Caroline: That spirit of, of making clothes that are going to stay in your wardrobe for a really long time, that aren’t disposable, that are, you know, how can I convert these so that if my weight fluctuates or if I’m, you know, feeling bloated, I can just, like, adjust them a little bit and not feel like it doesn’t work for me anymore. Um, I, I really love that spirit of making that sounds like is in these vintage patterns, so it’s very cool.

Serena: Yeah. Everything was perfectly thought out.

Caroline: Yeah. Very, very cool. Do you have a favourite vintage maternity outfit that you made that we can maybe link up on our Instagram this week?

Serena: Yes. It’s the one that I made for my birthday. It’s cream. It has a satin skirt. The top is cream, and it, kind of, has, like, a rolled neckline. And then I made a matching hat to go with it.

Caroline: It is stunning. I’m looking at it right now.

Serena: Yeah, that was the first time that I felt like I was able to bring in what I would have worn prior to being pregnant in that moment because I had actually, I didn’t plan that pregnancy. So, I had planned to make a suit with that fabric, um, the top fabric. I was planning on making a, like, a little skirt suit with that, a soft suit. And so obviously, I was pregnant, and I wanted to wear something special for my birthday, but I was like, I want it to not just be, like, a regular cotton outfit. Like, I want to feel glamorous.

And so I was like, what if I take the same concept that I was going to make for the skirt suit, like, without being pregnant and then turned it into, like, the maternity version. Like, if I could make a maternity suit, this is what it would look like. And it came out exactly the way that I intended it to be. I was so happy.

Caroline: Yeah. It’s, it’s so beautiful. And the crisp white and the buttons down the back, it’s just absolutely such a fun outfit.

Serena: Thank you.

Helen: I love how you incorporate these accessories as well. You always have these beautiful brooches and earrings and shoes. Like, I imagine you must have quite the collection of vintage accessories.

Serena: I have, like, one pair of shoes. Like, if you really, like, study my projects, my, my Instagram, and be, like, damn, she’s only wearing white pumps.

Helen: Oh my gosh. It’s true.

Serena: I am not a shoe shopper. I do not like shoes. Like, the way that women are just like, we love shoes. I absolutely hate shoes. I don’t like shopping for shoes. They’re not fun. So I’m like, if I can find one or two pair that can, like, get me through, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. So I’ve worn those shoes probably to death, and they were, like, $30, but I just don’t like shoes.

But the other, the accessories, I ended up with a lot of accessories because when I first started dressing vintage, they are the most affordable things to purchase. Like, buying brooches, sometimes you can go to a flea market and get, like, 10 for $3 or something like that.

And sometimes if you don’t have a whole vintage wardrobe, just being able to throw on a brooch or some earrings will make something super modern look a little bit older. So I ended up collecting those things just out of necessity. Like, I knew I couldn’t wear vintage everyday, but maybe I could fake it until I had enough.

Helen: That’s a really good tip. Bring back the brooch. It’s underutilised.

Serena: They are, they, I mean, you can pin them onto your hats. You can do so much with them. So it’s, like, it’s worth it. Like, if you’re wearing, like, an evening gown, you can put it at the waist, at your waistline and it looks like a little, uh, jewelled decorative piece. So yeah, there’s, you can do so much with a brooch.

Caroline: And I just thought of this question, but I wonder, like, do you, do your kids also dress in vintage? Do you make them clothes and your husband, like, is there ever a moment where you’re all, like, walking down the street fully in vintage wear?

Serena: So my husband is very, very modern.

Caroline: Okay.

Serena: He wears enough loungewear for us all. He’s always in, like, basketball shorts and a t-shirt always. My kids, they do dress vintage. My daughter, she, my mother has introduced her to, like, a modern, stretchy loungewear. So she really does like that, but she’s just decided maybe within a month or two, that she likes dresses now. Before I used to have to bribe her with chocolate to put a dress on. Um, I would never make her wear a dress, but I was just like, can I at least take a picture since I made it? So I would use to have to, like, bribe her with chocolate to get that, that one picture.

Um, and my son he’s only one, so he still doesn’t care, but yes, they do wear vintage. They wear the bonnets, the lace. My son wears the bubble rompers, the bonnets, the lace, the everything, because, you know, clothes weren’t that, weren’t gendered back then. So your son could very well wear a dress and lace, and it’d be perfectly okay. So I do that now because, also, his sister has clothes that’s in really good condition. So I’m just like, if this is a baby outfit, then you’re going to wear it, too.

Helen: That’s great. I love this vision of you and your husband and him in his basketball shorts and you in your vintage suit.

Serena: Yeah. We never look like we belong together. Like, people always, like, we’ll stand in line at a grocery store and people will think that, like, he’s, like, just someone behind me, like, the next customer, but I don’t like to force, you know, like, this is my thing, this is my hobby, and this is what I love. I wouldn’t want anyone to force me to dress modern. So I don’t force him to dress vintage.

Helen: I’m just thinking of you at the grocery store and thinking that you must get a lot of eyes and comments when you’re out and about how do you feel about that when people comment on your outfits?

Serena: I was nervous before. I still will not tell someone that I made something that I’m wearing. I just want…

Helen: Oh, really?

Serena: Yeah. Um, my husband, he, he’ll do it. If he overhears a conversation about my clothes, he’ll be like, she made it! Doesn’t matter how far away he is in the store. He’ll scream, she made it.

Caroline: You’re like, thanks…

Serena: Yeah, but I won’t. It’s something, I don’t know. It’s weird. And honestly, until I started Instagram, which my friend pretty much forced me to do, I didn’t think that anyone would really care. So I would just be like, look, I’m wearing this truly just for me. And, but it doesn’t bother me anymore. Cause now a lot of the stares and things like that, they’re positive. Every once in a while someone will roll their eyes at me, but I don’t see it anymore.

Helen: That’s good to hear. I can relate to that even, for myself, when people comment on something that I’m wearing, say, I like your jacket. I’ll often just say, thanks. And then, Sam, my partner, will jump in and be like, she made it, but I’m not volunteering that on the day-to-day typically…

Serena: Yeah, me either.

Helen: …especially at the grocery store. You’re like, I just don’t really want to get into it right now. Okay. We need to talk about patterns because I imagine you have a large collection, and I, am I correct in that assumption?

Serena: Oh yes. I have so much more than I ever thought I would. And mostly because people are just like, here, take my patterns, and I can’t say no.

Helen: That’s fair. So tell us a little bit about it. How do you store them? What’s your method? And do you have, like, certain companies that make up the majority of your patterns?

Serena: The Big Four make up the majority of my patterns. I do have mail order patterns, but they usually cost more because people had to actually mail in, uh, an ad for them and get them, so they’re not everywhere like the Big Four are because you could just go to a store to get those like you can today, so I have mostly the Big Four patterns.

I store them in comic book acid-free sleeves, so that way, um, they don’t deteriorate any more than they already do, or, at least, it slows down the deterioration process, and it can help keep, like, moisture and things like that off of them. I keep them separated right now by, like, type. So the pants and dresses, things like that, they all go separately into small little bins I got from Dollar Tree, which are horrible cause they keep snapping, and I need a new way to store them, but I haven’t quite figured out how just yet, but, um…

Yeah, and I keep them on a bookshelf, and I have an app, which is a very generic app cause it’s called Patterns, and I store everything in there, so when I go to the store and I’m shopping for fabric, I have my whole catalogue at arms reach, and I can figure out what my yardage is for the pattern. I don’t have to carry anything with me.

And it also helps me find and locate my patterns because, before a couple months ago, I didn’t have a sewing room, so I had to store things all over the house. And so being able to utilise, like, an organisation system, like an app can let me know, like, okay, stored in a dining room. So go in the dining room and get it, you know, and same with my, my fabric. I did the same thing with that. Now everything’s in one place, so it’s a little bit easier, but having an app and then keeping everything in those comic book sleeves really does help a lot.

Helen: Oh, that’s so cool to hear. Which app do you use?

Serena: It’s called Patterns. It’s so generic. I think it was, like, $1.99, and literally, it’s just called Patterns.

Caroline: And it’s designed specifically for sewing patterns?

Serena: Yeah.

Caroline: Oh, cool. Okay.

Serena: It has different categories, and you can make categories within categories. It’s a lot of organisation. I use it a lot for notes. I like to keep pattern notes. So if I changed anything about a pattern or if I didn’t like something, I can type it in there. So when I make it again, I already have my notes from before.

Caroline: So since you have them all catalogued, do you know how many patterns you have in your collection?

Serena: I just received the box, like, two weeks ago, and I haven’t quite gotten all those in, but let me check this app really quickly.

Helen: I’m so excited.

Serena: I have…

Caroline: Maybe we can guess first?

Serena: Of course.

Helen: Oh yeah. Can we guess?

Serena: Yeah. Go ahead.

Helen: I’m going to guess 462.

Serena: Okay. I know that is way too much.

Caroline: I was going to guess 200.

Serena: Well, you know what? I’m at 274, but I know I have at least a hundred that needs to be catalogued, so almost.

Helen: Okay, so wasn’t that far off.

Serena: I know I have at least a hundred that needs to be catalogued.

Caroline: Do you have a number where you’re, like, if I go beyond this, it’s too much? I need to purge.

Serena: I feel like I’m already there.

Helen: 462.

Caroline: 462.

Serena: I feel like I’m already there. Like, I accept the patterns because a lot of the times people are giving them to me because they know I’m going to take care of them. And there’s always an opportunity that I’m going to find, like, patterns off of my wishlist and things like that, and I do.

Before I would just take whatever, but now I try and narrow it down to my size and, like, the styles that I dress in. So that way I’m not taking in too many, but I think that I’ve reached it because I don’t collect these just to have them. I truly do want to be able to sew them.

And I do know that, like, I’m going to reach a limit eventually. Like, I’m not going to be able to get to them all as much as I really do want to.

Helen: Yeah, that’s a really good point. And it makes me wonder, like, what is the process? Do you choose the pattern and then, like, do you go through your catalogue and pick a pattern and then make a project from that? Or do you, kind of, have a project in mind and then go hunt for a pattern that suits it?

Serena: I, that’s what I do. I think of the outfit first. And then I try and find the, the pattern that suits it. And I never intended to get this involved with the patterns. Because I taught myself, that was the only way for me to, like, understand garment construction was the patterns. And then it, kind of, just turned into, like, a hobby of its own. Like, I really wanted to learn how to draft and things like that.

And I still do, maybe, at some point in time, but I also, like, as long as I have them, they’re not being thrown out and stuff like that. And these are the originals. This is exactly how things would have been made, you know? And so I like to have them, and I feel like I have, like, a small little museum of true vintage patterns.

And so I, kind of, laid off of learning how to draft for now, like, as far as, like, pattern manipulation and, and grading and things like that. I’m totally interested. But I enjoy, like, my collection of patterns. Like, I don’t know that I would stop buying patterns, even if I did draft my own.

Helen: Yeah, that’s fair. Oh, I would love to take a peek into the collection. As a pattern designer, myself, I just love looking at vintage patterns. So if you ever want to share more of those, I’m here for it.

Serena: Oh, I’m here for it.

Caroline: I wonder, too, cause, like, there’s so much history there, like, do you ever find, like, cool notes or little things in the patterns? Like, can you tell us about that? Is there anything you can think of?

Serena: Yeah. Um, that’s another reason why I like them. Cause you, kind of, get an idea of the person who made it before you. Like, sometimes they’ll write on the pattern, like, this was for whoever. Like, it’s their birthday, this is for whoever. Or we like this dress, but we need to shorten it this much. And you get an idea, like, gosh, this person was short cause I’m not very tall, but you had to shorten this pattern even further than, than I would.

There’s just so much. I opened up a children’s pattern to make a winter coat, and it was super bulky, and when I opened it, it was a half made bonnet on the inside. Um, so yeah, you get to see old newspapers that people trace the pattern onto. Just, it’s always so funny when I see people who have made the adjustments to the pattern that I was going to have to do anyway, like, when they have to shorten the bodice about a quarter, and I’m like, oh, I was going to do that anyway.

Helen: Thank you.

Serena: Yeah. So yeah, it’s, it’s also like feeling a connection to the person who made it before you, and then also, because I’m making it on a vintage machine, too. It’s just, like, this is how this person may have been making their, their dress as well.

Caroline: It’s so cool. That connection is so cool. Um, I also wonder, like, do you trace your vintage patterns or do you just cut right into them?

Serena: I, well, vintage patterns, they’re not on one big sheet like modern patterns are. They’re already cut. So if the margins aren’t cut off of it, then, like, they’re already, like, the work’s already done.

Helen: Oh.

Serena: You don’t really have to cut into them because they’re never, they were never put on a giant sheet.

Caroline: Oh.

Helen: Because they’re one size only?

Serena: They’re a one size only pattern.

Helen: Oh.

Serena: So, the work is done.

Helen: So, it saves time, too.

Serena: Yeah. It saves time. I’m not having to, like, pick a size and trace and do all of those things, but I will trace a pattern if the tissue is really, really deteriorated or if it’s something that I know I’m going to make a lot of, and I don’t want to have to keep folding and unfolding the pattern because re-, like, keeping them in good condition is also a goal for me.

So if it’s something that, like, an A-line, a simple A-line skirt, I will trace that pattern instead of, cause I’m going to make lots of A-line skirts, so I’ll just trace it.

Caroline: Mhm.

Helen: Yeah. You know that’s one you’re going to come back to. Do you have a favourite tracing method?

Serena: So I’m a budget seamstress, so I will tape parchment paper together and just trace over the top of it.

Caroline: Oh, amazing.

Serena: I don’t buy, I’ve never owned pattern tracing paper before. I do need some, um, because you can’t really do that with, like, a dress, but I do it as economically as possible, so I’ll just use parchment paper and trace over it with pencil.

Caroline: That’s a great tip though.

Helen: I used to do that, as well, but I find that tape doesn’t stick very well to parchment paper. Frustrating.

Serena: It doesn’t. It, it doesn’t, but, like, I’m so used to it. I don’t know any other way. Sometimes I’ll just pin it. I’ll use, like, those satin pins, like, the really thin, those small ones, and I’ll just pin it together and do it that way.

Helen: Nice. I have this vague memory of one time stapling parchment paper together to make a large sheet, so I could use that.

So aside from the fact that it only comes with one size, in some cases, are there other differences between vintage patterns and what we would think of as modern patterns?

Serena: I have heard that people say that the vin-, the fit is better. Well, actually I’m not going to say people. The fit is definitely better. I get a better fit with vintage patterns. So it makes it a lot easier for me to just, to go from pattern to garment than with a modern pattern, unless it’s, like, an independent.

I think the Big Four modern patterns are not as great as, maybe, they used to be. Um, I will still use, like, independent pattern makers’ patterns, but, um, I think fit is a little bit different, and I think my body is better suited to the vintage, like, with having the longer legs and the short torso and stuff. I just feel like it’s just less work.

It’s less work to work with something that was seemingly made for your body type. Because I’m not a very curvy person, um, and like, though I’m thin I don’t have, like, I feel like I still have the body of, like, a child, like, a young child. So, so it’s like, it’s just so much easier to work,. to work with, um, the vintage patterns because they’re also, kind of, made to go over certain undergarments. So, like, I don’t have to have the big boobs because I can just put on, um, a bullet bra and I’m good.

Helen: Right. Of course. Yeah. How do you go about fitting these vintage designs? They seem a little intimidating sometimes with all these interesting seam lines and complex construction methods. Like, how do you figure out how to fit when it’s maybe not covered in your common fitting book or guide?

Serena: I am still learning fit because right when I got comfortable with actually making the garments, I had a baby then lost the baby weight. Like, my body just kept changing so much to the point where I couldn’t, like, get a grasp on it. So I think tissue fitting is the best way to go about it. It’s also how they recommend on the patterns to do your fitting is to do a tissue fitting. So I’ll either do a tissue fitting or I’ll do a muslin and try and just pin it on my body and do it that way.

I don’t have a dress form in my size. I would love to get one, so that way I could do stuff externally, but then also I do, at first I try and grade it. Like, I already know that almost every pattern I make is going to need a small bust adjustment. And usually that brings the length of the pattern down, too. All in one. So it’s usually the bodice is always pretty much the issue for me and a small bust adjustment usually gets it every time. Once I can do the small bust adjustment, then it’s pretty good from there.

Helen: Oh, yeah. That makes sense. And did you find when you were starting sewing, you mentioned that you, kind of, learned as you were using these patterns, that the sparse instructions would ever trip you up? Like, did you struggle to understand what to do in some scenarios?

34:04 Serena: No. I hear that a lot, too. And I, I’m a visual, I guess I have to visualise what I’m going to do first before I do it. So before I move forward, I have to see it in my head that it’s possible. I don’t know if that makes sense. So I’ve never, I’ve never had an issue with the sparse.

In fact, I didn’t even know that they were not good instructions because when I started sewing with vintage patterns, I was, kind of, disappointed in how little I was able to learn with modern patterns cause I’m just like, I’ve been making quite a few of these modern patterns. Why don’t I already know how to do this?

So I think it’s, like, sewing, to some extent, it’s overly simplified with the modern patterns. And so I feel like if that’s all you ever use, then you can’t learn anything else. Like, you don’t get the opportunity to try other techniques to do the exact same thing.

So, the vintage patterns have, has really helped me because I don’t have a teacher or a textbook to say, hey, let’s move on to this lesson. Or this is how you can achieve the same thing. And with vintage patterns, sometimes you’ll come across three patterns for the same style dress but made differently every time.

So I was able to learn by the type of instructions that they provide. It helped me. And that’s just because I didn’t have a guidance. I didn’t have a teacher to tell me, well, let’s learn how to do this this way.

Helen: Yeah, it’s really fun to learn through the process of making different garments. And it totally makes sense that making different patterns from different decades and different designers, you would encounter lots of different techniques and advice and that would be a really great way to learn and try out different construction methods.

Serena: Yeah. And I wasn’t getting that from the modern Big Four patterns because everything was pretty much the same all the time.

Caroline: Mhm. I imagine some of our listeners are going to feel really inspired to start using vintage patterns after listening to this interview. Do you have any advice for them?

Serena: First of all, don’t listen to anyone when it comes to, you know, I hate when people ask me if something’s hard or not hard, because, like, what’s hard for me may not be hard for you. And, um, sometimes that can just stop you from trying, you might be putting off something that you would have just gotten in, like, 10 seconds because you naturally would have figured it out.

So I think, just try. Like, that’s my motto. When people are like, well, why did you, or how did you learn how to do this? I just tried. And when I first started sewing, I wasn’t a part of an online community. I wasn’t in a sewing group. I literally, I had no influences.

So, the Serena who was sewing for the first time, six years ago, would have easily bought a blazer pattern and made a suit, not knowing that that’s an advanced tailoring type of thing, but if you just try it, then you’ll be able to do it, you know? It may not be perfect. It may not be great. But, me, knowing that I’m capable of doing something is enough for me to, to, to tweak it and get better.

But if I’m afraid, I won’t try it because someone else said it was hard and not necessarily because it was going to be hard for me. So my advice to people is to just, to just give it a try regardless of what anyone else might say, or even me. Just, just try it because what’s hard for me may not be hard for you.

Caroline: Yeah. That’s really good advice. I think everyone’s experience of sewing is so different, and it’s so easy, especially with social media, to compare yourself to other people and want to know, well, how was it for you? You know, tell me more about your experience, but it’s so true that, you know, you, what you might find hard is not what someone else is gonna find hard. And you just got to jump in with sewing and, kind of, be willing to take on the challenge because the end result is always worth it.

Serena: It is. And, like, the ignorance, kind of, like, is powerful, you know, because you don’t know, like, you don’t know that something is this advanced level, especially if you’re teaching yourself cause you’re not reading, like, you don’t have beginners textbooks or beginner this and then intermediate that. It’s just, hey, I’m going to make this.

So many people told me that pants were hard, but one of the first things that I drafted myself was shorts. I had no, I mean, they didn’t fit perfectly because, like, I didn’t understand, like, the rise, like, the crouch rise and all that stuff. Still don’t. But, like, they fit. I could put them on, and I could wear them and, I was happy.

It wasn’t till years later that people were just like, they’re afraid to even sew from an already made pattern pants. So it’s just, like, that ignorance really is powerful to just, to just go for it.

Caroline: Yeah. Yeah. Aw, thanks for that advice. And we were also wondering where you find your vintage patterns outside of people, giving you boxes of patterns? Um, if you’re out looking for them, do you find them in thrift stores or is there somewhere else?

Serena: Well, I don’t the people who send me the boxes, they’re the thrift store finders. I cannot find a pattern in the thrift store to save my life. It’s probably because they’ve already sent them to me, but, um, I like Backroom Finds, @BackroomFinds, um, Stephanie Canada. She’s on YouTube and on Instagram. She sells, she has a beautiful collection of vintage patterns.

Like, I’ve been able to really shop her inventory for a lot of patterns that were sitting on, like, my printer’s wish board for a long time. And she just has them. I don’t know where she finds her patterns, but she always has the really good ones there.And, um, if I can’t find it on her website, which usually I can, I will search eBay or Etsy, but more recently, I’ve been searching her, her inventory because she, she’ll get a pattern and then have it in every size.

Helen: Wow.

Serena: Yes.

Caroline: She has the connections.

Serena: It’s, like, really… Yeah, I don’t know. I know she does, like, estate sales and things like that, but she has, it’s like a one-stop shop for me. I could easily spend a lot of money on her website. I really like hers. That’s the main one I like the most.

Helen: That is a hot tip. We’ll definitely link that up in the show notes. I’m going to go take a look. And you mentioned that you do trace off some patterns that you really like, so you must have some tried and true. Do you have any vintage patterns that you’d like to share with our listeners so they could get their hands on them, too, maybe?

Serena: I realised recently that I’ve made this one dress quite a few times. It’s, like, two or three times. I didn’t realise it was my favourite, but I keep making it. So I’ve seen a pattern in myself, and let’s see… Simplicity 2093. It has a midriff. It’s, like, this really big flowy dress. I think it takes at least five yards for my size, and the skirt’s really big. It has, like, a, a notched, it’s not a Peter Pan collar. You know the straight version of a Peter Pan collar? It has one of those and a midriff. And I, I love midriffs. I feel like they really, I don’t have dimension in my body. Like, my waist and my hip ratio, they’re not too far apart. So when I feel like you have a midriff with a really big skirt, it, it gives you that definition, and that dress does that for me. I love that dress so much, and I’ve already made it, like, twice, and I’ve already been making plans to make it again.

And then I have a suit, a suit pattern that I’ve already made twice, and I have plans to make again, and it’s Simplicity 3076. It’s a pencil skirt suit, and it looks very similar to the birthday maternity outfit that I made, and I really like that pattern, too. Honestly, I love all of my patterns. I say all the time that I would make all of them more than once, and I’m sure I will. There’s very few that I don’t like.

Caroline: I’m looking at Simplicity 3076, and it looks like there’s, like, a hat on one of the drawings. Is that included in the pattern? Do they have…?

Serena: No, there’s very, you know, as much as they always show that kind of stuff, I’ve only come across about one pattern that the hat comes into.

Caroline: Okay. So you buy your hat patterns. We’re going to talk all about hats in a sec, but you buy your hat patterns separately then?

Serena: I do.

Caroline: Okay. Very cool. Yeah, these are beautiful. And I, I didn’t, I wasn’t familiar with the term midriff, but for, since this is an audio medium for our listeners, it’s, like, a tighter, sort of, portion around the stomach area that’s, like, shaped, right? So, and then the skirt comes out and puffs out from there. And then there’s, like, some really beautiful, uh, darts coming up. Or I can’t tell if it starts or gathers coming up around the bust, but it’s a really beautiful pattern. Simplicity 2023. We’ll link those up in the show notes.

Serena: That is my favourite style of dress. Like, I like it in the fifties. I like it in the forties. I like it in the thirties. I just love that, that nice accent because the midriff is, like, built into the outfit. So, like, even if you didn’t actually have a small waist, it would always appear that way.

Caroline: Yeah. Very cool.

Serena: So I like, that’s the part of vintage that I like where it’s, it’s the outfit. It’s not you.

Caroline: Are there any vintage patterns on your wishlist that you haven’t been able to find?

Serena: So far, no. So I want to find a specific wedding dress, but I haven’t found the pattern for the dress that I have in mind. I know it has a midriff on it. It’s from the 1940s. So it has a really pretty puffed sleeve. It’s in my head, and I can’t find it yet. And I’m sure when I find it, it’ll probably be a fortune because wedding dresses in general costs a lot of money in pattern form, and then make it the forties, and it’s just, it’s probably going to cost me over a hundred dollars.

Helen: Oh my goodness.

Serena: But whenever I find that pattern in my head, like, that is the wishlist pattern. I just haven’t been able to, like, put a pattern picture or number on it just yet.

Caroline: Okay. Well, let’s switch gears for a sec cause you talked about sewing your vintage patterns on your vintage sewing machines, which is so cool. You have an amazing collection of vintage sewing machines, and it sounds like they all work. So I want to know a little bit more about this. What machines do you have in your collection and do you have a favourite?

Serena: Okay, so the one that is my favourite is not the, the most sought after or popular. It’s my, it’s a Kenmore 158 series. It’s, it’s one of the 158 series, and they’re all extremely similar. There’s not very much that separates them from each other. And it’s a beige machine. You’ll see it in most of my YouTube videos or any picture that I show. And that’s just because it was the first sewing machine that belonged to me. It was my first machine, so I still use it even though, like, I have better or more sought after machines in my collection.

That one’s just the original, and I just, I have such a connection to that machine, so I use it more than I feel like, like someone who, who had to, like, if maybe you came into my room, you probably, that wouldn’t probably be your first choice cause it’s not, like, the prettiest or the shiniest. It’s just the one that, like, I have. Like, that, it’s like my first crush, so I use it the most.

Then, I have the deluxe version of that machine. It’s a super high shank. The, the one that I use now is a, is a standard shank machine. So it’s, it’s probably the same shank as a modern machine, too. Um, the feet, the accessories, they’re really easy to find for that machine.

Then, I have the deluxe version, which is a super high shank machine. So that means all of the feet are, like, extremely long. They’re, they’re really tall. And that one does a ton of decorative stitches, just like the one that I use now, but it does that and more. It can do some embroidery, um, some monograms, it can, you can do all sorts of things, and it has a lot of accessories.

Kenmore sewing machines come with a lot of accessories. Like, I call it the charm bracelet of sewing machines. They have so many, like, things that you can buy to go with, go along with the sewing machine. Um, that one, the, the deluxe machine came in a machine cabinet. I have, I have three machine desks, so all my machines, they fold into the desk, and they close up. So I have one that looks like an end table, and then I have two that look like a computer desk.

Helen: Very cool. I always really love when the machines fold down into the table. I think that’s the coolest thing.

Serena: Yeah. They’re so convertible. Like, if you need it for, like, your child to do homework, just flip it down, and there you have it. Or if you need, like, a place to put a plant or a lamp on your end table, you just close it down, and there you have an end table. So it doesn’t, I mean, it takes up space, but not as much as, like, I would assume a modern machine that didn’t do that, that has to stay out all the time.

So it’s very practical if you don’t have, like, a set sewing space, like, I didn’t have, for a long time. I was able to just, like, at one point, my sewing machine was in the foyer of my old house, and I would just flip it down when we had guests, and no one would know it was there in the foyer, like, a little entryway table.

Helen: Oh, that’s awesome.

Serena: Yeah. I have, uh, my oldest machine is a Singer from the 1910s. It has a knee bar, and it’s an electric machine. Um, and then I have the Singer Featherweight, which is the most expensive machine that I have. I have a Good Housekeeper, which is blue. It looks like a 1950s car. It’s two toned. It’s really cute.

I have a Dressmaker from my great-grandmother. I was just given it because they still had the machine, and I’m the only person in the family that sews, and I have a Singer Futura from the sixties. I have so many machines. Yeah. They, they do all work. I’m done. My collection is complete at this point.

Helen: Yeah.

Serena: Um, I would like to get a treadle for my bedroom cause it’s, like, the, the room where I’ve decorated, like, art deco, and I would like to have a treadle cause I would love to learn how to use a treadle. But as far as, if I never got one, I’d be okay because my collection is complete.

Helen: Is this a scenario where people tend to give you these machines or is it something that you’ve, kind of, hunted down over the years?

Serena: I’ve only been given two of my machines. I won’t take a machine the same way that I would take a pattern because I do actually have, like, the ideal sewing machines. Like, I really like Kenmore machines because they’re all metal. They do come with so many stitches.

I just lean towards them more because the first one that I owned was a Kenmore and then, um, that, kind of, just rolled into me loving Sears products altogether cause now I have vintage Sears hairdryer, vintage Sears furniture, like, I have so much Sears things because of this one sewing machine.

And then, um, the Singers they’re, they’re really pretty. And, but they’re the easiest to find in my opinion because they are so popular. Like, everyone knows what a Singer sewing machine is so they’re, they’re always available.

So, um, I don’t take, but I don’t take sewing machines the same way that, like, I will take a pattern cause they’re heavy. They’re time consuming. And I put my sewing machines in a rotation because a sewing machine that’s not being used is, it’s not really good for the motor for it to just sit there.

Caroline: So do you have any tips for, for choosing a vintage machine or how you know if it has potential or if it’s, like, a good quality one?

Serena: Yeah. Well, if it’s all metal, then it’s a pretty good quality. I’ve seen people restore an all metal sewing machine from, like, looking like it was rusted out at the bottom of the ocean. Um, as long as it’s all metal and there’s no plastic gears, you can always oil it up and get it unstuck and sewing again, like, almost always.

So, if, I choose to, like, if you’re going to go with Singer, cause I know it’s the most popular, I would not go past the sixties or the seventies with the singer because Singer started using plastic gears before Kenmore. Kenmore, I would do anything seventies or older and then pretty much everything, no matter what the brand is before the sixties is all metal machine, is really good machine.

So I just make sure that your, your bobbin case is in there because those are sometimes the hardest pieces to find because those are specific to the machines. But as long as your bobbin case is in there, then it’s worth, it’s worth buying and restoring.

Caroline: And are you the one restoring these machines? Do you have a person that helps you with this?

Serena: Yeah, my husband.

Caroline: Oh, wow. So, but it is like a family affair. You’re doing this on your own. You’re not bringing in, like, an expert machine person.

Serena: No, I, there is this machine shop. It’s the only shop that I will allow to work on my machines, besides my husband, and it is Atlanta Sewing Machine Company. The guy there, he is just as passionate about old machines as I am. Like, if I bring in a machine, he lights up like Christmas morning. He is so passionate, and so you know that he’s going to take great care of your piece. And he, he has so much information, knowledge. He has parts, he has accessories. It’s, like, that’s the only person I will allow to touch my sewing machine.

And he has been a Singer service person for a very, very long time. That shop is so old. So he is, he reminds me of my grandpa really, but he looks like he’s maybe, maybe he’s, like, in his seventies or eighties, but he is just the kindest and so knowledgeable. And I will take a machine to him if I feel like I might need parts or something like that.

Or if, if it’s a little bit more than because my husband, he’s not a sewing machine person. He’s an engineer, and he used to work in the mechanic industry while he was in college. So he knows how machines and stuff work.

But when it comes to, like, adjusting, like, the tension and stuff, because he doesn’t actually sew, he wouldn’t know how, like, when’s enough is enough. So if it’s something that that’s far gone, then I’ll take it to the expert where he’ll, he knows this machine. Its tension should be like this, but for the most part, my husband does it.

Another thing with these vintage machines is they don’t really lose timing. So no matter how long they’ve sat or how old they are, that’s not something that you need to adjust, which can usually be the most expensive part of getting it repaired.

Caroline: And is there anything specific that you do with every vintage machine to, kind of, like, get it ready to use? I’m assuming oiling it up, cleaning it up, but is there anything else?

Serena: No cleaning and oiling is about it. Doesn’t matter how long it sat. Cleaning, oiling, um, sometimes you’ll open up the, the area where the motor is to make sure that there’s no dust in there because some of them do spark, not to start a fire, but that’s just how the motor was built. I think it’s called a pot motor or something like that, so it’s supposed to spark. But because it sparks, you want to make sure that there’s no dirt and dust in it. So, um, just, you just take out I think it’s, like, usually one or two screws, blow it out, dust it out with Q-tips, whatever. And usually some oil and a hairdryer. If it’s really gummed up, oil and a hairdryer is all it takes to get it going again.

Helen: Wow.

Serena: Sometimes you have to replace the wire if it’s chewed up or, or something like that. But if the wire is in great condition, then just oil.

Caroline: What does the hairdryer do? It, like, warms up the oil to…?

Serena: The old oil that got it, got it stuck in the first place. Yeah, the hairdryer will get it nice and warm and make it to where the gears are turning again.

Caroline: Wow.

Serena: And usually everything gets unstuck with the hairdryer and oil.

Helen: Oh, you’re making me want to get out my vintage machines. I have a few, and I haven’t used them in a couple of years cause I got a fancy modern machine, but now I want to go back.

Serena: Yeah. I like, I like rotating them, and then, I started doing this, like, small, like, I intend for it to be a series, where I sew vintage with the, like, the same pattern year with the pattern year of sewing machine. So eventually, I’ll get into historical because I have to make a 1910s outfit with my 1910 Singer.

Helen: Of course.

Caroline: So cool.

Helen: Very cool.

Caroline: Okay. Before we move on, do you also use vintage sewing tools?

Serena: Yeah, I, my pinking shears are vintage. This just goes back to me being thrifty. I took all of my husband’s grandmother’s sewing supplies. So if it still works, I’m going to still use it. So I’ve not had a reason to buy new pinking shears.

Caroline: Awesome.

Helen: Oh, that’s nice. Okay. We mentioned earlier that you make amazing hats as well, and we need to learn more about this. How and when did you learn how to make hats?

Serena: That was, my daughter just turned four, for her first birthday. So four years ago, she had a vintage tea party theme, and I wanted to wear a hat. So I decided to just make the modern reproduction Vogue hat. I think it’s the only one they still have available cause they don’t really sell hat patterns anymore, but I decided to make that hat.

And this was another case of me just giving something a try because I didn’t know how to make a hat, but I needed a hat for that occasion. And it’s the worse hat that I have. It’s so ugly. Like, it’s, the concept behind it was pretty, but obviously, with you not having the knowledge, the execution was not great at all. And, um, that is, like, my, just try something motto there because I feel like as long as I can complete the project, even if it doesn’t turn out good, then I know I can always make the adjustments to make it better.

So for me, just making that first hat was enough for me to know that I was capable of making hats. So it started with that one hat and then it just, it blossomed from there. I was like, okay, well I can make a hat. So I just, I don’t like to waste fabric. So I don’t call, like, I call scraps so people know what scrap is, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s still material. I still bought it.

And so that was just my way of utilising the things that I still had leftover. And what better accessory than to have one that matches exactly with your outfit. It adds to the luxury of your outfit. Like, no one needs to know that you spent, I don’t know, $3 a yard on your outfit, and no one will guess that you spent that much if you have a matching hat.

Helen: Definitely not.

Caroline: It’s very cool.

Helen: I mean, I mean, they’re so cool.

Caroline: I’m seeing this trend of matching hats in the modern sewing world as well. And I’m so into it. Like, having that matching moment with your outfit, it just takes it to a whole other level. So, big fan.

Serena: Yeah, it gives it that, that, uh, vintage appeal. And, like, I know for a fact that, like, if I were living in the time period, my style probably wouldn’t match my income, right? Like, I have this upper middle class “I have a nanny” look of my vintage outfits, right? And I don’t have any of that now. So in order to, like, give, like, give that look that feel, that vibe, I have to use what I already have.

So that’s making a matching belt with my, um, scrap and making a matching hat. And all of a sudden it takes it from being, like, this budget outfit to this grand well-thought out boutique or I don’t know, custom made outfit.

Helen: Couture outfit.

Serena: Yeah. It takes it, it takes it from, oh, I just got this out of the value bin to a million dollars. I really like that.

Caroline: To “I have a nanny.”

Serena: It sure does. It really does.

Caroline: Um, are there any materials that you need to make hats or belts that you wouldn’t normally use to make garments?

Serena: Not really. Um, I think buckram, you don’t need that to make garments. So you do have to go out of your way to do that, but I, I, I started this thing with sewing because when I make accessories, my priority is not to go out and spend money specifically for that accessory or it defeats the purpose.

Like, I’m really just trying to use what I have. So, if I dig through the materials I have. So, I got a notebook and every time I have to make a substitution for what the pattern called for like for a specialty fabric, I will write down what I use. So if it didn’t work the first time, then I’ll say, okay, well, this didn’t work.

And the next time, if I get the hat perfect and I di-, and I use the substitution, then I’ll write down, okay, use two layers of a stiff sew-in interfacing. That is the equivalent of one layer of buckram. So I try and find alternatives, and then I make very detailed notes on what those alternatives are because my goal with my accessories is not to go back out to the store and buy more materials for it. I should be able to use what I have.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Yeah. That’s so smart. I love the idea of keeping a notebook so that you can keep track of what you’ve used and, and how you’ve gone about it. Do you do a lot of hand sewing when you’re making your hats?

Serena: Yeah, they are about 90% hand-sewn. I am not very good at hand sewing. So another motivation for the hats was to help me build that skill up. I don’t necessarily like hand sewing because I love my sewing machines. That’s why I collect them. So I do want to use the sewing machines, but it’s undeniable that you need to be able to do some hand sewing.

And the only way for me to build that, cause I won’t make an outfit by hand, was to do the hats because I don’t really have a choice, so that’s how I get my practice in. Like, it serves as getting rid of scrap, but also helps me, like, build up that knowledge and the technique of hand sewing because a lot of it, your machine can’t really reach.

Helen: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. You have, I mean, your hats seem quite complex. There’s so many different pieces involved in some of them. And we’re going to put pictures on our Instagram because you have to see these hats that Serena has made. They’re amazing. And you also made a really amazing wig last Christmas. Can we talk about this wig for a moment?

Serena: Definitely. That was my first, like, style the wig.

Caroline: Oh, oh my gosh. You looked gorgeous. It was so fun. I am obsessed with this wig. Can you describe it for our listeners?

Serena: So it was called Adam bomb. It was based off of, like, a comic book drawing. And so basically it was, like, a pixie cut hairstyle. And then it had three donut style buns on top of each other. The base bun was bigger than the other two, so it’s, like, stacked up. And then I topped it off with, like, this, like, sprinkle glitter.

I don’t even know, like, snowflake on top. And in between the layers, I had tinsel in between the, the layers of the buns to separate them. I had, like, some tinsel ribbon around it, and I’d seen that comic two years prior. And I was like, this would be an amazing, like, very kitschy, like, welcome to my home for the holidays, like, hairstyle. Like, this would be perfect.

And, um, this year I just felt like I had to, like, I just bought my, my mid-century dream home. And I was like, I need this over the top hair. So I circled back and I ordered, I ordered a really cheap wig, and then, I had, like, some random weave around the house, and I cut up some of my husband’s socks to make the donuts. And then I just, I just went with it.

I, I looked at it, because I’m not a hair person, I’m not very good at styling my own hair. I think that’s the part of my vintage style that’s a little bit lacking. That’s just cause I have no passion for hair, even when I was modern, so I had to really, like, visualise it like I would a hat. Like, I was like, this is just a hat made of hair. How would you do this if you were…? I was just like, well, sew everything together.

Helen: Well, there’s a video of you constructing it, so we will put that in the show notes. And then of course the final look… amazing. Do you often have, like, visions, like you mentioned, like, welcome to my home for the holidays. Like, do you have visions for these moments or situations where you’re going to be wearing these outfits?

Serena: All the time. Like, I feel, like, every outfit has a character, and I think that’s why I’ve gravitated so well with reels, because it’s just, like, the first time I’m able to, like, if I truly wanted to, I could bring the character out of my head so you guys can see, like, this is what this char-, like, this is a character, and so yeah, all the time.

Like, that green suit that I just made, that value suit, I want so bad to, I have a, a classic pram. I have a classic vintage pram. And I’m like, this is the outfit that goes with this pram. Even though I have a toddler, who’s not gonna lay down in this.

Caroline: You’re like, you’re gonna get in the pram.

Serena: I mean, I’m that lady who will just push it with nothing inside. Like, the two kids will be running by me.

Helen: Oh, I love it. Feel the fantasy. So amazing.

Serena: Yeah. Every outfit has, has that vibe. I think that’s really what gets me to see, see each of these projects to the end cause I’m just, like, this look needs to leave my head. This vision, this story has to get out.

Helen: Yeah, I do the same thing with my making, although on a slightly smaller scale, because it’s more, like, this is going to be my going to get ice cream and then heading to the beach outfit or, like, I’m going to wear this one to the farmer’s market. And, like, I like having that vision of the person that I will be when I’m wearing the garment, and it helps to motivate me to finish the work.

Serena: Yeah, it is. And that’s how I feel. Like, it’s so funny. I’m currently putting the finishing touches on this 1960s outfit. I actually splurged after Christmas and buying the most expensive fabric I ever have. It was $30 a yard, and it’s wool. And I had enough scrap that I was able to, like, finagle another outfit. And so now I have two outfits of the exact same fabric, and I’ve never done that before.

So, like, the whole time I was sewing, I’m like, I’m just this high fashion designer. You can’t tell me anything. This is my studio. I have, like, and then, so I started, I made a hat to match one of the outfits, and I made my very first bag, which I’m waiting for hardware to come in so I can finish it. And I’m just like, oh, this is runway ready. Like, just being able to just, I don’t know, it’s just grown-up, like, grown-up dress up.

Helen: Yeah. That’s so much fun though. I can definitely see the appeal, and I can’t wait to see the bag you’ve made. That’s exciting.

Serena: I’m really excited, too.

Helen: Well, a lot of the posts that you share online have the #VintageStyleNotVintageValues. And can you talk a bit about what that means to you?

Serena: Yeah. I think with vintage, a set of assumptions come along with the way that you dress. Like, people think that you are all of a sudden this, like, prude. You have certain ideals. Like, people just assume, especially me because, like, I do live a traditional lifestyle, but not because, like, I feel like that’s better than any other kind of lifestyle. It’s just what works for my family. And it just turns out to be traditional at the moment cause, like, anything can change, and I’m welcome to change.

But so I feel like sometimes people can get excluded from the vintage community because of those stereotypes of, like, what life was like in the past. So, like, maybe a member of, like, the LGBTQ community might be dressing vintage, and then maybe some random comment or might think, oh, well, I don’t know if it’s a lesbian woman that, oh, I want to be your husband.

Like, you know, like, just weird, like, assumptions of the past. And, like, or like, some people, like, if you’re a black woman, maybe somebody will, like, try and use, like, the mammy stereotype against you because you’re wearing an apron. Like, there, it’s just, we’re just trying to separate the outfit from whatever your idea of the past might be. Like, they’re completely different.

Helen: Yeah.

Serena: You know, some people just want to dress this way because they like it. And it has nothing to do with the past or what you might think of the past. This is just our clothes, and this is just what makes us happy. And anyone from any walk of life cause maybe if you have those assumptions and, and you are not a traditional or what’s considered traditional, maybe you might be afraid to try. Like, my lifestyle doesn’t fit this narrative. And we just want you to know that, like, your lifestyle has absolutely nothing to do with the way that you’ve decided to dress, and you’re welcome.

Helen: Ah, that’s very encouraging. I really appreciate you saying that and yeah, I really enjoy your captions and you, kind of, poking fun at some of the comments you’ve gotten over the year. It made me laugh.

Caroline: Yeah, you have a really funny reel, um, kind of, responding to assumptions, and we’ll definitely link it up in the show notes. It’s, it’s pretty. Your dancing is hilarious, so that’s great.

Um, and yeah, I mean, you’ve also for the past few years, recreated looks from Black icons during Black History Month. And we’d love for you to tell our listeners a little bit about these posts and what inspired you to make these posts.

Serena: Um, so you used Black icons. They are icons, but sometimes I don’t feel like these people are being treated like icons. When their names are brought up, we say that, but, like, where are their posters where they, they’re, people aren’t dressing up as certain people for, like, Halloween, or if they’re trying to honour them, you’re not getting…

Like, you can see lots and lots of shoots of Marilyn Monroe and her clothing being, like, reproduced and nail polish and lipstick in her, the way that she, like, does her makeup and diagrams for her hair. Like, there’s just so much, she is an icon and she deserves to be an icon.

But, like, these Black people are icons as well. And I feel like they should get the same, you know, like, not take away from Marilyn. We love Marilyn, but, like, also, these people exist, too. And I don’t feel like it’s authentic or genuine to try and, like, mirror my, my existence off of s-, like, it’s reaching a standard of beauty that I’ll never be able to reach. So I wanted to, like, delve more into Black people and, kind of, show light to, to them and their story.

And at first, it started out, like, looking up, like, Black icons for the time. And then I started reading about them. I was like, okay, well it’s not enough just to dress like this one picture.

I need to learn about them. I don’t know anything about them either. So let me pick up their biography and let me read about them and get to know them, so that way I can treat them like an icon, like they deserve to be treated because they’ve given to the culture. So that’s just how it was born.

I was just, like, you know, and then a lot of times when I used to dress vintage or wanted to dress vintage, I would get really rude comments about how I wanted to be white. And I know a lot of Black people get that comment, too. And so being able to shed light on the Black people of the past, shows that we, we existed because for whatever reason people think we didn’t until recently. So being able to show these women is, like, I don’t want to be white. I just want to dress vintage, but here are examples of not white people dressing the same way.

Helen: Yeah, they’re such amazing posts. I love the looks that you’ve recreated. Can you tell us some of the Black icons that you have represented this way?

Serena: Yeah. I started with Dorothy Dandridge. The look that I recreated for her wasn’t the one that I originally wanted to recreate, but I had found that I was pregnant, so I had to, kind of, change things up and choose a picture to recreate that didn’t show her stomach because I hadn’t told people yet. So that’s not exactly, I might have to redo her and choose a different outfit, but that’s the one that I went with to, kind of, like, camouflage my stomach.

And then I’ve done Coretta Scott King, and I was able to learn so much about her. Like, she, she’s so influential. I feel like because her husband is so amazing and he’s just this huge figure, she’s definitely overshadowed. But I can say from what I’ve read that there would have been no MLK, but for her. Like, a lot of his marches and a lot of things were funded because of her. Like, she used to put on concerts to raise the money for them to be able to travel and do these things.

So, like, without her, there, there would have been no movement, really, at least not with him being the head of it. She, she worked really hard, and she definitely, I mean, she didn’t necessarily want the credit, but I think it’s important to know that she put in so much work, if not more, because the work kept coming after he died, too. So that was less about fashion and more about learning for me.

And then this year I did Diahann Carroll because I wanted to be able to pull back into the, the fashion lane because I feel like when I was looking her up, that if I had to pinpoint who my style reflects, it would be a lot like hers. Um, and when I read her biography, she talked about being as thin as I was. So I didn’t even know that. She was, like, she had to pad her dresses when she wanted to have, like, those hips and, like, the, the silhouette of the time.

She had to pad her dresses, which I pad mine, like, I’ll pad my suits if I need it to look a certain kind of way. So I was like, wow, that’s really cool. So it’s just nice to be able to see people like you, even if it’s something as simple as, oh, I have to pad my dresses because, like, I don’t have the hourglass shape. So it was cool to just read that someone else did it, too. You know, people did it, but it was nice for her to admit that she did it.

Helen: Yeah. It’s such an amazing way to find connection through time and also to bring to the forefront some of these people to celebrate them, like you said, and draw attention to their accomplishments and their style at the same time. You do that through your posts, so they’re really great. Do you have any ideas of who you would like to recreate a look for next year? Any chance you’d share that with us?

Serena: I don’t know yet. Usually, I would know. Usually, I, I already know, but this year has been so hectic for me, um, with moving and stuff like that. So I haven’t been able to put in the energy to planning that I usually do. So I don’t know yet. I don’t know yet, but hopefully me. Hopefully, it’s really fun.

And there’s a lot, cause another thing is I would say that our icons are not very heavily documented, so it’s more than just choosing someone you like. I also want to put the work behind it, so I need to be able to find documentaries and books and things like that to really get to know them because I don’t want it to just be a look at me situation..

I truly want to learn about Black history myself. Like, it’s beyond the sewing for me personally. I always accompany some kind of reading or research behind it, even if I don’t necessarily show it because I’m not a scholar. I’m not online to, to be a teacher, but I still want to learn.

Helen: Yeah, and I think you do a really good job of sharing enough information to encourage other people to go and do their own reading and research as well. Um, but still sharing some info so that people can get intrigued and maybe discover somebody that they didn’t know about.

Serena: Yeah. I just want our icons to be treated as such, like, it’s not enough to just say this person’s iconic and, like, I can’t change the world, but at least I can change the way that I, I move and, like, how I present people. So, like, if I’m going to call you an icon that I’m going to do, what people do for iconic people, you dress up like them. You, you get to know them. You get to be able to learn those, like, random facts that no one else would know.

Helen: Yeah. Do you follow other, uh, style icons on Instagram? Do you have any favourite accounts that you’d like to share with us?

Serena: I am so bad at names. I should have wrote these down. So I try not to get too influenced by my friends because, like, I like for our styles all to be, like, our own, but that doesn’t mean I don’t, like, I do get influenced by other people. It’s just, you can’t help it. Especially if you go, all live in the sa-, like, you all partake in the same kind of interests and things like that.

So maybe not so much influenced, but, like, inspired by. So for the 60’s, I think @miss.lana.moreaux, I have @60sgyal. She’s another black vintage dresser. I don’t think she sews. And then you have @thekokolounge. She’s, she is so creative. I follow lots of pinups, even though I don’t do pinup. I think, I love to see their inspired looks and their confidence in their bodies. I absolutely adore that. Then Drew from @SewSewDrew. I adore her because she is, she is new into sewing garments in general and then vintage sewing at the same time. So I see her learning the way that I learned, and she’s just so positive and bubbly, and she’s really cool. So I love her. Um, honestly I could go on and on and on.

Like, I, I take inspiration from people who do historical costuming, and I don’t costume. Hmm, like the way I get inspiration, you don’t even have to do what I do. And I’m just intrigued.

Helen: Yeah. Yeah. There’s so many amazing accounts out there, and feel free to send us more, and we’ll put them in the show notes…

Serena: Yeah, I will.

Helen: …so people can, can go and follow along with some of your favourites.

Okay. We’re almost ready to wrap up here. Um, but we have a few more questions we want to ask you. First of all, we’ve talked a little bit about sewing on a budget, and you’ve mentioned you’re a budget sewer. You recently made that 1960s skirt suit for under $30. Can you share some of your tips for sewing on a vintage budget?

Serena: Well, first of all, try and get the widest cut of fabric that you can get and try and make it wool, if you can, because that way you can, kind of, do, like, Tetris, like, there’s no grain, so you can, kind of, like, shove things, move things, turn things, and, like, you can still get what you need out of it.

But I always shop remnants first. I don’t know if this is common, but there is this fabric store called Fine Fabrics in Georgia, and it is this massive warehouse of fabrics, but it’s made mostly for apparel sewing. So their remnants are usually at least a yard or two, and the bolt size is always 60 inches wide. So always try and find, like, those big warehouse places, so that way you can shop their remnants. Cause I’ve made a suit for, like, $10 made out of wool. That, the one that I made recently was not the cheapest wool suit that I’ve made. So if you can find a store like that, it’d be really good.

I know people thrift fabric. I don’t have very good luck with that. So I, if I do go to the store, I get vintage sheets. Um, most of the time they have, like, some sort of a stain or something, but they’re so wide, you can cut around them usually. And you can get really pretty, like, vintage fabric dresses.

I always shop clearance fabrics. I don’t leave, the cheaper fabrics are just not out of the question for me. I do try to stick to natural fabrics, like cottons and wools. But if I do make something with, like, polyester, I try and make sure that that’s something that I’m wearing for, like, the winter months.

So something, like, if I’m, if I know I’m going to be warm because I live in the south. It’s really hot here. So wearing, like, a whole outfit out of polyester is just not ideal, but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for it in my closet. I’ll just try and make that something that’s for the wintertime if I can. But usually I try and stick to cottons.

Helen: Yeah. Yeah. When you want to be really worn, maybe a little sweaty.

Serena: Yeah. But most of the time I’m using cottons, cottons are everywhere. They go on clearance all the time. Buy fabric when they’re not in season. So, like, get all your summer prints at the beginning of fall when they’ve been completely marked down and try and just plan ahead. That’s what I do. Just don’t don’t buy the fabric that you need in the season you need it cause you’re usually going to pay more.

Helen: I like that your advice is to collect fabric cause that’s definitely my M.O.

Serena: It’s so underrated. Like, people are just, like, stash, like, stashes aren’t I don’t know. Like, I don’t know. People don’t think that stashes are good or maybe they’re just, having a stash is wasteful. I don’t know. But, like, my stash never gets too out of control because I am so strict with, like, the parameters. Like, budget is always coming first because this is a hobby. So my family’s needs and financial needs come first. And then whatever’s left is for my hobby. So yeah, it can never get too out of hand because there’s not that much cheap fabric everywhere.

Helen: I wish.

Serena: Same.

Caroline: Okay. Last question. I know you mentioned you just moved into your dream mid-century home, which is so exciting. And I noticed a vintage looking wallpaper featured in some of your Instagram videos and posts, and it has mushrooms and flowers and sewing machines. It’s amazing. And I’d love to know where you got it from.

Serena: So I had that wallpaper design made specially for me because I’m addicted to my sewing machines, and I wanted to, like, honour them in a way that… They don’t care because they’re not people, but I was just like, I need something that would be a nod to where vintage started for me, which I was in elementary school dressing like a hippie and all psychedelic-like.

So I was like, this is a nod to the Serena of yesteryear, but also the machines that made it possible. So the machines are all different. They’re, like, a line drawing of my favourite machines on that. And then I had it have that groovy mushrooms and stuff like that to honour the child that would have died if she knew I was living the way that I am now. Like, she would be so thrilled.

So yeah, like, if you see it, it doesn’t really match my aesthetic, but it very much is the creative side of me, so I designated that for my basement. And, um, I had an Illustrator @Atomic.Gigi on Instagram. I told her everything that I wanted. She made it a wallpaper or image, and then I ordered it off of Spoonflower. So I have a perfectly custom wallpaper for my sewing room and all my sew-, most of my sewing machines are from the seventies, so it just seems like they’re at home.

Caroline: It’s so cool. Yeah, it is, it is pretty amazing and very vintage-y seventies vibes. So that makes a lot of sense that you designed it to be that way. And we’ll make sure we link up some pictures in the show notes as well. Thank you so much, Serena, for chatting with us. Can you tell our listeners where they can find you online before we wrap up?

Serena: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. You can find me on Instagram @SewRena_, or you can find me on YouTube, where I don’t post quite as frequently because I’m not a tech person, if you could tell by my old machines, but you can find me on YouTube @SewRena, no underscore. So just @SewRena on YouTube.

Helen: Awesome. Perfect. I mean, YouTube is, kind of, like, the vintage social media, right?

Serena: Is it though? Because I feel like everyone’s always like, your audio could be better, video can be better. And I’m like, I’m doing the best that I can.

Helen: Oh my gosh, no kidding. Those people can keep their opinions to themselves.

Caroline: Well, we’ll make sure to include links for everything we talked about today in the show notes. It was so fun chatting with you today, Serena. Thank you so much, again. It was a fabulous interview.

Serena: Thank you.

Caroline: Alright, take care. Bye.

Serena: Bye.

Helen: Bye.

That’s it for today’s episode of Love to Sew. You can find me, Helen, at HelensClosetPatterns.com and Caroline at BlackbirdFabrics.com! And we’re recording today in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

Caroline: Go to LoveToSewPodcast.com to find our show notes. They’re filled with links and pictures from this episode. If you’d like to get in touch with us, send us an email at [email protected].

Helen: If you love Love to Sew and you want more, you can sign up for our Patreon! For just $5 a month, you get a full-length bonus episode and weekly behind-the-scenes pictures. For $10 a month, you get all that PLUS a mini-episode focused on sewing techniques and 15% off codes for both Helen’s Closet and Blackbird Fabrics! Patreon is the best way to support us and our team so that we can keep making quality sewing content. Go to patreon.com/LoveToSew, if you can, for more info.

Caroline: Thanks to our amazing podcast team. Lisa Ruiz is our creative assistant. Jordan Moore is our editor. And Margaret Wakelee is our transcriber. And thank you for listening. We’ll see you next week.

Helen: Buh-bye.

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As sewists, we know a lot about finished fabrics – but how much do we know about how they get made? In this episode, we walk you through all the steps of the fabric-making process, from raw materials to finished bolts. We also cover ethical considerations, fabric certifications, and how finished fabrics get from factories to your doorstep.

The transcript for this episode is on this page at the end of the show notes.

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Transcript: 

Helen: We are recording today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, including Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and K’ómoks first nations.

Caroline: Hello, and welcome to Love to Sew. I’m Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics.

Helen: And I’m Helen, the designer behind Helen’s Closet Patterns.

Caroline: We’re two sewing buds who love to sew our own clothes and want to encourage you on your sewing journey, too.

Helen: Join us for today’s topic: How Fabric Gets Made.

Caroline: Hi, Helen.

Helen: Hi, Caroline.

Caroline: How are you today?

Helen: I’m doing well, thanks. How are you?

Caroline: I’m good. I’m excited to talk about fabric. You know I love these fabric episodes.

Helen: I know you do. And this one is a beast of an episode, y’all. Our assistant Lisa went to town prepping for this one, along with Caroline’s expert advice, and we’ve got a great show for you today.

Caroline: We really, really do. I can’t wait to jump in, but before we start, we wanted to share some great tips that listeners sent in after we released our Pockets Episode.

So I’ll start off with this feedback from Abby, “My favourite tip for making identical (mirrored) patch pockets: finish the top edge of each pocket, baste the two pockets right sides together along the bottom and sides, turn the pocket sandwich right side out (using a point turner to poke out any corners), press, then seam rip the pockets apart. Ta-da – perfectly pressed and identical pockets! (And easier than using a pressing guide/jig, in my opinion).”

Okay. This is a really cool idea and useful for anyone who doesn’t love jigs, or maybe doesn’t have a jig. What do you think, Helen? I feel like this is really cool.

Helen: Yeah, this, kind of, blew my mind. I had to stop and think about it for a moment to follow along, but it makes perfect sense that you would end up with mirrored pockets, like, two pockets that are actually identical, which, as we know, can be, kind of, challenging to get them perfect. And yeah, the added benefit of not having to, like, fiddle, press those sides in, it just happens automatically.

Caroline: I love it.

Helen: Very cool. Listener Judy wrote, “If your fabric is lightweight, the pocket bag may show through on the outside if using the same fashion fabric to make them. I made some white linen pants and used the same fabric for the pockets, and you could see the pockets through the pants. It wasn’t really sheer fabric. The white pocket was a different colour than my body, so it made the pocket show through. A better choice of fabric would have been something close to body colour. I ended up buying fusible nude colored interfacing and ironing it on to the pocket side that faced the pants front. It was not easy and the pockets are sort of stiff, but at least they don’t show through when I wear the pants.”

Judy, I’ve never thought of this before, but it’s a great idea to choose a pocket bag fabric and a colour that’s close to your specific skin tone so that, yeah, it doesn’t show through the pants. Even if you think that those pants aren’t transparent when you put them on, you might notice just that little bit of a hint because of that contrast with your skintone.

Caroline: Yeah, absolutely. It’s a great idea. Okay. Several listeners wrote to us about the Pocket Patterns and Instructions PDF by Waffle Patterns. So this includes patterns and instructions for a wide variety of patch, in-seam, and welt pockets that you can add on to other patterns. Very cool.

Helen: Oh, love this. Waffle Patterns has the coolest pockets in their designs, too. If you’re looking for jackets or vests, kind of, their specialty, and the pockets are always amazing.

Listeners also recommended the 99% Invisible podcast episode “Pockets: Articles of Interest #3.” Iit looks really cool talking about pockets and culture. I don’t know how I missed this one. I’m a big 99% Invisible fan, so I got to go check this one out.

Caroline: Yes. Okay. Thank you to all of our listeners who wrote to us with great info about pockets. Pockets forever.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: Okay. Let’s get to the main show because I just can’t wait to talk about fabric. So, sewists love fabric and for good reason, right? Fabric choice is one way we can express our creativity.

There is SO much variety out there: different fibres, weaves, weights, drapes, colours, prints! You can make the same pattern in 10 different fabrics, and it will look different each time. And fabric is an essential part of the sewing process. It shouldn’t be an afterthought. It’s not an afterthought.

And the fabrics that we use have passed through many hands and often travelled very far before they arrive at a fabric shop. So today we want to fill you in on how fabrics actually get made from raw materials to finished cloths. And it’s a big topic.

Helen: Yes! We do want to note that this episode is necessarily an overview! Even though we’ve packed it full of information, you could write several large books about all the details of fabric production. We’ve provided specific examples to illustrate some of the processes, but each fibre and each process is a little different. If you’re interested in learning more, we hope you can use this episode as a jumping off point to explore!

And we also want to note that fabric production, like other industries involved with farming and manufacturing, has many labour and environmental issues. We are going to have a short discussion of that at the end of this episode as well as actions you can take and certifications you can look at, but for the beginning of the episode, we’re going to be focusing on how fibre becomes fabric.

Caroline: Love it. I can’t wait. Okay, so, Fabric production goes through many stages in its journey from raw material to finished product. And these stages often all happen at different plants or factories across many countries. Each farm, plant, or factory is gonna specialise in a specific step of the process. So, at Blackbird, we made a graphic to, kind of, illustrate the textile supply chain that we’re gonna put in the show notes if you want to check it out. It’s helpful to see, like, the different paths a textile can take from field to fabric shop.

Helen: Yes, and every fabric starts with those raw materials. These materials are farmed, wild harvested, or even made in a laboratory. Some fabrics are made of farmed plant materials. Those would include things like linen, cotton, and hemp.

Each plant has different needs in terms of climate, soil, and moisture. For example, cotton farming is particularly water-intensive, while hemp can be raised with only rainwater. There are also differences in farming practices; while some growers use conventional pesticides and farming methods, others pursue organic certification and follow those guidelines.

Each plant is harvested differently, as well. The preferred way to harvest flax is to pull it from the ground; this keeps the fibres inside the stems for as long as possible. This is usually done by workers, although there are machines that can do it as well.

Cotton can be either stripped or picked. A cotton stripper machine pulls the entire boll off the plant – that’s the white, fluffy part, plus the leaves and the branches. A cotton picker machine picks only the white, fluffy part, leaving the boll leaves and branches on the plant.

These jobs can also be done by hand. Like linen, hemp fibres can be found in the stems of the plant. They are cut by machines in swaths, like hay. And we’re going to have sources for all of this stuff in the show notes if you want to read more.

Caroline: And some fabrics are made of fur, fleece, or hair of animals. These include wool, silk, mohair, cashmere, and alpaca. Sheep are normally shorn once a year with machine shears, or, sometimes, blade shears. All the wool shorn from one sheep is sold as one “fleece.” And they’re classed, or graded, based on qualities such as colour, strength, breed, and usage of chemicals.

Modern breeds have to be shorn, because they do not shed their wool naturally. But some primitive sheep, though, like many Shetlands, will have a “break” in their wool in spring. And by late spring, it will start to peel away from the sheep’s body and can be collected by workers. This is called “rooing,” which is the cutest possible word for it.

And silk filaments are collected from the cocoons of silkworms, which are boiled in water and then unspooled into long strands. There are some silk producers who collect the filaments from cocoons after the silk moths have emerged, or they open the cocoon to release the moth before they collect the filaments.

And we have a whole episode about wool, a whole episode all about silk, where you can learn a little bit more about each of those fibres.

Helen: Yes. Some fabrics are made from wood pulp, and these include viscose, rayon, Tencel, lyocell, Modal, and bamboo. These woods can be wild-harvested or farmed.

And some fabrics are made from petroleum products. These would include polyester, nylon, acrylic, spandex. The main raw material used in producing polyester is ethylene, which is derived from petroleum. Petroleum is also known as “crude oil.” It’s a complex liquid mixture of hydrocarbons, which is drawn from geological formations under the surface of the earth. You probably already know this, but petroleum is most often refined into various fuels, like gas for your car, lighter fluid for your barbecue, or jet fuel for your long trips. But it’s also used to make plastics and fabrics.

Caroline: Mhm, and some fabrics are made of recycled materials. There is recycled cotton, polyester, wool, nylon, Tencel, and viscose! The raw materials for most of these are pre- and post-consumer waste, as well as post-industrial waste; so that includes fabric scraps, thread, and finished garments. And some recycled polyesters are made out of recycled plastics, like plastic bottles, and recycled nylon is often made from fishing nets.

Helen: Ooh. By the way, Caroline did mention this, but we do have several episodes on the fabrics we’re talking about in this episode, so if you want a deeper dive into some of these fabrics, you can check out our Linen, Wool, Silk and our Tencel/Lyocell Episodes for more info. We’ll link it all up in the show notes.

Caroline: Awesome. The next step in the process is to extract or create fibres from the raw materials we just talked about. So, flax and hemp go through a process called retting. This process separates the fibres from the woody parts of the stem. And flax fibres are in the inner part of the stem, and hemp fibres are in the outer part.

So there are three types of retting: chemical retting, water retting, and dew retting. In chemical retting, stems are placed in an acidic solution and then pressurised and boiled. In water retting, stems are soaked in vats of water to decompose faster and then crushed between rollers. And in dew retting, stems are left in the fields or in stagnant ponds to decompose for a couple of weeks. After the stems are retted, the stems are crushed and all the woody material is removed. And then the fibres are combed to separate them and get them ready to spin into yarns.

Helen: Ooh, I like the sound of dew retting. It sounds, kind of, magical.

Caroline: It does, right?

Helen: Wool and cotton are cleaned of all debris and then carded, which is a combing-like process that puts all the fibres into the same direction. For rayons, woods are broken down into a pulp. The pulp is dissolved in chemical solvents and the cellulose is filtered through. Cellulose, of course, is the main component of plant cell walls. Once the cellulose is a clear liquid, it is ready to be pumped through spinnerets. As the cellulose is forced through, it forms long, thin fibres.

Caroline: I like that word, too, spinneret.

Helen: Spinneret.

Caroline: Petroleum-based synthetic fabrics must go through some interesting chemistry to become fibres. So, for polyester, ethylene glycol is combined with dimethyl terephthalate, and I probably said that wrong, but I tried, and a catalyst at a hot temperature. And then that mixture is combined with terephthalic…

Helen: You can do it!

Caroline: I’m trying, y’all, I’m trying.

Then that mixture is combined with terephthalic acid and heated further. The resulting chemical is polyester – “poly” meaning “many” and “ester” meaning “organic chemical compound.” Because the esters repeat in long strands, you are able to get long, smooth fibres out of this process.

And once the polyester is created, it is a molten, clear liquid. It’s extruded in ribbons, which are left to cool. And once they’re cool and brittle, they’re broken into tiny chips and dried even further. Then, they’re melted and extruded through spinnerets to create long fibres. The spinneret stretches the polyester strands so that they are soft and flexible, not brittle.

This is fascinating.

Helen: Yeah. It’s, like, it gets extruded and, and, like, pulled into those ribbons twice.

Caroline: Yeah. And then it becomes fabric. We’ll get to that, but it’s really cool.

Helen: It is pretty amazing. And recycled materials can go through several different processes to become spinnable fibres. Cotton materials can be shredded back into raw fibre, which is then carded, once again, to prepare it for spinning. This makes a pretty rough and low-quality cotton, so a lot of recycled cotton fibres are combined with other fibres or new cotton to improve the quality for wearing.

Sometimes cellulose-based materials, basically anything made of plants, are processed like rayons; they are dissolved back into that pulp, then extruded to create fibres. Plastic bottles can be recycled into polyester by melting them down and then following the polyester production process with the dimethyl terephthal-, telephthal-, terephthalate. I did it!

Caroline: You did it! Okay, so the next stage of creating a textile is spinning the yarns. So, yarns: they’re not just for knitters! All fabric is made of yarns – the ones used to make fabrics you can buy are just thinner versions of the ones hand knitters use.

So, why is it preferable to make fabric from yarns rather than individual fibres? Yarn consists of several filaments twisted together. Each filament is made of fibres that are twisted together. So, it’s like twists on twists! Yarns are much, much stronger than the fibres that make them up.

So, if you take a bit of wool roving (which is the soft, loosely-twisted wool that needle felters use), you can pull it apart very easily to make smaller pieces. If you try the same thing with a finished wool yarn, you’ll see it takes a lot more force to pull it apart. Yarns take weaving and knitting well, and strong yarns make strong fabrics.

Helen: It makes so much sense, and we’ve all handled yarn at some point, whether you’re a knitter or not. So, you know exactly what this looks like, those twists on twists and how strong it can really feel, especially when you’re making it with a strong fibre.

The first step of making yarns is carding and combing the fibres. After the fibres are all smooth and facing in the same direction, they become a mass called the “sliver.” Slivers are pulled through rollers that elongate them into uniform strands and give them a very small twist. This is called “drawing.” Slivers can be drawn two to four times.

Caroline: And then finished slivers are fed through a roving frame, which elongates them even more and gives them an additional twist. Now it’s called roving, and it’s ready to spin!

And there are two main types of spinning: ring spinning and open-end spinning. Ring spinning requires roving. It twists and spins the yarn at the same time. And open-end spinning skips the roving step, so it takes the slivers and feeds them directly into the spinner.

Helen: And not all yarns have the same amount of twist. Tightly twisted yarns will be strong; loosely twisted yarns will be weaker, but have more lustre. And super-tightly twisted yarns have almost, like, a crepe-y texture to them.

Caroline: And yarns also may have a different number of plys. So, a ply is one strand of spun yarn. Two-ply yarn is two yarns twisted together. There can be any number of plys! There can even be cord yarns, which are made of two or more ply yarns twisted together.

Helen: Twists on twists on plies on twists.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: I just think of toilet paper whenever anyone says two-ply.

Caroline: Oh, yeah.

Helen: Okay. Yarns are one step closer to the finished fabric, but…they still don’t look much like fabric. But it’s not for long, though, because the next step is the culmination of the process: when the yarns are woven, knit, or bonded together to form metres and metres of fabric!

Weaving is a way of interlacing yarns to create a fabric. The warp of the loom goes vertically, and the weft of the loom goes horizontally. An easy way to remember this is that the “weft” goes “right and left.” And I don’t have a clever rhyme for the warp. It’d be like the “warp” goes “down and orp?”

Caroline: I love it! I will remember that forever. The warp goes down and orp.

Helen: Woven fabric does not stretch on the grain or across the grain unless there are elastic threads woven into it. There is some stretch on the bias, though, and we are familiar with that from using bias tape in our garment sewing. There are so many different weaves that fabrics can have! Caroline, you want to walk us through these?

Caroline: Oh, yeah. Okay, so, plain weave, also known as tabby weave, calico weave, or basic weave, is the simplest one. The yarns are interlaced perpendicularly. And this weave is very common! Most quilting cottons are plain weave fabrics.

Twill weave is another common weave. It creates a diagonal rib on the fabric. Twill weaves are common in denims and other bottom weight fabrics. And gabardine, herringbone, and corduroy are all twill weaves.

And the third category of weaves are: fancy weaves! There are some really cool ones, including satin, jacquard, and brocade.

Helen: Oh, those are all the good ones.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Knitting is another way to create fabric. Huge industrial knitting machines create big loops of knit fabrics. Knitted fabric is basically yarns that are looped together into rows and columns. Lots of connected loops!

Again, if you’re a knitter, it’s exactly what you’re doing when you’re making stockinette stitch just on a huge scale and much, much, much tinier little stitches.

Knit fabric has natural stretch to it. Knits have different levels of stretch depending on how tightly they’re knit, the fibres the yarns are made of, and the pattern that they’re knit into.

Caroline: And there are two main categories of knits: weft knits and warp knits. So weft knits are made of a single yarn, and that yarn is looped into horizontal rows. In knitting, “rows” are called “courses” and vertical columns are called “wales.” So, in weft knits, courses are built one on top of the other. This is the way that hand knitting works, too.

Weft knits typically have a lot of stretch. The stretch and recovery of weft knit fabrics can be even better with the addition of elastic threads like spandex. And, by the way, the spandex is generally combined with another fibre in the yarn phase of production.

Some types of weft knit fabrics are: jersey, interlock, rib knit, and double knit.

Helen: Warp knits are made of several yarns that are looped and interconnected vertically. They are less common than weft knits.

Warp knits typically have no vertical stretch and varying degrees of horizontal stretch.

Some types of warp knit fabrics are: tricot, raschel, and milanese. If you see a really intricate knit fabric, like a lacy or piled fabric, chances are it is a warp knit. And I guess just stretch it vertically and see what happens.

Caroline: Yeah, very cool.

Helen: Alright, next, we want to talk about bonding. This is a process which can make fibres into fabric without any yarns. Bonded fabrics don’t have a grain; they are made of fibres or materials which are stuck, or “bonded” together.

So felting is the first thing that comes to mind. It is an ancient type of fabric bonding. Wool felt is made by adding heat and moisture to wool fibres and agitating them. The fibres are rough and they will start to cling to each other, bonding to create fabric yardage. The wool fibres are fed through several carding machines to create webs of the fibres.

Four of these webs are then layered in alternating directions, to make what is called a “batt.” And the batts go through a steam table and add heat and moisture, then go under a plate-hardener, which presses the material flat and oscillates over it to agitate it.

Then the batts are wetted continuously with a sulfuric acid solution and hot water as they go through a fulling machine with rollers that exert pressure and agitate them even more. It’s a lot of agitation happening.

The sulfuric acid is neutralised, and the batts go through a bath of soda ash and warm water. Finally, the batts are re-fulled to smooth them out, and the ends are trimmed, and the felt fabric is ready. Dang. That sounds like a lot of work. People used to do that, like, by hand.

Caroline: Yeah. Once upon a time. I mean, I feel like it’s great that we have machines to do this. And I would love to see a machine that does this process because you’re right, it’s, like, so much agitation, and it must be really fun to watch.

Helen: Very cool. Synthetic fibres can be bonded by heating and pressing them together. This is how most interfacing is made! If you hold non-woven interfacing up to the light, you can kind of see the swirls of the fibres in there. And quick note, it’s not usual that we would recommend non-woven interfacing on this show. I think Caroline and I both really prefer woven interfacing because it does just combine really well with the textiles that we like to use for garment making. Um, so when you’re checking out interfacing, keep an eye out for those bonded types that might not be what you’re looking for.

Caroline: Mhm, unless you’re making, like, bags or something. I think they’re more common in accessories.

Helen: Totally.

Caroline: Okay. The next steps in the fabric making process can vary in when, or even if, they take place: dyeing, printing, finishing, and testing.

Dyeing can take place at several different points. Fibres can be dyed, yarns can be dyed, or fabrics can be dyed.

And there are different types of dyes that can be chosen based on the fibres of the fabric being dyed. They include acid dyes, direct dyes, mordant dyes, sulphur dyes, azoic dyes, vat dyes, disperse dyes, and reactive dyes. Each of these dyes has certain fabrics that it should be used with. For example, mordant dyes can be used with wool, silk, or cellulosic fibres like linen, cotton, or rayon after they are treated with metal salts. The metal salts create an affinity in the fibres so that the dye will adhere.

Helen: And dyes are sometimes mixed, especially for mixed-fibre fabrics and yarns. Dyes are usually applied in a dye bath, which is dye and water-based solution mixed together in a big vat usually made of stainless steel. Stainless steel is nonreactive, meaning that the chemicals used in dyeing will not react with it and change the dyeing process.

The dye bath must be heated to a certain temperature, depending on the dye being used. This swells the fibre and makes it more receptive to the dye. If you’ve ever done home dying again, it’s like that, but a much, much larger scale, right? You’re doing it in a pot. You need to heat it to a certain temperature. They’re doing it in a vat. Same kind of deal.

Caroline: Makes sense. There are several big machines that can be used to dye fabrics. One is the Hussong Machine, used for yarn dyeing. The dye bath is in a long square-ended vat. The vat has a perforated false bottom, and the dye vat is circulated through it with an impeller. There are steam coils underneath to heat it. Hanks of yarn hang from a system of poles that are lowered into the dye vat.

Helen: Ooh.

Caroline: Hanks of yarn. I’ve never heard that before. Hanks. Who’s Hank?

Helen: Hanks of yarn. You’ve never heard that before.

Caroline: No.

Helen: Hanks of yarn.

Caroline: Have you?

Helen: It’s a rea-, it’s a super common, no. I’m just kidding.

Caroline: Helen!

Helen: Okay. Some dyes are advertised as “azo-free”. Or is it azo?

Caroline: I have no idea.

Helen: Some dyes are advertised as “azo-free.” Azo dyes, maybe it’s azo, not 100% sure, make up a bulk of the textile dyes used. They are direct dyes, meaning that they don’t require an extra compound like a mordant dye. This also means that the waste from these dyes cannot be treated before it is discharged into rivers and the seas. Therefore, it’s considered a known carcinogen.

Mill waste discharged into rivers and the sea can contain 5-20% of the original dyestuff. This has an impact on biodiversity and the health of people who live nearby. Azo dyes are regulated in the EU, but most textile dyeing takes place in other countries that do not have as strict of regulations. Azo-free dyes are safer for workers and the environment. So this is something to look out for when you’re fabric shopping.

Caroline: Yeah. And that is why when fabrics are dyed with Azo-free dyes, it’s often part of the, like, marketing of the fabric, so people know that it’s Azo-free free.

Okay, printing. Printing must be done on finished fabric, of course. Sometimes dyed fabrics are also printed; and sometimes fabrics are just printed.

So there are five main types of printing: block, roller, screen, heat transfer, and digital.

So block printing is done by applying colour to carved blocks and pressing them onto fabric. When it is done in large quantities, the blocks are usually wood, and they are relief-carved to create the design. Blocks can also incorporate hard felt and copper strips for different effects. Colours are applied in layers, one at a time. And this process is labour- and time-intensive, but produces stunning results.

Helen: It really does. I mean, I just love the look of block printing. Has that beautiful variation and it’s mesmerising to watch these artisans do this work. They’re so incredibly fast and efficient, and I’m just impressed by the amount that they don’t mess it up.

Caroline: Yeah. And like any printing, like, similar to screen printing, it’s so fun to see a print come together as they layer the colours one on top of the other. And at first it doesn’t look like much and then it all just, kind of, comes to life as you layer on, um, those different colours.

Helen: Totally. Roller printing is done by machine. The machine runs fabric over a thick endless blanket of engraved rollers roll the print onto the fabric. There is one roller for each colour. And each roller has a colour-furnishing roller that is partially immersed in the colour and then deposits colour continuously onto it. Kind of hard to explain via audio. So again, we’ll have links in the show notes, but basically it’s the machine version of block printing.

Caroline: Very cool. And screen printing can be done by machine or by hand, though it’s almost always done by machine at an industrial scale. Each silk or nylon gauze screen is made to print part of the design – one for each colour. Only part of the screen will let ink through; the part that will be printed. A screen is laid over fabric that has been adhered to a table. And colour is applied to the screen, and the printer or machine uses a squeegee to push the ink through the screen in an even layer. And this is repeated for each colour of the design.

Helen: Heat transfer prints are done by printing a design in reverse on paper with special inks. The paper is layered on the fabric and passed through a calender, which is a type of machine with hot rollers that press the fabric as it passes through. The heat and the pressure transfers the design to the fabric, and the paper can be removed.

I think, when I was a kid, I did some, like, heat transfer printing. You could print off a saying or something and stick it on a t-shirt, and it was some kind of special printer paper you could buy at Staples, kind of, like that I imagine.

Caroline: Okay. And finally, digital printing is a cool alternative to screen printing. The fabric is pre-treated with solutions that make the fabric more receptive to the dye. And then it’s fed through a machine that is like a giant ink-jet printer. It’s sprayed with tiny droplets of colour all at once, according to the digital file that’s been uploaded. Then, the fabric is “fixed” with steam, dry heat, or pressure to make the colour permanent. Our custom print collections at Blackbird are all digital prints!

And digital printing on fabric is a little bit more accessible in that often in the industry, the minimums are a lot lower. So that’s why you’ll see a lot more digital prints in the sewing world is because those fabric stores are able to do smaller quantities and, kind of, design their own

Helen: Mhm, and get so many different results, too, like, the, kind of, world’s your oyster when it comes to digital printing. Do you have to worry about the number of colours that you’re using? Is there limitations on that?

Caroline: That’s the beauty of digital printing is that there’s no limitation on colours. We’ll say a lot of the time blacks don’t come out as black as we want them to be cause it’s really hard to get that depth of colour with a digital print. Um, but then with screen printing, minimums are a lot higher and you’re paying per screen. So basically every colour that’s in the print, you’re paying more for it. Um, which is why you might find that screen prints often have fewer colours and maybe less intricate designs, or if they are more intricate, they can be a little bit pricier.

Helen: That makes sense. And with digital printing, too, often, or maybe always, I’m not sure that the reverse side of the fabric doesn’t have the print on it, right?

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: So it might be white or it might just be, like, a paler version of the other side of the fabric, depending on the transparency. So that’s something to consider with your making versus a woven fabric, like a plaid or something, like, that has that colour and design on both sides of the fabric.

Caroline: Mm, and you’ll even notice with a screenprint that colour just, kind of, seeps through a lot more than on a digital print. So that’s an easy way to tell if something is digital or screen printed. Um, which I would say are probably the most common types of printing in the industry. Um, just by looking at the backside and seeing how, how light it is in colour. Although I have seen some companies do like a digital print, but they, like, pre-dye the base. So it’s not always the way to tell, but it’s often an indicator.

One other thing I wanted to mention is that companies like Spoonflower, like, print on demand companies are often, or almost always, using digital printers. So that giant, kind of, ink jet style printer, which is why you can just, like, order two metres online and, and get it delivered to you without having to commit to these big quantities, because it’s just, like, a printer. You’re not having to make screens for every element of the printer.

Helen: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Okay. Next, we’re going to talk about finishing, which contrary to how it sounds can actually happen at different stages of the fabric production. Finishing is a wide category of processes that make fibres, yarns, or cloth more usable. If that sounds a bit vague, that’s because it is. “Usable” can mean things like softer, brighter, shinier, or more functional.

Finishing can mean singeing yarns with an open flame to make them smoother and less “hairy.” It can also mean napping, which is brushing a fabric to create a fuzzier, fuller nap. It can also mean pre-shrinking, so a fabric does not shrink too much on a customer’s first wash. So, see? There’s a really wide variety here. Bleaching, printing, and dyeing are also all finishes!

Caroline: And then in addition to giving a fabric a better aesthetic and a more comfortable feel, there are also functional finishes that change how a fabric behaves. For example, hydrophobic finishes make fabrics water-resistant and fire resistant finishes make fabrics less flammable.

Helen: Very cool. I was looking at couches, like, a year ago. Didn’t end up buying one, but the sales rep poured water on the couch that we were looking at to prove how water resistant it was.

Caroline: And you’re like, thanks.

Helen: Made a big show of it.

Caroline: It should have been wine though. I feel like wine is, like, more effective.

Helen: I mean, she happened to be drinking water. If she had been drinking wine, I might have been concerned.

Caroline: I feel like that’s all part of the shtick though. Like, oh, always has a glass of water in their hand. I just happened to be drinking this.

Helen: Welcome to the couch store!

Okay. A final process that fabrics go through is testing! When a batch of fabric is made, a section of it can be tested for different qualities. Some of the qualities it can be tested for include: colour fastness, shrinkage rate, weight, fibre composition, and pilling.

Caroline: Yeah. Pilling is so interesting. There are pill tests that you can do in the industry. And we have actually started asking our suppliers, especially for our knit fabrics, for their pill ratings. And you can often get that information if you ask for it. And it’ll be a nice indicator of whether the fabric will pill more or less with washing. And often that will be a deciding factor of whether or not we’re going to buy a fabric if it has a low pill rating. So it’s a really interesting test that is done on a lot of fabrics and that I think fabric stores out there can maybe inquire about if you’re ever wondering.

Helen: Yeah. So some of this information will go on the label; it will determine the percentages of the fibres and the care instructions for that fabric. And some of the information will be used to describe the product for whoever might buy it; so, for example, a fabric shop might not list the weight of the fabric, but you can bet that the fabric buyer does know it!

And I feel like we have been seeing a bit of a shift in the community in the last few years. Fabric stores providing more of that kind of information, like the pill rate. I mean, that would be so cool to see on the label, but I love the care instructions, the weight. Give me all the information. I want to know where it came from. I just love having all of that information at my fingertips. So, yeah, it’s awesome when fabric stores can include that.

Caroline: Yeah. I think the only time it’s often not possible to include is when you’re dealing with deadstock fabric, um, which we’re going to talk about in a minute. So I won’t get too far into it, but often yeah, you’re buying fabrics you have no idea what they are. But there are ways to calculate some of these things. There’s burn tests to figure out fibre content, or at least rough fibre content. And you can, you know, weigh the fabric, and there’s calculations to figure out the ounce or GSM weight of a fabric just from weighing a piece of it. So there are ways to find that information.

And then other information is just for the mill. So it might help them maintain the same quality of fabric over time and influences future decisions they might make about dyes, fibres, and weaves.

Helen: That makes sense.

Caroline: Okay. So once the fabrics go through their final steps and they’re ready for sale, they still have a journey before they get to fabric stores. Fabrics come from all over the world, and they’re sold all over the world. They get to their final destination either by boat or by air, then delivered by train and/or truck!

Obviously, if they’re being delivered within the same country, they don’t necessarily need to go by air, but often they are, you know, crossing borders and oceans. So a boat or a plane is very often involved in shipping fabric around the world.

And fabrics can have several types of final destinations. So, some are gonna be sold to clothing manufacturers to be made into clothing. Some will be sold to wholesalers, who are middlemen that sell to retailers or clothing designers.

Helen: Mill ends, odd lots, and seconds will be sold to jobbers. Jobbers sell to small-run designers, individuals, and fabric stores. Some will be sold directly to retailers. Retailers sell to the general public.

And some fabric will be bought by clothing manufacturers and not used, for one reason or another. And this fabric is re-sold as “deadstock.” So, Caroline, tell us about deadstock

Caroline: Yeah, I mean, for fabric shoppers, deadstock can be a great deal. You can get a limited-run, stunning fabric for a much lower price than a, uh, you know, similar virgin good, let’s say. And, plus, you get a chance to use fabric that would otherwise be discarded.

So, often deadstock is extra stock from a production run, perhaps in clothing manufacturing. And what sometimes actually happens is that designers need to, or if a clothing designers or clothing manufacturers, need to reach a certain minimum to get a certain price for a fabric or maybe to reach even, like, the bare minimum of what a fabric manufacturer will require to be able to produce a fabric.

And so that does sometimes create deadstock in that they’ll buy a little bit more than what they need, and then sell off that additional fabric to a jobber or to a ware-, a deadstock warehouse, and it’ll end up there. And then, it’ll end up being sold to a fabric store like me. And I mean, deadstock can also include, like, damaged fabric seconds, mill ends, odd lots from jobbers.

It can also just honestly be leftover that happens by accident. It could be, you know, just small rolls at the end of a designer’s production if they made miscalculations, or often, they’ll calculate some wastage and that wastage doesn’t happen. So it’s not all fabric that was like overproduced on purpose or that was, you know, mistakes or, or damage.

It’s, kind of, a whole big mix of things. And, um, I think that it is a great way to get a lower price on a fabric that you would normally probably pay a lot more for. And, um, often it’s really, really beautiful, great quality fabric.

Helen: Yeah. I feel like the deadstock stuff that I see retailing in the sewing community is often very unique because it does come from these designers. So it’s not necessarily something you would buy from fabric, uh, wholesaler. It’s something that’s a little bit more special, a little bit more unique. Uh, not always, but a lot of the time when I see deadstock drops, I pay extra attention because I’m always curious to see what might be in there.

Caroline: Yeah, it is a little bit like thrift shopping, you know, the thrill of the hunt, and it’s a limited supply, or, like, if I don’t get this, now it might not show up again cause there’s really is a limited amount of it. So it’s pretty thrilling to shop for deadstock as a buyer myself, and also, I’m sure, as our customers getting to see it in our store and have to snap it up quickly.

Helen: Yes. Okay. So when you think about all of the steps it takes to make raw materials into fabric, you get more of a sense for how many people must be involved in this process. Many of the steps are done by people running machines now. However, some textile manufacturers still use traditional weaving techniques that require a lot of labour! Caroline, can you speak to this?

Caroline: Yeah. I wanted to use one of our suppliers as an example because we carry a lovely collection of handwoven cottons that are crafted using indigenous weaving techniques by skilled artisans in Bengal, India.

So our supplier works with over 300 skilled weavers from clusters in different villages around West Bengal with whom they have up to 30 years of working relationships. And these artisans are working out of their own homes. They’re skilled, and they rely on their extensive knowledge, which is often passed down between generations, to craft these fine fabrics.

And they are available in a wide range of colours and patterns. And they’re so, so beautiful and thoughtfully designed by the artisans who weave them. Each additional colour of yarn, especially darker colours, adds complexity to the weaving process so the weavers actually get to decide their rate based on the specific style being produced and the effort required to complete it.

So, for example, check designs require multiple weft shuttles to carry the different colours of yarn back and forth. And this means that this fabric is more labour intensive, as it takes more time to set up the loom and to weave the fabric. So, allowing artisans to set their own rates ensures that they are fairly compensated for the unique requirements of each design and can work at their own pace.

So, we love this supplier because they’re supporting these artisans and in turn supporting these communities and these families. We have a couple of articles on our blog about this process, where we even include some videos straight from our supplier. So I’m going to link that up in the show notes because it is so fascinating to see these incredibly skilled artisans weaving these fabrics. It’s just mesmerising.

Helen: Yes, and I absolutely love the end result, too. I’ve bought several of these handwoven textiles, and they’re a dream to work with, a dream to wear. You know, it’s got the print on both sides, like we were talking about earlier; that is a benefit and gorgeous colours.

And that’s so interesting about the complexity of the weave dictating the price point. I mean, it makes a lot of sense and I was thinking, checks being harder, like, what would be the easiest kind? Would it be, like, a vertical stripe?

Caroline: I am not an expert, but I would think that a vertical stripe would definitely be easier than a check or some, kind of, like, a plaid where you’re working with, like, several different colours. Um…

Helen: Wow.

Caroline: But yeah, the supplier does do stripes, as well, and some cool, kind of, like, textured ones as well. So such a, such a fun collection, and we’re always getting samples from them and, and adding new ones into our collection. Every few months, we place an order with a supplier, um, so look out for, um, I think we have a new drop out probably by the time this episode comes out. So,

Helen: Ooh!

Caroline: Very exciting. Okay, so we can’t have an episode about how fabric gets made without acknowledging the significant impact of the fashion industry on our people and planet. And textile production, in particular, concerns up and down the line, from labour exploitation to animal cruelty to environmental degradation. So we do want to touch on that in this episode.

Again, it’s a huge topic, and we could probably talk about it for several episodes. We could write a whole book about it, and there are some really interesting articles that we’ll link up in the show notes if you want to learn a little bit more about this, but we did want to talk about it today.

So, consumers are becoming more and more discerning about the origins of the products that they buy. And the sustainable fashion movement and events like Fashion Revolution Week encourage us to ask more questions and vote with our dollars, and I think this is so important. As sewists, though, it can be sometimes hard to get the answers we’re looking for.

And in my own experience as a fabric retailer, we’re so far down the line of companies involved in fabric production (and such a small customer in the grand scheme of the fashion industry!), that it can be hard to get clear – or any – information about whether a fabric was ethically produced.

Helen: Yeah. I can imagine that would be really challenging. Like, from the sewing community perspective, it seems like you’re a larger fabric company, but in the grand scheme of things in the fashion world, you’re tiny, tiny little fish in this big pond. So people aren’t always going to be jumping to answer your questions.

But one thing we can do, as citizens, is to ask for transparency. Fashion Revolution Week, as Caroline mentioned, is a yearly campaign that organises people to do just that. They have an action pack available on their website with information and actions you can take to make change in the fabric industry. We’ll link it in the show notes! Fashion Revolution Week is now, when this episode comes out. So we thought this was a great opportunity to promote this and to talk about it on the show.

Caroline: Yeah, and we can also try to support companies that show they care! Remember, we’re not striving for perfection (and honestly, I would be wary of any company or product that claims to be “completely sustainable” cause I don’t think that is actually possible). But what we can do is uplift and support companies that offer sustainable alternatives and strive for transparency in the supply chain whenever possible.

Helen: Yeah, and are focusing on continued education as well. I think that’s really important, um, sharing that with their consumers. And, like you said, offering really cool alternatives and just talking about it, being open to the conversation.

Another thing you can do is buy those deadstock fabrics we were talking about. Buy fabric secondhand or at estate sales, go to fabric swaps or purchase deadstock fabrics from the fabric store, or just use what you have. That’s one of the simplest things you can do, use what you have. You’ve already got it. And you can continue to sew with those materials that you have in your collection.

Caroline: And finally, we want to touch on another tool to consider, which is certifications. So Buying certified fabrics is one way to encourage change in the industry, but I will say, it’s not the perfect solution. So I wanted to dig into it for a sec…, even though, again, this is a huge topic, but let’s talk about it for a sec.

There are quite a few certifications available out there. Here are a few examples. There’s the Better Cotton Initiative. They have environmental and social standards to improve the impacts of cotton farming worldwide. There’s Global Organic Textile Standard (or “GOTS”), and that indicates that the product is organic through every stage of production. And then, Oeko-Tex certifies that a fabric is free from certain groups of harmful substances. That’s the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certification. Farmed fibres can also get certifications. So some examples are Fair Trade, which ensures workers are paid a fair wage in the poorest parts of the world; and USDA Organic, which ensures that farmers follow environmentally friendly organic farming practices.

Helen: Yes. Some certifications evaluate every step of the production process and some only evaluate the end product or a single stage, so that’s something to consider when you’re looking at these certifications.

And also to get certified, mills must submit an application to a textile certification body. The body will then prepare an estimate for the cost of the certification. If the mill wants to go ahead, they will sign a year-long contract with the certification body that will need to be renewed. And an auditor will come to inspect the mill and review the documentation. The audit is sent to a reviewer who will decide whether the mill passes or not.

So, all of that, as you can imagine, getting certified can be prohibitively expensive for a lot of smaller companies. So just because a company isn’t certified doesn’t mean the fabric is necessarily bad.

Caroline: Mhm, yeah, and, and it is so costly to get these certifications done. And it’s important to remember that a lot of that money is going towards these certification bodies that are often big, big companies. Um, so that money isn’t always necessarily going straight to the workers or, you know, the, the actual people that are manufacturing the fabric.

I also want to mention, like, being certified doesn’t always mean that a fabric is quote-unquote good. I would say that some certifications are more well-respected in the industry, while others are used as a way for companies to almost “greenwash” their products as they sell them to consumers to, kind of, tout this certification as being, you know, so great.

But, I think that if you see a certification listed on a fabric’s description, or even when you’re shopping around in stores, I always recommend looking it up to read about what the certification covers and whether it has been done by a trustworthy organisation and really understanding what it means, especially if that’s, what is, kind of, your deciding factor on whether to get a fabric or not. Like, understanding the meaning behind those certifications, I think, can be important.

But at the end of the day, you get to decide what’s important to you when selecting fabrics and deciding whether to consider certifications. Personally, if I’m buying a fabric where I have a connection or, like, a direct line to the maker, like in the case of the handwoven fabrics I spoke about earlier, I don’t mind if the fabric doesn’t have all the certifications, or any certifications, because I know I’m supporting artisans, and their families, through buying these fabrics.

So I think we all need to understand that we’re all, it’s a personal choice. We’re all going to make a decision that feels right for us. And do research if that is something that’s important to you.

Helen: Yeah. And there’s so many factors to consider, too, so you’re probably not gonna, you know, hit 100 on every point. Um, you might not have a win on everything you’re looking for when you’re looking for fabric, and that’s okay. I think it is, again, just about being open to the conversation and also doing some more research, like Caroline mentioned, and supporting companies that care. I think that’s really the main thing that you can, that you can do to have an impact.

Caroline: Yeah, and I also, uh, just, kind of, want to acknowledge that buying fabrics that are certified often means spending more money. You know, those fabrics are more costly, and that’s not always within reach for everybody. People have budgets and, and limitations to what they can spend on their hobbies. So I think it is important to recognize that, um, not everyone can afford to buy sustainable fabrics all the time, and I think that’s okay. I think that, um, you know, asking for more transparency, asking more questions when you can is important, but don’t judge other people for the fabric choices that they make cause you don’t ever know, like, what that person is experiencing or what their limitations are.

Helen: And at the end of the day, we’re all sewing our own clothes, so we’re all obviously open and interested in this subject and hopefully, interested in sustainability as a whole and moving forward to create a better world, so I think we’re on the same page there. And, like you said, it doesn’t have to involve a lot of judgement and what one person is doing over another person.

I love fabric. I’m sure our listeners love fabric, too. And fabric production is really complex, so we appreciate you coming along for the ride today. It involves a ton of people, more than a few companies, but as citizens and consumers, there are definitely things that we can continue to do to make it better. And we’re open to any feedback that you might have about this episode, so please reach out.

Caroline: Yeah, please do. We love having conversations about this kind of thing. Wow, Helen. That was, kind of, a wild ride. I feel like we covered a lot and at the same time, probably not enough. All the way from the rawest of raw materials to the finest of finished fabrics. And we really did only scratch the surface. There’s so much out there to learn.

So we want to know if this info intrigued you or was this episode way too nerdy for you? Let us know on social media or via email. Let us know if you have info that you want to share or questions that you want answered in the future. We’d love to dig in further into this topic someday. And thanks for listening.

Helen: Thanks!

That’s it for today’s episode of Love to Sew. You can find me, Helen, at HelensClosetPatterns.com and Caroline at BlackbirdFabrics.com! We’re recording in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

Caroline: Go to LoveToSewPodcast.com to find our show notes. They’re filled with links and pictures from this episode. And if you’d like to get in touch with us, send us an email at [email protected].

Helen: If you love, love, love Love to Sew and want more, you can sign up for our Patreon! For just $5 a month, you get a full-length bonus episode and weekly behind-the-scenes pictures. For $10 a month, you get all that PLUS a mini-episode focused on sewing techniques and 15% off codes for both Helen’s Closet and Blackbird Fabrics! Patreon is the best way to support us so that we can keep making quality sewing content. Go to patreon.com/LoveToSew, if you can, for more info.

Caroline: And thanks to our amazing podcast team. Lisa Ruiz is our creative assistant. Jordan Moore is our editor. And Margaret Wakelee is our transcriber. And thank you for listening. We’ll talk to you next week.

Helen: Buh-bye.

Caroline: The yarns are interlaced perpendic-, perpendicaly. Oh my gosh.

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Samantha (aka @purplesewingcloud) is a sewist known for her fun, colourful makes. In this episode, we chat with her about mixing prints, incorporating patchwork into garments, and how to make the sewing community more accessible. Sam also shares the design process for her handmade wedding dress, her personal accessibility strategies, and how to do foundation paper piecing.

The transcript for this episode is on this page at the end of the show notes.

Samantha’s Links: 

Samantha’s Creations: 

A post shared by Samantha (@purplesewingcloud)

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Sewing Patterns: 

Tools and Materials: 

Transcript:

Caroline: We are recording today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, including Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and K’ómoks first nations.

Helen: Hello, and welcome to Love to Sew. I’m Helen, the designer behind Helen’s Closet Patterns.

Caroline: And I’m Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics.

Helen: We’re two sewing buds who love to sew our own clothes and want to encourage you on your sewing journey, too.

Caroline: Join us for today’s interview with Samantha aka @PurpleSewingCloud.

Helen: Hello, Sam. Thank you so much for coming on the show today.

Sam: Thank you so much for having me. I’m very excited to chat with you both.

Helen: Oh, we’re so excited to chat with you, too. Can you please introduce yourself to our listeners?

Sam: I’m Sam or Samantha. Uh, I live in the UK, the Northeast, and I like to sew and craft.

Helen: Yes. You really do like to sew and craft. Very prolific in the community. Can you tell us how and when you learned how to sew?

Sam: So I sewed a little bit as a child. I did dancing, and my mum used to make costumes and things, and I used to help out, but I really got into sewing about five years ago. So, I had, um, a brain injury, um, or it was a brain infection, brain injury. And part of my recovery for that was learning some fine motor skills. Cause I’d been, like, I hadn’t moved for a long period, so my fine motor skills had, um, quite bad. So someone suggested sewing and that’s where it, and then I just never stopped. I started sewing and don’t think I’ve stopped since.

Helen: That’s so awesome. Do you remember what your first project was?

Sam: It was a unicorn hobby horse. I still have it. Um, it’s really good actually. I would hate to see what the inside looks like, but it’s, like, a, uh, unicorn’s head on a stick. Um, and he’s got a little gold bow in his hair. It’s really cute.

Helen: Oh my gosh. That is like the perfect first project for you, if I were to pick one for you. Unicorn head on a stick would be it.

Caroline: So I think a lot of our listeners would know you as Samantha from @PurpleSewingCloud. That’s your handle. So can you tell us where that comes from?

Sam: So Purple Sewing Cloud, it relates to when I was, cause I’d started sewing after my brain injury and I got, um, epilepsy from a brain injury, and the colour for that is purple. So it was, it all just tied together. And sewing was a space that, where I was going, that was away from all of the medical things that were happening in my life at the time. Um, and it still is, so it was just a space away from that. And it just, it, it just connected like that. So it was the little cloud, my little purple sewing cloud where it goes away from everything in the world, I guess.

Helen: Ah, it does sound like a beautiful fantasy land. I love your handle. So you started with this unicorn head on a stick. How did you get from there to garment sewing?

Sam: So when I was in hospital, um, recovering, I was watching all these YouTube videos and, like, sewing videos and sewing tutorials. Um, and there was someone sewing a dress, and I was like, I need to, I could sew a dress. Um, and then I went deep dive in and found all these pattern companies. And the first dress I ever made was the Fancy Tiger Crafts’ Fen Dress. And I still have it. And then I made, like, three, two or three of them. And then I just, I went out into the world and made all sorts of things.

Helen: Oh, amazing. I love hearing the entry point for people into the community, and the Fen Dress is a great place to start.

Sam: It was wonderful, and I think I made a couple of tops as well. Um, yeah, I love, and I still have the first one I made, and I still wear it as well. It’s not actually terrible, which is quite surprising.

Helen: That’s the first time we’ve ever heard that on this show.

Caroline: And when did you start your Instagram account and start, like, sharing with the sewing community?

Sam: It was probably about six months after I started sewing. It was a bit of a gap. And I think what, I’d gone other places like Facebook and forums and things looking for, like, somewhere to document and looking for a community.

And then I think I was very much drawn to Instagram because it felt more like it was me documenting everything I was doing and then finding all the people rather than, I don’t know, Facebook can be quite you’re looking at it, it just felt like a good place for me to be. And I hadn’t used Instagram at all before I set up the account. so I was very new.

I didn’t really do a lot of social media other than just family stuff on Facebook. So I was very new to it all, but it’s probably one of the best things about sewing, I’ve found now, the community on Instagram and other social networks, such a wonderful group of people.

Caroline: Yeah, we, we definitely tend to agree that we love the sewing community on Instagram, particularly. And you do share a lot, and your style is so fun and inspiring. And when I think of your makes, I think of the words pretty and colour and print, but I would love to know how you would describe your own personal style.

Sam: Um, I think it depends what mood I’m in, as well, like, per day. Um, I, I tend to, I always, when I’m looking for inspiration and stuff, I oh, drawn to children’s clothing. So I often think that my style is a bit like a toddler that’s been dressed by a crafty aunt with floral, frilly dresses and dungarees. That’s, I think, what, where about my style sits.

Helen: I just love it. It brings me so much joy and a part of that, too, is you’re great at photographing your makes and capturing that joy that you’re feeling while wearing them with your big smile. And I always appreciate your posts because they bring a smile to my face, too.

Sam: Aw, thank you so much.

Helen: How has your style evolved since you started sewing? Have you gotten even more adventurous with your, kind of, toddler chic dressing?

Sam: I definitely think so. Um, I think before I started sewing, what I was looking for in the shops, like, pattern and colour, I couldn’t really find. And when I look at my style before sewing, it was very much jeans and a t-shirt or jeans and a blouse. And I always wore a colourful scarf because that’s where I was finding my colour. And I was finding stuff in the shops wasn’t available in my size, the colourful prints and things like that. So I always wore a really colourful scarf, and I’ve not really, I’ve stopped wearing, like, scarfs since I started sewing. And I think that’s because I can wear colour on the clothes that I’m actually wearing.

Caroline: Yeah. Let’s talk about colour for a second because you do wear pretty much every colour in the rainbow now. And I wonder, like, have you, you know, you were saying that you were incorporating more colour, um, as you began sewing, but was that how it was at the beginning of your sewing journey? Or did you add more colour in as you got more comfortable with sewing and, and personal style?

Sam: I think it’s definitely, I did start sewing a lot of colours straight away, but it’s definitely increased, definitely over the few years, it’s increased and increased, and there’s been more and more colour, and they’ve got more vibrant and, yeah.

Caroline: Do you have a favourite colour?

Sam: I know people would probably think it’s purple because of my handle, um, my Instagram handle. It’s probably more pink, I think. I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s definitely my favourite colour though. I don’t. I just love all of the colours.

Helen: I hear you on that one. Pink was our guess. We were trying to speculate what you might say was your favourite. You wear a lot of pink, and I’m here for it. Do you have any advice for our listeners out there who want to add more vivid colour into their wardrobe?

Sam: I think you can definitely, you don’t have to go full on pink everything, pink dungarees. You could just do it in small details, and you could do it secretly as well as you gain confidence. So you could put, make the pocket linings really bright and colourful and then build up or just do it so that your top half is really colourful, and your bottom half is more neutral, like, blues.

Um, it’s, it’s definitely a process though. And I know there’s a lot of people that do you know, these, they do, like, the, they look at colour against the skin, um, and how it works with the tones in the skin. Um, it’s not something I’ve ever done, but it is something I’ve learned over the years that there are definitely colours that suit my skin more. And I think a lot of people get worried about the colours clashing with the skin as well, you know. I know there’s always people with more pink undertones that don’t really like to wear a lot of pink. Um, but it’s just trial and error as well, I think.

Helen: Yeah, that’s so true. And I love your tip about incorporating it secretly. You, kind of, dip your toes. And you also mix and match fabrics on the outside of your garments, too. You’ve mixed a lot of prints in some of your pieces. And you recently made the Friday Pattern Co Patina Blouse with a bunch of colourful, small florals. And we were wondering if you had any tips for choosing prints to mix and match within a garment.

Sam: My general rule of thumb is if it’s mainly florals, I’ll mix and match, but as long as there’s one colour the same across all the florals, like it could be a green or a pink or a red, if you’ve just got one colour that matches across all the florals, they tend to work. And it could be that they’re different brands, but usually, when they’re the same brand, as well, like, I wear a lot of Liberty florals, you’ll find that the colour palette’s very similar across all of the different florals. So if there’s a yellow, it might be repeated and a lot of the other florals, as well. So just pick out one colour and go from there. Well, I don’t think there’s any rules for matching florals up.

Caroline: Yeah. The more wild, the better, I think. Sometimes when you’re matching florals, just, you know, go crazy. Um, so do you have any favourite fabrics to sew with and wear?

Sam: Um, I definitely wear a lot of cotton and cotton lawn. Um, and I think they’re probably my favourites to sew and wear cause I just find them very comfortable and cool. I’m, like, a hot person. I’m always hot. So wearing cottons and linens is my favourite. Um, I’m not a big fan of wearing viscose. Um, I love sewing it, but I don’t like wearing it cause it’s, I always feel like it’s moving around on me a bit too much and shifting. So definitely more stable wovens.

Helen: And those are great for sewing, too, cause they just press so beautifully, and they’re easy to work with.

Sam: Yeah.

Helen: What about, um, quilting cotton? Do you ever use quilting cotton for your garments?

Sam: Definitely I’m I, I say I’m a big fan of it. And especially the new, some of the more new brands, they’re, they’re using a quilting cotton that’s much softer than older styles. Like, people like Ruby Star, their quilting cottons are really soft and light, and they work perfectly for garments. I think there is some garments that don’t necessarily work with quilting cottons, but usually, there is loads of patterns that work great with quilting cottons. I know the March Top, I’ve made that in quilting fabrics, and the structure just holds it really beautifully.

Helen: Yeah, it’s true. And I’ve been getting more into quilting lately and have been ordering some quilting fabrics. And I’ve been really impressed with, like you said, the, the softness of some of these new companies that are releasing these quilting cottons that don’t have that same starchy stiffness that I would have associated with a quilting cotton.

So it’s definitely worth exploring, especially if you enjoy wearing cotton, cotton lawn, and things like that.

Sam: Yeah. Yeah.

Caroline: I would say with quilting cotton, too, with the puffy sleeve trend that I personally love, and you seem to have hopped on that, too, Samantha, is quilting cotton really holds its shape nicely. So you really get that beautiful puff that you might not get from, like, a rayon or a linen even. Um, so it totally works for that kind of project.

So we just saw actually your recent post where you made a dress, a purple dress with silver sparkly stars on it. I think you called it the perfect New Year’s Eve dress. And we just have to ask, how did you get those stars on there? Cause that wasn’t on the original fabric, right?

Sam: No, no. Um, so I have a digital quilting machine, a Cricut, and they’re vinyl stars. So, and you just iron them on. It’s just, like, a heat transfer vinyl, and they’re just ironed on. It’s something I really want to play with more, like, using vinyl to decorate fabric and garments like that. I think there’s loads of room for, like, florals and things like that.

Helen: Uh, so, so cool. So do you use your Cricut a lot with your garment sewing projects?

Sam: Not really. Um, I use my Cricut for quilting things quite a lot, but not really for garment sewing. So it is something I’d like to investigate more and look into because the Cricut does cut fabric, as well. So I’ve used it for quilting things like making, you know, English paper piecing and making the little hexagons to sew together and things like that. So it does cut fabric, but there’s not a huge space for it to cut. Um, I do wonder if there’s more scope to use it for garment sewing.

Helen: It would be amazing if it could cut out your pattern for you, but I imagine it doesn’t have the surface area large enough to do that yet, right?

Sam: Big surface area is about 24 inches by 12. So, I mean, it could probably cut some underwear out on it.

Helen: Perfect. A swimsuit.

Sam: Yeah.

Helen: That’d be handy. Well, um, speaking of gathered sleeves earlier, you have done a lot of gathering with your makes, and we’ve seen so many gorgeous gathered skirts and ruffles and cuffs. And we were wondering if you had a favourite method for gathering that you’d like to share.

Sam: Um, I’m quite, I’ve tried loads of ways in the past. So zigzagging over, like, dental floss. Zigzagging over the thread and doing lots of rows of gathers. And if I’m honest, I prefer the very traditional three lines of gathers that are about between four and five millimetres. And what I like to do is grab my pins, put on something on the TV, and just sit on the sofa and pin, pin, pin. That’s my, my biggest advice on that really. Just take your time, pin, and put something on good to watch while you’re doing it.

Helen: Yeah. That’s great advice, like, distributing the gathers can take the most time, and I often find that I want to rush that process because I want to get that piece on there, but it’s cool to take the time and sit in front of the TV. I like that tip, and I do find that three rows yields better results than two. Although, I often go for two for speed.

Sam: Yeah. I think it depends where it is. On a sleeve, I usually do two. But if it’s a skirt, especially around the waist, I’ll do three, um…

Helen: Yeah. Longer distance.

Sam: Yeah. Yeah. I think it just depends on where it is and what the fabrics like as well. If the fabric is quite easy, like a cotton lawn, two sometimes works, but if it’s heavier like a linen, um, three is sometimes better.

Caroline: If you’re adding a ruffle or a skirt or tier to a garment, um, with gathers, how do you decide how much fabric to use? Like, for example, do you go with twice the length or 1.5 times the length, or do you just eyeball it? Do you have a magic formula?

Sam: I think it depends on the garment and the, the fabric I’m using. So if it’s a lighter fabric, I’ll go two to two and a half. If it’s something heavier, like, more like a quilting cotton, I’ll go maybe 1.5. It depends. And it depends on the width of the fabric as well sometimes. Cause if it’s quite a narrow fabric, I’ll just go to the width of the fabric.

Yeah. I don’t have a strict rule. It’s usually just, this is a really soft fabric, it’s going to look, it’s going to take a lot of gathers. I’ll do the, I’ll do it bigger. And then if I’m adding a gather to the skirt, a ruffle, I always use the same rule that I’ve done for the skirt that I’ve added it for. So if it’s 1.5, the ruffle that I add is always 1.5 or, um, yeah.

Helen: Yeah. And if the fabric is too narrow, for our listeners out there, you can always piece together multiple rectangles, too, to get the length that you need, but you do need a lot of fabric to do that, so that’s something to keep in mind.

Sam: Yeah, definitely.

Helen: Okay. I’m so excited to chat with you a little bit today about quilting because I know that you’ve incorporated some quilting into your garments, including your beautiful March Dress, that I just love. And quilted coats have also exploded in the sewing world, as well as the wider retail fashion world.

And you take it a step further because you’ve incorporated patchwork and quilting into coats, vests, jackets, dresses, and you make the patchwork yourself. You’re not using existing quilts for that. So can you describe some of the garments you’ve made that feature patchwork and quilting?

Sam: So I’ve made four different jackets, and I’ve used different techniques, as well, um, within the jackets, and then I’ve done the March Dress cause that’s wonderful, it’s got the facing. I think that’s about it’s mainly jackets and the dress. Yeah.

Helen: And how do you go about planning out the patchwork design for the garment? Are you making, like, a big quilted piece of patchwork and then cutting the fabric pieces out from there?

Sam: So if it’s a jacket or something, what I tend to do is make a few mini quilts. So there’ll be a little mini quilt for each sleeve and then a mini quilt for the back and a mini quilt for the front. Um, and then once it’s quilted, with the lining and the batting in, then I’ll cut it. I think that’s the biggest thing. Just if you’re doing that kind of thing is, make sure you cut it after you’ve quilted it because it will shrink and change size and it will distort as well, depending on which way your quilting’s going and what kind of quilting you’ve done.

Helen: Yeah. That’s a really good tip.

Caroline: Yeah. I’ve definitely made that mistake. And for some of your designs, like the floral patchwork panel on that beautiful March Dress, and you also made an amazing stitch-on, quilted, sewing room banner, you do foundation paper piecing. So can you describe what that is for us?

Sam: So there’s normal piecing where it’s, you cut out, it’ll say cut out two squares, two inches by two inches, and then you sew them together. With paper piecing, it’s a design that’s on paper and you’re stitching around the design on the paper. And you cut out lots of little bits and then, you stitch one, you’ll stitch one seam and then, you’ll trim. And then, you stitch the next seam and you’re following the design on the paper.

And it’s great for really intricate details because it’s very precise and there’s not much room to make errors off of the fabric to be, to distort or change shape. And it’s just, it’s, it’s a wonderful methodic task as well. So you’ll stitch one line. You’ll get the next bit of fabric square. You’ll pop that on. Then, you trim. And then you’ll stitch it on the line and then, you trim. It’s just a really wonderful methodical task.

Helen: It is mesmerising to watch as well. I’ve definitely watched videos of it, and it looks like a lot of fun. And it seems like you don’t necessarily need to precut all of your fabric pieces to the exact size. You’re, kind of, using slightly oversized pieces and then trimming them after, which is kind of nice, right?

Sam: Yeah. Yeah. And it’s really great for scraps, as well, because you don’t have to have an exact size. So, and it doesn’t have to be exactly on grade either. So, you know, if you’ve cut out something and it’s, like, a funny shaped triangle, um, there’s always space for that within a paper piecing type thing. So, yeah, it’s wonderful for tiny little scraps.

Caroline: Awesome. And do you know the difference between English paper piecing and foundation paper piecing?

Sam: So foundation paper piecing is when you’re using a design on paper and English paper piecing is what you would do is cut out lots of shapes in paper, and then you get some fabric and you sew the fabric around the paper, and then, you sew the little shapes that you’ve made together, and it’s generally done by hand.

Um, so when you see these quilts, it’s generally shapes that are really hard to sew together on a machine as well. So, like, hexagons and triangles and things like that. So when you see these quilts with, uh, tiny little hexagons all sewn together, they’re usually sewn together by hand and that’s how they do it. And then, once it’s all sewn together, they take out all the paper, and then, they’ll quit it.

Helen: Amazing. Yeah. I always think of English paper piecing as being exclusively hexagons, but it sounds like that’s not the case. You can make other shapes, too.

Sam: Yeah. Yeah. You can use any shapes. My paper piecing is generally hexagons is the popular shape. Um, but you can do, I’ve seen people do triangles, and they’ll mix the shapes as well to get another big shape. So they’ll, or diamonds, a lot of people use diamonds, and then, they’ll put them together to make a big star. So yeah, there’s loads of shapes people use, but there’s not…

Helen: Oh, cool.

Sam: …it’s not exclusive to difficult shapes either. People do do it with, like, just normal squares and things, because it’s a really lovely task to sit and do on the sofa.

Caroline: And with foundation paper piecing, is that also primarily sewn by hand? Or can you do that one on a machine?

Sam: That’s, that’s better on a machine, um, the foundation. And then the English paper piecing is by hand.

Helen: I really need to give foundation paper piecing a try because you can make the coolest things. Like, you can make full on art pieces, or it looks like it’s been painted almost because the pieces are so intricate, and it’s fun that there’s a guide that you’re following, so you don’t need to make design decisions. You just have to do the, kind of, paint by numbers with fabric.

Sam: That’s exactly it, and I’ve seen some incredible designs. Um, and Etsy is so wonderful for people that are looking for designs. Um, definitely check out Etsy, and you just search it. And there’s so many great designs, and I’ve seen people doing whole, like, designs and there’s some really cool ones. Um, I think the, the lady I’m thinking of all she does, like, I’ve made the banner by her in my bedroom. Um, I’m trying to remember a name now.

Oh, Happy Sew Lucky. And she does these really incredible tattoo inspired designs that are paper piecing, and I’ve seen people put them on the back of jackets. So it’s the whole panel on the back of the jacket. And it’s, like, two swallows holding, like, a little ribbon that can say, like, hope and love, and they just look incredible. So intricate.

Helen: Oh, that’s so cool. Yeah. It seems like it would lend itself well to, um, like, adorning existing garments or working into your sewing practice because you can just do a small piece, like a pocket or a yoke or the back of a jacket and focus on making that cool picture and not worry about making a giant quilted piece before you cut it out.

Sam: Yeah, definitely.

Caroline: So some of your patchwork is made of tiny, tiny little pieces, like the pockets on your quilted Ilford Jacket, which we’ll definitely link up to the show notes because it is so cool, and I wonder if you have any tips for handling and sewing these really small pieces of fabric?

Sam: Um, so my top tip is make sure it’s pressed. And I like to use, when they’re really tiny, I like to use something to stiffen them, so they don’t distort. And I’ll use, I use a vodka spray, so it’s, you can buy, there are ones that are available in shops and things that are, like, a starch based spray that you can spray on, and they just stiffen the fabric and make it so much easier to work with.

Um, another thing I like to do, um, on the pockets of my Ilford, what I actually did was sew little strips together, and then, once they were, the strips were sewn together, I cut them so that then they were even smaller, and then I can quilt them all together. So rather than it being a hundred tiny little squares, it was, like, maybe 10 strips that I sewed together. Then, I chopped them and sewed them up, sewed them together again.

Caroline: Oh my gosh. Okay. That is really cool. And what about, like, the patience aspect? Cause I feel like working with these tiny little squares must take a really, really long time. Um, do you have any tips for, I don’t know, just embracing that process and having that patience to tackle a big thing like this?

Sam: I think I find, I find it quite easily because I don’t have any distractions. I don’t have people that need me, um, very much. I don’t, or animals that need me or anything. So I just like to, I’ll sit at my machine. I’ll make it nice and comfortable, um, get everything I need. I’ll just have, rather than having a separate cutting area, I have a little cutting mat, you know, like, an A4 size that I’ll put on the desk next to me. And I’ll put on my laptop in the background with some good TV shows, and I just, I just get lost a little bit. Then, I go to my little purple sewing cloud.

Caroline: That’s awesome. Yeah, that, I also love to, like, really get settled in in my sewing room and take that extra 10 minutes to, like, set myself up with, like, the good show and the snack and the comfy chair and just, like, I’m in it for the long haul today. So that’s a great tip.

What about scraps? Cause I imagine, obviously, as a sewist, you also have a lot of scraps. Do you keep every tiny little piece just in case you have the urge to make, like, a teeny patchwork?

Sam: I do. Well, I don’t keep all my tiny pieces. So this is my rule, cause I sew with a lot of cotton as well, and I sew with quilting cottons. It’s great because then it’s not, like, separate materials for each hobby. So I’ll sew with cotton lawn and linen as well. They’re great to quilt with as well. And chambray and some light denims you can do patchwork with as well. So what my general rule is is if the pie-, if my piece is, say it’s a long strip, and it’s five inches wide, what I’ll do is I’ll go, once I’ve finished cutting out the garment, but I don’t just put the scraps to one side. I cut them down to squares. Um, and I’ve got, like, a massive pile of squares in my sewing room that are all four and a half inches square. And I keep, I’ve got a massive pile of them.

And then in the smaller bits, if there’s, like, bits that I’ve cut off, like, an inch long, an inch wide strip, that will be put to one side. And then, anything smaller than, like, maybe an inch or an inch and a half, um, I put in a bag, and that goes to a local crafting group. So, yeah, and, but then those squares that I’ve got one day, I’m going to make a giant quilt out of them that will be all of my garments together.

Helen: Genius.

Caroline: So cool.

Helen: I love this idea. It’s so smart to cut them down right away, too, because then that project won’t be so daunting when you do get around to doing it and just choosing a size and going with it. It doesn’t, you know, it doesn’t probably matter too much, four inch, six inches, whatever.

Sam: I think four and a half was just the size I thought, th-, that’s where my scraps, it was just a good size at the time. I don’t know why I chose it either. Um, and yeah, so they’re all just, I have a massive pile of them, and they’re in, I sometimes go in and put them in colour order.

Um, but one day I’m going to make a giant quilt out with them, and it will be all my garm-, it will be like a history of all of my garments, even, I guess there’ll be stuff in there that I don’t have anymore as well. Um, that I’ve donated to charity or, um, I’ve grown out of, so it will be lovely. It will be, like, a history of everything.

Helen: Aw, it will be so nice. It’ll also be very colourful. So do you have any special ways that you care for your quilted garments that you’ve made?

Sam: Um, no, this is a funny question, actually. Um, and it’s something I’ve, I’ve made quilts for people as gifts and especially jackets and things like, that have got quilting in them, um, like, the batting in them. So, um, the dress I made, the March Dress that has quilted, uh, has, like, a, a pieced panel down the front with flowers, it’s not really quilted; it’s just patchwork. So I don’t, there’s nothing special that I do with, there’s nothing special that I do with any of them. I just treat them the same as the fibres that are in them.

So they’re mainly cotton, and I’ll just wash them normally on the no-, on a normal wash, um, and then let them dry. There’s nothing special that you really need to do. When you’re doing patchwork and piecework, you tend to use a much smaller stitch as well. So they’re a little bit more stable than a normal jacket, I think because the stitches are so small, but there’s nothing that’s special I do. Um, I just washed them on a 30 degree wash, and some people tumble dry their quilts as well. Um, I don’t do that, but, um, cause I don’t have one, but the-, it makes them fluffier. Um, I just wash it normal. And then it dries. There’s no special care I really do because it’s just cotton.

Caroline: That’s good to know. And I love the look of a washed, like, quilted garment cause it, it does end up getting this, sort of, like, crinkly texture to it that I think is just so beautiful and just adds that, like, visual interest to the piece and makes it look a little bit more lived in. So it’s good to know that you’re not doing anything special and that you’re just washing them normally.

Sam: Yeah, I am. I made a quilted, some quilted cushions for some family that have a lot of significance, uh, emotional significance to us because they were made out of a relative that passed away. They were made out of their shirt. So I made, like, some little cushions for all of the siblings in the family. And I saw him recently, and he said he was really upset because someone had got food on one of the cushions and it was, like, quilted, and he was really upset about it cause it was, he was so attached to it, and I said, just pop it in the washer at 30. It’s fine. And he said to me, it won’t fall apart. And I was like, I hope not, I’m really, really, hope not, but yeah, just they’re very durable. I mean, if we look at quilts, we’re always tugging them about and things like that. So yeah. And if there is a little bit of stitching that comes apart somewhere, you can easily sew it back together. It’s not a, it’s no big deal.

Caroline: Yeah. Yeah. It’s true. It’s an opportunity for some cool, visible mending, maybe. Alright. Well, let’s switch gears for a second because you got engaged this past year. So first of all, congratulations.

Sam: Thank you so much. Thank you.

Caroline: That’s so exciting. And you mentioned on Instagram that you were considering making your own wedding dress. So are you still potentially planning on doing that?

Sam: Yes. Yes.

Caroline: Ahh! Oh my gosh. That is exciting.

Sam: Yeah. Yeah. I am so excited about the dress. It’s, um, all the rest of the wedding is sorted. So now I can just focus on the dress. Oh, and the five bridesmaids dresses.

Helen: Are you going to make those as well?

Sam: Yes, I am. Yeah.

Helen: Oh, wow.

Caroline: Oh, wow. You’re brave. That is amazing.

Helen: Okay. So tell us, do you have a vision for your dress and the bridesmaids dresses? Um, yes. So my bridesmaids are going to be in floral cottons, and they’re all going to be in a different print, so they’ll be like mini-me’s. And I also thought that was going, it’s going to be much easier to sew them something than traditional bridesmaid’s dresses are sewn in, like, chiffon and things. So I’m not, I’m not very worried about my bridesmaid’s dresses at all. So yeah, they’re going to be like little mini-me’s in floral dresses and with all different prints.

And then my dress is going to be, it’s funny that, I’m still in my design stage of the dress. So at the beginning, I was like, I want something very sophisticated and, you know, very simple. And as the process has gone on, it’s got very Disney princess with lots of ruffles and huge and yeah, and I’ve got some definite things that, um, I want with the dress.

So I don’t want anything floor length. It’s going to be more ankle. Because I went and tried on some dresses and I couldn’t walk in the floor length dresses, so I’m going to go, just go with ankle, and so it’s not touching the floor. And I want something with a little bit of a sleeve, so yeah, there’s definitely parts there. And the other thing is it’s not going to be white.

Helen: Ooh.

Sam: Yeah.

Helen: Is it going to be pink? Is it going to be pink?

Sam: You know, um, my partner, um, he said to me, he doesn’t want, if I start talking dress, wedding dresses, he usually, like, switches off. And he said, I don’t want to know. And then he said to me, he said, are you gonna look like a giant gorgeous pink blancmange, and I said, probably.

Helen: Probably.

Caroline: I love that.

Helen: Oh my gosh. I can imagine a pink, Disney princess wedding dress with the sleeve. I mean, I just can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Sam: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it it’s, it’s, kind of, got its final form, but occasionally I’ll go in and change a bit on the sleeve or I’m going to start quite soon, actually the process of starting to draft it all and make lots of toiles and see how it goes.

Helen: And when is the wedding?

Sam: June 202-, next year. So I’ve got, like, 16 months, I guess.

Helen: Okay.

Caroline: Okay. Whew.

Helen: Got some runway. When you said June, I almost, like, threw up a little bit.

Caroline: Too soon.

Sam: 2023.

Caroline: Yeah. Oh, my gosh. And are there any new techniques that you plan to learn in order to make your wedding dress?

Sam: So many. I think something that I really want to learn is, as part of the wedding dress making, and I’m going to do it, like, as a separate thing, I think, as, as a, make my muslins/toiles, I really want to do some understructure into the dress.

Um, so some, like, corsetry inside, like, a, hidden into the dress. Um, I’ve been looking at loads of couture sewing and things like that and seeing how, you know, these couture dresses are made, and there’s always, like, hidden boning and things in the dress. So that’s definitely something I’m looking at that’s going to be very new to me. I’ve not done boning or anything like that before, so yeah.

Caroline: Oh, very cool. And are there any resources that you’ve found that have been helpful, um, as you’re, kind of, planning this out?

Sam: Um, I think what are, the resources, I haven’t had anything specific that I’ve, like, when I’ve searched, you know, making your own wedding dress, there isn’t anything, any huge specific resources that I’ve found online. Um, have got an amazing book by Susan Khal-,

Caroline: Khalje.

Sam: And she’s been, she’s been on the podcast before, um…

Caroline: Yeah.

Sam: She has a Bridal Sew Your Own Bridal Couture Wedding Dress with loads of stuff in it all about it. Um, it’s a really old book though, and I couldn’t find a copy, um, on, when I was looking to, like, to buy a secondhand copy on eBay and places. They were so expensive, but I found on her website that she has it as an e-book. So I’ve downloaded it as an e-book, um, and it’s got it’s it’s going to be my Bible, I think, as I’m working through the wedding. Um, she’s got so many great tips in it.

And then the other resources have been more about couture sewing and historical dress sewing as well cause a lot of that, like, ties in with wedding dress sewing, like, things like, um, hand sewing hems and things like that. So, yeah, it’s a big, I think just the research part has taken me about six months, like, finding different techniques, and I’m also a type of, type of person that really struggles to start doing something, especially like making a dress that’s so important until I can fully visualise it. I want to be able to see it in my brain. And then I know I’m working towards rather than just plodding along and hoping something arrives at the end.

Helen: I think it’s smart to do a bunch of research and have a plan, but I’m sure things will evolve as you’re working on it, too, with all these new techniques. And like you said, you’re going to have to make quite a few toiles and give a few things to try, but it’s going to be an amazing project. I hope you take us along for the ride.

Sam: I definitely will be. Um, I’ll try and share as much as I can on Instagram and places like that, but yeah, it’s, it’s exciting.

Helen: Yeah. Are you going to do any, uh, other DIY stuff for your wedding?

Sam: Um, it’s already started. I’ve made all my save the dates. I used my, my, um, little Cricut machine to make all my save the dates. And there’ll be some banner-y type fabric things at the wedding as well. So one of the key things about the wedding that I want to have is, I don’t, I know often people get married and then afterwards they have boxes and boxes of stuff from the wedding, you know, like candle holders or things like that.

And I want to try and make sure everything that the wedding can either be recycled or used again. I don’t want any loads of stuff. And one of the things I was thinking about with, like, decorations in the hall, so we’ve, we’re using the local village hall. It’s for the, um, for afterwards, for the reception, and it’s quite a, it’s just a big white room. And what I’ve decided I’m going to do is. Just before the wedding, I’m going to go through my fabric and just pull out some nice lengths of floral fabric, and they’ll be hung in the hall. And then I’m going to make a quilt, as well, that will be hung on the wall that will have our initials on.

Helen: Aw.

Caroline: Aw. So nice.

Sam: Yeah. And then afterwards it will be a quilt that we’ll use. So I just don’t want loads of stuff. I’ve been collecting jars as well. That’s my other thing. And so on the tables, we’re just going to have little posies of flowers, and I’ve been collecting jars. And so after I’ve bought, after it’s emptied, I wash it out, put it to one side, so yeah. Yeah.

Helen: Ah, genius idea to use your fabric to just hang up on the walls because it’s obviously beautiful and colourful and very you, so what a great way to use your fabric and then get to use it again when you make something out of it.

Sam: Yeah. Yeah. And I just don’t want loads of waste, I think. And that’s my big thing, if, if it can be recycled, that’s fine. But yeah, I don’t want loads of waste or just loads of extra stuff. It’s something me and Richard just don’t like loads of extra stuff. So yeah, I’m just going to go through my fabric beforehand and that will be how the room is decorated, and there’s no colour limit or anything like that within this.

Helen: Of course not. Okay. Well, on your Instagram bio, you say that you’re trying to make the world of crafts and sewing more accessible, and we love that. We want to chat with you a bit about that today. Can you explain what accessibility is for our listeners?

Sam: So when I talk about accessibility and making it accessible, I’m talking about it in this perspective of people with disabilities and chronic illness.I know, for me, doing crafts and sewing has been so important for me, um, for my physical health, so learning to use my hands and my dexterity and help my grip and also my mental health. It’s been incredibly important.

But I also know people with disabilities, sewing and crafts, I really, can be really hard. So it’s important for me that there are spaces for everyone with disabilities and, um, chronic illnesses that they can find, find craf-, crafts that suit them and work for them. Or it might be that they used to do these crafts, but the disabilities have got to a point where they can’t do it anymore, but it sometimes is tools or the sewing machine that they can’t operate, but there is ways around it.

And making the world of sewing more accessible, um, is just so important for me that everybody has a chance to be able to do it or find a way around, you know, maybe pins that are too small, they can’t pick up. Finding a pin that suits their needs and suits their fingers is just incredibly important to me.

Caroline: Yeah, and, and it is so important. I think it should be important to everyone. And I wonder if you could tell us what makes a sewing related product or resource accessible.

Sam: Um, so there’s so many aspects of products and making them accessible. I think when people think of accessibility, they just think of a ramp at the door because that means you can get into the building and that makes it accessible, but there are so many more details, um, that make products accessible.

So if you look at something like a sewing pattern, it’s making sure the type and the fonts that you’ve used are really clear and easy to be read. Um, it’s making sure that you’re not using loads of text on top of images so that they’re still clear, and they’re easy, they can be read easily. Making the instructions simple and easy to understand and making the instructions available in all the formats as well, so if it’s available in a PDF format, that means that person might be able to use that with a larger screen reader.

So there’s lots and lots of aspects to think about. Um, and I think quite often people look at accessibility and they worry that it’s such a big thing, how do they make their products accessible? But the, the key thing is to talk to people in the disabled community and see what it is they need. I know I’ve spoken to a lot of disabled people, um, about, sewing patterns and one of the things that really helps them, because with chronic illness and disabilities, you might only be able to sew for a short period of time, um, before you’re in pain or you’re tired or you’ve got brain fog.

So something that really helps people with disabilities is making, like, a cheat sheet for the pattern. So it will be something that’s really simplified down into maybe a table format. So, it’ll be sew darts, but without all of the intricacies and then what they can do is tick it off as they’re going along. And then if they need more details on how to do the hem or how to attach the skirt, they can go into the actual instructions and do that, but they’ve just got this little cheat sheet on the side that’s wonderful.

I also think it’s a great thing for not just people with disabilities and chronic illness in the sewing community. It’s great for people that, well, there are humans that they’re looking after or people that are just maybe very short on time due to work. And then if they’re just grabbing 15 minutes at a time, they can go in and they can see where they are on their project, and they can go, right. I’m going to start here.

And it’s something I actually do when I start a new sewing pattern. I get my sewing book out and I’ll go through it and dissect it down step-by-step like that in really simplified format. And I put it in my notebook and then as I’m working through my project, I tick it off. But yeah, it would, it’s just simple things like that that can make the products more accessible.

I think, as well, with sewing patterns companies might look at them and be like, how can I make it more accessible for people with disabilities? And I think a lot of people with disabilities they’re using, like, wheelchairs or mobility aids, they already know patterns that are going to work for them, and they’ll know the adaptions they need to make for their patterns. So it’s things like they want the top to be more cropped so that when they’re in the wheelchair, it’s not bunching up across the tummy.

So there are those adaptions that people will already make. Um, so it’s not necessarily making the adaptions to the patterns, but it’s also showing the patterns on people with disabilities as well. If you ha, if you’re not using the disabled model, including seated photos, that’s a key part of accessibility. Show us seated photos of your new product in new patterns. A lot of people are spending most of the time sat down as well. So it’s a great little thing that you can add for accessibility.

Helen: Yeah. I love all of these tips, and it does benefit everyone, including the cheat sheet you talked about, which, of course, I’m adding to my list right now, things I want to do. That’s a great idea. I could see that coming in so handy and including seated photos and even things like sew-alongs so that people can take in information in other formats, like you said. That’s so helpful.

Sam: Yeah, like a little video. And then, I think, when you’re doing those kinds of little, add-ons making sure they’re accessible as well. So making sure you’ve got captions and that there’s no background noise so people can hear clearly. It’s just all those tiny little things that make your products more accessible. They aren’t necessarily designing up whole patterns just for someone in a, that’s using a wheelchair. It’s just those little details that make it accessible.

Caroline: Mm. And I know a lot of our listeners are, are not necessarily pattern designers. They’re just people in the sewing community. And I wonder if you have any thoughts on things that they can do to increase accessibility.

Sam: I think the key thing is if you’re using social media, make sure your page is accessible. So if you’re doing videos, make sure you’re using captions. If you’re taking a photo of your garment, again, include a seated photo. It’s just those little things that make you more accessible, as well, for, and then also, if you, if you see something that isn’t, if that you think that’s not accessible for someone with disabilities, speak to the pattern company, um, and let them know, you know.

Tell them that the fonts on their instructions aren’t easily read, or tell them that the lines on the pattern pieces is really hard to differentiate. There’s all those little, it’s just using your voice and speaking to people. And I often think with accessibility, it’s, it’s not that people are trying the hardest not to make it accessible. It’s just, they don’t realise the little changes that they need to make. Yeah. So it’s just using your voice and asking.

Like, it’s, whenever I see a pattern company on social media or somebody saying we’re going to shoot this new garment today. I’ll always just send them a little DM and say, oh, could we have some seated photos please? But just as a little reminder, and I mean, there’s been occasions where they’ve told me they can’t do seated photos which is mind boggling to me, but I will always just drop them a little DM and say, oh, could we have some seated photos? And I think the more voices they hear that people want these things, the more people are tending to do it.

Helen: Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. And you’ve also written a little bit about the ways that we interact within the community and things like not giving unsolicited fitting advice. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Sam: So, yeah, I think when we’re communicating within the sewing community, it’s important to realise that other people, that people with disabilities and chronic illness have different needs and the way they sew is going to be different. Um, so it might be that they’re, when they’re making a garment, they make fit adjustments to that garment to suit their body and their needs.

So they might put more ease in a certain area, which could look like the garment doesn’t fit how you think it should fit. And then you receive, you comment on that person to tell them you could make this fit adjustment, and it’s just make, considering the people are different and what they want out of their garments is going to be different.

And there’s also things that I see quite often in the sewing community, where people are like, you don’t need all these tools, you only need this and this. And I find that’s quite a difficult thing to say, especially to people that like, especially me, particularly, I use a lot of different sewing tools. Um, I love a gadget because it does make my sewing easier.

And it’s things like, you know, I’ll use, I’ll have, like, two or three different pairs of scissors, um, because the way that my hands are, they’re easier to hold and there are gadgets out there that make, mean sewing for someone with disabilities is easier. So it’s just considering those things when you’re telling people that they don’t need all these things, and it’s just consideration, I think.

Helen: Um, thinking about other people’s experiences and perspectives, and I think the unsolicited advice thing is really important in any space in the sewing community because we’re meant to be encouraging each other. And sometimes it can be very discouraging to receive unsolicited advice on a subject. So only give advice if you’re asked to.

Sam: Yeah. Yeah. Um, I, I sometimes say I’ll, I’ll do a video on Instagram or my Stories, and I’ll show the process, and people will sometimes say, like, come and give me advice on my process. I know this is something I see quite a lot mentioned in the community where I like the problem-solving part of my sewing. And if there if, if I do need advice, I usually go and ask or I’ll say only send me advice if we’re very close friends, and it just, it just because it’s, it’s part of the experience, isn’t it doing that problem solving?

Sometimes it’s like a little puzzle, um, pointing, you know, well, how do I make this little change and how do I make this little part work? And you might speak about it openly and publicly, but it’s not necessarily that, that you need the, the response or the answer. You’re just thinking out loud.

Helen: You also spearheaded an effort to get sewing machine companies to create accessibility information areas on their websites and even working with them on some accessible design features. What actions did you take to get that whole thing going? And how has it been going?

Sam: It’s been quite, it was quite a big process. And I just asked the sewing community, initially, it was, I wanted a new sewing machine. And when I was looking at sewing machine companies to find information about sewing with disabilities, there wasn’t a single thing out there. There was no, um, sections on the website. There was no blogs. There was nothing.

So I asked the sewing community, you know, I asked around to see if people in the sewing community if they knew of anything and nobody had any resources, and I just felt that there was a need for this resource. It’s, it’s so powerful and it could be life changing for someone with a disability, um, learning about a new feature that their machine doesn’t have that they could upgrade to and then they would be able to sew. It’s a huge deal.

I know just something as simple as having a knee lift on the machine can be life-changing for someone with disabilities or having a machine that doesn’t need to operate with a pedal. And it might just be that you didn’t know that those features were out there. So it was really important for me to get this information out, and the sewing community rallied around me and helped me make the sewing machine companies stand up and listen, and now they are, it’s taken awhile, but now these sections on the website are becoming available, and they’re so wonderful.

Helen: That is so cool. I just love this story so much. And did you speak directly with people at these companies in order to make these pages?

Sam: I did. Yeah. I’ve spoke with, um, I’ve worked with Benina to make these pages, and I’ve worked with Baby Lock as well. With Bernina, we’ve spent, we, me and the, um, educational team, spent hours collating all of these different features on the machines and accessories that would help people with disabilities sew.

And we also, they also used, did, they didn’t just take everything from me and my experience, they sought out other people with disabilities that sew and found features that they love and that help them. So, so yeah, it was a process of collating loads of people’s experience and putting it all into one place so that it’s accessible for everyone to be able to go and see that and find out things that they need.

And I know what’s been really amazing by these companies is they haven’t just thought, oh, we need to make information about accessibility available. They’ve gone much further. They’ve been, you know, we need to make our machines in the future, more accessible as well. How can we do that? What changes can we make with our machines? What features can we add? What accessories can we add? That will mean people with disabilities can sew easily. Um, so yeah, it’s been so wonderful and refreshing to hear companies come to me and say that. So yeah, hopefully, the world of sewing will just evolve and become more and more accessible.

Helen: Are there other companies or accounts or websites that might be a good example of accessibility for sewists that people can look to for guidance?

Sam: I mean, definitely the Bernina website. I would recommend that to anyone in the sewing community, as well, not just people with Bernina sewing machines. I think everyone can use that as a resource for their sewing, um, and they’re sewing machine, if they’ve got disabilities and chronic illness. There’s a lot of features that are going to be across lots of brands, um, like knee lifts and things like that. So I would definitely take a look at that.

And then there are different people that are in groups that are coming up and now starting to form like Sew Enabled and they’re collating loads of wonderful resources from lots of people within the sewing community. So, yeah, I don’t know if there’s anything super specific that I would, um, a su-, uh, a website, but Sew Enabled, they’re definitely doing loads of work.

And then there are different groups on Instagram and Facebook, which are usually lots of people with disabilities and chronic illness and they’re sharing their experience. So definitely have a look out for them. Um, I know there’s a few on Facebook, and then there’s some hashtags on Instagram as well that people like #ChronicallySewn and, um, #SewingDisabled where, that people use. And you can go in and find out, um, find friends with disabilities that are sewing. And that’s what, that’s how a lot of information is being shared still.

Caroline: Awesome. Well, we’ll make sure we link those people up in the show notes, so people listening can go and check them out. Before we move on, I wonder, is there anything else you would want to share or say on the subject of building a more accessible sewing community?

Sam: Um, I, I, I think there’s, at the moment, there’s, I can take so many aspects of the sewing community and see how improvements can be made. What I think the key thing is if you want to make your products more accessible, whether you’re a retail shop that’s selling sewing tools and you want to sell accessible sewing tools or you’re a sewing pattern company, and you want your products to be more accessible for people with disabilities, speak to people with disabilities.

Ask us what we want. Ask people what they need and what they, what they can do to help them. Ask them what their favourite tools are. It’s so important that our voices are used as part of what you’re doing, as part of accessibility, if you’re doing it. So, yeah, my, my key thing is speak to people and find out, find out what they need. Find out what you can do better.

Helen: That makes all the sense in the world. Thank you for sharing that. And we’d like to talk to you a little bit before we let you go for the day about your sewing practice and how it is affected by your ability levels. And you’ve written before about pacing. Can you tell us what is pacing?

Sam: So, I like to make sure my sewing tasks are broken down. I can’t, I mean, I was saying that I go to my little purple sewing cloud. Unfortunately it’s, it’s, it’s not great for my body. It can be quite demanding on your body, especially if you’re sewing a garment, you know. You’re up and down from your sewing machine, going to your ironing board and trying things on, pinning things. Or if you’re cutting things out, it’s a lot of movement.

So, I think it’s very important to, before I get to a point where I’ve burnt myself out from doing too much sewing, I regulate how much I’m sewing. So what I tend to do is I’ll set a timer. Depending on how my body is and how I’m feeling, I might set a timer for 15 minutes or an hour, and it depends on the task as well.

So if it’s something quite physical, like pressing a big fabric, I’ll just say, right, I can only do this for 15 minutes, and I’ll set a timer of 15 minutes. I’ll iron or sew for that 15 minutes, and then once the timer goes off, I stop what I’m doing. If you’re ironing, by the way, disclaimer, turn your iron off.

And I’ll just go and sit down for five minutes or 10 minutes until my body feels like it’s rested and recuperated. And then, uh, if I’m feeling well enough, I’ll do another 15 minute timer or another hour timer. It’s just checking on my body before I get to a point where I’m overtired and not fed or not watered enough.

Cause I find with sewing, you get sucked into, like, a bit of a vortex. I call it a sewing vortex, and you just, it’s like nothing exists around you. And for me, when that, when I’m in that place, I just ignore my body is all. I might have aches and pains, and I’m tired and fatigued, and I’m just ignoring it and thinking, I’m just sewing. Ignore that. Sewing’s my happy place. I’m staying here. I don’t want to, I don’t want to go and lie down and because I can’t see very well or I just, I just ignore it.

And then I start making lots of mistakes, and I start getting frustrated. And then I start not enjoying my sewing. So, yeah, it’s, it’s just making sure that I’ve got that little rule and the little set time. And once that time has ended, as I said, I can go back and do another timer or I can say, right. No, I’m actually tired. I’m just checking in on myself and seeing how I am and taking a little rest and having a little snack or a drink. Yeah. And that’s my sewing timer.

Caroline: I think that’s a great tip for anyone. I know I’ve certainly been in a situation before where I’m, like, sewing and you get into the zone and then all of a sudden you’re like, oh my gosh, everything hurts. You know? And so having that reminder to just, like, check in with your body, I think is, is, like, such a great tip for anyone that sews. I also wonder how you cope on the days that you’re not feeling well enough to sew. Like, do you have other hobbies that you turn to when, when sewing isn’t an option for you?

Sam: Yeah. I mean, it, I get so frustrated, if I’m honest, when I can’t sew, I crack because it is that place where I’m finding my joy and my happiness, and I’m escaping from the world and my illness. And, but there wis definitely days where I can’t sew. And what I tend to do on those days is just look at inspiration. I’ll grab my iPad, I’ll grab my notebook. And it might be that I’m planning a future make. So I’ll have a look on some, some fabric websites. I’ll open the pattern. I’ll dissect the pattern. I’ll write my little cheat sheet whilst, and I can do that whilst I’m resting, or I’ll sketch up some ideas for dresses or even quilts.

I’ll download a few, you can download, like, the, a lot of, with a lot of quilt companies that sell pat-, quilt patterns, you can download the, you know, the colouring in sheets. So I’ll colour in a quilt and get some inspiration around that, or I’ll design a little quilt for, that’s something that I could sew. Um, it’s taking your sewing practice and stepping it away from your sewing machine and just thinking about the other things that you can do, like, you know, like sketching up design ideas or looking at patterns and seeing how you can match them together to create a new garment, and yeah.

Caroline: And are there any other things you do to make sewing more accessible for yourself?

Sam: Um, I think my actual sewing practice there is, like the sewing timer and making sure I’m checking in on myself, I’ll do some stretches, um, if I’m finding I’m tight and, but then there’s things like making sure my desk is set up correctly. So making sure I’ve got good light, um, making sure my machine is in a good place and my chair is at a good height.

But I, I think that those, as well, are things that everybody should be doing because that can make a huge difference even without disabilities or chronic illness. Having good light and making sure your chair’s at the right height to your desk and just make, checking on your, the ergonomics of your sewing setup.

And then I think the other thing for me, for my sewing, is making the garments that are easy for me to wear. So I really struggle with zips because of my fingers. So I don’t put zips in garments because that means I can’t get them on myself. I’ll, a fly zip I can do, but like an invisible, I can’t, I just can’t do it.

And there was a point where I was making these, making garments and I was putting zips in because that’s what the instructions were telling me to do. But, I couldn’t put them on myself. Um, and I was having to ask people to help me get dressed or ask Rich to come and do my zip. And I know a lot of people find zips difficult, so what, so what my answer to that was, was just stop putting zips in things and trying to, like, hack the pattern to find, to make a way that it doesn’t need the zip.

Or I have some medical conditions that mean my tummy can, like, I can get quite a lot of bloat and really expand. Like, I can get an extra four inches over my waist measurement on certain days. So it’s making sure my garments fit me in lots of ways. And I think for people with disabilities, there is little, like, accessible things they do to make garments work for them. So they won’t do, they’ll make sure the buttons are always at the front, or they’ll not do buttons. They’ll do magnets or snaps or Velcro. So yeah, there’s, there’s lots of different things I do.

Helen: Lots of opportunities to listening to you talk for potential supplemental blog posts or videos we were talking about earlier about designers providing that kind of information on their sites and how great it is to include information for how to swap the zipper out for something else or to move the buttons from the back to the front and things like that. And giving people the instructions so that they feel like they can confidently make those alterations.

Sam: Yeah, definitely. Um, and, I mean, these things are quite often, I find them, I stumble across them on people’s blog posts where these things that, the hacks they’ve done, or I know a lot of sewing companies have these blogs where they’re doing the, showing hacks. Quite often, they’re making their garment more accessible, but it’s just not been viewed that way. So it’s great if companies can collate these as well and make it as a little accessible platform for people with disabilities.

Helen: Yeah. That’s a great idea. What about, um, products when you’re sewing or, like, tools, are there any specific tools you would recommend for sewists who may deal with similar symptoms to yours?

Sam: So, I mean, everyone with disabilities is different, but some of the disabilities I have obviously with my hands, and that’s what you working with most when sewing. So, for me, it’s things like using pins with large heads, um, and there’s different styles, if you ever look at pins, there’s hundreds of types of pins. It can be quite, um, like if you’re like, I need some new pins, it can be quite, um, uh, a thing when you go and look at these websites.

There’s, like, glass heads. There’s flat heads. There’s now some styles of pins that come out that are easy grip, and the flatheads have got quite large heads, but they’re flat, and they sometimes can be very difficult to grasp. The easy grip ones are, like, a shape and the much larger than a normal glass head style pin.

So, and then I am quite, I’ll adapt my tools as well. So I’ll get a bit, and there’s some stuff that you can get called Sugru, and it’s like plasticine that sets hard. And I have that wrapped around my seam ripper handle, so it’s easier for me to grip.

And then I use, Fiskars do a range of easy grip scissors, as well, that you don’t open them with your hands. They’re spring load, so they open in your hand. And then instead of opening them with your hands and then closing them, you’re just closing them with your hands. And then they come back open cause they’re spring loaded.

Um, my newest access-, well it’s not an accessible tool, it’s just a tool that I’ve found has helped me, um, which is quite often with tools and things like that, um, that people with disabilities, they’re not designed for people with disabilities to make them more accessible. They’re just designed really well, and it means that they’re great for people with disabilities.

So I recently got this, um, I think it’s a magnetic pin dish, but when you put your pins on it, they, like, spread out, and they automatically go so that the heads of the pins just hang off the edge of the pin dish.

Helen: Ah! What?

Sam: And it’s been a game changer cause I’m not, like, I, cause my grip is quite funny, and I can’t always find things with my fingers. I can just, the pins are just automatically, they’re, like, in exactly where I need them, and I’m not stabbing myself. It’s been a game changer.

Caroline: I’ve seen that product. It’s very cool. It’s like magic. You can like throw a bunch of pins at it, and it’ll just place them in exactly the right way. And I’m like how? I don’t understand, but it’s very, very cool.

Sam: I got a magnet recently on a telescopic stick. That has been game-changing, as well, cause if I drop pins, I don’t have to bend over to try and get them, which I find really hard. I can just, I’ve just got my stick and I just go around the floor in my sewing room and pick them all up.

Caroline: Oh, that’s so useful. And in, um, college, I studied fashion design, and we had a teacher who had one of those and she would keep it, like, in her back pocket. And if someone would knock over their pins, she would just come over and, like, like, whip it out, and, like, clean up all the pins. It was this, like, magical magnet stick. Um, that, that is very, very cool to have around your sewing room.

Okay. We just have a couple more questions before we wrap up. I want to know what you’re working on right now. Do you have any fun projects that you’re juggling at the moment?

Sam: I’m working on another quilted jacket.

Helen: Ooh.

Sam: Well, this, I found this little shop near me and they were selling pre-pieced patchwork fabric. So it’s fabric that they’ve, that somebody, I, I’m guessing it’s been done by hand by someone, but they were huge bits of fabric that are, like, patchwork, but they’re pre-pieced. So I’m making a jacket with that, and I don’t have to piece it all, but it’s not quilted either. It’s overlocked on the back. So all of the little bits of fabric overlock, so you could make, you could make dresses and things out of it, but I’m making a little jacket out of it and it’s, like, lilac colours.

So yeah, that’s my current project, and I’ve been doing something really fun with the quilting. So there’s different type of quilting styles you can do. So you can do straight lines and zigzags and wavy lines and there’s something called free motion quilting, which is, like, your’re normally, you know, the fabric is, your machine takes it through.

But with free motion quilting, you’re turning off your feed dogs, and you’re actually moving the fabric. So you can do, like, pictures and things with it, I guess. And I’m doing some, like, really cool, like, squiggly, swirly lines all over the jacket. So yeah, that’s my current project.

Helen: Oh, so fun. I really want to try free motion quilting. I’ve seen people have, like, these cute little gloves that they wear to, to make your fingers stickier.

Sam: Yes. Yeah. They’re really good.

Helen: Oh, it looks like so much fun. Well, cool. We can’t wait to see that. And, in addition, your wedding dress that you’re working on. You’re going to be busy this year.

Sam: Yeah. It’s going to be a big one.

Caroline: Alright. Well, tell our listeners where they can find you online.

Sam: So you can find me on Instagram @PurpleSewingCloud, on YouTube @PurpleSewingCloud, and there is an old blog somewhere that’s Purple Sewing Cloud that I should probably go and update.

Helen: No presh.

Caroline: Awesome. Well, we will link all of that up in the show notes. Thank you so much for chatting with us today, Sam. It’s been amazing.

Sam: It’s been really lovely chatting with you both as well. Thank you so much for having me.

Caroline: Of course.

Helen: Take care.

Caroline: Thanks for coming on the show.

Helen: Bye.

Caroline: That’s it for today’s episode of Love to Sew. You can find me, Caroline, at BlackbirdFabrics.com and Helen at HelensClosetPatterns.com! We’re recording in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

Helen: Head to LoveToSewPodcast.com to find our show notes. They’re filled with links and pictures from this episode. And if you’d like to get in touch with us, send us an email at [email protected].

Caroline: If you love Love and want more, you can sign up for our you can sign up for our Patreon! For $5 a month, you get a full-length bonus episode and weekly behind-the-scenes pics. For $10 a month, you’ll get that PLUS a mini-episode focused on sewing techniques and 15% off codes for both Helen’s Closet and Blackbird Fabrics! It’s a great deal, y’all. Patreon is the best way to support us so that we can keep making quality sewing content. Go to patreon.com/LoveToSew, for more info.

Helen: Thanks to our amazing podcast team.Lisa Ruiz is our creative assistant. Jordan Moore is our editor. And Margaret Wakelee is our transcriber. And thank you for listening. We’ll talk to you next week.

Caroline: Bye.

Helen: Buh-bye.

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Take your sewing to the next level by learning how to draft patterns! In this episode, we list the materials you need, give you an overview of the drafting process, and share resources to help you learn this skill. Also, Helen tells the story of her business, Helen’s Closet Patterns!

The transcript for this episode is on this page at the end of the show notes.

Listener Feedback:

Photographed by Sara Haines

Previous Episodes Mentioned:

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Transcript:

Helen: We are recording today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, including Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and K’ómoks first nations.

Caroline: Hello, and welcome to Love to Sew. I’m Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics.

Helen: And I’m Helen, the designer behind Helen’s Closet Patterns.

Caroline: We’re two sewing buds who love to sew our own clothes and want to encourage you on your sewing journey, too.

Helen: Join us for today’s topic: Getting Started with Pattern Drafting.

Caroline: Hi, Helen.

Helen: Hi, Caroline.

Caroline: How are you?

Helen: I am doing so good. I’m so excited for today’s topic. It’s gonna be amazing to introduce some of our listeners to the magic of pattern drafting.

Caroline: Yeah. This topic is right up your alley, and I’m really excited to dig in and learn more. I think you’re gonna be the guide, and I’m gonna be the… What’s the right word? Learner.

Helen: Learn-ee.

Caroline: Learn-ee. It’s gonna be fun though.

Helen: Yes. I think it’s going to be very fun. I will try to be the guide. Pattern drafting is, honestly, still pretty new to me. We have a pattern drafter for Helen’s Closet, so I don’t draft the patterns myself for the business. I have in the past, and I’ve learned how to, at the start of my business, but I’ve since handed it off to the pros. But I’m really excited to share what I know plus all of the amazing research that our assistant Lisa has done for this episode. So, hopefully, it’s gonna be a good intro point for anyone out there who’s interested in learning how to draft patterns.

Caroline: Yeah, and, okay, Helen, I think you’re not giving yourself enough credit because you’ve been working with patterns for a pretty long time. You sew so much. You try out all kinds of patterns from all different companies, and you stare at patterns all day long with your company. So I think that, like, while maybe you don’t draft patterns very often, you’re pretty familiar with the topic, I would say.

Helen: That’s true. I have intimate knowledge of patterns. We’ll put it that way.

Caroline: Yeah. Okay. Well, before we dive in, we have some listener mail from Mara:

“Hi, Helen and Caroline. I made my own wedding dress last year, and I’m shamelessly obsessed. I attached a photo. There are almost zero resources in the sewing world for making your own wedding dress, especially a formal one with a lot of structure. During my research phase, I used blogs and YouTube channels about wedding dress alterations to learn how they are constructed and what works and what doesn’t. The blog Fit for a Queen was my favourite – her blog is an absolute roast of modern wedding dress design and workmanship. I think it’s cool that she makes alterations in such a way to preserve seam allowances, etc. for ‘the next bride.’ After the wedding as I preserved my own dress, I learned some tips from a gown preservation company that I desperately wish I had known beforehand. I had to deconstruct some layers of the dress and put it back together in order to pack it away. If I had known before, I would have made those layers more easily removable.

“My dress used the Orange Lingerie Esplanade Bra as the basis for the bodice front, with a self drafted bodice back and a HUGE circle skirt with a train. The bodice has 5 layers – bra foam cups, then silk habotai, 2 layers of bra tulle, and 1 layer of appliquéd lace. The skirt has 6 layers – silk habotai, 2 layers of stiff netting, 2 layers of garment tulle, and 1 layer of appliquéd lace. There’s much more to its story, but I’ll stop there!

“Anyway, I wanted to add Dharma Trading Co as an excellent source for silk in many different weaves. They stock a few solid colours now, but since they’re largely focused as a supplier for textile artists, most come in solid white to allow for dyeing and painting. Their prices are always better than typical fabric stores, but they put a lot of research into their fabrics. They can also send a swatch kit which is a great way to compare weaves and learn about the weight and opacity.”

Mara included a photo of her wedding dress. It is absolutely stunning. So thank you so much for your email, Mara.

Helen: Yes. Thank you, Mara. It is so beautiful. We’ll put it in the show notes. I think this is, kind of, like, my dream wedding dress. Like, I want this exact dress.

Caroline: Yeah, mhm.

Helen: So, so, so pretty, uh, the lace, the tulle.

Caroline: I know! The lace and all the layers. I’m sure the resources, uh, you shared, Mara, will also be very helpful for our listeners wanting to make a wedding dress or other formal gowns. So we’re gonna link up, um, those websites in the show notes, as well. And you have to just go and look at this photo. It’s absolutely beautiful.

Helen: Okay. Are you ready to get to the show, Caroline?

Caroline: I am ready. I have my coffee. I have my stress ball. I’m ready.

Helen: Hopefully, it won’t be too, too stressful. We’re just talking about pattern drafting. We’re not actually doing it today.

Caroline: Oh, no. This stress ball is so that I don’t constantly flail my hands while I’m talking, Helen.

Helen: Right. Of course. Well, pattern drafting is a big and rather complicated topic, but we get messages all the time from people who are interested in drafting their own patterns instead of buying commercial patterns. But why would you want to do that?

Caroline: That is a great question, Helen. Pattern drafting is a great way to level up your sewing abilities. You can make custom designs that fit you perfectly, and it expands your ability to be creative with your sewing. You’re not limited by the patterns that already exist. You can make your dream designs to your own proportions.

Helen: Yeah. So we prepared this episode with home sewists in mind, people who want to make sewing patterns for their personal use, not necessarily people looking to become professional pattern designers. However, all the info in here may be a great starting place for those people, too.

Caroline: And we’re not gonna be talking about draping today. This is a separate skill set. In fashion design programs, draping and flat pattern drafting are completely different courses, so we will not be covering that today.

Helen: Maybe a future episode on draping.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Now, there’s a topic I know nothing about.

Caroline: I have a very limited knowledge of draping from when I went to fashion school.

Helen: Yeah. One last thing before we start, I just wanna say that you can totally do this. Just because pattern drafting isn’t a common skill doesn’t mean that you can’t learn to do it and do it really well.

Caroline: So, so true. I hope that at the end of this, I’m gonna feel like I can draft myself a pattern.

Helen: You definitely will. Okay. One caveat, maybe several caveats. Just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean that you want to do it. So let’s really take some time to consider: is pattern drafting right for you?

First of all, ask yourself: do you find that you need a lot of adjustments to make commercial patterns work? If your proportions or size are outside the scope of most patterns, you’ll probably get a lot of benefit out of the time that you put into pattern drafting. All the adjustments and grading that you usually need to do to make a pattern fit well will be built into the pattern from the start if you draft it for your own body.

Caroline: Mhm. Another question you can ask yourself is: do you like tailored garments that fit really well? Drafting your own patterns can give you the close fit that you want, and the commercial patterns that need the most adjustments are the ones that lay close to the body. So drafting a pattern for this kind of garment might actually be a similar amount of work to adjusting and fitting a commercial pattern for some people.

And if you prefer a loose or relaxed silhouette, it might not be worth it to learn drafting. The stuff you would draft would fit similarly to sewing patterns, like commercial sewing patterns. And in this case, pattern hacking can save you a lot of time and sweat, maybe some tears. It’s, kind of, like, drafting lite. So pattern hacking is a totally valid way to, kind of, put your own spin on a pattern without getting deep into drafting.

Helen: Totally. Next question: do you find math, puzzles, and design fun and rewarding? We hear from sewists sometimes who love the engineering aspect of sewing and drafting. They enjoy working out how to transform flat material into a three-dimensional object. And there is a fair amount of math in pattern drafting. Fair amount is, like, lite.

There’s a lot of math in pattern drafting, not super complex math, but it’s still math. If the thought of doing a bit of geometry makes you feel, kind of, queasy, that’s a factor to consider if you are trying to decide whether or not drafting is for you. And if the thought of a bit of geometry makes you feel really excited, that’s a good sign that you might want to take on pattern drafting.

Caroline: Mhm, and there are pros and cons to drafting your own patterns. So let’s go through some of those, Helen. First up, a pro, is that the patterns you draft are made to your unique measurements, so you don’t need to wait for pattern companies to make things in your size or your proportions.

Helen: And a con is that it usually takes a lot more time and energy than sewing from commercial patterns. Not only do you have to learn how pattern drafting works, but you also have to go through a bunch of steps to transform your slopers to even a simple garment, like, an A Line shift dress. A button down shirt or a jeans pattern would take even more time and effort.

Caroline: Another pro is that you have total control over the design of your pattern. It doesn’t matter if there’s no pattern out there that matches what you have in mind. If you can dream it, you can make it yourself.

Helen: Another con. I’m doing all cons.

Caroline: I feel like, Helen, you’re being a real downer right now.

Helen: I’m sorry, I’m being so negative. It’s just, I’m very elitist when it comes to pattern drafting, and I don’t want anyone else to do it.

Caroline: Okay, how about I take this con and then you can take some pros?

Helen: Thank you.

Caroline: Another con is that it may take some financial resources to learn and use your pattern drafting skills. You’re gonna need books, classes, and tutorials to learn from. These could be free or low cost, but if you want more support, you might end up taking a more expensive class where you can communicate with a teacher. You’re also gonna need supplies. We’re gonna talk about supplies more soon.

Helen: Yes. A pro is that drafting and testing outfit is usually very low stakes. You’re just playing around and experimenting. No precious fabric is being used, and it can be really fun to just play around and have fun with that design process and not have that, like, high stakes of the fashion fabric involved.

Caroline: Yeah, totally. A con is that you will not escape making muslins and doing fit adjustments, if you draft your own patterns. In fact, you will probably make more. And this is just a normal part of the process of making a garment that looks just how you like it. Using your own measurements may save you from hav-, making a lot of dramatic fit adjustments, but there’s still probably going to be style adjustments and small fit adjustments you’re going to need to make. And this is especially true when you’re just getting started with drafting.

Helen: And now for the final pro: drafting your own patterns can be very rewarding. As sewists, we know how satisfying it is to make something from start to finish. Learning to draft your own patterns totally brings that to another level. It’s, like, making an amazing salad, but you also grew the vegetables yourself. Full on.

Caroline: Love that.

Helen: It’s my dream.

Caroline: Okay. We also wanna note something before we go on. Drafting resources like books, tutorials, and even classes are very gendered. Most drafting materials associate women with one body shape, and men with another body shape, and they don’t even mention or acknowledge people that are neither gender.

Ideally, there would be more resources that would, for example, say dartless shirt instead of men’s shirt because men are not the only people who might need or want a shirt that’s flat across the chest. We discussed this a lot with Emilia Bergoglio in Episode 188. So if you’d like to learn more about degendering fashion, check that one out. And we really hope there will be more drafting resources in the future that don’t divide this knowledge along binary gendered lines.

Helen: Yes, that would be amazing. Sometimes you even have to buy separate books for men’s or women’s wear. It’s, like, everything is so…

Caroline: Ridiculous.

Helen: …binary. So that can be a little intense.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Okay. Let’s start by talking terms. What is pattern drafting? Pattern drafting is, fundamentally, making a plan to fit flat materials around a three-dimensional form, and that form is your body.

Caroline: And most pattern makers work from slopers or blocks. So sloper and block are usually interchangeable terms. There are some people out there who will define them a bit differently, but they can’t seem to agree on the difference. So in this episode, we’re just gonna call them slopers. A sloper is a basic pattern with no design features, minimal ease, and no seam allowance.

Ease is the extra width and length added to a pattern so that you can move around in your clothes. So to make a specific pattern, a pattern maker makes design adjustments to a sloper. For example, to make a mini skirt, a pattern maker would trace off a skirt sloper and make changes for length, closures, pockets, et cetera. And then they would add seam allowance, and it would be ready for the muslin stage.

Helen: Yeah. And the core slopers are the skirt sloper, bodice sloper, pants sloper, and sleeve sloper. From these four slopers, you can make so many different styles, but those aren’t the only slopers you can make. You can also make a tailored jacket sloper, a coat sloper, a legging sloper, a knit bodice sloper, and more.

Caroline: And you’re gonna need different slopes for woven and knit fabrics. Knit fabrics stretch, so they will have different ease requirements, and they usually don’t need as much shaping as woven fabrics.

Helen: Yes. So you don’t see a lot of t-shirts with, like, eight darts in them, you know?

Caroline: Yeah. That would be a pain to sew.

Helen: There’s one more term you might come across in pattern making that is related to slopers, and that is moulage. Love this word. A moulage is a pattern that is precisely fitted from neck to hips. There is no ease in a moulage. Some people use a moulage to draft a sloper by adding some ease to it. It’s up to you whether you want to make one. It’s a very interesting experience to make your body double in fabric. Amy from Cloth Habit made a moulage and wrote about her experience. We’ll link a blog post of that in the show notes.

In my opinion, you don’t really need to make a moulage to make great patterns. If you think it’s interesting or you’d like to go couture level in your pattern making, then go for it. Um, but if you’re just getting started, I think a sloper is where you wanna start.

Caroline: Mhm. Agreed. Okay, let’s talk about tools. We’re gonna assume that you have regular sewing tools like pins and fabric scissors, so we won’t name those. But we’ll start with some must-have tools and move on to nice-to-have tools. So on the must-have list: a large surface. A big table or kitchen island is helpful. If you’re spry, a stretch of floor works. If you’re in a small space, a sturdy folding table is a possibility.

Helen: Yes, you also will need paper. You’ll either need tracing paper or a transferring method, like dressmaker’s carbon paper and a tracing wheel. For your slopers and final patterns, you’ll probably want a sturdier paper, like brown craft paper, or maybe you can find a roll of, like, just plain white paper.

Oftentimes if you go to Staples, you might be able to find these kinds of things. And when you’re just getting started, use what you can. You know, use your, your parchment paper in your kitchen drawer, if you need to. It’s okay. You don’t need anything fancy. Just give it a try.

Caroline: Mhm, and then rulers and curves. A metre or yard stick and a tailor square. The vast majority of us will need curved rulers to draw smooth curves, and that is okay. A French curve and a hip curve are good to have. There are also combinations of the two you can buy that are called design curves. And alternatively, you could use a flexible ruler. This is great for marking out curves and measuring them at the same time. You’ll want the kind that will hold its shape when you bend it.

Helen: Yeah. I have a little flexible ruler, and I really like it for quick measuring of curves. Super handy. You’re gonna need paper scissors. Don’t use your fabric scissors, please, and get yourself a good pair of paper scissors that feels comfortable in your hand, especially if you are left-handed. Get some left-handed scissors.

Caroline: Yeah, you’re gonna be cutting a lot of paper with pattern making. You’re gonna need marking tools, a pencil and eraser to draw out your pattern. It’s really nice to have coloured pencils for pattern changes, too, so you don’t get confused by which line is which. You’ll also need a marking tool for marking your muslin. If it’s not a wearable muslin, you can use a regular pen or marker. But if it is a wearable muslin, use a marking tool that’s removable on the fabric you’re using.

Helen: You’ll need plenty of tape as well. When you’re making style changes, you’ll be cutting into your pattern, moving it around, taping it back together. So make sure you get yourself a tape, and a tape dispenser is really handy as well.

Caroline: Measuring tape. So it’s a good idea to remeasure your measuring tape every once in a while. Hold it up against a metre stick or yard stick to make sure it hasn’t stretched out.

Helen: Pattern weights are essential as well. These can be big metal washers, soup cans, cutlery. Whatever you want to hold your paper and fabric while you’re working. Of course, cute, specially made pattern weights are nice, too. There’s lots of those on Etsy, if you’re looking to invest in something.

Caroline: Mhm, and some fun DIYs online, too, if you wanted to make your own. Then you’re gonna need muslin fabric. So this doesn’t have to be fabric made specifically for muslins, but it can be nice to have a bolt of that around. It’s important to try and match the weight and stretch percentage of the fashion fabric you want for the final garment.

Helen: Yes, and I like having a bolt of muslin. Once you find one that you like, if you can get your hands on a bolt of it, because then it’s consistent, and you know what you’re working with. And if you’re using a different fabric for each different muslin or sloper you’re making, you are going to get slightly different results. So it’s important, I think, to use consistent fabric if you’re getting deep into the pattern drafting process. I buy bolts of muslin from HomeTex, and we’ll link that up in the show notes.

Caroline: Okay, on the nice-to-have list, do you wanna start us off, Helen?

Helen: Sure. Nice to have is a pattern notcher. A pattern notcher cuts out thin, little rectangles of paper. You can use this to mark seam allowance, centre lines, front and back of a pattern, and, of course, the little notches on the edge.

Caroline: I love my pattern notcher. Okay. An awl is really nice to have as well. An awl is a pointy, metal tool that’s used to make holes, and pattern makers usually use awls to mark dart points and pocket, trim, and button hole placements. So these are really handy to have around if you don’t wanna, like, use a pin or something and, like, struggle with that.

Helen: Yeah, or just, like, jam your finger through the pattern to make a hole, but you have to mark through.

Caroline: Or, like, a pencil. I’ve done it all.

Helen: Totally. A Simflex gauge is another really fun tool. This is a metal tool with points and it, kind of, expands and contracts to make the same distance between each point. They’re really handy for marking buttonholes, pleats, and tucks. They look, kind of, like, a garden trellis or like a wine holder.

Caroline: I have one of those, and it’s really rude because it doesn’t, it’s not actually even in between the points, like, something is off with the, like, calibration of it. So, like, near the edges, it’s, like, further apart than in the middle. And yeah, just wanna mention, measure in between your points to make sure that it’s accurate cause mine is not.

Helen: Get yourself, like a, a brand name one or quality one.

Caroline: Like, good quality one. Yeah. I probably got it in the bargain bin. Let’s be real. Um, okay, software is also something that you might want to invest in that would be nice to have. So you can absolutely draft patterns with pencil and paper, but there are some advantages to using software and making digital patterns.

You’re gonna be manipulating your slopers digitally, so it’s easier to make changes and then reverse them. You won’t have to retrace your pattern every time you make a change. If you have dreams of becoming a commercial pattern designer, you’re probably gonna wanna get familiar pattern making software.

Helen: Yeah. So when you’re looking at software programs, you might come across the term CAD software, C-A-D. CAD means computer aided drafting. It’s not Canadian currency. Sometimes computer aided design. This means that the program has features that are specifically for pattern drafting, as opposed to something like Adobe Illustrator, which is a vector graphic software that can be used to draw anything, like, mathematically correct, but it doesn’t go that extra distance to make it three-dimensional.

Although there are some tools in Illustrator that allow you to, like, add dimension to things, but I won’t get into that. Illustrator’s not necessarily the place to do pattern drafting. It’s easier to do it in a specific pattern drafting CAD program.

Caroline: Okay, so here are two of the CAD programs that we’re familiar with. And by we, I mean, not me, Helen.

Helen: These are the two that I have heard referenced a lot because they are relatively affordable entry points for people, especially just those of us who wanna play around with pattern drafting and not necessarily invest, you know, hundreds or thousands of dollars in software.

Caroline: Yeah, cause they can get really expensive. It’s a pretty big investment cause they’re meant for companies, right?

Helen: Exactly.

Caroline: They’re not necessarily designed for, with individuals in mind. So Seamly2D is a free open source program made specifically for pattern drafting. Our former guest Rachel Gilbert-Burns has a fabulous series of walkthrough videos for it on YouTube, so we’ll link those in the show notes. That’s Rachel from @MminimalistMachinist, and they’re invaluable for learning how things work. So we’ll definitely make sure we link those up.

Helen: Yes. Wild Ginger is another set of software programs that we’ve heard good things about. Their pattern master program is not for drafting. It’s a set of patterns that can be customised by entering your measurements which is pretty cool.

Then, the Cameo Apparel Pattern Software System, on the other hand, does have tools to draft patterns from scratch as well as grade them and make a pattern booklet in the end which is pretty cool.

Caroline: So cool. Okay, so, Helen, you work with a pattern drafter, so you don’t need any of this software for your workflow, but have you experimented with any of these?

Helen: I have not, actually. I do experiment sometimes drafting patterns flat in Illustrator because you can do that. It just takes a little extra time. It’s much easier to do a CAD program because it’s actually built to do that.

Um, but what happens once I get the pattern back from my grader, it’s got all the size lines and everything. It’s come out of a CAD program. And then I import it into Illustrator because Illustrator is a vector graphics program that’s mathematically based and accurate. I can import CAD files into Illustrator, and then, we can start manipulating them.

And by that, I mean, like, changing all the line weights and adding all the labels and checking that all the notches are in the perfect place and doing all the stuff that needs to happen before it can actually be sold to the consumer as a pattern that they can use at home.

Caroline: Okay, so interesting. Thanks for sharing that.

Helen: Yeah, no problem. We’re actually gonna talk about Illustrator right now, I realised.

Caroline: Perfect. Do you wanna take it away?

Helen: Okay. Vector programs are also popular for drafting patterns. These programs are not made specifically for sewing patterns, but they have super accurate ruler and drawing tools, so they work really well.

Adobe Illustrator is popular because it’s relatively easy to use and very powerful. You pay a monthly subscription fee to use it from the Adobe Creative Cloud.

And there’s also a program called Adobe Fresco, formerly known as Adobe Illustrator Draw which is like Illustrator, but for the iPad, and that one’s free, and it is possible to draft patterns on it, so you can play around with that.

Caroline: Cool. Okay. Inkscape is a free vector program. It’s not as easy to use as Adobe Illustrator, but if free is your budget, you might feel fine about spending more time learning it. And also, we should mention that you don’t necessarily need to draft digitally. You can draft a pattern on paper, and then scan it into a vector program.

Helen: Yes. When I first started my business, this is what I did. I drafted pen and paper, and then I took it to a print shop that had a large format scanner. They scanned it for me, and then I brought it into Illustrator, and I retraced it. It took a while. Like, it was not the most efficient way to go about things, but it is definitely doable.

Caroline: Wait. I feel like when I met you, there was a time when you cut up your pattern into smaller pieces and scanned individual pages on your home scanner and then…

Helen: Caroline, don’t tell people this!

Caroline: No, I just, that’s, like, commitment, Helen. I just remember…

Helen: I couldn’t figure out how to get the thing, the physical thing, into the computer. Like, it took me a long time to learn all of these things, and…

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: …I would search for, like, large format scanners, but all the businesses I found that offered that service were, like, architectural firms and stuff.

Caroline: Mhm.

Helen: And, like, they weren’t gonna take my, like, one piece of paper and scan it for me. So it took me a while to find a print shop that would do that for me. So in the meantime, yes, I would draw a grid on the paper, I would cut it up into individual sheets, and I would scan it on my home scanner.

Caroline: It’s, I think it’s genius. Like, I think if you’re gonna be, like, scrappy and, like, you wanna do it all at home. I feel like that is an option for people.

Helen: Yeah. A very annoying option.

Caroline: If time is not an, a factor for you. You have stretches of time ahead of you, then you can, you can try that method.

Helen: Okay. We mentioned Amy from Cloth Habit already, but she also has a post on her blog about drafting patterns with software that goes into more depth about these programs and more. We’re gonna link that in the show notes. Definitely check it out if making digital patterns sounds exciting to you.

It’s cool that some of these CAD programs offer, like, a starting point base block or sloper, so you don’t actually have to do that step. It might not be perfectly tailored to your measurements, but it’s something that you can use and start to tweak and just play around with and get started right away.

Caroline: Okay. Let’s go through the steps of drafting a sloper. So this is an overview. We won’t be able to go over every tiny detail, but hopefully, this is gonna give you an idea of what the process is gonna look like, and you can dive in further if this is something that you’re interested in.

So the first step to drafting a pattern is to measure your body. You’re gonna need a lot of accurate measurements. So having a friend to help you wield your measuring tape is a good idea. If that’s not possible for you though, you can do a lot with a couple of mirrors. And the goal is to measure yourself without contorting your body a lot.

Helen: Yes, you have to stand or sit as naturally as possible in this step.

The second step is to draft your sloper. You will take your measurements and, with a bit of math, draw out a basic pattern on paper. This part, I think, is really fun. I enjoy puzzles. I don’t so much enjoy math, but when I have done this in the past, I’ve found it so much fun. It’s like a connect the dot drawing. You put a dot over here and then you measure, you know, three and a half inches over and a quarter inch down, and you put another dot, and then, you get to connect them, and bam shoulder seam, like…

Caroline: Mhm.

Helen: It’s really fun to do this part even if the end result doesn’t work out. It’s just interesting to create a pattern from these dots, and then, connect the dots. Amazing. Any good book, course, or tutorial will walk you through this step-by-step. You use a calculator to make the calculations quick and accurate, and the calculations aren’t complex. They’re usually something like a quarter of your waist measurement plus 1.5 centimetres. Then, you make that calculation. You take that number, and then, that’s where you would draw your next or make your next line.

Caroline: Mhm. Yeah. So if you’re, like, drawing the, where the waistline is, it’s only a quarter because you’re only drafting the front, only half of your front piece, right?

Helen: Exactly.

Caroline: So you’re taking full waist measurement divided by four and then that 1.5 centimetres is ease, right?

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: Oh, okay. Cool. Okay. The third step is to fit your slopers. So you will make a muslin of the flat pattern you just drafted. First, you’ll need to trace off your sloper and add seam allowance. Since you’re fitting, you probably want a larger seam allowance, at least an inch. And then cut out your mulin, baste it, and try it on. Make any fit adjustments and adjust your pattern accordingly.

And if you’re wondering why you need to make fit adjustments after drafting a pattern to your own measurements, here’s why. Bodies are complex. Sometimes we have asymmetries. One shoulder is lower than the other. Your back is really curvy. Measurements can only tell us so much. Three people with the same measurements can actually look really different. So the flat pattern will get you a long way. The muslin process will account for how your flesh is distributed. Ew. That’s a weird way to say it, but it’s true.

Helen: Your flesh.

Caroline: Your flesh.

Helen: Think about your flesh. So after you make changes, keep on with the muslin-ing process, you feel happy with the fit, and then finally, you’re gonna trace off your sloper onto a sturdier piece of paper. That’s when you’re gonna abandon the parchment paper and get yourself some nice card stock so that it will be ready to use and also reusable without getting, you know, trimmed away slowly over time or getting crumpled into a hot mess.

Caroline: Right. Cause this sloper is, kind of, gonna be the basis for your future pattern drafting. It’s not really a pattern in itself, but you’re tracing it on heavier card stock because you know you’re gonna be using it repeatedly every time you draft a new pattern style, right?

Helen: Exactly. You want it to be a sturdy enough card stock that you can lay it down on a fresh sheet of paper and just run your pencil along the edge. Easy peasy.

Caroline: Mhm. Okay. So how would you use this beautiful personal sloper that you just made, Helen?

Helen: You could hang it on your wall. It makes a beautiful art piece. There are almost unlimited styles that you can make from your sloper. You can add or remove ease to make things looser or tighter. You can move darts around. You can convert darts into pleats or gathers or seams. Change necklines, and hems. Add or remove volume, like taking a classic skirt and making it into a circle skirt. You can do plackets, cuffs, and pockets, all those fun details. It’s really up to you. Like, the design possibilities truly are endless.

Caroline: Yes. I love that you can literally do anything.

Helen: Do anything right.

Caroline: You can do anything. Okay. Most of the style adjustments you’re gonna make will follow these general steps. So the first thing you’re gonna do is trace off your sloper. Then, you’re gonna cut into your sloper. And then you’re gonna move the pieces around either by spreading them apart, overlapping them, or pivoting them like a door on a hinge.

So, for example, take a classic bust dart. You can move that dart from the side seam to pretty much any location on the bodice, just by rotating it around and keeping the point on the bust apex.

Helen: Yes, it’s truly amazing. I love these, sort of, pizza pie chart diagrams that are in a lot of drafting software where it’s like the bust dart then becomes a waist dart or a shoulder dart or a French dart or even a neck dart, like, coming from the neck, even from the centre front.

If you have a centre front seam in your bodice, your dart can actually come from that centre front seam, and you can split that dart into multiple darts and put them in lots of different locations. It’s really amazing. You’re just taking this one little wedge of volume and you’re changing either the location or the distribution of that volume, and you can put it anywhere.

Caroline: Yeah. Yeah. It’s really cool to see, like, creative placements of darts, and you can even, like, split that dart into multiple darts for, kind of, style reasons. So, yeah, there’s just so much you can do.

Helen: Next step is that you’re gonna add your seam allowance so that you can then take this and sew it. And then you’re gonna make your muslin, and that is when you’re gonna be able to evaluate all of the decisions that you made and question everything and then start over if you don’t like how it turned out. Keep on with the muslin-ing process until you feel happy with how it looks. And once you’re happy, you just trace it out off, and you’ve drafted your first garment pattern.

Caroline: This is so exciting. I’m sure this must be, like, the most fun part is when you’ve, like, drafted your pattern. You’ve muslin-ed it. You’ve figured out exactly how you want it to be. It looks great. And then you can cut it out of your fashion fabric, and it’s, like, your first self-drafted pattern. It’s so cool.

Helen: I know! It is. It’s really, really cool and exciting.

Caroline: Okay. And, of course, each style change is gonna have specific instructions for where to cut into your sloper and what to do with the pieces. You’re probably gonna wanna follow instructions or tutorials that are specific to the change you want to make to your sloper. It’s not a very intuitive process. It’s more of a formula. I think with time it might become more intuitive, but at the beginning, follow instructions so that you know you’re going in the right direction, and you don’t have to start over.

Helen: Yeah. And if you’re following a book or a course, you’ll often start with easier things and move on to more complex things, so you can, kind of, follow along and learn as you go. But there are some basic principles for making patterns from your sloper.

We mentioned slashing and spreading. You can do that to add volume. Slashing and overlapping will remove volume. Some of you may have already experienced this with lengthening and shortening a pattern.

You won’t usually overlap your sloper because it already has very minimal ease, so you don’t wanna go negative, especially if it’s designed for wovens. Um, so you’re likely going to be adding volume, but who knows? Maybe you’ll add some and then you’ll be like, ah, I wanna remove some, so you’re gonna be doing both those things.

Caroline: Yeah, and when you cut into your trace sloper and rearrange it, the line it creates where you tape it back together will probably be jagged, so you’re gonna need to redraw the line to make it smooth. This is called truing. You may find this in some pattern instructions where it says to “true up your pattern” after doing an adjustment.

Helen: Yes, and you can also equalise pattern pieces along seam lines. So, for example, a front and back trouser might have shaping on the side that causes the seam line to be too long on the front versus the back. To equalise them, you’ll lay the front piece over the back piece and mark out a line that’s in the middle of the back and front side curve. Just so that your seam line for both the front and back pieces matches perfectly.

Caroline: Yeah, this is, kind of, hard to visualise with words, so…

Helen: Yes.

Caroline: Maybe we’ll try to include a photo in the show notes if we can find one, uh, so you can see what we mean here.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: And you’re gonna make changes on the shape of the garment first, then move on to smaller pieces like colours, pockets, cuffs, and facings, and you’re not gonna add seam allowances until the pattern is complete.

Helen: Yes. This allows you to continue prioritising the accuracy of everything because once you add the same allowance, then things can start to get harder to gauge whether they match up perfectly because you’re not measuring along the edge of that pattern anymore. You have to measure along the seam line, and that really just starts to get tricky when you’re working with the pattern. So that’s why you wanna add it at the end to keep your life simple.

Caroline: Mhm. That makes a lot of sense.

Helen: Yeah. Now that you have an idea of what the process is like, let’s go over some learning resources for you. Books are a really economical way to learn pattern drafting. Even textbooks will be a lot cheaper than taking, like, an online class or an in-person course, especially if you get them used. You can also check out the selection at your local library.

I wanna start with two that I’ve used and enjoyed using. They both include step-by-step instructions for drafting that, like, dot-to-dot calculation, connect the dots thing we were talking about earlier. The first one is Metric Pattern Cutting for Women’s Wear by Winifred Aldrich. There’s a men’s wear edition for that, as well. There’s that gendering thing we were talking about. And the other one is Patternmaking for Fashion Design by Helen Joseph Armstrong. Fellow Helen. I’m preferential to this one for that reason.

These books are often used as textbooks in pattern drafting classes. They’re detailed and dense with information. Good choices if you want to be sure you’re learning everything about the process. Patternmaking for Fashion Design is a little expensive, but if this is something that you’re interested in learning about, it is, like, thick and dense with knowledge, and it really walks you through lots of different, uh, alterations you can make to your slopers, and I found it to be a really fun book to play around in.

Caroline: Mhm, and you never know, you might be able to find it on eBay or something for…

Helen: That’s true.

Caroline: …a more affordable price.

Helen: Or ask a friend who’s been to fashion design school if they have a copy.

Caroline: Yeah. Okay. Our assistant Lisa has a book called How to Make Sewing Patterns by Donald H. McCunn, and the advantage of this book is that it’s made for home sewists, so it has some good advice about making a sloper for your individual measurements, rather than designing for standard retail fit models. The illustrations are really great for understanding how a two-dimensional piece gets shaped into a 3D garment. However, the information is not as complete as the ones Helen recommended, and if you get the first edition, there are some very 1970s illustrations.

Helen: Lauren Digby, who guested on our Petite Sewing Episode, self-drafts a lot of her clothes, and she told us that her favourite book to learn from was Building Patterns by Suzy Furrer, who is another former guest of ours. We talked to her about making a sloper. We have a whole episode with her about that, so definitely check that out, and check out this book as well. It sounds great.

Caroline: Love it. Okay. Online courses is the next thing we can talk about. It gives you the advantage of seeing pattern making techniques being performed in action on your screen. So our former guest Suzy Furrer also has some great classes on Craftsy. Her Patternmaking Basics series is a good start. These are videos and not interactive.

And Suzy also has pattern drafting classes available through her website, Apparel Arts Productions. And these are more expensive than the Craftsy ones, but they’re live classes with instructors you can communicate with which is a big help with something as complicated as pattern drafting.

Helen: Yes. Pattern Workshop is an online course that has two options: pro and personal. The pro focuses on not only making graded digital sewing patterns for sale, but also packaging and selling and marketing them. The personal course is abbreviated and is focused on making digital slopers and patterns for your own use. Very cool.

Caroline: Cool. I didn’t realise there were two options with that class. That’s awesome.

Helen: Yeah, she recently did an update. Well, recently, I think last year didn’t update to this course, so it has changed a little bit. So go check it out.

Caroline: Yeah, definitely a popular one in the sewing community Pattern Workshop.

Mhm. Okay. Former guest Brooks Ann Camper has three classes for sewists who want to learn pattern drafting: Skirt Skills, Smarty Pants, and Top Class. In each class, you draft and sew a garment according to your measurements. It’s like a combo drafting and sewing course. So you can check out Learn with Brooks Ann for more info. We’ll link that up in the show notes.

Helen: Uh, and Brooks Ann is such an amazing teacher. Like, I know that not only would you learn pattern drafting basics, but also pick up so many amazing skills along the way. Like, she blew my mind every 10 minutes when I took a class with her.

Caroline: We know, Helen. You talk about Brooks Ann with so much love.

Helen: I know. I’m a huge fan.

Caroline: You are a huge fan. I love it.

Helen: Another former guest, Alexandra Morgan, has two classes available for making slopers. They are Designed to Fit: The Bodice Block and The Custom Stretch Knit Bodice. I love talking with Alexandra, as well, just, like, a fountain of knowledge. So I bet those courses are great.

Caroline: Yes. Sew Over It has an Introduction to Pattern Drafting course where you make and fit a bodice sloper and a skirt sloper. And then you draft a shift dress pattern from them. So this is one to check out as well.

Helen: Ooh, very cool.

In-person classes are the last thing we’re gonna touch on and, kind of, the ultimate in support and hands-on learning. Check out the course catalogue at your community college and see what they have to offer. If they have pattern drafting classes, maybe that’s something that you can take as, like, a continuing education thing. And this can be a fabulous way to learn from an expert in an in-person setting with classmates. I mean, that just sounds lovely. I’d love to do anything in person these days.

Caroline: Right?! Okay. If you live in a big city, you might have some more in-person options. For example, Mood has pattern making courses in LA and New York. So you can Google your city specific options. Um, that’s always a good idea.

Helen: You can also take private lessons if you know a pattern drafter local to you, you could ask them if they consider offering private lessons and what they might charge for that. The worst that can happen is they say, no. They’ve probably been asked before, so they probably already have an answer. Um, but maybe that is a service that they offer. And that could be a really great one-on-one, hands-on way to learn.

Caroline: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, Helen, I feel like this episode would not be complete if we didn’t get your story of, kind of, how you got started. I wanna hear your story. I want you to fill our audience in on your own journey with pattern making because maybe they wanna design and sell sewing patterns, and I think it would be really fun to hear where you started off.

Helen: Yes, I’m so happy to share. It really has been not a very long journey. So if you’re out there thinking this is something that you might be interested in, I can tell you that it is possible to design and sell sewing patterns if you want to. And the way that I went about it was I took Pattern Workshop. That’s the course we were mentioning earlier hosted by Lauren Dahl.

And, uh, when I took it, it was designed specifically for people who wanted to do this for a living, uh, which was amazing to me because when I saw some of the other indie pattern designers out there, I thought, how did they learn how to do that? Is there, like, an online course or something? And then I found this course and I was like, oh, literally, this course is designed to help you to get to that point, and I thought that was so cool.

So I took that workshop, learned a little bit about pattern drafting, muddled through my first pattern, the Winslow Culottes, which are still one of our bestsellers and still an amazing pattern. I absolutely love sewing and wearing those. Still super proud of them, but it was a struggle. It took me months to draft that pattern and figure out how I wanted it to be.

And then Lauren Dahl, also in Pattern Workshop, walks you through how to digitise that pattern. We talked about adding those line weights, notches labels, things like that, making it ready for sale, turning it into a print at home pattern, so tiling so that people can print it off on their home computer and tape it together, or home printer, and tape it together, etc., and also making the instruction booklet, which I’ve mentioned on the show before is my absolute favourite part of the pattern design process.

I love the technical illustrations, and I love the instructions, walking people through how to successfully make something, giving them everything they need to feel confident while they’re sewing. Like, that is definitely my favourite part. I totally fell in love with that aspect of it when I was taking the course. So it really validated my decision or my interest in becoming a pattern designer because I was like, this is the part that I’m really good at and the part that I’m gonna excel at and that I wanna share with the world.

The pattern drafting part, I did find challenging. And that is why I, eventually, after my first pattern, I decided to get my patterns drafted professionally by somebody who has years of experience with pattern drafting. Because that way I can make sure that they’re the best they can possibly be. And I can focus on the elements of the design that I really enjoy.

Same goes for grading. Grading patterns is also a whole other area of expertise. So you definitely want to outsource that if you can afford to when you’re first getting started because it will just give you a much more accurate and successful pattern in the end, and it’s not terribly expensive to have something graded, so I definitely think it’s worth it. So once I, kind of, got the reins a little bit, got my sea legs, figured out what I was doing, launched my first pattern, started the business. That was when I was like, okay, I’m gonna outsource the drafting and grading, and I’m gonna focus on making this bomb-ass instruction booklet and…

Caroline: Mhm.

Helen: …marketing the patterns which is another part of the business that I really love, sharing with everybody the hacks and the designs and, and, um, hanging out in the community with you all. So I do think there’s lots of different paths you can take.

If you are, like, really into the drafting and you wanna draft your pattern yourself, there are certainly pattern designers out there that are doing that, and then, they’re outsourcing the making of the booklets and the marketing because that’s not their jam. So you don’t have to do it all to do this for a living.

Caroline: Mhm. I think that’s, like, a lesson in, in running and growing a business is, like, there does come a point where you can’t do it all.

Helen: Mhm.

Caroline: And it is totally okay to outsource the things that maybe you’re not the most skilled at or you don’t enjoy the most so that you can spend your time focused on the things that you do love. And in the end, I think that’s gonna make you love your business more and, kind of, be willing to stick with it for the long haul. So I think that’s, like, such a good call, and it is not necessarily something that I think the general public knows is that, sewing pattern designers are not always actually drafting their own patterns.

That is such a skill. And people go to school for that for years, and then work in the industry for years and years to gain knowledge. So working with an experienced pattern designer that can draft for you and a grader that can grade, according to grading rules, I think, is just, like, Invaluable for a small business to be able to work with that skilled person to help you, kind of, bring your patterns to a different level. So it’s so interesting to hear how, how you went about it.

And I, kind of, wanna know more about the instruction booklet cause you said that this is, like, your favourite part, but how long does it take you to put together an instruction booklet? Like, do you spen-, is that a, a really large part of the production of your pattern is, like, diving into the booklet?

Helen: It is. I actually have somebody now helping me to write and illustrate the instruction booklets as well, and I work closely with her. We go back and forth, writing it all out in, like, a Google Doc, figuring out how we wanna word everything, what tips we wanna include, marking out all the steps so that when we go and put it into the booklet, we’ve got it all planned out.

And then we also make an Illustrator file, many, many art boards, one illustration per art board. And that’s the each individual step on each art board. And we go back and forth on that as well. So she illustrates, and I’ll come in and make comments and changes. And we just, like, work on it until we feel it’s complete. And then once those two, kind of, separate elements are done, we bring them together into Adobe InDesign to make the final booklet.

And a lot of changes happen at this point because it’s amazing what happens when you see the text next to the picture. And then oftentimes, either the text has to be tweaked or the picture has to be tweaked to make it perfect, and adding little arrows and things just to make things crystal clear. But yeah, that’s a big part of the process. It can take, for us, and we’re not working on it, you know, eight hours a day every day, but it takes us about a month to make, like, a really good, solid, finished booklet.

Caroline: Mm. And your booklets are so good, Helen. And I have to say…

Helen: They’re very long.

Caroline: They are, but they’re just everything in there I think is so important. And you really do come to it from a place of, like, this person might be a beginner. They might not know a lot about sewing. So you inject so many little tips and tidbits and extra knowledge in there that’s gonna help people, not only sew this garment, but also, like, learn skills along the way and learn terminology and, kind of, the why behind why you’re doing certain things. So I think it’s just really fun to read through your booklet cause it’s, it’s a great learning experience, too.

Helen: Yeah. And we’ve been trying to include more adjustment pages, as well, alteration options, how to do basic adjustments, grading between sizes, full bust adjustments, small bust adjustments, things like that. Trying to bake those into the pattern even more because we are a PDF only company. And one of the reasons that I’ve continued in that business model is because there’s no limitations to the amount of paper that we can use for these booklets.

So they’re, like, little books, you know? You’re, like, buying, like, a little novel, and I love that there’s so much to learn within each of them, but yeah, I work really closely with all of my freelancers that work with me now, and it’s very exciting to be in more of a director role, um, but still feeling like I have a hand in everything.

And that goes for the pattern drafter, too. Like, although we’re outsourcing that it is a close relationship, and we do still have to go back and forth just like we were talking about in this episode. Like, I send her a concept, a flat sketch, um, and sometimes some inspiration pictures to communicate things like how much volume or the kind of style or vibe I’m looking for. And then she’ll send me back the first draft. I will then print that out. We have to sew a test. We have to test fit it. We have to think about all the little details. I’ll get back to her. And you, as a designer, get to decide things like how deep you want the hem to be, how big you want the pockets to be. Is the collar the right proportions? Maybe you want the sleeve to be longer. You might wanna add a view or remove a view. There’s so many decisions to be made. And so there is a lot of back and forth, and you are designing while they are drafting. So it can be a really fun process to be in as well.

Caroline: Mhm, and I mean, it’s not just the process of, like, the designing, drafting, getting the booklet ready. You also have to then have, like, a website where you can sell your product and branding and an Instagram and maybe a TikTok and…

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: …you know, figure out the whole marketing strategy. So can you talk about that a little bit, too? Like, can you think back to when you started your business and how basic were you able to go at the beginning and how did you, sort of, build on that over time?

Helen: Very, very basic. And I think it’s even easier now, especially on the website front to set up, get yourself set up with an eCommerce site, or, you know, you have the option of selling on Etsy. A lot of pattern designers do go that route initially because it’s already set up and ready to go, but you can start a Shopify or a Squarespace or whatever you want to do for your website fairly easily and affordably nowadays which is amazing.

But I think as far as marketing and social media and building up the audience and the newsletter and all that stuff, just remember that every single person working in this space, or any space, started from nothing. Like, it, you are not gonna go from zero to 60. You are going to start somewhere, and that’s totally fine. And you don’t have to be perfect right out the gate. In fact, when you are a smaller designer or, like, a fledgling, little business, it can be really great to bring some of that struggle and authenticity and, and nose to the grindstone, kind of, attitude and messaging into your brand because people really love following along with those kind of stories.

I mean, don’t make it up obviously, but bring your authentic self. Tell people how you’re building the business. Share that with your audience because that will draw people in and make them interested in what you’re doing and make them wanna support you in what you’re doing. So I don’t think you need to shy away from that.

You definitely don’t need to have picture perfect polish on everything. I think photography was my biggest struggle in the beginning because I wanted my pattern photos to look like the top designers in the industry. And I just could not figure out how to do it. It took me years to figure out how to do it, to find my style, to get the right equipment. It’s really expensive to have the right lighting, to hire photographers. Like, all of that stuff has come with time.

And even when I look back at, like, the original photo shoot for Winslow and things like that, like, it’s fine. It was great at the time. It was exactly what it needed to be. And I think people actually were drawn to the fact that it wasn’t perfect, so don’t shy away from that. Embrace that, and just start where you’re starting. It’s fine.

Caroline: It’s so true. Like, at the end of the day when I’m choosing a pattern that I wanna make, I’m looking at the design of the pattern. I’m looking at, uh, the size range. I’m looking, you know, I’m looking at, um, the details. I’m not necessarily looking at what the photos look like on the pattern designer’s website or, you know, whether or not they look like they’re the most experienced pattern designer out there. It’s really about the garment that I wanna make, so that’s something to keep in mind.

Helen: Yeah, and make, obviously, the best possible product you can so that you’ll get those good reviews from people who are making it. And it will just add to the experience that your customers are having when they’re going onto Instagram to look for other makes of the pattern and they’re reading good reviews and they’re seeing cute photos, and that all really helps to start building the trust and the foundation for your business.

So, of course, an excellent product is paramount. But then past that, just do your best with the marketing. Just do your best with the social media and the website building, and you are going to improve over time, and, like, I’m still improving. It’s, it’s a never-ending process.

Caroline: Yeah. How many years have you been doing this for?

Helen: I’ve been doing Helen’s Closet for six years, but the first year of that was blog only. So I didn’t have products available, but for the first year I was blogging something every week. I was making a new pattern from somebody in the community for my own sewing adventures. Although, even at that time, I had it in mind that this is something that I might wanna do because I was really intrigued by the patterns.

And I was like, I wanna make these, what’s the best way for me to learn more about this? Well, make a bunch of them. Make all of the different pattern designers that are available. Try a bunch of different styles. Learn what people are offering and what they’re not offering and then share that online so that people can follow along with my journey.

And that was a really good, again, just a foundation for my business because it gave me a little bit of an audience at the start and just really let me enter into the community and interact with people and make connections and feel like I was a part of this before I started selling things.

Caroline: Mhm. Yeah. Well, is there anything else you wanna share about your pattern designer journey?

Helen: Oh my gosh. I don’t think so. I think, again, this episode was more for home sewists who are interested in pattern drafting. And I don’t want to be saying, or implying that once you learn how to pattern draft, you need to sell patterns. It’s absolutely not the case. I think pattern drafting can be just a really amazing personal journey as well.

It just happened to be a business for me. And if that’s something that is also exciting for you, then I just have to say, go for it. There’s plenty of space. The water’s warm. Jump. Come on in.

Caroline: Aw, well, thank you for sharing. It is so inspiring to have been watching your journey over the last five, six years. And, um, it’s, it’s just really fun to see how far you’ve come. And, um, I’m sure a lot of our, our listeners are inspired by that, too, if that’s something that they wanna do. And if not, remember, you can just draft patterns for yourself, and that’s awesome, too. And it’s a great skill to have just for your own personal sewing journey.

Helen: Totally. Okay. You can probably tell from how long we’ve gone on for that this is a bit of an info-packed episode. Pattern drafting is not for the faint of heart, but it is a wonderful, satisfying mountain to climb if you’re up for it. And if you decide to take on this challenge, let us know if you do. And if you already draft patterns, we’d love to hear about your favourite tips and resources, or let us know if we got anything wrong. Thanks for listening and happy pattern drafting.

Caroline: Thanks.

That’s it for today’s episode of Love to Sew. You can find me, Caroline, at BlackbirdFabrics.com and Helen at HelensClosetPatterns.com! We’re recording in beautiful, I guess it’s pretty beautiful, British Columbia, Canada.

Helen: Go to LoveToSewPodcast.com to find our show notes. They’re gonna be filled with links and pictures from the episode, all of those resources that we mentioned. If you’d like to get in touch with us, send us an email at [email protected].

Caroline: And if you love Love to Sew and want more, you can sign up for our Patreon! For $5 a month, you get a full-length bonus episode and weekly behind-the-scenes pictures. For $10 a month, you get all that PLUS a mini-episode focused on sewing techniques and 15% off codes for Helen’s Closet and Blackbird Fabrics! Patreon is the best way to support us so that we can keep making quality sewing content. Go to patreon.com/LoveToSew, if you can, for more info.

Helen: Thanks to our amazing podcast team. Lisa Ruiz is our creative assistant. Jordan Moore is our editor. And Margaret Wakelee is our transcriber. And thank you for listening. We’ll see you next week.

Caroline: Bye.

Helen: Bye.

Caroline: And Sew Over It has an Introduction to Pattern Drafting course where you make and fit a bodice slope and a slurt, sklurt sloper. Oh my gosh.

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Kat Brown Akootchook is a Native American artist and designer who blends contemporary and traditional with a wink and a smile! We chat with her about her wonderful work in many mediums: beadwork, sewing, block printing, and hide tanning.

The transcript for this episode is on this page at the end of the show notes.

Where to find Kat online:

Kat’s Work: 

A post shared by Kat Brown Akootchook (@sweetgrass_and_sage)

A post shared by Kat Brown Akootchook (@sweetgrass_and_sage)

A post shared by Kat Brown Akootchook (@sweetgrass_and_sage)

Resources and Inspiring Makers: 

Kat’s Favourite Podcasts:

Transcript:

Caroline: We are recording today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, including Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and K’ómoks first nations.

Hello, and welcome to Love to Sew. I’m Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics.

Helen: And I’m Helen, the designer behind Helen’s Closet Patterns.

Caroline: We’re two sewing buds who love to sew our own clothes and want to encourage you on your sewing journey, too.

Helen: Join us for today’s interview with Kat Brown Akootchook.

Hi, Kat. Thank you so much for coming on the show today.

Kat: Hello. Thank you so much for having me. I’m thrilled to be here.

Helen: Oh, we’re so excited to chat with you. Can you please introduce yourself to our listeners?

Kat: Sure. So my name is Kat Brown Akootchook. I’m a Native American artist and designer. Uh, I’m from the Oneida Nation of the Thames in Canada, and I’m Bear Clan. And I also have roots in a couple other tribes, but my primary one is Oneida. Yeah.

Helen: Awesome. Thank you for sharing that. And how and when did you learn to sew? And I know this might be a bit of an odd question because you do so many crafts, but we always start with sewing on this show. So, how and when did you learn how to sew?

Kat: Yeah, sewing is probably the, sort of, mother craft that spawned all the other crafts that I’ve become interested in, so it’s, it’s totally relevant. I come from a family of sewists. Uh, my grandma was a quilter and, like, a, sort of, clothing maker. And my mom is, like, a ribbon winning quilt maker. So I’ve just always grown up surrounded by, uh, people with creative projects on the go. So I guess as soon as I could pick up a needle, you know, and be trusted with it.

Helen: Do you remember any of your early projects?

Kat: Oh yeah, for sure. Uh, Barbie clothing and stuffed animal clothing. Capes for everyone. Cat clothing, specifically. We have a very patient family cat hierarchy, I guess, or monarchy. I’ve been able to, uh, dress them all in really ridiculous, but very cute things that we’ve made throughout the years.

Helen: Aw, so cute. I bet people can relate to that. Like, as a child, when you realise you can make things at a sewing machine, you immediately want to just dress your pets up of course.

Kat: Immediately. Yeah, it’s the best. I still do.

Caroline: Awesome. And you do a bunch of, of different crafts, and we are really in love with your boundless creativity. And we’re going to ask you more about all of those things that you do in a bit, but first we wanted to talk to you more generally about your art style and the kinds of themes you work with. So could you describe your art style for our listeners?

Kat: Okay. Yeah. This one is, like, I have to shove a lot into that particular can, I guess. I feel like one of those Pillsbury or, I guess, the canned biscuits that just explodes with too many things.

Helen: Yeah.

Kat: So I guess I tend to boil it down to a blend of contemporary and traditional, uh, Native American motifs and, uh, techniques with a wink and a smile. So I have a bit of a, a sense of humour about everything I make. It doesn’t all have to be taken super duper seriously. So I find that blending traditional materials or traditional ideas with modern techniques and contemporary approaches can really be fun to, sort of, turn expectations of what is Native American art or what is Indigenous design and, sort of, reinvent it or just have a different perspective of it because it is now, and, you know, the traditions came from somewhere and somebody started them sometime. So to, sort of, keep them stale and only in museums is, I think, you know, not the only way to approach things. And so I, I like waking them up again and breathing my visions into them, too.

Helen: That’s so cool to bring your own approach to it. I mean, obviously you’re making art, you want to bring your own vision to the work. And how have people reacted to that in your experience so far?

Kat: It’s just been nothing but wonderful, frankly. I’ve had a lot of just wonderful feedback and supportive encouragement from all these different communities that I’m around or a part of. Uh, it’s, it’s just an incredible, we, we tend to get… Like, this isn’t just me who does that. Of course, there’s a whole movement of, um, Indigenous Renaissance and reclaiming these art practices. And so if you just, sort of, look around Instagram and the beaded earring hashtags, especially you can really find a lot of just incredibly witty and smart and clever approaches to things that might have otherwise just been, sort of, cast off as craft or handicraft which is sometimes looked down upon, I guess, um, as opposed to fine art. There’s, sort of, that forever distinction between the two. And I find there’s a lot more blending of handicraft and fine art nowadays.

Helen: Oh, that’s very interesting. And where do you learn the traditional side of the blend from when you’re doing your work?

Kat: Okay. Yeah. Um, elders are an incredible resource if you have access to them. I have learned, I learned moccasin making from a Mohawk elder back when I was living in Ontario and just picked up so much information in the short time that we made those, those shoes. Um, I’ve had the honour to spend time sewing and working, making regalia for pow wows with elders from Navajo nation and all kinds of places around the world that we end up together, you know, over a sewing table, just sharing stories and techniques and learning things that aren’t easy really to find.

Um, like, you can’t just walk into any store and go pick up regalia or sometimes even the supplies for the regalia. It’s really something that you have to be, sort of, shepherded through by someone who has also been shepherded through. So it’s, yeah, a network of elders and aunties, I guess.

Helen: And you will be a part of that now, too, because you’re going to share as well.

Kat: Yeah. That’s one of my biggest goals is to be that auntie who helps and breaks down the gatekeeping that can sometimes exist to help people access these traditions that have often been, you know, forcibly taken from us. So reclaiming that and sharing it is a total joy.

Caroline: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I’d love to learn a little bit more about your design process and how you come up with ideas and how you develop them. Could you share a little bit more about that?

Kat: Oh, okay. My iPhone is full of… Like, the Notes app is just full of really, really random sporadic sentences that don’t make a ton of sense when I’m fully awake, but it’s like shower thoughts, I guess. Well, I’ll come up with an idea that all then put into the sort of scrap-, scrapbook journal where I sketch it out, and yeah, it comes, sort of, further down the line. So I’ve got all these, sort of, amorphous ideas swirling in my head that generally slowly filter through the iPhone and then to the notebook and then to drafting and eventually into real life.

Caroline: Awesome. And you’ve said before that you dream about some of your designs…

Kat: Yeah.

Caroline: …before you make them. And I want to know more about this. Like, what are these dreams like?

Kat: Ah, sometimes, like, it’s, it is that, sort of, just your sleep-, your classic, even, writer who keeps a notepad by their bed about books. So it doesn’t have to be anything particularly spiritual, but sometimes it is. So it’s just being open to, like, not to sound too hippy dippy, but to what the universe is telling you, you know? And so sometimes things will come to you, and it’ll just feel so right that it just, it has to happen. It has to be made. And so sometimes, through a dream, or even just a, like a vision, because you don’t even necessarily have to be asleep. Yeah. It’s maybe just a different take on the classic imagination. It’s just framing it in a Native knowledge way, I suppose, is the best way to explain dreams.

Helen: Yeah. It makes me think of when people say, like, a creative spark or something like that, like, yeah, a driving force. And I’m curious if you always envision the project that you think of, or the concept in a certain medium cause you do so many different things. Like, you must have ideas and then explore, you know, am I going to express that in beadwork or in some other way? Like, how do you decide which avenue to go down?

Kat: Oh, that’s true. I guess I do typically within the medium. I often, I feel like maybe this is a side effect of having ADHD, and I jump from these projects to projects, and I often use them as a vehicle to learn a new skill. And so the motivation comes not just for the finishing project, but also the, to pursue the learning process itself.

And so I get so much joy and enthusiasm out of actually learning how to do a new thing that, that I, I pursue it in a way that, um, is both for the goal of finishing and completing a project, but also to, sort of, understand the process and understand what the steps of the process are and how they came to be and how that relates to the people who came before me and who taught other people those things because a lot of symbol-, like, symbolism and techniques, like, they’re honed to perfection, like, with really just wonderful, wonderful techniques that you know, are genius in a lot of ways that having tried to self-teach myself certain things, I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way.

Like, when I first got into beadwork, I, I really wanted to make a classic medallion, a, sort of, big classic beaded medallion, and I didn’t know anything about them. And so I just saw pictures of them and I thought, oh, I’d love to make that. And so when I went out to go and make my first beaded medallion, I did it in the most complicated, ridiculous way possible because I didn’t have a teacher. I was just bumbling my way through to make the final project. And I basically took, you know, the longest way there. And it was incredibly fun, but also, like, really meticulous, and it didn’t have to be that difficult.

And so now that I’ve humbled myself a bit more to, sort of, learn from teachers and seek out resources, I find that my learning is so much richer than just trying to, sort of, wack through the weeds on my own so much. I still do, but uh…

Helen: Both valid approaches to creativity.

Kat: Yeah, yeah, but it’s definitely worthwhile seeking out experts if you can.

Helen: Well, we’d love to talk about an amazing project that you did last year. It was a coat upcycle where you did some really beautiful appliqué. Um, and we’d like to start off by just having you describe what it looks like for our listeners since this is a podcast.

Kat: Okay. Yeah. So I call it my Strawberry Coat. It’s a wool coat, a secondhand coat from, like, the 1970s. I think it’s, sort of, a navy blue, and it’s a hundred percent virgin wool, and it’s in pristine condition. And I bought that for, I think, $12. And so on the outside of the coat, I’ve decorated it with appliqué strawberries and brown bears, or a little bit white, but that was because that was the other colour of wool I had available.

Um, I think people think they might be polar bears, but they’re really supposed to be a nod to the fact that I’m Bear Clan. Um, so they’re just, you know, maybe they’re brown bears in the snow. And then I have a network of strawberries that are, um, sort of, all on a bit of a vine, I guess, or strawberry stem, uh, that are, sort of, winding their way around. And I’ve also sewn, using the same colour of, of the strawberries, a red hood. Um, and I’ve used, uh, two fox or, I guess, one fox tail, uh, as the, the, fur ruff around the top, and it also has red cuffs.

Helen: Oh.

Caroline: It’s so cool.

Helen: It’s so beautiful.

Caroline: Yeah. It’s, it’s very striking with the red accents and the strawberries pop out so much. It’s, like, such a beautiful addition to the coat. And you mentioned symbolism earlier, I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the strawberries. We also noticed a lot of feathers in your work. What do these symbols mean to you?

Kat: Okay, yeah, strawberries. So strawberries, um, my grandmother’s name in Oneida was Yehuhyáktaˀ. It means “she knows where the good berries grow,” and strawberries, in our culture, are, like, really, like, tied to women’s medicine and women’s strength in a lot of ways. And so there’s also the Strawberry Moon, so, which is, sort of, part of our, our lunar calendar, um, so Strawberry Picking Moon. And so it’s just, like, it’s a, it’s a motif that really shows up in a lot of ways, almost everywhere, Turtle Island, North America, has some, kind of, celebration of strawberries, um, in their culture.

So I, I tend to use them a lot because of that tie to my grandmother’s name, especially. And, uh, it’s just, it makes everyone happy. There’s, like, just so many positive associations of strength and, like, like, the good qualities in, in women and femme people and two spirit people that, uh, yeah, strawberries are just, like, universally beloved and delicious, so, yeah, definitely.

Helen: So true. Such a beautiful, bright colour, too. We noticed you made a headband, as well, with beaded strawberries, and there’s a picture of your grandmother wearing it.

Kat: Yes! Yes!

Helen: So cute.

Kat: Yeah. That’s, and that’s, uh, specific to us, as well. Um, that’s, Haudenosaunee or Iroquois raised beadwork. And so, um, that’s one of the more common types of beadwork in my culture where that’s specific to just uh, Iroquois people. You don’t really see it anywhere else. And the fact that strawberries are used so often in that it’s often the only colour in the beadwork. So all the rest of the beadwork will just be white, but then strawberries are used as that pop of red.

Helen: Wow. Very cool. And how do you raise the beads up? Do you put something underneath them?

Kat: The first time I tried to figure it out on my own, I did.

Helen: Just shove something in there.

Kat: Yeah, I used a whole bunch of bead that I didn’t really like. They’d lost a bit of their colour. And so I thought, oh, I’ll stick them in there, but it made it very heavy. And then when I took a class from a Mohawk girl who taught me how to do proper raised beadwork, um, it’s, kind of, like making a bridge with the beads. So you take about seven or eight beads and then, um, instead of laying them down flat in the width of a seven or eight beads, you make the stitch length about maybe four or five beads long, and then it, sort of, creates this arch. And then by combining a whole bunch of different arches, the beadwork ends up raised and you can finesse it in a way that, sort of, they dovetail together to make really beautiful shapes and patterns.

Helen: Wow. I mean, beading just seems like this magic. Like, you can do so many different things with it. You can make it structural, like, you can actually have different shapes and, like, you’re talking about raising it up like that. That’s, it’s so incredible. And I really want to try it…

Kat: Oh, you should!

Helen: …after looking at your work. You’ve inspired me.

Kat: It’s like meditation, too. It soothes you. Because it’s so small and fine motor, I find it’s really meditative.

Helen: Yeah, you’ve talked a bit about beading as medicine. What does that mean for you?

Kat: Yeah. So when indigenous people say medicine, we’re not talking about prescriptions, though I’d love a beading prescription, that would be nice. But, um, it’s, sort of, like, a, like, a way of healing spiritually and, sort of, maybe more metaphysically. So you have beading as an outlet for stress or worries or a way to, sort of, sit and centre your thoughts. Um, when I’m on a, like when I’m beading, I can’t use my phone to scroll endlessly reading doom, gloom, and boom, I guess. It’s just really, um, this time that you just, you have to have focus, otherwise you’ll get stuck. So yeah, you don’t want to, like, spike yourself with a needle, so you really do need that focus. And you’re creating something beautiful, so, yeah, it’s just everything that comes together, and the community that springs up around it, it’s just healing in a lot of ways.

Caroline: Oh, yeah. That’s wonderful. Yeah, I was going to say there’s something to be said for those crafts that really pull you in like that and where you have to put your full focus on them, and it allows you to, kind of, block everything else out, and I could totally see how that could be medicine for you. It’s, it’s amazing.

And your work is so, so beautiful. I want to encourage our listeners to go check out some of your beadwork. We loved scrolling through your Instagram and seeing some of the beautiful jewellery that you make, but also, um, beadwork on garments and, and in other forms as well. Can you talk to us a little bit about your favourite beading styles? Do you have any, any specific ones other than what you’ve already mentioned?

Kat: Ah! There’s so many, um, yeah, like, flat stitch is just incredible. I think it’s what most people think of when they think of beading, it’s, sort of, appliquéing beads onto some, sort of, interfacing in a way that you can, sort of, have a picture or a design, but there’s this one called lazy stitch which I’ve never actually done. Um, it’s really common with, uh, Plains and, uh, Plateau People. And you’ll see it on a lot of regalia that is, like, fully beaded, like, they’re wearing, you know, 50 pound garments and, um, it, kind of, looks like lanes that are slightly bubbled, and they have these more geometric designs. And I just, uh, it’s just such… It’s called lazy stitch. And that’s the worst word for it at all cause I’m sure it just takes ages, but I would love to learn about that one. It’s just so beautiful. And so just overwhelming in quantity when you think about how many beads are on a garment and how much time it had to take and just, it’s just, it takes your breath away when you see a lane stitched beadwork piece.

Helen: Wow. Yeah. I bet we’ll have to find one for the show notes. Maybe you can help us out and point us in the right direction. Have you worked on a large scale piece like that, where it would take forever to finish?

Kat: Ah, yeah, I have, um, my own regalia, so I’m a Jingle Dress Dancer. And so my regalia is a work in progress because to finish it all before you use it is just, would take years. So as I finish pieces, um, I just wear them, but I have a lot still to go on my own regalia. So, uh, the pieces that I’ve finished are my, uh, my moccasins and my hair ties and, sort of, hair clips, but I have a, kind of, headband crown thing, and they’re called leggings, but they’re, they don’t go all the way up your leg. It’s more of just like a calf, like the top part of a boot, I guess, from the ankle to the shin. And those are going to be fully beaded, and, like, they’ve just taken me years.

Helen: Wow. And when we say beading, are you working with, like, seed beads, the little teeny tiny ones or…?

Kat: Yeah, yeah.

Helen: Yeah.

Kat: I really, yeah, like seed beads a lot, and the smaller, the better because you can get more details. So seed beads have numbers on them, so a lot of people work with, um, different sizes of beads because you can cover more area and do less, I guess, stitches, if you want to use a bigger bead, but the ones that I’m using are size 15, 13, and 11.

And so the number of a bead actually corresponds to how many beads fit on an inch. So 15 beads to an inch is a size 15 bead, or 11 beads to an inch is a size 11 bead. So those are the sizes that I really like working with.

Helen: Okay. So the higher the number, the smaller the bead?

Kat: Yes, yes.

Helen: What’s the smallest number?

Kat: Oh, the antique ones, like, pre-colonial, some of them, or maybe early colonial. They could go up to, like, size 24.

Helen: Wow.

Kat: You can’t even find needles that go into them. So I don’t know how to use them.

Helen: Impossible.

Kat: If you want to find somebody who uses those. Um, Jamie Okuma is a, sort of, bead celebrity, A-lister who works with those and does the most incredible pieces with a lot of humour. Her pieces are incredible. And she does a lot of, uh, sort of, like, realistic beadwork illustrations of, like, classic horror movies with beadwork.

Helen: Wow! Cool.

Kat: So just, like, really intense hard to describe pieces of, like, the clown from some famous horror movie or whatnot. And it’s just detailed and, like, beads from the 17th century.

Helen: Wow.

Kat: So, it’s really, she’s wonderful. Yeah.

Caroline: Well, we’ll make sure we link her, link her up in the show notes.

Kat: Jamie Okuma.

Caroline: Awesome. Thank you. And you mentioned a needle, so I have to ask, like, what other tools and materials do you need to start beading if any of our listeners are thinking about getting into it?

Kat: Beading is such easy access. Like, you can get basic beadwork supplies at most dollar stores, um, because, like, it’s such a low barrier of access. Like, you need something to bead on typically felt or stiffened felt or a pellon if you want to get fancy and some kind of seed bead. There’s different qualities of seed beads, but, you know, like, beads are beads. So, like, you can really make all kinds of incredible things even…

I like mixing high, low too. Like, I work with materials from the dollar store. I work with materials from the fish store a lot. And so I don’t, I’m not a bead snob in any way. I’m not a snob about it at all because you can transform the materials from what they are into something beautiful. Like, how, how incredible is that? So I don’t turn my nose up at things.

Caroline: Yeah, absolutely. And, and I can’t help, but wonder what your bead collection is like since you’re working on all of these intricate pieces?

Kat: It’s embarrassing!

Caroline: Yeah, [lease share more. Like, what is it, a big box? How do you organise the beads? They’re so tiny.

Kat: I have several, um, shelving racks from Home Depot that have, um, those Sterlite bins full of different, sort of, they’re sorted by size, by type of bead, um, some of them are sorted by shell colour if they’re, like, natural beads, just, yeah, I have way, I have more beads than I could ever work with, and yet, I still go to the bead store fairly regularly. So yeah, I just have a huge collection. My biggest piece of advice is to buy one kind of container for, the small kind of containers and just stick with it because throughout the years, when you graduate to different types of bead vials or bead containers or sorting devices, it’s just too ridiculous. And so having something consistent is the one piece of advice I’d go with. It doesn’t matter what you choose, just as long as it’s the same for everybody.

Caroline: And hope it doesn’t get discontinued or whatever.

Kat: Oh, they get discontinued all the time! That’s the problem.

Helen: Well, I can definitely relate to buying more materials than you need as a sewist. Um, and I also love you mention the bead store because it was one of my favourite places to go as a kid, even though I wasn’t, I did a little bit of beading, just, you know, crafty kind of stuff when I was younger, but the bead store was always just like this destination for me and my parents because they knew I loved it so much. And, and all the shiny colours and all the little boxes full of beads.

Kat: It’s true!

Helen: And you can touch them.

Kat: And the muffin tins!

Helen: Yeah!

Kat: And I know those beads are 10 times what they’re probably worth, but I’m always drawn to those muffin tin beads that they price per bead.

Helen: Right? I was fascinated by that as a kid or, like, my parents would be like, you can have, like, a little dime bag full of beads. Seed beads.

Kat: The bead soup!

Helen: Yeah, exactly. And like, but not those ones. Those are 50 cents each. You can’t have those ones.

Kat: And you think, oh, what’s 50 cents. But if you need a whole necklace’s worth, it adds up.

Helen: Yeah, it really does.

Kat: I’m glad to hear that you started as a child though because, like, that’s just… one of my background things is I’m a teacher, and I’ve got a master’s of education where I focused on indigenous artwork for children as a learning tool. And beadwork, for almost any age, is just, like, it’s just so educational on so many levels, maths, spatial awareness, design, and even coding. Like, you have to plan so much that, like, to hear about children beading and getting into beadwork. Like, it’s one of the best things you can do with your kids. And you can turn so many lessons into a beadwork lesson that I’m just thrilled to hear other people have exposure to beadwork as kids.

Helen: Oh, it’s so true. It really does take a lot of concentration and planning and even dexterity. Like, it is hard to get those beads onto that needle. Let me tell you.

Kat: Yeah, and, like, making those little beaded geckos from the nineties. Like, I’m glad they’re still around. That was my start, too.

Helen: Oh, really? Yeah. I do think it was, like, en vogue in the nineties, for sure. And those daisy chain bracelets and things like that.

Kat: Yeah. Yeah, those are everywhere now.

Helen: Yeah, it’s true. Yeah. I wish I kept mine. I could be even more in, in style. So do you have a favourite beadwork piece that you’ve made or maybe a few so we can share some with our listeners?

Kat: Oh, I, one of my favourite pieces I made but I guess I can’t, I can’t really say I designed it because it was part of this “bead this in your style” challenge. And so it would be my strawberry necklace and earring set that I beaded on birchbark with, uh, 24 karat gold beads as well as really small size 15 Charlotte Cut beads. But I also, I beaded them onto birchbark that I harvested myself and created a necklace and earring set.

But the cool thing about that set is the design was put out for any beader anywhere, like, no specifications at all. Like, you can just work on this one design, and then at the end of the month, this Instagram account called @BeadThisInYourStyle will share it to everyone and show them all off. And so you can see all the different takes of this one design and how different people approach it.

And you’re not allowed to sell them or make money off of them. And so I really enjoyed that factor to, sort of, bead without, you know, an eye on your budget or having to think about, oh, I’m going to have to part with this because you can’t, you know, you can’t sell it. You can give it away if you want, but I really, really enjoyed that one. And so there’s just so much love and community in that piece that I really enjoyed that one.

Helen: Yeah.

Kat: And it’s fun to wear.

Helen: I bet. It’s gorgeous. We’ll definitely link it in the show notes. And, I mean, you mentioned keeping in mind, like, price points and things like that. Is that something that you often think about when you’re working with projects and do you sell your work?

Kat: Yeah, uh, it’s, it’s tricky. I had an Etsy for quite a long time, but, um, I shut it down when Etsy started, sort of, misbehaving, putting money on hold and such. So I’m actually working on my own website right now. It should be up by the time this podcast comes out.

Helen: Oh, cool.

Kat: So, yeah. Uh, I do sell. Like, that’s my main job is selling beadwork, I suppose, and, and art. So it’s hard to price your pieces because you put a lot of time and love into them and it’s, it’s, it’s a hard one. Like, there’s all sorts of advice online about how to go about that, but, uh, it’s still a bit of a minefield. Yeah.

Helen: Yeah. It’s so hard to price these crafts where we spend hours doing something. And it’s just not the price that people typically expect to pay for XYZ, like a top or a necklace or things like that so…

Kat: Yeah, especially…

Helen: … it’s really hard…

Kat: …when they see things, like, in fast fashion. And think, oh, I can get that for seven bucks, but yeah, well, you know, they’re probably not using very good beads, and it’s probably made with, like, unethical labour practices, so…

Helen: Yeah, and it’s not about having the right, the perfect styled necklace either. It’s about buying a piece of art, like, it’s a totally different thing.

Kat: Exactly! It comes back to my point on, sort of, the marriage of handicraft and art, and I think that, you know, Native-made jewelry is definitely much more in the art side of that column, I think, um, just based on the history that’s attached to it. Like, the reason that I can even bead now is because, um, people, kind of, kept beading underground when it was banned.

Like, it was banned in Canada under the Indian Act. Uh, and so like we weren’t allowed to bead or practice our traditional, like, craft ways and making ways, I suppose. And so the only reason why beadwork even exists is because we were allowed to make trinkets, I suppose, and, uh, tourist souvenirs around Niagara Falls.

Um, and so that’s how a lot of our techniques were kept alive is through selling Niagara Falls memorabilia. And so, like, that was all we were allowed to do. And so they, they managed, but you know, like, like, this isn’t, beading is a, sort of, evidence that we survived. And so, like, there’s a lot more to it than just, you know, ooh, shiny. Like, shiny is wonderful, but like, there’s also a lot of heart there, too.

Helen: Yeah, and we wanted to ask you how our listeners can support indigenous bead artists and also, in your opinion, like, is it okay for non-indigenous people to wear the beadwork?

Kat: Oh, yeah. This is like one of the most frequently asked questions I get, and I understand, like, a lot of anxiety around it. It’s totally okay to wear Native-made beadwork. We would love you to. Like, that’s the best way to support Native artists. It’s actually really hard to buy Native-made beadwork. You, kind of, have to, like, learn about how, you know, sharpened elbows and, like, cutthroat the beadwork buying experience can be. A lot of people have to set up timers to wake up, and, like, when I put up a beadwork drop off and sell out in about three minutes.

Caroline: Wow.

Helen: Wow.

Kat: And so you have to really be prepared and, like, have your credit card information already ready to go or signed into PayPal. And, like, everybody has a story of, like, that one that got away. And so it’s wonderful that there’s, that demand, demand there, and we’re really grateful for it, but, um, it’s not necessarily an easy thing to buy that you tend to have to really plan ahead. So, yeah, follow your favourite artists and see what they do and maybe ask them for tips. And so we usually announce, like, a week or so in advance when we do a drop or whatnot, or who, who we’re partnering with, if, if that happens.

Helen: I feel like this is just evidence that you should be charging more for the beadwork, no?

Kat: Yeah, in a lot of ways, sometimes it is. Yeah, for sure.

Caroline: Well, and it’s encouraging, too, that all of that time and love and history has gone into these pieces and then, they actually are selling quickly. Like, that’s, that’s really, really great that you have that support. How often do you do drops? I’m curious, like, how, how often do you personally, uh, drop your, your bead pieces?

Kat: I’m wildly inconsistent, so I’m not the greatest, but a lot of people have fairly regular ones. Um, so some people do it, like, weekly if they’re, like, really high volume, but for me, I, typically probably once or twice a month. Oh, and I just wanted to go back to, like, can non-Native people wear Native beadwork. The only caveat is, like, just don’t dress up as us.

So as long as it’s not veering into anything, costumey, like, that’s, it’s totally fine to wear it. But, like, that’s the one caveat is, like, yeah, wear it all you want. But, like, don’t wear anything sacred which is usually regalia and, like, no Native person is going to sell that to you anyway. And don’t wear anything costumey.

Caroline: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. I wanted to ask one more question about beadwork before we, before we move on. Yeah, I mean, you were talking about the time that you put into some of, some of the pieces that you work on with beadwork. Um, and I wonder, it seems like it must take a lot of patience. And I wonder how you embrace that slow nature of, of some of these crafts that you do.

Kat: I listen to a ton of podcasts, so that’s why I’m thrilled to have found yours now. I’ve been just, like, bingeing it for the past week, trying to understand what, um, I was coming up into for this, but it’s just been, uh, yeah, I’ve become just such a podcast blackhole. Um, yeah, I love it. It’s it’s, it’s been great, especially through quarantine.

So, like I mentioned before, I’m a trained teacher, and at the very beginning of COVID, I was putting out applications again to go back into the classroom. And so I, I had an interview for a school around March 11th, and I, sort of, did the old, you know, U-turn and retreated back into my beading studio and decided to make a more permanent go of this instead because I saw the writing on the wall that the classroom wasn’t exactly going to be where I wanted to be for at least the next few years. Frankly, COVID was a bit of a, you know, silver lining to me to really force me to, sort of, spend this time and be devoted to those projects.

And, um, that’s when I made my regalia, was at home during COVID. So, like, having a lot of this, sort of, dedicated time has kept me safe and indoors, and it’s given me an avenue to, sort of, make money that doesn’t expose me to the public. So, um, it’s been an amazing work from home opportunity, and things have just blossomed after I put all my energy into sort of being Sweetgrass and Sage for a few years. Um, so yeah, like, it’s just been a really, uh, encouraging time, uh, which is remarkable considering the circumstances. Yeah.

Helen: Yeah. That’s true. I’m glad to hear that. I’m sure some folks out there can relate to that, and I’m excited to see your new website. You mentioned there, where you’re going to take things next. And, um, since you mentioned podcasts, I’d love to know if you have any suggestions for us cause we love podcasts, as well, of course, we know our listeners do.

Kat: Ooh, I haven’t really found any, um, podcasts similar to yours. Yours is the first time I’ve even known about, like, sort of, crafty oriented.

Helen: Oh, wow, really? Oh, you’re in for a treat. There’s so many good ones.

Kat: Oh, cool. Um, I’m excited to sort of go down a different line. I really enjoy, sort of, the investigative ones, um, like Sweet Bobby was a really, sort of, quick one that came out a month ago, maybe.

Helen: Oh, cool.

Kat: Um, I really enjoy interesting, learning about different religions and cults. So there’s one called Oh No Ross and Carrie, where they investigate, sort of, fringe groups and, um, that’s fun. And, like, there’s tons and tons of Native podcasts. Um, a really great one is called Coffee and Quaq, and it’s an Inuits podcast where, um, they just discuss, like, sort of, current events and all kinds of things. Um, and just, it’s just really neat to hear Inuit perspective, my partner is Inuit. So, um, I always like learning more about his culture, so yeah.

Helen: Oh, that’s great. I’m going to check out all of those. Thank you. Okay. We want to talk a little bit about some of the other things you do, as interesting as beading is, um, so you block print as well. And one of your Land Back block printed shirts even made it onto television. It was worn by a character in Rutherford Falls which is so cool.

Kat: Yeah, that was just amazing. And the fact that it was on their pilot episode in, like, basically the first scene, like, was just floored. Yeah. So exciting.

Helen: Yeah. How did it feel to, to see that on TV? Like, did you know it was going to happen?

Kat: Yeah, so I’m friends with the star of that show ‎Jana Schmieding who is also a beader. Um, she beads under the name CityNDN, so City N-D-N, and her beadwork is incredible. She does a lot of pop culture work, but, um, yeah, so we were friends for a long time just through beading and then, um, when they were, uh, doing all the set design and costuming for the show, Jana knew about my work and thought it would be perfect for this, sort of, spunky little 12 year old boy to, sort of, challenge a fussy old museum curator, wearing a shirt that said “Land Back.” And so it, it really stood for itself, and they never said the words “Land Back” in the entire show.

But, uh, yeah, season two, they ordered a whole bunch more shirts, so I’m excited to see what happens there. I don’t know what, what they’re involved in, but yeah, there’ll be a bunch of my beadwork as well as, uh, my shirts and things on that show. Yeah, and other shows have, too. Like, Resident Alien is a show on SyFy that they, they got a whole bunch of my stuff for, so it’s just opened a lot of doors for me, um, uh, to, to work in a different capacity instead of just selling pieces. It’s, sort of, like, putting them out there into the world in a different way.

Helen: Yeah. Is it reaching such a wide audience, too, that way. It’s so exciting.

Kat: Yeah, it’s just been wonderful and mind blowing and, like, encouraging in so many ways because that Land Back piece, um, I carved it as a, sort of, I wanted, I was going to go to a bunch of, sort of, um, activist movements.

Um, I was living in Hawaiʻi at the time and there was the Mauna Kea mountain, um, on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi where the native Hawaiʻian community was protesting and protecting the mountain of Mauna Kea, um, from development of a huge telescope that they haven’t been consulted on to put it in there. And so there’s this huge organisation of native Hawaiʻian activists who were camping out on the top of this mountain for years.

And so I went to support them, and they had an art tent where they were screen printing really cool things onto people’s clothing, and I really liked that idea. And so I thought, how can I support them? And then I went back home, carved the Land Back print which is, sort of, the Native American approach to land rights and indigenous sovereignty, and it was a growing movement at the time.

I thought I don’t, I don’t think any native Hawaiʻian people were super involved, but now they’re, they’re all in, you know, in, for Land Back and Water is Life. And, um, the movements have really, um, strengthened each other. And so that block print was a way for me to take a design and print it on clothing on top of a mountain without very many resources, no running water or things like that to, sort of, bring people into a movement in a way that is extremely low cost.

Um, it gets them involved with the art itself. So, like, they’re the ones rolling out the paint and teaching them how to block, teaching them how to, sort of, you know, be really careful cause if you do block printing, like, you, you don’t get second chances. Like, you put that thing down, that’s where it is. So, yeah, it’s just a really wonderful educational tool. And so it, sort of, was a way for me to combine my two loves of art and education and getting the community involved. And so, yeah, that’s that, that design has really, um, blown up and just taken on a life of its own.

I think there’s just something about the boldness of block printing and, like, the significance of two hands holding feathers in a way that is definitely, indicates setting a boundary. But the fact that they’re holding a feathers is, sort of, like, non-violence, I suppose, in the same way. And so it’s, it’s really, I think it’s a very layered piece, and to see it getting such life, you know, everywhere it goes, is just Incredibly encouraging. Yeah.

Helen: Oh, that’s such a great story. And I totally agree. There’s so much life in this print, and I think block printing in general just has a lot of energy in it because the lines aren’t perfectly straight, and you get those little blobs of ink around the edges, and everything, sort of, looks like it’s almost vibrating.

Kat: Yeah!

Helen: And I just love that about block printing. It’s so cool.

Kat: Yeah. It’s just, it’s incredibly analog. And most of my work is in analog physical space. And so that’s what I really like about it, too. You put the paint into people’s hands, and you, like, it’s very physical, and you’re very connected to it, and you have to put your whole body weight on it to make it work. And so, and sometimes it doesn’t work out. So, like, there’s all of these emotions involved in it. And, like, I think everybody gets a bit of a thrill, like, no matter what capacity they’re in, if they’re involved in the process at all.

Helen: Yeah. That’s true. What kind of materials do you make your blocks with, do you use the soft or the hard blocks?

Kat: Um, I have tried a bit of everything, but I have settled on really enjoying the soft ones because they’re easier to clean, um, some of the harder lino, like, it curls up. And so it’s not very useful out in a field. Um, I went to the Indigenous Tattoo Gathering in Tyendinaga this summer, and I brought my blocks, and it was too hot, and they all curled up. And so it was very difficult to print with a community, do a community print day on such a hot occasion, but we still made it work.

But, uh, yeah, I think the soft ones are the way to go, especially for kids. Like, if they’re going to be interacting with it, they’re a little bit more sturdy which doesn’t make, it’s counter-intuitive because the soft ones, they’re more flexible, whereas the harder ones they’ll crack. So, yeah, I like Speedy Carve Rubber. Yeah, that’s the best one to me.

Helen: It is really nice and easy. I mean, you can still slip and cut yourself. That doesn’t stop, but yeah, much easier to carve on. You mentioned earlier in the interview about your Jingle Dress Dancing, and you actually made a Silent Jingle Dress. Can you talk to us a little bit about what this piece looks like and what its meaning is?

Kat: Yeah, okay, so, um, I ma- Jingle Dress Dancing is an Ojibwe, which is one of my tribes, um, origin, uh, dance. That’s a medicine dance that is for literal healing of, like, sick people so that it was, it was designed or it was, sort of, born as a healing dance for, um, for people who are sick. And so, or, like, communities that are sick. So it’s often used during a lot of healing ceremonies. Um, and so Jingle Dancing, it’s, um, the, sort of, metal cones that are sewn onto the dress via bias tape.

And they have, uh, about a two inch tab maybe, um, maybe shorter that lets them, sort of, clink around, um, against each other. And they make an incredible noise when there’s multiple people dancing at the same time, sort of, jumping up and down in rhythms. And so they sound like just hundreds and hundreds of maybe tambourines, I suppose.

And so, um, there’s the movement for MMIW which is Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, um, which is also sometimes called MMIP so Missing and Murdered Indigenous People or MMIR Relations, Relatives. There’s lots of different approaches, but it’s, it’s the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People who are, um, targeted and, you know, lost to us in a lot of ways.

And so, um, a couple of years ago I used block printing to, sort of, create an image of a jingle cone, a single jingle cone, that I carved, sort of, my tribal designs into as well as the acronym M-M-I-W. And so I put it onto a similar, I block printed these stripes and rows of jingle cones in the same pattern as my personal regalia, but because they’re blocked printed on, the dress doesn’t make any noise at all.

And so it was, sort of, a symbolic piece to honour those of us who, you know, can’t dance anymore and are, are sort of being forgotten and left behind and not investigated or being brought to justice, um, which is a huge problem in Canada and the U.S., as well, and, you know, various places in the world. Like, indigenous people are, are not being treated properly. And so this, this is definitely, um, one of my more solemn pieces that has not a lot of wink. No, no winking. It’s, it’s pretty straight to the point. And so, yeah. So it’s, it’s red and with white, uh, the white jingle cones and stripes. Yeah.

Caroline: Yeah. It is such a beautiful and meaningful piece. And I wonder, um, we have a lot of listeners in Canada and the U.S. and all over the world, but mainly North America, and I wonder what can our listeners do to help the cause of MMIW or MMIP?

Kat: Oh, yes. Um, there’s a lot really, um, I find that like the larger, uh, organisations are, like, they’re good and wonderful and doing a great job to raise awareness, but after a certain point awareness, like, kind of, isn’t enough. And so I would encourage people to actually look more closely at the specific people who are missing from their community and, like, there’s going to be somebody nearby.

Unfortunately, this problem is so pervasive that there are likely families nearby to you almost anywhere in the U.S. and Canada that have smaller, less publicised, um, maybe not Go Fund Me’s, but some kind of campaign or they’re, maybe they need help, um, petitioning to the local governments or writing to their council members.

And I think that that smaller, more local, more personal impact can go a lot further, especially for people who want to, sort of, like, have that really meaningful and, like, specific approach. I find, like, that’s probably the best way to get involved at this point.

Helen: Mm, that’s really good advice. Thank you for that.

Kat: Yeah.

Helen: You also mentioned earlier in the show about wearing regalia and that you’ve been working on your own regalia, and we would love to know when and where do you wear this regalia?

Kat: Um, for me it’s mostly ceremonies and powwows, so I grew up away from my community. And so I didn’t grow up going to powwows as a child. So my family, like, like, my dad is white, and my mom is Native. And so, um, we don’t have the closest connection to it. A lot of our traditions were taken from us and, like, my family was moved off the Reserve, even in my grandparents, uh, eras, I guess. And so to really pick up that torch and reconnect and, like, really reclaim those, um, pieces, I sewed my first piece of regalia when I was in my thirties.

And so, I, I debuted at my first powwow along with the tiny tots. And so I considered myself a jumbo tot, and they have a whole process for, uh, your debut dance, your first dance to go into the powwow circle. And it’s a beautiful thing. And you go and meet all the drummers, and you, sort of, shake everyone’s hand or, you know, offer them a gift of either tobacco or sage or whatever you have.

Um, and it’s a wonderful experience. And I was really, um, shepherded into the circle by these incredible aunties. So it was just a wonderful time, um, learning how to make my regalia, practising dancing in the park on Sunday nights, like, with all these little kids. It was wonderful. I loved it. And so to have those people willing to help people like me, who weren’t raised directly in the powwow circle. Like, not everybody has that access. And so I think it’s a really wonderful thing to have these people who are willing to, sort of, take you under their wing.

Caroline: And what was that like? Like, I, I’m curious, that sounds so meaningful to be able to wear regalia for the first time in your thirties. Like, what did that mean to you? What was that like?

Kat: Um, it meant everything. Like, you just feel so fulfilled and, like, I’m also, like, despite the fact that I love beadwork, I’m not very, um, dextrous with being able to do my hair. So I was able to go and, like, ask a friend of mine to braid my hair before the powwows and things. And, like, just, like, having so many people taking care of you and, like, reciprocally, like, you’re also helping taking care of them in different ways that you can as well.

It’s just this really wonderful experience. Um, my first powwow was when I was living in Hawaiʻi, and so it was a really hot and sweaty experience, uh, wearing a huge dress, um, that’s heavy. Like, the dresses are supposed to have 365 cones on them which is quite heavy, um, especially dancing up and down in, like, the humidity.

Mine only has, I think, 200. I haven’t added them all. So even with a 200 cone dress, like, that thing is hot, and you’re wearing wool legging things and moccasins. And my aunties lent me eagle feathers for my hair. So, like, there’s just a lot involved. So it was just, like, really wonderful, but also very overwhelming.

Helen: I can imagine. And I love the whole vision. And also what you said earlier about this, uh, regalia being a work in progress. Like, you haven’t finished it yet, but you still wear it, and you’re going to continue working on it, and you’ll probably work on it for your rest of your life, I imagine. Like, it’s just going to be ongoing.

It’s true. And you, you, sort of, like, a lot of people have multiple sets of different things, too, and so you don’t end up just with one piece. Um, and so there’s also a really wonderful tradition of gifting your regalia to up and coming, like, I guess, children, tiny tots, or teenagers. Like, there was, um, several, uh, Native kids who come to powwows.

Like, like regalia is a really high cost. A lot of it is very expensive. And so lots of kids who are from, like, lower socioeconomic status is, like, they don’t have access to it. And so to be able to gift a piece, like even a shawl or something, to a kid to be able to participate in a powwow is just, like, a wonderful thing.

So one of my dreams is to have, sort of, a way to teach or give a little classes or something in order to open up the access for Native kids to actually, you know, feel that, kind of, fulfilment by feeling more part and connected to their, to their culture. Yeah.

Caroline: Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that. Okay. Well, we, we wanted to talk about one of the more recent crafts that we’ve seen you doing which is hide tanning, as well. So can we switch gears to that for a minute?

Kat: Yeah. Yeah. That’s a whole different animal.

Caroline: It sure is. Yeah. Let’s, let’s talk about it. What got you interested in hide tanning?

Kat: Ah, well I just, a lot of my beadwork heroes like Amber Sandy and JShine Designs, like, they w-, they’ve been doing high tanning for a while, and they make these incredible pieces. And so when you see the people that you admire a part of it, like, it’s really hard not to want to be a part of it, too.

And also just, like, the experience of seeing the difference between commercially tan hides and hides that have been brain tanned in a traditional way, it’s night and day. Like, a commercially tan hide, like, that I have worked with my whole life, you break needles constantly and stab yourself with broken needles.

And, like, it’s a fight for every stitch, and you use pliers to get the needle through. Whereas with a brain tanned hide, even a moose hide which is like a really thick skin, you can fold that piece to six, six folds of a width and the needle will still pass through it like butter. So the experience of using it is just truly night and day.

Um, and it’s warmer sometimes. It’s, like, you can make it even watertight despite the fact that the needle passes through it. Um, it smells like a campfire in the best way. Like, it’s just, it’s not, um, chemically harmful to the world at all. Whereas commercially tan hides, like, most tanneries aren’t even in North America anymore because they can’t pass the EPA regulations.

And so it’s all done overseas which still means, like, it’s, it’s, you know, not it’s poisoning somewhere. So, and also, like, the hides, I think one thing I need to make clear is, like, I am incapable of killing anything. I am not a hunter. I have no, like, I would, I can’t even fish. Like, my husband is, like, a major fisherman, and I cannot participate.

I sit on the banks, and I sew, and I eat, and I cheer them on, but I can’t participate. Like, I just, I don’t have the killing bone in my body, but I will happily scavenge hides and, um, fish skins and all kinds of things, too, like feathers or furs. I am happily to scavenge those so that they don’t go to waste.

And I think that’s a really important distinction with how I use products derived from animals in my work. Um, a lot of people think fur is murder and fur is, like, this ultimate sign of over-consumption, but in my opinion, the way that I approach it, it’s completely the opposite. It’s much more sustainable in the way that I take such care with the animals to only use, like, ethically sourced hides, so I know where they came from. I know the hunter who’s fed their family off of that.

And I know that the practice, like, non-Native or Native, like, is to just, um, skin the animal and let the, um, the hide return to the earth which isn’t technically bad. Like, it’s not technically wasted in a lot of ways. Like, that does still nourish trees and things, but, you know, in all your decomposing animal scavengers, but I think that to be able to turn it into something beautiful is also a wonderful thing.

And so, yeah, I am, I’m a scavenger in a lot of ways, and I make sure that, like, that the furs, hides, and any animal products that I use, it has to be ethically sourced, and I have to know its origins. And, like, sometimes I do pay for that premium, but, like, I think it’s worthwhile.

Helen: Mhm, yeah. And, oh my gosh, I have so many questions. You mentioned brain tanning. Am I hearing that correctly?

Kat: Yes!

Helen: Okay, so what is that?

Kat: Yeah, yeah. This is definitely, like, high quality stuff. Um, every animal, except for buffaloes has all of the chemicals necessary to tan its hide within its own brain. And so this is the traditional way that everywhere in the world used to use tanning for their leather. Um, and so it’s the fatty compounds in the brain that, uh, react just perfectly in order to preserve and, sort of, lubricate the fibres of a skin, after a certain point, if you’re doing it properly, in order to make it last and not rot and be preserved and maintain its leather-y-ness, I guess.

Because when you think about it, like, the skin of an animal is just a, kind of, meat. And so if it were to get wet or to become too hot or something or dry out, it might crack and shrink and return into more of a beef jerky state. And so by using the brain or a chemical tanning solution, you can preserve leather in a state that is useful and soft and, uh, functional.

Caroline: And what does that process actually look like? And how long does it take?

Kat: Oof. I am not an expert at this, but I did attend a hide camp in Ontario this summer for 10 days where we learned how to do it, start to finish, and it took 10 days to, sort of, get that part done. Um, so it’s just a lot, a lot of scraping and soaking the hide. So you scrape off the fur and the membrane on the inside, and then you have to rinse it off in a certain way to, sort of, get rid of any bacteria.

And then you soak it in a brain mixture that, sort of, really coats all the fibres, and then you have to stretch it all out in exhausting, exhausting ways to, sort of, soften it and help it to dry, um, in a soft and supple way. And then you smoke it, and the smoking, so you, sort of, take a bunch of, I guess, bark and, sort of, rotten wood that has dried out.

And then you put that over a fire, and it creates this beautiful smoke that changes the leather from a, sort of, sickly grey to that beautiful caramel colour that you think of when you think about buckskin. And so the whole process, start to finish, can take a whole year if you don’t have all the time. And there’s lots of processes where you can, um, let it rest, but, um, start to finish, like, it’s probably a minimum 10 day experience.

Helen: Wow. I mean, that sounds so cool. And I love this concept of hide camp.

Kat: Oh my goodness. Yeah. It’s just, like, a community of people who are all nerdy in the same way that you are getting together to learn about, like, these techniques that have been sort of taken from us and, sort of, taking them back together. It was just, it was a miracle, and the people who ran that hide camp were just phenomenal, and I have nothing but wonderful things to say about it.

Helen: Wow. Very cool. So what do you plan to do with the hide that you tanned at this camp?

Kat: Ah, like, the hide, but I like to explain, like, how precious this thing is. I haven’t yet even been able to, like, think about even taking scissors to it at all.

Helen: Fair.

Kat: But, um, yeah, if I were to sell it, like, the hide, like, a brain tanned buckskin, like, what I have created would start at a thousand dollars. So, like, like, that’s how much work has gone into it. I put it in my sleeping bag with me at night. I was so worried. Not that anyone would steal it, but, like, you just become so attached.

And so eventually, once my heart has, like, you know, calmed down a bit, I’ll probably turn it into a lot of earrings and, like, some baby moccasins for my new niece and maybe, uh, little medicine pouches for, um, loved ones. So yeah, small projects, because I can’t put anything too big because I want to make it last cause I know how long it took me to do.

Helen: Yeah, I love the idea of spreading it around to all those projects.

Kat: Yeah, exactly!

Helen: Yeah. Very cool.

Kat: The answer with me is almost always earrings. I’m such an earring maker.

Caroline: I was going to say, yeah, would you be incorporating things like beading or appliqué into that process and to those finished pieces?

Kat: Oh, for sure, like, to be able to put a needle through hide, like, so easily, like, that’s the luxury. So I wouldn’t use it for fringe or anything because, for me, like, cutting fringe is easy on commercial leather. So I still have, like, bins and bins of scrap commercial leather that I, I’d love to use. And so it makes more sense to use that for fringe. So I make a lot of really, really long fringe earrings. And so, um, those would be more likely to be used commercial leather, or I often cut up really ugly leather coats that no one’s going to buy, another one of my thrift store upcycles, so yeah…

Helen: The ones with the giant shoulder pads.

Kat: Shoulder pads and, like, weird little sleeves. And yet, it’s, like, a Matrix coat length. Like, oh yeah, I try and be ethical at the thrift store and not take things that people should, should be buying.

Helen: You’re saving them.

Kat: My favourite was when I rescued one of those, like, really, kind of, fake pretend Native fringe jackets from Danier. I’m going to have fun cutting this up and turn it into something real Native. Yeah.

Helen: Oh, that’s so perfect. Okay. I think I know the answer to this next question, but is hide tending something you can do, like, at home?

Kat: Uh, believe it or not, but yes, I did all my hide tanning in a park camping this summer, but I did have to bring a lot of the stages home, so my parents got really familiar with me doing something strange in the garage. Um, there’s also fish skin tanning. You can turn fish skin into leather which I had no idea, and it doesn’t get stinky, like, at any stage. So that was really, really nice, um, to learn about that.

And apparently, every culture in the world has a history of fish skin leather, like leather clothing even, because it’s waterproof. So a lot of us would use it for raincoats and things throughout history. And so I had no idea. It’s just such a foreign idea to me, but yeah, Janey Chang is my teacher for fish skin tanning, and I learned so much about it from her.

It’s, it’s really an interesting process. Yeah, so you can do that, and that one is, like, such a low bar of entry. Like, all you need is a fish and, like, black tea, and that’s literally it, I think, maybe some salt. And so, yeah, like, it’s, it’s very simple, and it’s not gross in any capacity. So if you wanted to learn about hide tanning in a really easy, accessible way, I would look up Janey Chang and maybe buy a box of black tea.

Helen: I’m totally going to do this. Do you keep the scales on? Like, how does it look when it’s done?

Kat: I think you can. I think there’s some ways that you can, but the way we learned, um, we took the scales off, and so it ends up this beautiful dark tea colour and it, it ends up really, really soft and, um, just, kind of, fun. I use it as earring backing so far, but I think it’s famously used for bookbinding.

Helen: Oh, cool. Yeah. I was thinking about for us sewists, like, putting a little leather patch on something.

Kat: Yeah, elbow patches.

Helen: Yeah. Or elbow patches. Yeah. That would be so cool.

Kat: Something like that. Yeah. Totally.

Helen: Well, speaking of you being a bit of a scavenger, we know that you found a young porcupine that had died, and you actually collected and cleaned the quills. And we were wondering, what was that experience like? And also what are you going to do with those quills?

Kat: Oh yeah, like, that was such, that was my window. My parents had taken a week holiday, so I was left at their house house sitting. And, um, we had seen a lot of porcupines throughout the summer, and every time we drove by, when I would always beg them to pull over and let me go get it, um, and they’re always like, oh no, we’re late for this, or you can’t do that. We don’t have a thing.

So I started carrying a big towel in my car and, um, gloves and garbage bags and stuff just to have an eye because we saw so many of them. And so when I finally had this perfect opportunity, like, it presented itself and I was able to haul this little porcupine into my parent’s garage while they weren’t home, so they couldn’t protest. And it was so cute. It was so young. It was so sad to see it, it had died, but, like, it was in perfect condition. It wasn’t stinky whatsoever.

Um, it had probably died that morning, just roadkill and, um, it didn’t die violently. So, like, it was completely intact and barely bleeding. Um, and so like, it wasn’t a gross experience. Like, I didn’t have to do anything too invasive. I didn’t cut it up or anything like that. Um, and so I just, I harvested the guard hairs first and the quills, and I followed all these instructions on YouTube. Thank goodness for YouTube. There’s all kinds of Natives out there teaching us how to do this.

And I cleaned the quills and, um, I’ve dyed a few of them. Um, and I use them for quill work, uh, which is, uh, what Native people did before beads, before we had glass beads, we adorned a lot of our jewellery and clothing with porcupine quills, appliquéd on, kind of, like, like, a zigzag bendy straw is the best way to describe it.

Um, so you tack down one side of each quill, and it creates the zigzag pattern and you can get really detailed with colours of different dyes, both natural and RIT. Everybody knows RIT, the universally beloved cheap dye. And so, yeah, yeah. I’m excited about it.

I do a lot of resin work. I’m, kind of, known for my, uh, porcupine quill jewellery that is encased in resin. Um, because I like having the quills still be sharp. And so for a lot of quillwork you end up cutting off the sharp tips. And so I thought it was really cool to keep the danger element of the jewellery visible without actually putting anybody in danger of getting poked.

Helen: That is so cool. I really love resin jewellery. There’s so many cool things you can do just by encasing things in resin. And then they look shiny, too.

Kat: Yeah. Yeah. It’s fun. A little bit dangerous, but once you’re safe, take the right precautions.

Helen: Yeah, cause they’re so sharp, right? Like, there must have been a lot of quills. How many…?

Kat: Oh, I mean, like, the chemicals of the resin.

Helen: Oh!

Kat: The quills themselves, I didn’t get poked even once by that, it was a juvenile. So, like, the quills were fairly short and stubby compared to what you would normally want to work with for most quillwork. But for my purposes, for resin, I like the short quills because I tend to write words in the resin, like, “Land Back” or “skoden” in, like, I like short words that are, you know, that, sort of, wink, uh, element of my, of my work. And so it’s a lot easier to use the short ones to write out words to get those details.

Helen: That makes sense. Well, we are almost through here. I know we’ve kept you for quite a while, but we have a couple more questions. First of all, are there any crafts out there that you plan on learning that you haven’t tried yet?

Kat: Oh, I really want to learn digital art. Um, I’m starting a little bit right now. I’ve joined, um, the Chicago Puppet Fest, this group called Skeleton Canoe. They’re, they’re making a play, and I’m doing the illustrations for, like, it’s, like, a shadow puppet play, kind of, and it’s another Native showrunner named Ty Defoe.

And so they’ve asked me to do illustrations for the back of the shadow stage, I guess. And so they, they, they hired me and sought me out based off of my, uh, lino carving prints, my lino prints, block prints. And so, but I’ve had to really just jump in the deep end and learn how to do digital illustration because I’m such an analog person.

And I had to really think I can’t carve a lino print for every, every scene. Like, like, especially, like, just, like, we’re still workshopping through a lot of it. And so I’ve, I’m really excited to learn more about how to do Procreate and how to do digital illustration. So yeah, I’m branching into the other side of, you know, analog.

Helen: That sounds very cool. Um, yeah. I can’t wait to see where you go with that.

Kat: Yeah. It’s, it’s really, it’s scary cause, like, there’s so much to learn, but, um, I think that’s, you know, part of the fun is learning a new skill.

Caroline: Yeah, and you have done so many different art forms and crafts and you seem to just go for things. So we, kind of, want to know, like, what’s your secret? And do you have any advice on fostering that creative spirit for our listeners?

Kat: Oh, yeah. Just, like, maybe how I look at things is I look at something that I want to do, and then I work backwards on how to get there. So if you see something that somebody else has done that you want to try, but in a different style or your own way, there’s a lot of, sort of, retroactive undoing, like, taking things apart.

I think it’s probably similar with patternmaking. Like, if you see a shirt that you really like, you can same same it by just, you know, having a day of taking it apart and resewing it. So there’s a lot to, uh, yeah, taking things apart. My dad’s an engineer and my mom’s a quilter. And so I’ve always, sort of, grown up in this environment of curiosity from two different, very different spectrums. And so I think I’m that, sort of, sweet spot between an engineer and an artist.

Helen: That’s really interesting. I, I love your approach of focusing on education, and it seems like engineering and quilting is, they’re both based on, like, finding small building blocks and creating a bigger thing. So it makes sense that you would, sort of, work backwards from the final result and, and just figure out the steps that you need to find to get there.

Kat: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Caroline: And before we wrap up, is there anything you wish we would have asked you? Is there anything we haven’t talked about?

Kat: Oh, um, I can’t think of anything. You guys have been incredibly thorough. It’s just been, like, my ego is just about 10 times, I feel like the Grinch.

Caroline: Oh, it should be, you’re so talented. And it was such a pleasure chatting with you today and hearing more about your work. And, um, can you share with our listeners where they can find you online?

Kat: Yeah, so SweetgrassAndSage.com is going to be my website. It should be live by the time this is out. Um, I’m on Instagram as @Sweetgrass_And_Sage. Um, and, um, I’m on TikToK @Sweetgrass_And_Sage. Um, so yeah, those are the best places to find me. I have a lot of fun on social media, um, and I’m not always selling. So if you’re worried about being inundated with sales pitches constantly, like, it’s actually much harder to buy my stuff. I’ll try and make that easier.

Helen: You should be worried about the reverse.

Kat: Yeah. So, so don’t worry if you want to follow me. I’m, I’m, I do a lot of, uh, educational stuff, too, and I share a ton of other people’s work. So if you’re interested in learning about Indigenous beadwork crews and stuff, I’ve got all kinds of highlights, especially on my Instagram page where you can find just, like, phenomenal powerhouses of beadwork from all different tribes across the U.S. and Canada. So, yeah, it’s a really fun place with also a bit of activism. I like to blend activism into things, too. So, yeah, it’s a, a huge mixed bag.

Helen: Well, we love all of it, and thank you again so much for taking the time to chat with us. It’s been really great getting to know you, and yeah, we just really appreciate you and the work that you do.

Kat: Aw, cheers! Yaw^ko and Miigwetch! I appreciate having the chance to come on this incredible podcast.

Caroline: Aw, thank you.

Helen: Thank you so much.

Caroline: Take care!

Helen: Buh-bye.

Kat: Bye.

Helen: That’s it for today’s episode of Love to Sew. You can find me, Helen, at HelensClosetPatterns.com and Caroline at BlackbirdFabrics.com! We’re recording today in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

Caroline: Go to LoveToSewPodcast.com to find our show notes. They’re filled with links and pictures from this episode. Don’t want to miss that. And if you’d like to get in touch with us, send us an email at [email protected].

Helen: If you love Love to Sew and want more, you can sign up for our Patreon! For $5 a month, you get a full-length bonus episode and weekly behind-the-scenes pics. For $10 a month, you get all that PLUS a mini-episode focused on sewing techniques and 15% off codes for both Helen’s Closet and Blackbird Fabrics! Patreon is the best way to support us so that we can keep making quality sewing content. Go to patreon.com/LoveToSew for more info.

Caroline: And thanks to our amazing podcast team. Lisa Ruiz is our creative assistant. Jordan Moore is our editor. And Margaret Wakelee is our transcriber. And thank you, listener, for listening to the show. And we’ll see you next week.

Helen: Bye.

Hi Kat. Thank you so much for coming on the show today.

Kat: Am I? Sorry! Am I supposed to answer?

Helen: You can just say, um, hi. Thanks for having me or something like that.

Kat: Oh, sorry!

Helen: Totally fair.

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For our 200th episode, we asked our listeners the question we ask all our guests: “How did you learn to sew?” In this episode, we share some of the many great responses we got – funny, touching stories of discovering this skill we all love.

The transcript for this episode is on this page at the end of the show notes.

Previous Episodes:

Mentioned in this Episode: 

Sewing Patterns:

Transcript:

Helen: We are recording today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, including Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and K’ómoks first nations.

Hello, and welcome to Love to Sew. I’m Helen, the designer behind Helen’s Closet Patterns.

Caroline: And I’m Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics.

Helen: We’re two sewing beds who love to sew our own clothes and want to encourage you on your sewing journey, too.

Caroline: Join us for today’s topic: How I Learned to Sew.

Hi, Helen.

Helen: Hi, Caroline.

Caroline: Oh my gosh. This is our 200th episode of Love to Sew.

Helen: Two hundred episodes. How many hours is that?

Caroline: I don’t think I want to know.

Helen: That’s a lot of sewing talk. Like, people said we were going to run out of ideas. They said… No, just kidding.

Caroline: And look at us now!

Helen: But seriously!

Caroline: It’s true.

Helen: So many episodes of sewing tips, techniques, tools, fabric deep dives, amazing guests, and community stories. And we are so grateful to you, our listeners, for making this possible.

Caroline: Yes, you’ve listened to the episodes. You’ve commented on social media. You’ve sent us emails and voicemails. You’ve supported us on Patreon, and we’ve learned a lot from you. We’ve laughed at your jokes, and we’ve been inspired by your makes. It’s been such a great journey.

Helen: It really has. I can still remember the very beginning of this when we were meeting regularly talking about the idea of starting a podcast and trying to figure out how it was going to be and what kind of guests we were going to have and what kind of topics we would do and how often we would record. And I still think back on that, like, four years ago, and we had no idea where that was going to take us.

Caroline: Yeah, and, I mean, we’ve seen a lot of changes in our lives over the last four years. We’ve both moved. I’ve moved several times. You moved away from Vancouver. Our businesses have evolved and changed and grown, and our lives have changed. We both got dogs. It’s been a real, real exciting time. And, just, I’m grateful to have our listeners there for us through all of it and listening along on our sewing and life journeys.

Helen: It is pretty special to have this audio documentation of this phase of our lives because it has been so exciting, especially seeing our businesses grow alongside the growth of the podcast and being able to share that with all of you. So, again, just thank you so, so much for listening, whether you’ve been listening all along or you just got here. Thank you, seriously, so much.

Caroline: Yeah. Thank you so much. We actually have people email us and say things like, I feel like you are my friends, or you’re my sewing buds. And it’s true; we feel that, too. We feel like we’re friends with all of you, and we’re so thankful for you. So, yay.

Helen: And because it’s our 200th episode, we have a very special one planned for today, but before we get into it, let’s answer a listener question.

Caroline: Yes. This one comes from Sarennya, “I came across the Uniform Project where she wore the same black dress with different accessories for a whole year. I love the idea of having a uniform dress which is adaptable and could form the basis of my wardrobe. Can you suggest any patterns that might work well for this?”

Helen: Thanks so much for your question. And for those of our listeners who don’t know, the Uniform Project is a very interesting and cool thing. Sheena wore the same little black dress for a whole year. The dress that they designed buttons through on one side and has a dart and a centred godet on the other side.

And Sheena wore it front ways, back ways, open, closed, tucked in, uh, and paired it with lots of different other garments as well. It wasn’t just wearing the dress. You can check it out in the link that we’ll put in the show notes. It’s really inspiring how many outfits that they were able to make with just one dress and different accessories. And Sheena took every opportunity to fundraise for schools in Mumbai and Pune with this project and we will link, of course, in the show notes, as we said.

And as for patterns, we think that maybe the Kalle Shirt Dress by Closet Core could be a great choice for this because it can be worn open or closed, I really like the way that Sheena did that with her dress, belted or not belted. And it would look like a nice shirt if it were tucked into dress or pants. We also love the look of the Hexham Dress by Muna and Broad which would make a great knit option if you wanted just a simple knit garment that you could wear for your uniform project.

Caroline: Mhm, I feel like any kind of button up shirt or shirt dress could work so well cause it’s so versatile. You can use it as, like, a layering piece, almost like a little light jacket, and then you could also wear it as, like, a full garment, like a dress or a top or tucked in, or I don’t know, there’s just so many options there. So I like that suggestion.

Helen: And I think black is an obviously good choice. Um, going with any kind of neutral probably makes sense in this case, so you can mix it with lots of things.

Caroline: Yeah, whatever your version of black is, like what Donny Q said about, um, his version of black being beige.

Helen: Yeah, or brown. Some people’s neutral is, like, leopard print.

Caroline: Yeah, that would be cool actually.

Helen: It would be.

Caroline: Okay. So for this episode today, we asked you the question that we ask all of our guests, and that is: how did you learn to sew? Which is so special for this episode. I’m so excited to read all of these wonderful sewing stories. We got so many responses, and we wish we could share them all. So thank you to everyone who wrote in with their stories. But before we start, I think we’re going to share ours, right?

Helen: Yeah, of course. I think we have shared these on the show before, but, I mean, it’s always fun to repeat and share again. So Caroline, tell me how and when did you learn to sew?

Caroline: So, okay. It’s hard to say exactly when. I often say I was, like, eight or nine years old, but some of my earliest memories of sewing are my mom sewing Halloween costumes growing up. And I always think of sewing as something that’s, kind of, just always been in the background of my life because I always knew that my grandmother sewed and my great-grandmother sewed, and there’s always been a sewing machine, or there was always a sewing machine, in my house growing up.

But yeah, I took an interest in sewing when I was around, like, eight, nine, maybe 10 years old and started making bags out of old pairs of jeans. And my friends started asking me to make bags for them. And I actually started charging for those bags which I always laugh about now. Um, but yeah, that’s when I learned to sew. And my mom was the one who taught me. I, kind of, forced her to teach me how to use her sewing machine so I could do that.

And then I kept on sewing throughout my teenage years. I never used patterns. I just traced shapes that looked right or used, like, existing clothing as templates. And then I went to college to study fashion design in, like 2006 to 2008, but sewing my own clothes didn’t really stick until around 2010, 2011, when I discovered the online sewing community.

Helen: And that’s when you were hooked?

Caroline: Yeah. The rest is history. What about you, Helen? How did you learn to sew?

Helen: Well, a very similar sewing story because I don’t entirely know exactly when it happened, but it was around the same age. And I also grew up watching my mom sew our Halloween costumes and also sew her own clothes, and one of my very early sewing memories is touching the hot iron after being told, “Don’t touch this. It’s hot.”

Caroline: Of course.

Helen: Of course I had to try. And I also remember vividly going to the fabric store with my mom and being small and, like, I can remember the angle looking up at the bolts and touching them with my hands and looking at all of the patterns on the catalogue racks and being particularly interested in, like, the teen patterns, um, which are, uh, extra exciting in the nineties, lots of grunge pants and raver, kind of, style aesthetic for the teen patterns. So it was really fun to look at all of those.

And I just loved going to the fabric store, and I did make a few garments when I was around, like, 8, 9, 10, and I also enjoyed sewing bags and other accessories. And in high school, I really enjoyed my home ec classes and my home ec teacher, Mrs. Orchard, and I spent a lot of extra time in her classroom, outside of class. And I sewed all sorts of things. She was very encouraging, gave me fabric and things to work with and just really, um, encouraged me in my sewing journey.

And I was really into wearing what I made to school the next day. I would get very excited about finishing the project so that I could wear it the next day. And I remember a lot of, like, knit circle skirts where you, kind of, cut a circle and then you cut a smaller circle for the waist, and then you just slap a waistband on there, and there you go.

And lots of sleeveless tops, no pattern used, just like you said, figuring out shapes and cutting them out. And I also sewed my jeans into skirts, um, and took in tees that I thrifted at Value Village so that they would be tighter. I really liked everything tight. And, uh, so I had a lot of fun altering clothes, too.

And another thing I wanted to mention cause it’s a nice early sewing memory is that my Aunt Judy, uh, used to so custom handmade, uh, Barbie clothes for me when I was little. I was really into Barbie and I had a whole Barbie World set up in my bedroom on this shelving unit. So it’s like a multistory Barbie situation, where it was like, you’re looking at a building but it’s, like, cut open. You could see all the, like, floors, and there’s different things happening on each floor.

And I was really into Barbie, in part, I think because of the fashion, and I really loved the clothes, and my Aunt Judy would sew me these custom Barbie clothes, and they were absolutely gorgeous. And I just remember being so excited whenever I would get those in the mail. So that’s a really lovely, early sewing memory for me.

Caroline: Aw, that’s such a sweet story. I love the vision of you, like looking up at the fabric bolts in the fabric store and probably feeling really small next to all those fabrics, but it’s such a sweet, sweet memory.

Helen: Yeah, and like you, I didn’t get back into sewing my own clothes and really excited about sewing my own wardrobe until later on, like, I think 2015 was when I started the Helen’s Closet blog. And that was when I got back into sewing, and it’s, so it’s only been six years, and that always shocks me, or seven years now, I guess it’s 2022, but it always shocks me to think about what a short amount of time that really is and how much I’ve accomplished in that time and how much sewing I’ve done and how much more confident I feel in my sewing now.

Caroline: Yeah, it’s awesome. Well, I’m excited to get into some listener stories, and we’ve, kind of, grouped them as we usually do. Our first group of stories belongs in a popular category which is self-taught sewists.

And our first story is a voicemail from Hannah.

Hannah: Hi, I’m Hannah. I’m 22, and I’m from Germany. Um, you recently asked how we learned to sew. Um, so here’s my story. When I was, like, 11 or 12, I just randomly started making these, like, cases for the flip phones we had back then, um, like little pockets where you could put your phones in.

And I made them from old jeans, and I sewed them by hand because obviously, I didn’t have a sewing machine then. And I also had no idea how to sew anything really. So it was no surprise that they didn’t fit at all. Like, I couldn’t even put my phone into them, but I had so much fun. So that was, like, before Christmas.

And so for Christmas, my parents just took the plunge and gifted me a sewing machine. And I had never thought about that, or even a possibility of sewing with a sewing machine, but obviously, they took the right plunge because ever since then I’ve been enjoying sewing, and I have several sewing machines now. So they were definitely right with gifting me that.

But here’s another funny little anecdote because I was listening to your episode with Suzy Furrer the other week. I think it’s, like, Episode 99 or something. And she said that she was actually scared of sewing into her fingers at first. And I remember on Christmas morning, um, we opened presents, like, on, uh, Christmas Eve. So on Christmas morning, I was so excited about my sewing machine, but at the same time, I was also so immensely scared of sewing into myself, like, sewing into my fingers and my hands, um, that I was actually not brave enough to just try out the sewing machine.

I had to wake up, wait until my parents woke up and then they, you know, were sewing with me, but that’s just a little funny thing that I like to remember when I think about how I started sewing.

Caroline: Thank you so much for calling in, Hannah. It’s so cute to picture you sitting there on Christmas morning, just dying to sew, but waiting because you’re so scared. And I’m glad that your fear is a thing of the past and that now you’re a long time sewist, but I can totally relate to that, kind of, overwhelm of looking at a sewing machine and being like, oh my gosh, how do I work this.

Helen: Definitely. Daisy of DIY Daisy wrote in, too. If you don’t know who she is, please check her out. She has fabulous sewing tutorials and such a bright wardrobe. She wrote, “I just plugged in a machine and started fiddling until I understood how it worked. I was a brave 13 year old until I stitched through my finger, and dad had to detach me from the machine.”

Caroline: Oh my goodness. Daisy, this is horrifying and also somehow inspiring. You can sew through your finger and survive the experience, everyone. And she kept sewing. I don’t know. I think that’s really brave.

Helen: It is. And Carla wrote to us via email.

Caroline: “My sewing adventure really started when I got engaged and could not, for the life of me, find a colour coordinated vest (also known as a waistcoat), for my then husband-to-be’s suit. If I found one, it didn’t fit him properly. He is well over 6 feet tall and super skinny. So I decided to make one…welt pockets, brocade fabric and all the things one avoids for a beginner. But I dove in and while I made lots of mistakes, it was still lovely and wearable by the end. Ever since I’ve had the bug and my sewing space has grown from one end of our dining table to a whole corner of our basement just six years later. Still loving it!”

Helen: Wow. This is amazing, Carla. You really dove into the deep end of sewing, and you made something special and unique for a loved one. And if you’re out there listening and you want to learn to sew, or you want to level up your sewing, be like Carla, and just go for it. What would Carla do?

@ErikaDeperika commented on Instagram, “As a teen I got clothing allowance (I don’t know if it’s a thing in the rest of the world, but halfway through secondary school, most Dutch kids get a fixed monthly allowance for clothes to practice managing a slightly bigger budget than just pocket money, that should be used for slightly more necessary purchases than pocket money). Anyway, I got a baseline budget with the promise that if I could show from my bookkeeping that it wasn’t enough, I could get more. I was super goth at the time and those clothes were expensive. But I felt more like learning to sew than like doing bookkeeping so off I went. Almost 20 years later I’m still not sure whether my mom and dad consider this a parenting success or not.”

Caroline: I mean, it sounds like a win-win situation to me. You got your super goth clothes, and your parents didn’t have to increase your clothing allowance, and you didn’t have to crunch any numbers. Plus, you learned a useful skill. I love this.

Helen: You know, I actually had a clothing budget as a child slash teenager as well. My parents gave me, I can’t remember, I think it was, like, $25 a month or something, but I could save it throughout the year and have more, and it was a great way to learn about using money and have a little bit more autonomy when it came to shopping.

Caroline: Yeah. That’s such a great concept. Okay. @EpochSewing wrote to us on Instagram, ”I felt desperate to help with the Covid-19 pandemic so figured I could get a machine and learn how to make masks to give out. Literally, blind ordered a machine online. Made a bunch of masks after watching a YouTube tutorial. After making too many to count, I said “hmmm wonder if I could make a dress?” Being 6’1”, ready-to-wear has never fit. I made the Seamwork Georgia. I did pretty much everything wrong: the facing was inside out, I didn’t add length and the sleeves were a nightmare. But my goodness I was HOOKED! Haven’t looked back.”

Helen: This is so cool. I love that you began sewing with something you knew that you could make and then progressed to things you thought were too hard at the beginning, but you did manage to get there. And I wonder how many sewists started out making masks at the beginning of the pandemic when there was that PPE shortage. And now that masks are widely available, I think people are still sewing. I hope people are still sewing. They haven’t put their machines back in the closet, and it’s been really exciting to have new people joining the community these past couple of years.

Caroline: Yeah. I’d say if the last couple of years or any indication, like, we definitely have gained a lot of people in this sewing world. It’s exciting.

Helen: Yes, it is. @ArtInStitchTute, cute, wrote, “I was 8 years old and my sister was 10. We had only one TV and she said, since she was older, she got first dibs. It was 1969, and I wanted to watch the show Banana Splits. She wanted to watch something else, and she won. I took my mom’s sewing machine out and made a pair of pants and a jacket by the time our parents came home. One of my arms was sewn upside down (shoulder seam to underarm seam), but I’ve been sewing ever since (I’m 60), and I teach sewing classes now and do alterations. #DoWhatYouLove”

Caroline: We have listeners learning at all ages in these letters. I love this, and this is such a classic younger sibling problem. If you can’t get the older sibling to let you watch what you want, so you have to figure out something else to do. But I, kind of, love that you started sewing to keep yourself entertained.

I can’t say that I would’ve just jumped to pulling out a sewing machine and making myself an outfit if my sister decided she wanted to watch TV, but it’s awesome that you still love sewing and that you’re still doing it now. So I think that’s a win as well.

Helen: Yeah, it is. And I have sewn a sleeve in upside down, so I know how you feel.

Caroline: Oh yeah. @Taylor.Hart.Fabrics commented, ”I learned to sew about 4 years ago by listening to podcasts like yours, watching videos on YouTube, going to a local sewing class, reading books like David Page Coffin’s Shirtmaking, and sewing as often as possible. Sewing has become a passion, and I practise almost every day.”

Helen: Okay. So this listener was mostly self-taught, but they also took a class, and I love this hybrid approach. There’s always more to learn in sewing, and it’s really nice if you can get into an in-person class to learn some more, and it’s so nice that Love to Sew helped you learn, too. Thank you for sharing.

Maggie @MaggieWhoSews wrote, “I taught myself to quilt from books in the nineties. After my kids were born, I learned how to make clothes by following indie patterns. Each pattern was a lesson. Eventually I started sewing for myself and got help from FB sewing groups like the Curvy Sewing Collective! (I’m a co-editor nowadays, and I’m still learning.)”

Caroline: It’s such a good idea to learn the basics of sewing and then to learn by following indie patterns. There are pattern companies out there that make great instructions to learn from. I have to shout out to you, Helen, cause I think that your instructions teach sewing so well. You always have little tips and tidbits throughout, and you have a few patterns in your library that are very much geared towards beginners. Like, am I wrong? The Donovan skirt as one of them.

Helen: Yes, correct. I love putting in all of those little tips because even if you are a long ways along in your sewing journey, you still might not know why you do certain things. And it’s so interesting to me to find out that when I’m sewing.

Caroline: Mhm, okay. @Sew.Sher commented, “I taught myself to sew using sewing books from my local library”

And Anna @blumzie wrote, “YouTube and library books!”

Helen: Books are such a great underrated way to learn to sew. Some sewing books are structured like a beginner sewing course. So you won’t have any gaps in your learning and getting them from the library is a great idea because you’d spend $0 and you learn a new skill.

I, when I got back into sewing, picked out some sewing books from the library, and I learned a lot from them, like, just reading them cover to cover. And even though not all the knowledge sticks because it’s all overwhelming at the beginning, you will reference those books again and again and come back to that, you know, the third or second time you read it. And, and it will stick in the end.

Caroline: Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. It’s so nice to have, like, a handful of, of reference books in your sewing room to just have on hand, if you ever need a little bit of support.

Helen: Or if you want to sew, but you don’t have the energy to actually sew, you can just read about sewing.

Caroline: There you go.

Helen: Okay, Blair left us a voicemail.

Blair: Hi, this is Blair from Chicago, Illinois. Uh, so a lot of people assume that I learned to sew from my mother, but she never sewed. I taught myself, but she’s very proud that I taught myself how to sew. So she will frequently brag to people how bad she was at sewing and that she got a C in home ec. And I always think that’s very sweet because she loves to tell people that I taught myself. But that’s my sweet little sewing story. Thanks. Buh-bye.

Caroline: Blair, this is so cute. You should be proud of being self-taught. It’s not easy. And you did it. You go, Blair.

Helen: Yes.

Caroline: Okay. Next up @Millennial_Mom16 wrote, “I was always curious about the vintage black mechanical Singer that my aunt used to sew on, but as a child I was never allowed to work on it. Growing up in India in the the 1990s, studies were always preferred to sewing if you want to get ahead in life. I finally learned to sew when three months pregnant with my baby, in a new country. I spotted a Brother machine at a local reuse centre in Austin, Texas. This place, Austin Creative Reuse, sold upholstery samples, which I had hand sewed as a wall tapestry earlier. So when I saw this 80s Brother machine at a very low price, I thought, ‘why not?!’ Once the machine was home, I started watching YouTube videos on threading the machine, sewing basic things. I made quite a few functional, wacky, imperfect clothes for my kiddo, who enjoys watching me sew. As an engineer, I love to reverse engineer outfits and sew entirely pattern-less most times. Thank you for this platform and for letting me share my sew-story!”

Helen: Thanks for your story. That creative reuse centre sounds so dreamy, and it’s really smart to look up YouTube videos for your specific machine. There’s lots of great information out there made by sewing machine manufacturers and hobbyists. I also love that you made clothes for your kiddo. Little kids often don’t notice if something is imperfect, I mean, rarely, I would say, notice if something is imperfect. So they are the perfect Guinea pigs for your creations when you’re just learning.

Caroline: Yeah, this is a great story. And I totally pull up YouTube anytime I have a new gadget or machine. When I got a new sewing machine last year, I was, like, immediately YouTube, show me how to thread it. Show me all the details. I’d much rather watch a video than read a big old instruction book.

Helen: Yeah, same. Okay. @GardenGrounded wrote, “When I was 8 I used to sit for hours at our old White sewing machine which was set up in an unfinished basement with terrible lighting. I taught myself to sew making clothes for my troll dolls. Most of the time the bobbin thread was balled up in a nasty mess, but I would just soldier on and had the best dressed trolls.”

Caroline: I’m sure you did. I would love to see a troll fashion show. Can we make that happen? I used to dress up my My Little Ponies, and I had this Godzilla figurine, and I would, like, put all of my scrunchies on it, so it would look like it was wearing this, like, multi-tiered dress situation. And then I definitely took photos of it. I still have those pictures, so I’ll try and find one for the shownotes

Caroline: That is amazing.

Helen: Yeah, this reminds me too. Like, one time when I was a teenager, I think I sewed my mom a pottery apron. And I didn’t check the tension and I sewed the whole thing. Not even really, like, looking at it or maybe I did look at it. I just didn’t realise it was wrong. But on the backside, the bobbin thread was all wackadoodle, like, the whole bunchy and, and it was not, the tension was not right. It wasn’t set in there right, but the top looked fine. So I was like, this is fine. It’s acceptable. The front looks good. The inside doesn’t matter. Let’s move on.

Caroline: Yeah. Oh yeah. No, I’ve definitely sewn things for, like, you get through so much time sewing, and then you realise that, like, the bobbin thread is, like, all messed up and then you have to make that decision: do you redo it or do you just roll with it?

Helen: Just fold it under and try again.

Caroline: Okay. Our next group of stories is a smaller group and it’s sewists who learned to sew at school. Annabelle @Annabelle._.Cooke wrote, “I learnt to hand sew at school when I was 7 but at 11, we were taught to use the machine. I remember they printed out a road map, complete with roundabouts, et cetera, on a piece of thick interfacing and we had to do our ‘driving test’. Needless to say, my tendency to end up on the wrong side of the road classified me as a dangerous driver.”

Helen: This sounds like a very interesting lesson plan. Uh, it sounds pretty hard to be honest. I don’t think I could do something like that when I was just starting out. I remember sewing on a paper towel in home ec class. We had to try and, like, stay, stick on the lines, but there definitely wasn’t a dangerous driving situation.

Caroline: Can you imagine? Slap-, getting slapped with a ticket or something?

Helen: Okay. Lesley @Eve.N.Maurice wrote, “When I was in middle school, girls were required to choose cooking or sewing as an elective. I chose sewing because I thought it was ‘less domestic,’ or like what mom did. It wasn’t super enjoyable, making my first project – a brown polyester wrap around skirt and matching vest (I wanted floral fabric but mom thought that would be more practical). I felt proud enough to wear the outfit to school. (Although the skirt unwrapped and flew off me in front of an assembly of kids during a talent show). Later, I came back to sewing when I used my roommate’s antique machine when I was in grad school – I almost broke the machine, and she was not happy. Sewing has always been challenging for me, and I have taught myself along the way, and I love it now and can’t imagine not having sewing in my life.”

Caroline: Okay, we can’t gloss over the talent show bit. The dangers of wrap skirts.

Helen: Yes!

Caroline: Let this be a lesson for all of us. Tie those wrap skirts tight. This is too funny, and it’s great that you came back to sewing later on, and I’m so glad that you’re still doing it. Thank you so much for writing in with your story, Lesley.

Helen: Yes. Thank you. That one was quite funny to read. I like that you said that sewing is challenging, even though you’re still doing it. It’s still challenging now. And I feel that way about sewing sometimes. It’s definitely not always smooth sailing.

Caroline: Oh yeah. Okay, Amanda @TrashCanToFashions left us a voicemail.

Amanda: Hi, Love to Sew. I’m a longtime listener, first time caller. My name is Amanda, and I am from Houston, Texas in the United States. I go by @TrashCanToFashions on Instagram, and I wanted to share my story of how I learned how to sew. I always wanted to sew, and, uh, when I was maybe five or six, I, a family friend, um, gave me some thread, scrap fabric, a needle, and I just played around sewing things. I don’t think I ever sewed a secure seam. Um, but I try to make doll clothes at the very least. And unfortunately, my parents were not very supportive, and so sometimes when I listen to your podcast and hear people talking about how their mother taught them how to sew, or grandmother, I get a little bit sad because my parents definitely didn’t support any of my interest in, I guess, more of the traditionally domestic sphere. Um, so they thought that I should be studying harder instead of sewing clothes. Uh, but I always wanted to sew clothes.

So, and that was in high school. I, um, stumbled upon a theatre class that was a theatre costuming class. And, um, signed up because I needed an extra or one more arts credit. And we learned how to sew by sewing a pieced pillow. Um, our sewing teacher was great, and he really helped me figure out how to piece and sew things and finish my final project which was a dress, ah, for the dancers in that season’s production. He, so most of it, I think I cut out the pattern and sewed a seam or two.

But it wasn’t until I was in college that I signed up for a summer camp and, uh, didn’t realise that it was for children. And so as a 20 year old college student, I spent a couple of weeks at a sewing camp, um, alongside some seven, eight years and learned how to sew a bag. So that taught me how to operate my sewing machine, uh, operate a sewing machine.

And after that I gained a little bit of confidence and bought my own sewing machine, um, bought a[n] online class on Craftsy to learn how to sew a skirt. And then from there, just learned from YouTube videos, tutorials, books, podcasts, and I’m still learning how to sew to this day, so that’s my story. And thank you for letting me share. Buy-bye.

Helen: Thank you so much for calling in, Amanda. It’s amazing that your high school had a theatre costuming class, and it is so funny that you signed up for a kid’s summer sewing camp, but I bet you still learned a lot. I mean, you said that you learned how to make a bag which sounds great. And you’ve had quite a journey. I feel like a lot of our listeners can probably relate to what you said about your parents, overlooking your creative interest in sewing and wanting you to focus on more, um, academic studies and things like that. And I think that’s a relatable experience, and I’m glad that you stuck with it and you followed your creative spirit when it came to sewing.

Caroline: Yeah. Okay. Our next group of stories come from listeners who learned from classes outside of school.

Helen: Sarah wrote to us via email, “Funny story: I learned to sew because I was getting married and thought, ‘I don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on a dress that I’ll only wear once!’ So, I started taking sewing lessons and with the help of my teacher, Elizabeth, I made a simple knit dress, then a structured woven dress and then a wedding dress… Helen, I can identify with your tendency to dive in the deep end when it comes to new hobbies!”

Caroline: So casual, it’s like woven dress and then a wedding dress. Of course, naturally.

Helen: Those are the tiers. You need one beginner project, one intermediate project, and then you’re advanced.

Caroline: That’s definitely the deep end for sure though. And Sarah sent us pictures with her email, and the dress looks amazing. And this is another story where someone dove into the deep end of sewing and ended up with something to be really proud of. We’re going to post the pics in the show notes so you can see, too, but it is a pretty gorgeous dress. And I can’t believe this is your third project.

Helen: I know. It is stunning. Even just managing this amount of fabric at the machine would be so challenging.

Caroline: Yeah. Oh my gosh.

Helen: Amazing job.

Caroline: It’s very beautiful.

Okay, Betty @AuthenticLabel wrote, “Our Singer Sewing Centre in our small rural city offered week-long summer sewing classes. My mom registered me. A great activity for teenagers in our town. I chose a difficult dress pattern, making it in a wool plaid, to maximise my learning. I’ve not forgotten the many lessons I learned. That was 54 years ago.”

Helen: I love the idea of choosing a difficult project to work through with a teacher, so you get that one-on-one help. And I’m sure that after the week was over, Betty was miles ahead of the students who chose to make an apron or a pillow case. So diving in, again, with those more challenging, even though they’re intimidating, can sometimes really pay off.

Caroline: Yeah, absolutely.

Helen: Regina @McIntyre_Reggie wrote, “My great grandfather was a tailor. My mom made my clothes, and I made clothes for my Barbie doll. My mom also sent me to the Singer sewing store to learn how to sew, and growing up my sister and I spent HOURS sewing and looking at patterns.”

Caroline: Another listener who learned from the Singer sewing classes. I, kind of, wish we still had those, but you can still find sewing classes at fabric stores a lot of the time. And now with the internet, it’s not difficult to find a ton of sewing information online on any topic.

Helen: True.

Caroline: Okay, Nic @FabricFromMyGrandma, “My grandma was a fabulous and prolific quilter and we made a dress together when I was in college (that never fit well). As she was getting older, she asked us to put our names on all of her things, which I wasn’t really interested in doing, but one day I half jokingly said ‘I want everything in your sewing room.’ No one else had expressed interest, and it absolutely delighted her. She made sure everyone knew that it was all mine – all of the fabric, her machine, the wall hanging (which you can see featured in many of my posts as it now hangs in my sewing room!). When she died in 2015, it all came to me. I never got to learn from her, and I’ve largely taught myself and taken classes, but I sew on her machine, I still have a lot of her fabric, and I just stopped using her cutting table after my dad (her son) helped me build a bigger table. Love you Grandma!”

Helen: Aw, thanks for this story, Nic, you had a hybrid experience, your grandma, classes, self-teaching, and it seems to have worked out great for you, and what an amazing gift and a great way to remember your grandma.

Caroline: Yeah. This story really resonated with me. I never got to meet my grandmother who sewed, but when I was learning, I was surrounded by her sewing machine. And I remember there was this huge box full of all of her fabric and notions. You could literally climb into it. It was, like, practically a furniture box filled with fabrics in our storage room. And I still have some of her things in my sewing room to this day. It makes me feel connected to her, and it did at the time as well. So this one really hit, hit my heart strings.

Helen: Speaking of heartstrings, this leads us into another big group of stories. Sewists who learned from family members, and Alisa @Sloths.And.Orchids wrote, “When I was about 5, I wanted to make a dress for my doll, so I went into my grandma’s closet and pulled out a beautiful silk dress. Obviously I found the perfect fabric! I cut out chunks of the dress and carried on with my couture garment when my grandma came in… She was a seamstress, and instead of getting angry she praised me and asked me questions about my project. She is long gone now, but I believe it’s her encouragement that made me passionate about sewing and all kinds of needlework.”

Caroline: Okay. This one is funny, but also really heartwarming. This is such a patient grandmother, and that’s the kind of teacher you want. And the fact that she came in and saw that you had cut up her beautiful silk dress and didn’t get angry and just embraced it and asked questions. I mean, I don’t know, that’s really, really sweet.

Helen: Right? This is the kind of patience I want to have in my life moving forward. I’m going to be thinking of this grandma.

Caroline: Yeah. Shelby @SLPardy wrote, “When I was 9, I stole some fabric from my mom’s stash, cut out pieces, and STAPLED it together into a dress for my sister. It was so form fitting, my mom was worried the staples would stab her when she took it off. She taught me to sew soon after, hoping to save my sister’s skin lol.”

Helen: Another fabric ruiner! Or should we call them experimental sewists?

Caroline: I love this one. There’s definitely, uh, been staples in my life in sewing, especially in the early days. There’s a, there’s a place for them. Um, but this is so funny that your mom was worried about the staples stabbing your sister. It’s a very mom-like worry.

Helen: You can make garments with, using unconventional methods to attach pieces together. Especially if you go on YouTube and Google, like DIY top. You’ll see people glueing fabric together, staples, I mean all sorts of methods. And if it works, it works.

Caroline: Yep.

Helen: Alright, Sam left us a voicemail.

Sam: Hi, this is Sam, and I’m from St. Louis Missouri. I learned the basics of sewing from my mom. Uh, she learned to sew in school, took three semesters, and learned all the proper techniques, but then when trying to learn how to actually make things from her, it was very frustrating because she wanted to do it right. And I was a kid and didn’t care.

So eventually I, um, graduated college and I said, Hey, that sewing machine that you bought me, I want it. And I then taught myself the rest of it from all sorts of videos and books and whatever I could get my hands on. It’s been fun. Love the podcast. Bye.

Caroline: I’m so glad you got back into sewing, Sam. It sounds like you were frustrated early on, but then you, kind of, took it in a different direction and did things her own way, which is very cool. And this is also a good reminder that you may not mesh well with every teacher, even your own family members. If you’ve had a bad experience with a teacher, don’t give up. Try somebody else.

Helen: Yes, definitely.

Caroline: Okay, Andrea wrote, “My grandma taught me as she’d taught my mum. Recently, I asked my mum if her grandmother taught her daughter. She laughed and said no, she was far too grand to sew. They lived on a large farm in Windsor. Every year the dressmakers would cycle to the farm for a week and make all the dresses and coats. They also taught my grandma to sew over that week, once a year. How patient they must have been with a treadle machine and a young girl circa 1912!”

Helen: This is so interesting. So your grandma taught you and your mom, but she learned from travelling dressmakers. The world has changed so much in the last 100 years. Those dressmakers must’ve been patient, but your grandma must have been very determined to learn, too.

Caroline: Yes.

Helen: Eleanor wrote, “I wanted to get a job working in my college theatre costume department. I lied and said I could sew to get the job. I went home for fall break and said- Mom, teach me how to sew in 3 days. And she did. Thanks, Mom!”

Caroline: Wow, Eleanor. They called your bluff, but you’ve managed anyway, and you have a great mom. Okay, Kasiah left us a voicemail.

Kasiah: Hi, this is Kasiah, and I’m in Treaty 3 territory in Ontario. I’m calling to tell you how I learned to sew. My mom taught me when I was, probably, in junior high and taught me on a basic, simple, New Look Dress. And I sewed a nice cotton one and learned how to do lining. But then in high school, I started taking distance ed sewing modules, which was also taught by my mom. And from there, I learned how to sew more and more things because I was part of a theatre troupe and in my community, we helped create the costumes, so it was really fun. And I have just continued to learn and grow in how to create things from corsets to giant skirts and everyday wear. Have a great day.

Helen: Another theatre sewist. It seems like sewing costumes would give you a pretty wide experience with all kinds of garments. I, myself, have never sewn a corset, but maybe one day I will. And Kasiah is so lucky to, to have a sewing teacher as their mom.

Caroline: Yeah, it is awesome.

Helen: Brigitte wrote, “I learned to sew when I was about 16 or 17 years old. My dad was a self-employed dry cleaner, and he also made repairs on customers’ garments sometimes, so he showed me the basics on our sewing machine. I made a circular skirt in a red cotton fabric. The sewing went well, but I can’t really remember if the details were well done. The year was 1977 or 78, and the peasant style with wooden clogs was all the rage. In my innocence, I didn’t know about washing the fabric before sewing.

So that night, my friend Anne-Marie and I went out with my boyfriend and his brother. My wonderful date wore pale beige corduroy pants, and we went clubbing in Old Montreal, singing and accompanying folk singers at the top of our voices. I sat on my boyfriend’s knees, oblivious to the fact that my red skirt was transferring its colour onto his pants. I realised this when we took the Metro back home in the bright neon lights, but this guy never said a word about it, not even after that date.

Needless to say that when I washed my skirt, it shrunk so much that it was the end of it. The next garment I sewed was about 10 years later. It was a light denim shirt which looked good enough to wear to work. I did remember to wash the fabric this time. What’s funny about the story is that now, years and years later I’m afraid to make a shirt, but when I knew nothing about sewing, I found that it was no big deal, I just followed the instructions. Go figure.”

Caroline: Thanks, Brigitte. Okay, let’s all learn from this story and prewash our fabrics, okay? This is so funny, and it’s so true that if you take something complicated, like a button-up shirt, and take it one step at a time, it’s not that big of a deal. I think you should go for it, Brigitte. Don’t be afraid of sewing a shirt. You have the skills. You have the power.

Emma @Bean_Box_Sewing wrote, “I learned to sew after becoming very ill. I had to move back to the family home to be cared for, since I struggled to take care of myself. After a few months, Mum brought down her hand crank sewing machine. It was mainly for a laugh, since my days were boring and difficult. We sewed a top together, not expecting anything other than enjoying passing time. Since I wasn’t strong enough to turn the handle, I’d say ‘go go go go go sloooowwwww stop!’ and she would turn the handle for me. I have since upgraded to a fancy electric machine, and I love it! Without being poorly, I don’t know how I would have discovered a love for sewing. Now I make lingerie that fits me perfectly. Funny how things turn out, isn’t it?”

Helen: I love that you discovered sewing during a difficult situation. We’ve heard from so many sewists through the years who say that it’s helped them during stressful or painful experiences or health issues, and it’s so therapeutic in that way. Although, you definitely started on hard mode by learning on a hand crank machine, I’ve never used one of those, but I would like to give it a try one day. It would be really nice to have a helper though.

Caroline: Yeah, go, go, go, go, go, no, sloooow, stop.

Helen: It makes me think of curling. Like, hurry, hard. Hurry, hard.

Caroline @Field_Reporter wrote, “My father taught me when I was 9 years old, and he, in turn, had been taught by his mother so he could hem his uniform slacks whenever he liked. He helped me make lots of little sundresses and blouses before I gravitated away from that in middle school. When I came back to sewing in college, he overnighted the baby-learner sewing machine to my college dorm. He bought me the machine I currently use and always asks about my projects. He’s the first person who I ask for help to this day (He also taught my to knit — a veritable renaissance man!)”

Caroline: Yes, thank you for this story, Caroline. It must be so nice to share your love of sewing with your dad. I can’t believe he overnighted the machine to you. He must’ve paid a pretty penny for that. What a true blue sewist.

Helen: Yes!

Caroline: Sam @UrghNoWhy wrote, ““When I was a teen, my horse was forever tearing his expensive rugs, and it would cost me most of what I was earning at my cafe job to get them repaired. So my mum let me use her Necchi sewing machine, and my Grandma gave me lessons over the phone. His rugs were always patched in crazy ways, but the skill saved me a fortune, and I’ve now been sewing, on and off, for about 25 years. I still have the Necchi, I still patch and sew in a chaotic way, but it’s good, and I love it.”

Helen: Mending is such a money saver. This is such a fantastic intro to sewing. It must’ve been really gratifying to learn a new skill, save money, take care of your horse all in one. And I have to admit that I had to Google horse rugs because I was picturing literal rugs. And then I was thinking, do horses stand on rugs? Do they need rugs? I don’t understand. So I looked it up, and it is the little jackets that horses wear. You always see them out there in the field, standing in their jackets. And, uh, it makes a lot more sense now.

Caroline: But wouldn’t it be so cute if all the horses had their own little personal rugs in their stalls that they laid on or something?

Helen: As if it’s not cute enough that they all have personal little jackets.

Caroline: I know.

Helen: Okay. Our last group of stories isn’t really a category at all, so we’ll just call it “Other.”

Lauren wrote, “I learned to sew in college 25 years ago, as a Biology major. I was assisting a grad student studying riparian spiders in Northern California. ‘Riparian’ means ‘on a river bank.’ The spiders’ food source was insects that emerged out of an aquatic larval stage and in order to understand species and numbers, we built floating pyramids out of PVC pipe and sewed netting that fit over the structure and caught the insects as they came out of the water. I’ve sewed very casually (mostly Halloween costumes) over the years and decided to take a sewing class in 2019 to refine my skills. Now, I am completely hooked!”

Caroline: Okay. Of all the ways to learn to sew, I never would have guessed sewing insect traps for biology field work. But I think we can all agree sewing is the most useful skill in the world, right?

Helen: I’m going to say yes. Yeah.

Caroline: Okay. Natalie @JePrefereraisCoudre wrote, “As far as I can remember, I was fascinated by sewing. I remember sewing scrunchies at around 5 with an aunt (my cousin and I would prepare everything, cut, pin, et cetera, and the adult would push it through the machine…) My mother hated sewing so she wouldn’t teach me. When I was 10 or 11 years old, an old lady in my village took pity on me and showed me some tricks. I am still so grateful to her for having taken the time to pass on some of her knowledge. I still remember the first garment I sewed: a princess dress (Beauty’s ball gown) for my younger sister’s 7th birthday. I was so amazed I had managed to make a wearable piece, and she was so happy.”

Helen: This is so sweet. It just shows that even if we aren’t related to somebody who wants to learn how to sew, we have all the ability to pass on this skill that we love. Doesn’t it make you just want to find a child who’s desperate to learn and teach them? No, just me?

Caroline: Maybe I’ll put up little signs around my neighbourhood and be like, Want to learn how to sew? Free one hour lesson.

Helen: That would be so awesome. Kim @Sewing_With_Olive wrote, My favourite Archie comic was the one where Betty kept sewing her own version of Veronica’s clothes! For some reason it stuck with me for, like, 15 years. And one day about a year ago I decided I wanted to make a skirt so I found Fabricland and got what I needed and have been OBSESSED pretty much ever since! Much thanks to your podcast, too, for introducing me to the sewing community.”

Caroline: This is so funny. I was definitely a big fan of the Archie comics when I was a kid and even in my pre-teen years and in our Why Do We Sew Episode, we had another listener named Nikki who mentioned the same Archie comic, so I guess it must’ve been pretty inspiring.

Helen: Maybe there were multiple where Betty was sewing. I do remember her being very industrious.

Caroline: Yes.

Helen: I was in a comic book shop the other day, looking for a board game, and the two people who were working the till were younger than me which happens more often now. And they, someone had come in asking for something to do with Archie comics, and they didn’t know what they were talking about.

Caroline: Oh, my goodness.

Helen: Like what? I’m like, you work in a comic book store. Oh, it was so funny.

Caroline: Oh, wow. Okay. Next up we have Alicia @Lishy55 wrote, “I learned to sew in the Girl Scouts and from my mother who was an expert sewist and quilter. But I wasn’t a good student, especially when my mother was the teacher (she was probably my Girl Scout leader too but I’m not 100% certain). She said to me once, and of course I’ve never forgotten it, ‘you’ll never be a good sewer because you don’t have the patience!’ By the time I got to Junior High Home Economics class, my first project was a blue and white polka dot dress with a scoop neck, zipper, and long sleeves! Not the usual shift style sleeveless dress that most girls were trying to make. I guess I showed my mother that I WAS capable of being a great seamstress. I’m now in my late 60’s and have been sewing all my life. Now that I’m retired I have the luxury of sewing all I want all the time ! And I do ! And I LOVE IT”

Helen: Thank you so much for this Alicia. I’m so glad that you sew all you want. You deserve it. We’ve had quite a few listeners who wrote in to say that they learned to sew in Girl Scouts and Girl Guides. So shout out to the Girl Scouts and Girl Guide leaders out there. Thank you.

Caroline: Yes.

Helen: Okay. This is our last one. I really love this one. Alison from @ThingsAlisonMakes wrote, “I still have no idea.”

I’m honestly not sure if they mean, I still have no idea how I learned how to sew or I still have no idea how to sew.

Caroline: Either way, it’s pretty funny though.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: On that note, we want to thank all the listeners who wrote in to tell us about how they learned to sew and to the two who wrote in to tell us that they couldn’t remember. I still have no idea how to sew.

Helen: Relatable.

Caroline: Thank you to every listener, whether or not you wrote to us, you help make Love to Sew a good place to learn and grow. Happy sewing and happy 200th episode! Here’s to making many more, Helen.

Helen: Cheers.

Caroline: That’s it for today’s episode of Love to Sew. You can find me, Caroline, at BlackbirdFabrics.com and Helen at HelensClosetPatterns.com! We’re recording in beautiful, I guess it’s pretty beautiful, British Columbia, Canada.

Helen: Go to LoveToSewPodcast.com to find our show notes and see the picture of my Godzilla doll wearing the scrunchies. They’re filled with links and pictures from the episode. If you’d like to get in touch with us, send us an email at [email protected].

Caroline: And if you love Love to Sew and want more, you can sign up for our Patreon! For $5 a month, you get a full-length bonus episode and weekly behind-the-scenes pics. For $10 a month, you get all that PLUS a mini-episode focused on sewing techniques and 15% off codes for Helen’s Closet and Blackbird Fabrics! Patreon is the best way to support us so that we can keep making quality sewing content. So please, go to patreon.com/LoveToSew, if you can, for more info.

Helen: Thank you to our amazing podcast team. Lisa Ruiz is our creative assistant. Jordan Moore is our editor. And Margaret Wakelee is our transcriber. And thank you also to all of our teammates who have helped us over the years to get to this 200 episode milestone. And thank you for listening. We will talk to you next week.

Caroline: Bye.

Helen: Bye.

Funny story. I learned to sew because I was getting married and thought…

Caroline: …Achoo… Sorry, it just came over me all of a sudden.

Helen: I was getting married and I thought, Achoo…

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Donny Hoang (aka Donny Q) is a sewing influencer and microbiologist with a unique, textural personal style. In this episode, we chat with him about self-drafting, taking great photos, working with leafcutter ants, and his dream style aesthetic: looking like a pile of unfolded laundry.

The transcript for this episode is on this page at the end of the show notes.

Where to fìnd Donny:

Donny’s Makes: 

A good hair flip!

Donny’s Lab: 

Donny’s Favourite Patterns: 

Donny’s Photography Recommendations: 

Donny’s Favourite Instagram Follows:

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Previous Episodes Mentioned: 

Transcript: 

Caroline: We are recording today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, including Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and K’ómoks first nations.

Hello, and welcome to Love to Sew. I’m Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics.

Helen: And I’m Helen, the designer behind Helen’s Closet Patterns.

Caroline: We’re two sewing buds who love to sew our own clothes and want to encourage you on your sewing journey, too.

Helen: Join us for today’s interview with Donny Hoang AKA Donny Q.

Hello, Donny. Thank you so much for coming on the show today.

Donny Q: Yeah, I’m happy to be here.

Helen: We’re so excited to chat with you. Can you please introduce yourself to our listeners?

Donny Q: Sure, so, uh, my name’s Donny. Uh, I’m originally from the Bay Area in California. But I’m currently a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, um, which occupies ancestral Ho-Chunk nation land. Um, however, at the time of recording, I’m currently in Gamboa, Panama, uh, do some field research with leaf cutter ants.

Caroline: Okay. This is so cool.

Helen: So glad you brought this up because we wanted to ask you about the ants immediately. Tell us about the ants.

Donny Q: Alright. Great. Um, I love the ants. So leaf cutter ants cut leaves, but importantly, they don’t actually eat the leaves. Rather, they use the leaves to cultivate a symbiotic fungus which they farm and cultivate and consume as their only or primary food source. Um, and for me, the important part from this whole system is that they’re symbiotic fungus doesn’t actually completely degrade the leaf material.

And the ants will collect the partially degraded plant material and collect into these piles that, um, we call, or I call, refuse piles or refuse dumps. And you can think of them as, like, the leaf cutter ant equivalent of compost piles. And from a research perspective, I’m broadly interested in microbial community ecology.

Um, and there’s a lot of cool things with these refuse piles that I think are understudied and have a lot of, I think, potential applications, like, well, not just, like, actual applications, but I think it’s, um, worthwhile to study for its own intellectual merit.

Caroline: What, why ants, I guess is my question? Like, what brought, what brought you and ants together? Did you always know you wanted to study ants?

Donny Q: Yeah. So, um, I knew I wanted to be a scientist when I was younger. And then as I grew up, I started, like, learning more and figuring out what I was interested in. And when I was an undergraduate, um, I was just a microbiology person, but I took, like, one introductory entomology class, and it was so amazing that I ended up minoring in entomology as well.

Although I like to call myself a microbiologist, I think I’m similar to a lot of scientists these days, where we wear a lot of different hats. So if I’m around a lot of microbiologists, I’ll call myself an entomologist. Or if I’m around entomologists, I’ll call myself a microbiologist. But I think the biggest hat I wear is my microbiology hat.

So when it came to ants, it was a pretty easy choice for me because when it came to my PhD where I was interested in studying host associated systems, so microbial communities that have some sort of relationship with a host species. Um, and since I was interested in entomology, I was pretty open to anything insect-related. And then when it came to, you know, choosing a program and choosing a lab, um, choosing the lab that studied the ants seemed like a pretty easy choice.

Helen: Very cool. And, uh, for our listeners, Donny has a[n] Instagram story showing some of the ants in action which you’ve got to go check out. It’s so cool to see these little, like, they look like coral, almost, the little ecosystems that they build. They’re beautiful.

Donny Q: Yeah. So those are, that’s actually, like, the whole, like, we call that the fungus garden and that’s, whole structure is actually the fungus and, like, the leaf material the fungus is degrading. I can’t get a great picture of it from my phone camera, but you can look it up pretty easily. These fungi produce these really specialised swellings that the ants consume, and they look just like tiny lollipops. Um, I think it’s adorable.

Helen: It is so adorable. And I mean, I have to ask, like, do your coworkers know that you’re also a sewing influencer?

Donny Q: A lot of my peers know I sew, and some of them know I’m on Instagram. But I would venture to guess that most people don’t know how big my following on Instagram is. Not that I think it’s very big at all, but I think it’s, like, a respectable amount, I think. It’s, like, an amount that you say to a random person, and they, they’ll be impressed.

Helen: Oh, totally. And then they’ll go to the account, and they’ll be even more impressed because it’s amazing.

Donny Q: Thank you.

Helen: Is this your first time travelling for work?

Donny Q: It’s my first time travelling for tropical field work which is very exciting for me. I think I had an opportunity to do it back in 2020, where I was supposed to go to Costa Rica, um, but for obvious pandemic reasons that did not work out.

Caroline: And did you, do you manage to find time to sew while you’re in Panama? Like, is that something that you’re able to do out there?

Donny Q: That is something that I planned not to do out here. So I didn’t bring down a sewing machine. I’m not really looking for any fabric or any sewing supplies to do that down here because I just didn’t think I would have the time to do it, and I was wrong. Um, but I think that’s fine. I think it’s better for me to focus on either the work I’m doing here directly or just focus on other aspects of my thesis. So, yeah, I don’t mind taking a short-ish break from sewing while I’m here.

Helen: That’s fair. And did you make stuff specifically for the trip? Like, from some of your recent posts, it seems like maybe you did make some travel field work gear?

Donny Q: Uh, yes, absolutely. So I was, the week or two right before I left, I was sewing for this trip, not everything ended up being usable because, you know, not everything I make turns out great, but I think enough of it worked out that I have a few good field work outfits to wear while I’m down here.

Caroline: That’s awesome. Yeah, you’ve been posting some really cool outfit photos, and Helen and I were coveting your mesh top in your most recent post. It’s so cool.

Donny Q: Thank you.

Caroline: Okay. Let’s switch gears for a second because we ask all of our guests about their sewing journey. So can we back it up and can you tell us how and when you learned to sew and how you got into sewing?

Donny Q: Uh, yeah, so I started sewing in, I think about 2016 when I was still living in the DC Metro area. So what inspired me to start sewing was this was around the same time I was starting to figure out or try to learn more about my own personal style.

And at the time I thought the peak of style was slim fit everything. So slim shirts, slim pants, as slim as you can get. The thing about my body is that it’s very slim. So even slim fit clothes off the rack would be too, uh, baggy on me. And so I wanted to sew as a way to, I guess, save money at the tailor and learn how to taper or hem my own pants or add in my own shirt darts because that seemed relatively easy to do.

Um, so to get started, I took, like, one class at a, uh, small sewing studio in DC, but I think they’ve closed since, and that really, I think, lowered the barrier entry for me. It just taught me how to turn on my machine, how to thread a machine. And, for me, that was the main thing that I needed.

Um, and after that it was mostly YouTube tutorials. So whenever I had, like, a thing I wanted to do, like, how do I sew a shirt dart? I would just search that onto YouTube. Find the most, or I guess the shortest video, uh, there was on it and follow along, but I think very quickly I realised that buying clothes just to fix it was silly when I could just make the clothes from scratch.

And since I was developing my own sense of style at the time, I think my tastes changed really quickly as I grew to appreciate the process of sewing or, like, designing clothes and sewing them and styling them. So, yeah, I think, that’s, that’s, sort of, my sewing journey.

Helen: That’s so cool. We love that you’re self-taught, and it’s interesting to hear you talk about being really in love with the slim silhouettes and then your style changing as you started sewing. Do you think you just wanted more beautiful fabric on your body? Because you’re all about those layers.

Donny Q: I mean, I think that’s exactly what it is. I think I just want to be a mannequin that people drape fabric over. You know, like, whenever you’re browsing fabric online, some stores will have their fabric draped over a mannequin to, like, show off what it looks like. And I think that is, like, my peak fashion inspiration.

Helen: That’s awesome.

Caroline: I love that. So you’ve been sewing for about five or six years now. Like, if you could go back and, and talk to your beginner sewing self, what advice would you give yourself?

Donny Q: I think I would tell myself to slow down and use patterns. I think, for the longest time, I was very snobby about using patterns because you know, I thought, oh, there’s so many resources online for me to learn how to draft my own pattern, why would I bother buying one? But there’s a lot of information in patterns that aren’t just in the actual pattern itself. And for me, there are a lot of construct- and probably there still are, but a lot of things, when it comes to clothing construction, that I probably do wrong or inefficiently that I just wouldn’t have learned from teaching myself. Um, so I think I would use patterns mostly as a way to try and, um, more efficiently teach myself how to sew.

And I think I would also tell myself to slow down. So one of the big motivations for me to learn how to sew my own garments was also because I couldn’t afford a lot of the cool designer garments that I was seeing online. And the first garment I ever made was, like, a knockoff Issey Miyake-inspired comma pants which looked like they were made by a beginner. I mean, looking back, on one hand, I’m super proud that it was, like, the first garment I ever made, but it didn’t have to be. And, um, yeah, I think slowing down and taking time to build a repertoire of skills before I jumped into something that, you know, isn’t something that I can wear anymore.

So, use patterns. Slow down.

Helen: I feel like we need a redo of these pants. Have you since made an updated version?

Donny Q: I haven’t because I’ve been, so I think that first pair I was so disappointed with, well, not disappointed immediately. Like, I think I wore them every day for, like, a few weeks, but then, like, as I learned more about the process of sewing pants, I was like, oh, these are actually terrible. I’m so ashamed of these. Why am I still wearing these outside? Um, and I think I do have other pants that are similar-ish enough to that initial pair. That I don’t feel the need to remake them because they would just be redundant in my wardrobe at this point.

Helen: Fair enough. It seems like you have a very large wardrobe. Am I correct in saying that?

Donny Q: Uh, yes. Um, more than I think one person needs, but I don’t think I need to wear clothes often to justify having it.

Caroline: So let’s talk a bit about your, your personal style because, um, I mean, Helen and I absolutely love it, and it’s so effortless, and it’s, kind of, like, fashion forward at the same time, but how would you self-describe your personal style?

Donny Q: I think this is hard because I, I’m still, I still feel like I’m figuring that out. Um, but I think I, sort of, go back and forth between two aesthetics. I think the one that people really engage with and like my Instagram page for is my, um, unfolded laundry aesthetic. You know, that pile of laundry you don’t want to fold, so you put it on your office chair, but when you want to use the desk, you move it to your bed, and then when you want to go to bed, you move it back to your chair. Like, that pile of laundry is, is what I want my fashion to look like.

But I also think another aspect of my style is this idea that I call absurd practicality, which to me is just a lot of pockets. And just having so many pockets where it seems absurd or silly or almost like it’s a joke. Um, so yeah, I think, in general, I bounce between those two aesthetics, but at the same time, I’m still developing it and figuring it out.

Caroline: Um, okay. I want to jump to a question about these pockets because we have one in here. Um, you made cargo pants with nine pockets. So can you tell us where all these pockets are? Like, where do you fit nine pockets?

Donny Q: Sure. Let me, let me think about it. Have to count them up. Um, so I have my four essential pockets, so the two front ones and two back pockets, I have a front patch pocket on the right thigh, which now, now it is considered essential. I have two cargo pockets. And then on the left cargo pocket, I have a patch pocket, um, which is also a[n] utensil holder. I don’t think I’ve shown off that part of the pants yet, but they’re coming. And then on the right cargo pocket, I have a hidden pocket inside it. So, yeah, I think that’s nine total.

Caroline: Wow. And what do you put in all these pockets?

Donny Q: Well, importantly, I don’t use all of them. I use, perhaps, two or three at a time at the most. So my phone, my wallet, my keys. I might move my phone around in different pockets, depending on what else I’m carrying, like a duffel bag or a backpack or any other, sort of, equipment I might need. But, you know, I thought I would be using these pockets more frequently in the fields, but I don’t, I just toss everything in my backpack. So yeah, it’s, the practicality is absurd to me.

Helen: Absurdly awesome.

Caroline: It’s always good to be prepared.

Helen: We actually just did an episode all about pockets, and we were wondering if you had any pocket drafting or sewing tips that you live by when you’re creating these pocket masterful pieces.

Donny Q: Yeah. I, I don’t know if I have drafting tips because, for me personally, I just have, like, a standard size that I know I like on pants or shirts, and I think that’s very subjective to me. I think another thing is that I design the actual shape of the pocket and the placement of the pocket as I go whenever I’m making a garment. Because, for me, that’s a lot of fun.

Like, moving the pocket around, maybe sewing it down, deciding I want to move it or, like, deciding, hey, maybe I want two pockets on the chest, and I’ll just slap an extra one on the arm because why not? So, yeah, I don’t know if I have great tips for that, but I do take, I do find a lot of joy in the process of figuring out as I go. Um, so maybe that will bring someone else joy if you try it out.

Helen: Well, that’s great. I mean, going with the flow and doing it as you sew, I think, makes a lot of sense because you’ve got to get the positioning and the proportions right. And it’s small pieces of fabric, so you don’t really have anything to lose.

Donny Q: Yeah.

Helen: Well, I love your description of your style as that unfolded laundry look. And one of the things that Caroline and I noticed that is, kind of, an iconic look for you is this jacket that has these folds that come down the front, has big lapels that, kind of, fold down. Is that something that you drafted?

Donny Q: Uh, no. So that is actually a vintage Vogue pattern. Uh, I believe it’s Vogue 1476. It was part of, um, I don’t know if it’s from the eighties or nineties, but it was designed by Issey Miyake and, uh, pro tip, because I know that the pattern is very hard to find and that when one does find it, it can be quite expensive, but the pattern comes as a coat, a shirt, and a pants.

But if you only want the coat, the coat is one size between all patterns and the size is only, is only for the shirt and the pants. So you might be able to get away by buying a cheaper version if it’s the, I dunno, quote-unquote “wrong size” for you. So yeah, just wanted to throw that out there.

Helen: Oh, that is great to know. And do you have this jacket in multiple colours of fabrics?

Donny Q: I do. I think right now I have three. I have one in a wool cotton blend. I originally had one that was just straight up wool coating, but that was way too heavy for me, even for Wisconsin, so I donated it, and hopefully, someone else in Wisconsin is using it.

I also have two linen ones. I have a brown linen one and an off-white linen one. And I don’t think I’ve ever worn the linen ones out and about, but I do wear them at home as a robe. This is going to sound silly, but I tell my real life friends about this, too, so I don’t mind sharing it on podcasts, but I will put on just the coat to twirl around in my apartment if I need to kill a few minutes, so…

Donny Q: Amazing. That sounds like a lot of fun.

Caroline: It’s such a cool coat though. And, and a lot of the outfits that you wear have a really similar dimension. And I wonder, like, how do you put an outfit together? How do you decide what to wear?

Donny Q: Yeah, I think it really depends. So originally when I started on my Instagram posts, it was for documenting outfits I would wear every day, but I think now, and like, because of the way it’s grown, it’s more, it’s, I think it still documents that clothes I wear every day, but more so I think it documents or it shows off, you know, cool outfits I come up with.

So, recently, I think a lot of my Instagram posts, the outfits are pre-planned before I even sew. They’re designed or they’re sketched down and then I’ll make them, and then I’ll assemble the outfit. But for day-to-day wear, like, if I’m just going to work, it’s an average day I usually start with one piece that I want to show off and then I’ll build around it, depending on what else I have access to.

So I think at the time of the recording, we’re in, like, fall winter for the Northern Hemisphere. So usually I’ll try to find, like, a jacket or a pair of pants that I think have a, kind of, a really cool texture. And then I’ll try to add pieces that either highlight it or complement it. And then, yeah, just, I usually just build off of one piece. Um, but I don’t necessarily start with shoes or a shirt or something like that. It, sort of, changes every, every time I dress up.

Caroline: And what about dressing for travel? Do you have any tips for staying put together on the road and dressing out of a suitcase?

Donny Q: I do not at this time because I don’t think I travel very much. I think, I’ve just recently travelled, um, but that might not be enough experience to give advice on it. I did plan every outfit that I could possibly want to wear while I’m in Panama, and that’s what I packed for. I’m sorry I don’t have, can’t give any travel tips.

Helen: That’s okay. I mean, you’re out doing field work, too, so it’s a little different than sightseeing.

Donny Q: Yeah.

Helen: Okay. We want to talk about fabrics. You mentioned texture in your garments, and we love that textured look that you have. What are some of your favourite fabrics to wear and to work with?

Donny Q: Oh yeah. So I think hands down my favourite fabric to wear is linen. Like, I just love the way it feels on my skin. I love the way it, like, billows when, like, a breeze comes through, but I do not like to sew with it, um, I find it incredibly difficult to sew, um, and I think it’s notoriously difficult to sew, so I don’t think that was an unpopular opinion. Hopefully, it’s not.

Um, I think in terms of fabrics, I do enjoy sewing. I’m always excited to find a fabric that is, I feel, like, very unique when it comes to either texture or the weave. I think recently, well, maybe not recently, a few months ago. That’s still recent. Yeah. A few months ago I sold a pair of pants that were made of a faux fur leopard print. But what I thought was really interesting was that it was, uh, made from cotton and rayon and not synthetic. And to me, that was just wild because typically when I find faux fur, it’s always synthetic. So that was one I really liked.

I also really like working with cotton corduroys. I feel like corduroy is just, cotton, in general, it’s easy to work with, and corduroy adds, um, some fun dimension and texture, and I think it’s relatively easy to find. I think another fabric I like to work with is, uh, wool boucles. I don’t know, like, the fuzziness and the, like, sort of, hairiness of it all. Like, I just love touching it, even if it’s very wire-y wool. I think the texture of a lot of boucles is just so fun to feel and to wear.

Helen: It’s true. It has these little, like, curly q’s, almost, sticking out of it. Yeah, and jacquard is another one that comes to mind, just, like, a lot of texture and different shapes and weaves that you can get.

Donny Q: Oh yes, yeah.

Caroline: Do you have, like, a colour palette that you tend to gravitate towards when you’re picking out fabrics?

Donny Q: Yes, I think it’s my safety colour palette. Um, and it’s brown and beige or any shade of brown and beige. I was talking to my friend about it once, but I was like, you know, I think the way people wear black is the way I wear brown where, like, if it’s a different shade of brown, I’ll put it on. And I’ll, I’m okay with just being full brown.

I think in terms of neutrals, I do like, you know, off whites and olives. And I do try to, I am trying to incorporate colour more. I think I’m still scared of, you know, bright colours and incorporating that into my wardrobe, but the ones I do like tend to be, you know, very saturated yellow. Um, I do like pink and I had a lot more pink in my wardrobe when it was composed more ready to wear stuff. I really need to bring it back now that I’m sewing more.

Helen: We really enjoyed this past summer when you made some full, like, head to toe gingham outfits in some really fun colours, and we just thought those were so cool. And you even made hats to match.

Donny Q: Oh yeah. Uh, I, I feel like it’s, yeah, so the hats I always make are that, um, it’s the, the Sorrento Bucket Hat by Elbe Textiles. And I think it’s just an easy way to use up fabric scraps. You know, I, whenever I purchase fabric, I typically order about an extra quarter to half yard just in case. And that usually ends up being a hat.

Caroline: I love that. And do you mostly shop for fabric online or in person?

Donny Q: Um, I mostly shop for fabric online. So in Madison, Wisconsin, our only fabric store is a Jo-Ann Fabrics, which is, I think fine for, I think, standard or, uh, basic pieces that you may need in sewing, but the sort of fabrics I really enjoy working with tend to be, I don’t know, one-off fabrics or deadstock designer, and those are easier to find online than at Jo-Ann’s.

Caroline: Awesome. And, and when you’re deciding what to make, do you choose your fabric first or do you think of a design and then look for a fabric to match it? Like, what’s your usual process for that?

Donny Q: I don’t know if I have a usual process because it does change with every individual garment or piece or outfit. So, for example, I recently shared a pair of nylon pants on Instagram. And, for me, that was, like, a completely practical thing. I thought, okay, I need field pants. They need to be a tactical fabric. So I’m going to go buy, like, tactical nylon to make these pants.

But I also recently made those nine pocket pants. So for that, I got the fabric. I usually buy, if I don’t know what I want to make, but I like the fabric, I usually buy two to three yards, and that can make just about anything I would want. And so I got the fabric. I was like, wow, this is amazing. I don’t know if I want a shirt or a jacket, so I’ll mess around with it a bit and then decide. Um, so I think it depends on what I want to make or, like, what’s available to me.

Helen: That makes a lot of sense. I can imagine that you’re one of those sewists that likes to drape the fabric on themselves and look in the mirror and twirl and see what’s going to happen.

Donny Q: Oh, yeah.

Helen: Yeah.

Donny Q: Yeah, I do that exactly. I’ll do that as I’m sewing the garment.

Helen: Yeah. That’s my, one of my favourite, just, activities for just when I’m, you know, playing around in my sewing room, but I don’t want to be sewing, is just to pull out all my fabrics and drape them on and think about all the possibilities. So much fun.

Donny Q: Yeah.

Helen: Alright, we wanted to ask you a bit about pattern drafting, even though I know you said at the beginning of the show that you wish you’d used more patterns when you got started, but you also have self-drafted a lot of your stuff. And we’re curious how you learned how to draft patterns and where our listeners might be able to get started if they were interested in that, too?

Donny Q: Yeah, so I learned to draft patterns. Well, first I should back up and say, I think I’ve drafted, like, one top block, and I’ve drafted, like, one bottom block. And those have been, like, the basis for just about everything. So instead of, you know, drafting a whole new pattern every time I make something, I’m just making small adjustments or altering a base pattern.

Um, I wish this was a visual medium, but, and I could show you the patterns I have back in Madison, but they’re very ugly. Like, they’re cut up. They’re taped together. There’s notes for adjustments all over a pattern. And I, that’s because I made it once, and I’m too lazy to go back and draw a new one.

Uh, but when I started, I literally just searched into YouTube, how do I draft a shirt pattern? Or, how do I draft a pant pattern? And unfortunately, I can’t remember exactly which videos I watched cause it was, it’s been a few years, but YouTube is a great resource, at least it has been for me.

Helen: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And it’s so cool that you just dove in and got to drafting your own blocks that you can now use. Do you use them often? Like, how much of your wardrobe is self-drafted versus patterns?

Donny Q: Let’s see, I think, I don’t have, like, a quantitative number. I think I would say most is self-drafted. Uh, because again, I usually work off of the same block or same top block for a lot of things, whether it’s a shirt or a jacket, or I guess those are the only things I make with it. And then I, when it comes to pants, you know, there’s a specific fit I like in particular areas, but I will change, like, the leg shape or the hem width, and I’ll decide on that usually as I’m tracing out the pattern onto the fabric.

Helen: And what about muslins? Are you the kind of sewist that’s making trial versions of things? Or are you diving right in?

Donny Q: I think it depends on the pattern, uh, how I want it to fit and how confident I feel. So I have made muslins in the past, especially when I first started sewing, like, lined outerwear. Like, to me, like, the back then, the idea of making outerwear was so new to me that I felt like I had to make a muslin. But for, I think, what I would consider garments that are, I think are more, um, generous when it comes to what I consider a good fit, I may not bother with a muslin.

So, like, I think recently I made a pair of, uh, Bob Pants, uh, by, I think, Style Arc. And, like, it was a, it’s a drawstring pant. I made it from, like, like, uh, some lightweight linen. So I didn’t feel like I needed to have, um, a super great, I guess, quote-unquote “fit” on it. So I just cut up the pattern and cut it directly onto the fabric. So, um, yeah, I think it depends.

Caroline: And in terms of commercial patterns, do you have any that are like your favourites or go to? I know you’re already mentioned that Vogue Issey Miyaki pattern, I think V1476. But are there any others that you love that you’d want to share?

Helen: Yeah, um, before I say it, I want to tell the listeners that Helen didn’t pay me to say this, but easily my favourite commercial pattern is the Ashton Top. So I make it into, I’ve made it into a lot of tank tops, and I think I’ve only brought down two to Panama, but I wish I had brought down more. Um, but I, I just like it a lot because two years ago I was drafting my own tank top, and they were fine, and I still wear them. They just didn’t fit right along the neckline in a way I wanted to.

And then I remember, like, last summer I saw someone in my Instagram feed wearing the Ashton Top and I was like, oh, I could just make that into a tank top. And I mean, I just like it so much because it’s so easy to hack. It’s incredibly straightforward to make. And I, I like wearing it.

Helen: Aw, thank you so much. I love your Ashtons. You’ve also done some really cool hacks. Like, I love the little shoulder tie that you added to your yellow canyon one. So cute. And, like, that moment when you made the Ashton for the first time and posted it, I literally squealed because I love your style so much. I was like, Donny Q made the Ashton Top.

Donny Q: Thank you!

Helen: I was so excited so thank you for that.

Caroline: Yeah. I am, I am obsessed. I have to call out this green gingham outfit that you made last summer that I think there was an Ashton Top and a Sorrento Bucket Hat, and it was one of our ginghams from Blackbird, and we were all just obsessed with this when we saw it. Um, it’s just such a cool combo.

Donny Q: Yeah, I love that fabric so much. I think one of the great things about the internet these days is I can, sort of, imagine any type of fabric I would want. I can Google it, and it will probably exist. I got into gingham in, like, a very big way last spring. And for a while, I just couldn’t find, like, what’s, to me, it was, like, the perfect gingham which is, like, a large scale bright green gingham. And so I saw it at Blackbird. I was like, oh, I’m going to spend all my money on this.

Caroline: Awesome. Well, I’m so glad you loved that gingham as much as, as we do, and that outfit is so cool. We’ll definitely link it up in the show notes. Um, but you mentioned outerwear a couple of minutes ago. So I want to talk about that for a second because you’ve made some amazing coats and jackets and vests and capes. And I guess the first thing I want to know is what is the best and worst thing about sewing outerwear?

Donny Q: I think, for me, the best and worst part is the same thing. So the best part is finishing it because I love to wear clothes, and I think sewing is very much a tool to accomplish that. But it’s also the worst part for me because the last step of finishing, especially a lined coat, is like when you’re attaching the hem lining to the hem of the fashion fabric. And, to me, that’s always scary because when I first started sewing coats, you know, I didn’t, I don’t think my first coat was from a pattern or, like, directly from a pattern.

It was like hacked together from a couple patterns. And I was just very, perhaps too eager to, um, hack a pattern together and sew a coat. And so I ended up with this lining that was just so off, I think on one side, it was too long, and it was, like, peeking out from under the coat. And on another side it was too short, and so it was, like, tugging up on the bottom hand of the coat almost. And that experience was very traumatic for my outerwear sewing. Um, so whenever I sew a lined garment now, I’m very nervous when it comes to the last step cause I just, I’m just praying that the lining will fit the way I want it to.

Helen: Uh, I can totally relate to this cause I’ve done the same thing where it doesn’t quite sit right, and then it ends up, kind of, baggy in the back, and it’s really upsetting. And it’s a tricky business, too, getting that perfect little fold at the bottom corners in the front, but don’t let Donny scare you away listeners.

Donny Q: Yeah, sorry. I didn’t say that to scare anyone away.

Helen: Oh, I know. It is an undertaking making outerwear, but it’s also amazing to wear, and you seem to get a lot of joy out of wearing your outerwear and, uh, at least it’s cold enough in your climate to wear that kind of thing, too.

Caroline: Do you have any favourite outerwear pieces that you’ve made that we can, uh, link up or put on our Instagram when your episode comes out?

Donny Q: Uh, yeah. Um, I think two current favourites, which I guess are also the, only two I have worn this past fall slash winter, at least when I was in Wisconsin, there was a September Coat, uh, by Merchant & Mills. And it was made from this, um, gingham wool. It’s, like, brown and off-white gingham. Um, and then the other one is, like, my remake of the Issey Miyaki Vogue 1476 coat. I think between those two, I’m pretty good when it comes to winter outerwear.

Caroline: Awesome. We’ll make sure we include photos of that. Can we talk about your Instagram a little bit more? Because it feels almost like a street style account, but way cooler, cause you actually made all of your clothes. So I know you talked a little bit about, you know, originally when you started your account, it was, sort of, more for documenting. But when did you decide to, kind of, embrace that the community was in love with your style and just use it as, like, a creative outlet to put together outfits?

Donny Q: For me, it started probably back when you had Rachael @MinimalistMachinist on the podcast. And I remember one day waking up to, like, at least a hundred, probably more new followers, just from that podcast. And it was, like, so wild to me that my account had reached A) someone who was not in America, and, uh, B) a podcast that wasn’t recorded in America.

And, like, I was getting so many new follows from it and people were, I think, very wholesome and very kind to me. I think that was probably one of the events or moments that made me think that, hey, like, people really genuinely engage or appreciate my creative output.

Caroline: Yeah, I remember that moment on the podcast. And, and I remember we were all talking about how much we love your style and it is just so, so inspiring, and I’m sure a lot of our listeners are wondering, like, how you manage to capture your outfits in this way. And so tell us a little bit more about that. Like, what camera do you use to take your, take your pictures?

Donny Q: I just use my phone. I don’t know if I should share what kind of phone it is because there’s a bit of drama with it right now, because at the time of recording, it’s broken. Um, but I can’t get a replacement cause I’m in another country and dealing with it has been a little upsetting. Um, but I just use my phone, so I don’t think it’s like, I don’t, I’m not using a particularly special camera I think.

And when it comes to taking photos, you know, I just have a, one of those tripods with bendable legs. So I just attach it to the chain-link fence on the rooftop of my apartment. I also have a Bluetooth clicker, so I set up my phone. I take a few steps back to the exact same spot every time because the floorboards aren’t even, so I know exactly where to stop. And then I just click the Bluetooth clicker until I get a good photo. And I do default on a lot of, I think, standard poses. Um, so I think that helps bring some semblance of cohesiveness to my grid.

And I think it’s really funny to me because, to me, the clicker in all of my outfit photos is usually so obvious. Um, and maybe people will see it more now that I’ve mentioned it, but yeah, people will ask me who takes your photos. And I’ll be like, there’s a clicker in the picture.

Helen: It’s true. We only noticed that this morning when we were scrolling again, we’re like, oh wait, he’s holding a clicker. They really are amazing. And you say you default to a lot of standard poses, but what about the hair flip? Can we talk about this? How are you capturing this hair flip?

Donny Q: Okay. I think for each hair flip photo, there’s, like, at least 10 more where it doesn’t look good. And I think the trick is to, is to not actually flick your hair. So, what I do is I usually grab a chunk of it and I’ll, um, I guess I do flick it, but I’ll flick my wrist up and I think, and then I’ll either, like, go quickly or just leave it there if I want to look like I’m casually flicking my hair for the camera, but I usually will, like, flick it, snap a shot. Flick it, snap a shot and continue doing that until I get a good photo.

Helen: That makes sense. It’s the same for our product photos. We take a thousand and then we choose 12, so, of course, they’re good ones.

Caroline: Yeah, it works so well though. And do you have any other, maybe, like, tips for our listeners for taking great outfit photos? I know you mentioned you stand in the same spot for cohesiveness, but is there anything else you do to, kind of, ensure you’re getting the shot that you want?

Donny Q: Yeah, so I don’t have any special lighting equipment, um, because I don’t want to buy it. And so for me, I depend a lot on natural light. And when it comes to taking outfit photos, I typically try and get to the roof, like, just about, or just at sunrise when it’s still very soft. It’s not too harsh yet. And I think that, sort of, soft lighting is probably, like, the main thing that helps show off the outfits in my photos.

Um, I think another thing that helps is, you know, I try to keep the camera lens at about chest level for me. And I think that, for me, is the best representation of the proportions of an outfit. I think it’s really easy to, like, if you’re not being too attempt- attentive, you know, people may tilt a camera too far up or too far down, and that might distort the proportions of your garment or outfit.

Caroline: Mhm, that’s a really good tip. And do you do any editing or, um, colour correcting in your photos?

Donny Q: Yeah, I do. And I think if you scroll back to the bottom of my feed and scroll up, you can start to see, you might be able to see, like, points where I learn new editing tricks. So as you scroll up, you might be like, oh, this is where Donny found out that he can straighten out his photos or, or this is where Donny figured out what light balancing is.

Um, so yeah, I, I don’t have any, like, real training in how to edit a photo, but I just use the Lightroom app. I think it’s free on any app store. Um, and I usually just press auto and then I go into, um, adjust colour, and I’ll press auto. And I might adjust a little bit, uh, because sometimes, depending on, sometimes, I think the app over adjusts when it comes to lighting.

Um, for example, since my photos are typically in the morning, right before sunrise, they’re very blue. And then I think the app overcorrects and makes them a little too orange sometimes. So I might readjust. Yeah. So I think I straighten. I’ll do whatever the auto setting in Lightroom is. I’ll do whatever the auto setting it does for colour correcting. And that’s usually it.

Caroline: And this feels like an appropriate question cause you mentioned, uh, Rachael from @MinimalistMachinist mentioning you, but do you have any favourite sewing-related follows on Instagram?

Donny Q: Um, I do. One of the accounts I really like to take inspiration from, from for style is @The.Social.Fabric. Um, I think her name is Nisan, but I’m not sure if I’m pronouncing that right, but she is who I think I look like when I put on a button up shirt and pants, like, I love the way she wears these, sort of, very relaxed shirts. I love, sort of, structure she still builds into them. I love all of her pleated pants and they’re exact, kind of, pants that I want to make, but I’m too intimidated, or perhaps too lazy, to make, so there’s Nisan.

Um, I also love to follow, uh, uh, Francisco Diaz or @CiscoSews. You know, I don’t think, you know, I, I think I’m still at the very beginning of the sustainability journey when it comes to, uh, fashion and personal style. But you know, a lot of the things I learn about it come from Francisco, and I really love the way they use thrifted pieces to make, I think, really fun and, to me, joyful outfits.

I like to follow, um, @HappilyDressed. Um, I think his name is Brandon. I like him for similar reasons that I like Francisco where he uses a lot of, um, thrifted pieces. I think he makes, like, what I think are really imaginative matching sets. So if you like to follow me for my matching sets, you should definitely follow @HappilyDressed.

Helen: Aw, so awesome. I’m loving all of it.

Caroline: I was just going to say I haven’t followed, uh, Brandon from @HappilyDressed, but I’m just taking a look at his feed now. And wow. Very, very cool. Everyone should go check them out. Thank you for that. Okay. So we’re almost at the end of our episode now, but we did have a couple more questions for you. And the first one is what does the Q stand for un Donny Q.

Donny Q: Oh, that’s just the first letter of my name, my middle name. Sorry.

Caroline: Oh, perfect.

Donny Q: Yes. So I was, like, I guess, like, my last name starts with H, so I’m like, Donny H is, kind of, boring. Um, like, Q is a fun letter, so…

Helen: Q is very fashion. And before we go, is there anything that you wish we would have asked you about sewing or microbiology?

Donny Q: Yeah. So, uh, I would love to talk more about my lab, their research, and their field work because I know that a lot of people, I mean, I’ve only done this recently, but I got the sense that a lot of people like the sort of field work I’ve been doing out here.

Um, and so if you’re interested in seeing more of what my lab does, uh, normally if there wasn’t a pandemic, we’d be travelling to a lot of places around the U.S. and in Central and South America to study, not just leaf cutter ants, but many different insects. Broadly, the lab studies microsopic interactions.

Our hosts are usually insects. And so in the past, I’ve been to the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York to sample insects. Other lab members have been to Costa Rica and Brazil to study, uh, usually, cutter ants, but other insects, as well. And the lab, I think, has been to places like Alaska and Colorado, Hawaii, and Georgia.

So there’s a lot of content there if you like my science content. And if you really like my leaf cutter ants, I recommend following my lab’s Twitter account, Instagram account, uh, I’ll send them to you in an email later, but it’s just at @UWCurrieLab, and we’re also really interested in outreach. And one of the things we do for that is we have a live feed of our display colony of ants in, um, Madison, Wisconsin. So there’s just a YouTube video link that I can send you as well. Um, if you go to it, you can watch the ants do their thing 24/7.

Helen: Cool. Oh, that’s so awesome. And for our listeners, that’s Currie Lab, spelled C-U-R-R-I-E. And we’ll definitely link all of this up in the show notes as well. I am definitely gonna check out this lab, this live feed and have it going on my other monitor while I’m working.

Caroline: So Donny, where can our listeners find you online?

Donny Q: Yeah, so you can find me just on Instagram. It’s @_DonnyQ. D-O-N-N-Y-Q. Yeah, and that’s pretty much the only place I post my outfits now, so yeah.

Caroline: Amazing. Okay, perfect. We’ll make sure we are linking up to that. And everyone go check out Donny’s amazing Instagram and our feed this week because we’re going to be posting lots of cool outfit photos, and thank you so much for chatting with us today, Donny. It was a pleasure.

Donny Q: Thank you for having me.

Caroline: Awesome. Okay. Bye.

Helen: Bye.

Donny Q: Bye.

Helen: That’s it for today’s episode of Love to Sew. You can find me, Helen, at HelensClosetPatterns.com and Caroline at BlackbirdFabrics.com! We’re recording today in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

Caroline: Go to lovetosewpodcast.com to find our show notes. They’re filled with links and pictures from this episode. And if you’d like to get in touch with us, send us an email at [email protected].

Helen: If you love Love to Sew and want more Love to Sew, you can sign up for our Patreon! For $5 a month, you get a full-length bonus episode and weekly behind-the-scenes pics. For $10 a month, you get all that PLUS a mini-episode focused on sewing techniques and 15% off codes for both Helen’s Closet and Blackbird Fabrics! Patreon is the best way to support us so that we can keep making quality sewing content. Go to patreon.com/LoveToSew, if you can, for more info.

Caroline: And thanks to our amazing podcast team. Lisa Ruiz is our creative assistant. Jordan Moore is our editor. And Margaret Wakelee is our transcriber. And thank you so much for listening. We’ll see to you next week.

Helen: Buh-bye.

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It has pockets! We cover patch pockets, in-seam pockets, slash pockets, and welt pockets. Plus: a short history of pockets, iconic pocket patterns, and tons of pocket tips!

The transcript for this episode is on this page at the end of the show notes.

Episodes mentioned:

Resources:

Sewing patterns:

Tools and materials: 

Transcript:

Helen: We are recording today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, including Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and K’ómoks first nations.

Hello, and welcome to Love to Sew. I’m Helen, the designer behind Helen’s Closet Patterns.

Caroline: And I’m Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics.

Helen: We’re two sewing buds who love to sew our own clothes and want to encourage you on your sewing journey, too.

Caroline: Join us for today’s topic: pockets.

Hi, Helen.

Helen: Hi, Caroline.

Caroline: We’re back from our break.

Helen: We’re back, back, back. It’s so good to be back. Happy spring! I mean, it’s still pretty cold here, but I’m just going to come out and say it, happy spring.

Caroline: Yes. Happy spring! This is the first episode of our Spring 2022 Season of Love to Sew. It feels so good to be recording again, Helen. Tell me how your break was. Catch me up. What’s going on? How are you?

Helen: I’m doing well, thanks. I had a good winter break. I felt like I actually got a lot of sewing done. Um, I’ve been quilting, too, since our quilting episode last season, really enjoying that. And we’ve also been doing a lot of pattern development this fall and winter, so that’s been really great.

And we had a new pattern come out. We have the Cameron Button Up pattern in our collection now. So if you hadn’t checked that out yet, please go and take a look. Sam is one of the models, and he looks so great. And then my cousin’s wife is one of the other models, and she looks amazing, too. So it just was so fun to release that pattern, and I’m really happy with how it came out.

Caroline: Congratulations!

Helen: Thank you!

Caroline: Another baby out in the world.

Helen: I’m so into this one. It’s really fun to wear. It’s, like, the perfect dart-less button up pattern. So you can make, like, that flannel layering piece or you can make the short sleeve view for spring and summer. Very, very versatile and fun to work with lots of different fabrics.

Caroline: That is awesome. I’m really excited that you have a button up in your pattern library now.

Helen: Um, hello? What about the Gilbert Top?

Caroline: Oh, that’s true. But I, it’s more of, like, a camp shirt. It’s not, like, a classic button up.

Helen: Yeah, this one has all the bells and whistles.

Caroline: I’m sorry, Gilbert. I have a Gilbert, and I love it, so don’t be mad.

Helen: And, this pattern has a pocket. So, you know, it’s very topical.

Caroline: Perfect.

Helen: And it’s also March. We have a pattern in our collection called the March Top and Dress. So I could not resist celebrating that pattern this month. So all month it’s going to be on sale, and we’re going to be doing tons of hacks and, uh, supportive, like, tutorial content and stuff like that on the blog, so if you’re interested in that pattern, check it out. I’m very excited to come back around to this one and celebrate it.

Caroline: Of course you’re doing March month.

Helen: March month!

Caroline: That makes sense. Yay. I love my March dress so much. Maybe I should just wear it every day for the month of March.

Helen: I mean, it’s almost the season for it again. It’s, like, a long, flora,l ruffle, tiered situation, right?

Caroline: Yeah, yeah. Yep. Yep.

Helen: How are you doing? Tell me about your break.

Caroline: Oh, I had a really restful break in December. It was really nice. And I’m very grateful that we had that time to, kind of, unplug, and I’ve been making big plans for 2022. Full disclosure: we are recording this in February, so it still feels a bit like a new year to me right now.

Uh, but some of my personal goals for the year are to go on a hike every month and also, to repaint my home office that I’m sitting in right now. So maybe next time we record together, I will have a newly painted office. We’ll see.

Helen: Ooh.

Caroline: Um, and my word of the year this year is grounded. We talked a little bit about this on Patreon, but I thought I would share. It’s definitely gonna be, like, a guiding force for me this year, I think.

Helen: That’s awesome. Yeah, something to come back to. Solid rock.

Caroline: Totally. Um, and at Blackbird, I mean, we have a lot of custom projects that we’ve been working on for a long time that are being released this spring/summer, starting this month, so that is really exciting. We have custom prints. We have custom developed cotton and linen yarn dye collections, one in cotton, one in linen. We have swim prints. We have new linen prints. So yeah, very exciting few months of releases ahead. A lot of these things are things that just have been, like, a long time coming, a long time in the works, so very, very fun to be able to finally show them to the world.

Helen: Ooh, I cannot wait to see the new custom print collection. I love, love, love when you guys release those kinds of things.

Caroline: Yeah, it’s a really cute, fun one. It’s a bit of a smaller collection this time, and we definitely have more up our sleeve for later in the year or early next year, so it’s exciting to keep those things coming for sure. I will say the supply chain, kicking our butt. Like a lot of businesses, uh, we’re seeing a lot of delays. So if there’s a delay with some of these things, don’t be mad, guys, but yes, we’re making it work. Uh, things are just taking a really long time to get to us, and that is understandable right now, so, you know…

Helen: Absolutely.

Caroline: That’s just the reality.

Helen: Aw, I’m sorry to hear that. That sucks.

Caroline: Yeah, it’s okay. It’s, I think, yeah, a lot of businesses are dealing with it, you know. We’re making it work, but yeah, I wanted to say having a break from the podcast, like, it’s awesome because it gives us time and space to rest and, like, focus on our businesses, and I don’t know, more self-care. more time for ourselves, but I’m really excited to be back. I really missed you, Helen.

Helen: Aw, I missed you, too. I’m so excited to be back. We have so many fun episodes planned. We always plan out the whole season as a team, with our assistant Lisa, and we have so many cool guests, so many great episodes, starting off with this episode about pockets, which, how have we not done an episode about pockets?

Caroline: Yeah, this is one of those ones that when we were planning for the season, we were like, pockets, wait, pockets, wait, did we not do pockets yet? Searching our library. Oh my gosh, we haven’t done pockets yet. So that was, kind of, a no brainer to throw in for the season cause we have to have an episode all about pockets.

Helen: I love pockets so, so much and I can’t wait to get into it, but we have some feedback to start us off here from Anna, “Hi, and thanks so much for your podcast! I am sewing a wedding dress for a friend which is pretty high stakes! It’s bias cut with silk chiffon and silk twill lining. I just wanted to share something that has helped me in the past with bias cut silk—tear away vilene. I learned about it when making the Evie Bias Skirt from Tessuti. You sew it in to stop the seam from stretching out when you’re sewing in the invisible zipper, then you gently tear it away when you’re done. It worked really well for me with the skirt, and I’m hoping it will be great for this dress, too! Thanks for all you do!”

Caroline: This is a fabulous tip. Thank you so much, Anna. Vilene is the same brand as Pellon in North America. So Vilene H200, the paper-y tearaway stabiliser is similar to Pelon 906F or 911FF. Thank you to our assistant Lisa for looking that up because that is very good information.

Um, and this is for those projects where stay stitching doesn’t do enough to stabilise the fabric like with bias cut silk chiffon. And thank you so much for writing in to us, Anna.

Helen: Yes, thank you. Okay, are you ready to get into pockets?

Caroline: Oh, I’m ready.

Helen: Did you know the hashtag #ItHasPockets has over 80,000 tags on Instagram?

Caroline: Oh, my gosh. I did not know that, but it doesn’t surprise me. People love their pockets.

Helen: It’s not all sewists. Um, you’ve probably seen some comedy sketches or, like, this is a, an ongoing thing, especially I find, with women’s wear because sometimes garments just don’t have pockets which is ridiculous, or they’re comically small, so you can’t really use them. Um, so I’m not surprised either that people are really into this hashtag and really into their pockets. Uh, it’s a fun tag to look through, too, cause there’s lots of inspiration in there.

Caroline: Yeah, and pockets that are actually spacious enough to use are, kind of, a game changer. And one of the most frustrating things about ready to wear garments designed for women is that the pockets are tiny or, like you said, non-existent, so it’s really nice to be able to carry things around hands-free and as a sewist, it’s awesome because we can customise our pockets. We can make them bigger if we want. You can add them to a garment, change their shape or size, even add extra pockets. You can even put in some secret pockets. I don’t know. Helen, what kinds of things would you keep in a secret pocket?

Helen: Obviously, snacks. Hands down.

Caroline: Naturally.

Helen: Naturally, snacks.

Caroline: My mom actually used to sew secret pockets into her and my dad’s clothes. They used to travel a lot. They both worked for the airlines, uh, in their thirties. And yeah, I remember my mom talking about, like, sewing little secret pockets to keep her passport and cash, like, inside her clothing…

Helen: Smart.

Caroline: …when travelling. Yeah.

Helen: Now, you don’t have to wear one of those awkward money belt things under your pants.

Caroline: Yeah, mhm.

Helen: Okay, so today we are going to talk about all the different kinds of pockets, how to sew them, how to add pockets to pocket-less patterns, and even how to omit pockets. Can’t relate to that last one, but we’re going to talk about it. I do sometimes, I’ll admit, skip pockets on patterns if I’m in a rush, sewing, something, like, for a vacation or for an event or something, for a dinner, and I want to finish my new dress before I get going. And I will sometimes omit pockets, especially inseam pockets cause they’re just really easy to not do.

Caroline: It’s so easy to just sew the seam.

Helen: They save so much time to not do that step, but I almost always regret it.

Caroline: Yeah, I’m totally the same. I always regret omitting pockets. You just got to take the time.

Helen: Right? And in seam pockets are easy to omit, but, like, a pain to put in retroactively.

Caroline: Mhm, I would sooner just throw a patch pocket on there.

Helen: Exactly. Patch pockets are much easier. Okay, to kick off the episode, we thought we’d do a short history of European and North American pockets. We did look for historical info on pockets around the world, but it wasn’t super easy to find. So if any of our listeners have resources for the world history of pockets, we would love to hear them. And, of course, as always with our little history bits, it’s going to be short and sweet, and we’re not experts.

Caroline: That’s a niche topic if I’ve ever heard one. Please tell me more about the world history of pockets.

Helen: Any book recommendations welcome.

Caroline: Yeah, so the first pockets in European history were little bags that were tied around the waist. This was the same for all genders. These pockets were often worn underneath loose outer garments that had slits in them, and people could reach in to get them.

Helen: And starting in the 17th century, sewn in pockets started to be attached to men’s garments only. There were pockets of all sizes in coats, jackets, waistcoats, and breeches, and women continue to tie their pockets on and access them through those slits in skirts and petticoats. Women’s pockets could be plain white linen, but there were also wonderfully decorated pockets made out of bright silks and embroidered with details, and there were even quilted pockets. We’ll put some pictures of these in the show notes. They are amazing to see. So inspiring. And these pockets were pretty big. They were usually around 10 inches wide and 17 inches long. You really got to dig in there.

Caroline: That would weigh you down, no? Big 17 inch long pocket.

Helen: You’d have to, like, twist your body sideways to get to the bottom of that.

Caroline: Yeah. In the late 18th century and early 19th century, the fashionable silhouette for women’s clothing became much slimmer, dresses had empire waists and clung closely to the body, and if you tied a pocket around your waist, the lump would be visible. So many women turned to reticules which are little purses to carry their things around. Meanwhile, sewn in pockets were still a firm feature in men’s clothing.

Helen: When skirts became full again in the 1840s, sewn in pockets became the norm for the first time. However, they never matched the usefulness and number of men’s pockets. Relatable.

Caroline: World War One had an enormous impact on Western culture. Many women worked jobs usually reserved for men, and early feminists pushed for more practicality in their clothing. Tailoring elements that were associated with men’s wear began to migrate to women’s wear including multiple sewn in pockets.

Helen: In the 20th century, styles began to change more quickly as mass production and post-World War II wealth increased. There are so many different types of pockets now, of course. We see all different kinds in all different garments. And we’re going to talk about all the different types of pockets now.

Caroline: Yeah, let’s talk about it. There are four general categories that we’re talking about. With all the variations you can make on these four pockets types, you’ll never run out of interesting pockets to try. We’ll start with the most beginner friendly and move up to the most difficult. Do you wanna start us off, Helen?

Helen: Yeah, so patch pockets, they’re pretty dang simple. It’s a flat patch of fabric that you topstitch onto a garment. The back pockets of jeans are a good example of patch pockets. The first step of making patch pockets is cutting them out. If your pattern calls for patch pockets, there will be a pattern piece for you. And since pockets are usually small, you don’t have to worry so much about cutting on the grain. This is a good time to play with stripe or directional print. For example, a gingham patch pocket looks great when cut on the bias.

Caroline: And when you’re able to, I would say, do cut the pocket on the grain. I would only cut off grain for, like, a desired design element. Another thing I’ll say is, I’ve noticed some patterns don’t grade the size of their pockets for different sizes. So it’s the same size patch pocket would be used for the lower end of the size range and the higher end of the size range. And personally, I like my pockets to be, like, proportional to my garment. So you might want to grade up your pocket if you’re noticing that that pattern piece is the same for all sizes. Like, when I’m making jeans, I usually end up grading up the back pockets several inches because I prefer the look of, like, a larger pocket on my bum.

Helen: Yes, a hundred percent. This is such a pet peeve of mine, especially cause it’s easy to grade up a rectangle, too.

Caroline: Totally. Yeah, I think it must just be a total oversight, but I think we’ve learned no. Let’s, let’s do better everyone. Grade those pockets.

Helen: Patch pockets usually have the seam allowance pressed under before you sew them on. And a great trick for pressing a patch pocket with curves or another unusual shape is to make a little template of the pattern piece out of cardstock. This is sometimes called a jig. So you trim the seam allowance off your template, so it’s just the inner size of the, or the actual finished size of the pocket, and you lay it down on top of your pocket piece. You fold the seam allowance over the cardstock, and you press right on top of both the fabric and that card stock. Don’t worry, it can handle it, and it makes everything much less fiddly, and it gives you a really neat press. And if you don’t have card stock on hand, a cereal box is a great weight to cut jigs out of.

Caroline: Patch pockets, especially jeans patch pockets, look great with some decorative topstitching on them. If you want to do this, make sure to do it before you sew the pockets on though, or else you’re just going to be topstitching your pockets onto the pants pocket. It won’t work.

Helen: It sounds obvious, but I could see making that mistake.

Caroline: Totally. Closet Core has a great free download with 33 back pocket topstitching templates. It’s a very cool resource, and you can use a paper template to mark out your design. Then, flip it over to make a mirror design on the other pocket. Just draw or print your design on paper. Cut along the stitch line. Then, use each half of the paper to guide you, as you use a marking tool to draw it out, and make sure to test your marking tool on your fabric to make sure the marks are going to come out. And when you topstitch along your marked line, go slowly. You can slow down the stitch speed on many sewing machines. You can also start and stop as much as you need. You can even use the hand crank to get you going, and leaving the needle in the down position is super helpful here as you’re, kind of, manoeuvring around.

Helen: Yeah, and be kind to yourself. It totally does not have to be perfect. This is, like, the back of your pants we’re talking about here. No, one’s going to be up close checking out your topstitching.

Caroline: And if they are, they better love it cause hey are a privileged person to be able to be that close to your butt.

Helen: Exactly. You’ll want to use a thread colour that contrasts with your fabric in order to see the beautiful topstitching on your pocket, so we really like Mara 70 thread by Gutterman for topstitching on denim because it’s thick enough to be bold, and it’s high quality. Another option is to use double thread for your top thread, so fill a bobbin with your thread colour and add it to the spindle with your top thread spool. And then you just thread your machine normally with two threads instead of one, so you get a bit of a thicker look.

Caroline: And if you don’t like the look of machine decorative top stitching, this is also a great spot for hand embroidery or embellishment, patches. There’s so many things you can do with a patch pocket to kind of zhuzh it up.

Helen: Definitely, and if you’re working with a pattern, there will usually be markings to show you where to place the patch pockets, but it’s always a good idea to test out the placement by pinning the pockets on and trying on the garment or holding that piece up to your body, and then you can be really sure that it looks the way you like. Keep re-pinning and trying it on until it looks good to you. You don’t have to go with the suggested placement, and then you can topstitch it on.

And many patterns do have you sew the pockets first because it’s easy to sew a patch pocket to one flat pattern piece, but you can often wait until the very end to sew on the pockets. The benefit of this is that you get perfectly placed pockets. The con of this is that it can be harder to sew them onto the project and pivot around corners and stuff when you’re working with a finished garment like a pair of jeans, and you’re trying to pin and so those back pockets on.

Caroline: Yeah, and make sure if it’s a lined garment that you, especially like a bagged lining, like in a jacket, that you’re sewing that patch pocket on before you put the lining in or else you’re going to have to sew over the lining…

Helen: It’s true.

Caroline: …which won’t really work. Also, once you make a pattern once and you’ve, like, decided on your preferred pocket placement, you can mark that on the pattern pieces. So, like, switch up the markings and then next time you sew that garment, if it’s a tnt, let’s say, then you can sew it first, and it’s, it’ll be a little bit easier than manoeuvring, like Helen said. Oh, and also, if you make a muslin, you can draw the pockets on just with, like, pencil to figure out placement in advance.

Helen: Oh, I love this tip. Or even a Sharpie, like, go nuts.

Caroline: Oh, yeah!

Helen: It’s super fun to draw on your thing. I love it. Okay. Our favourite topstitching tip is to use an edge stitch foot. This will get you that distance from the edge consistently and make your patch pockets look super sharp.

Caroline: So a variation on the patch pocket is a patch pocket with a flap, and you can use a button or a snap to keep that patch pocket with the flap closed. And also, the flap just, kind of, looks cool. So it’s a really nice design element that you can add if you want to mix it up with the patch pockets.

Helen: Yeah! I did this on one of our Cameron button-up packs. I added a little flap, and it looks so cute.

Caroline: Ooh, can’t wait to see!

Helen: Another variation is to add pleats or gathers into a patch pocket. This makes the pocket even roomier. Pleated pockets are often combined with flaps for cargo styles. There’s also bellows pockets, or accordion pockets, which are patch pockets that are three dimensional, so they open out like an accordion from the garment.

I think they have this kind of pocket on the Closet Core Kelly Anorak cause I’ve only sewn a bellows pocket once, and it was that project. Uh, these are another sporty pocket. They show up on cargo pants and safari jackets and things like that.

Caroline: I haven’t sewn one of those. I’ve always wanted to. It seems complicated.

Helen: Yeah, it’s not too bad. Like, you do have to get in there with your sewing machine and edge stitch along, like, a piece that’s, like, sticking out from the garment. So that part is a little tricky, but once you get it on there, it’s, it’s great. You can fit so much stuff in there.

Caroline: I know. Yeah, three dimensional-ness means just more snacks. And there’s no limit to the shapes you can use for patch pockets. Generally, they’re square or rectangular with various shapes on the bottom. Some are flat bottomed and some are rounded or angled in the bottom corners. Another common shape is a pork chop pocket. I always loved this name for a pocket, a pork chop pocket.

Helen: Me, too.

Caroline: I mean, it just makes sense, but this shape has, kind of, an angled side that your hand goes into. Think Lander Pants by True Bias. I love the pork chop pocket.

Helen: Me, too. There’s also the kangaroo pocket, like, on a hoodie or a pullover jacket. And that’s basically two pork chop pockets that have met in the middle, melded in the middle. Make one giant pork chop.

Caroline: Yes. Like a double pork chop.

Helen: A hoodie pocket, otherwise known as the double pork chop.

Caroline: But you can also do fun custom shapes. The most practical ones will be thick in the middle like hearts or circles or egg shapes. Um, if you have a part that sticks up, like the top point of a star, you could use some heavy interfacing on the pocket piece to keep it from flopping over. But it’s pretty fun to think about all the custom shapes that we could make our pockets into, like…

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: …I don’t know. Strawberries or other fruit. Bananas? Would a banana pocket work?

Helen: I think it, maybe it could for, like, something quite thin. A pencil pocket, but it’s shaped like a banana.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: I mean, pockets are low stakes. So if you have an idea for a pocket, just try it on some scrap fabric and see if it works.

Caroline: So true.

Helen: One thing you’ll see with patch pockets is that they often have reinforcement in their upper corners. So these corners can get stressed and pull away from the garment. If you’re, kind of, jamming your hands into patch pockets regularly, that top corner really needs to be stable. It needs to, like, hold on to the garment so it doesn’t rip away.

So you can add bar tacks. You can topstitch small little triangles or hammer on some rivets to keep them firmly attached. At the very least, make sure you backstitch at the top of your pocket. Your choice of reinforcement method depends on your fabric and the look you’re going for. Denim and canvas would work great with rivets while flimsier fabrics might be weighed down by them.

If your machine is having a hard time sewing bar tacks or triangles through so many layers of fabric, you might benefit from a hump jumper tool, or just a bit of cardboard or a sewing needle case placed under the back of your presser foot, to help get you up onto that height of that pocket in order to, so, uh, that triangle. And with heavier fabrics, you could also literally hammer the fabrics down so that they lay flatter before you go in and try to stitch over top all of them.

Caroline: Yeah, that works really well with, like, a stiff denim or a duck canvas or something like that. Just get some anger out with a hammer.

Helen: I like the triangle method. I think I use that one the most, and it’s easier than it looks. And the triangles do not have to match or be perfect.

Caroline: Mhm, totally. In-seam pockets or another type of pocket that isn’t super difficult to sew, and they’re not difficult to add to a pattern either. In-seam pockets are a pouch that’s sewn into an existing seam, which is why they’re so easy to skip, but don’t do it.

Helen: The first step is to cut out. In-seam pockets are only barely visible from the outside, if at all. So it can be, kind of, fun to use a contrasting fabric for this. This is a perfect opportunity to use some fun scraps or to choose a fabric that is lighter weight than your main fabric which would be ideal for a pocket bag cause you won’t notice the bulk under there, and also, it won’t weigh down so much.

Caroline: Mhm, and how do you like to finish the edge of your pocket bags? Do you do it before you sew, or after?

Helen: I found this really interesting when I started sewing because a lot of garments do include in-seam pockets. And even before I started designing patterns, I was always confused about the order of operations. When do you finish the seams in order to end up with all your seams beautifully finished at the end? There’s no actual raw ones.

So there is a specific order that I like to do it in, but I think it works best if you finish the edges of the pocket bags before you even get started, so that’s out of the way and done, and finish the edges of, like, the legs or the side seam or whatever that you’re attaching it to. Basically, finish everything, and then, it’s all finished.

And then you can just sew the pocket bag. And if you want to do a final line of serging or overlocking at the very end to, like, tie the edges together, then that’s great. But I don’t like any raw edges showing, but you can do in-seam pockets with French seams. It is possible. There’s blog articles out there about it. I’ve done it. It works really well. So if you don’t have a serger or overlocker, that is totally an option.

Caroline: That’s a good point. Yeah, I was going to say, I, I, kind of, flip flop. Sometimes I do it before. Sometimes I do it after, but I’m always grateful when I finish those seam allowances before cause there’s just, like, less manoeuvring around raw edges and worrying about the serger cutting into, like, a weird angle and accidentally cutting a hole into your garment. And then, you know you’re not going to have any raw edges, so there’s that assurance there, too.

Helen: Yeah, definitely. So once you get your pockets cut out, and maybe finish the edges, your next step is to sew the pockets to your pattern pieces with the right sides together. And you do this using a slightly smaller seam allowance. You may have noticed this when you’re sewing. So your pattern should have markings for placement. And if you’re adding in-seam pockets to a pattern that doesn’t call for pockets, you can just make your own markings. Figure out where you want them to sit on your body. Just try to keep in mind the length of your arms so that you can easily reach into them and make sure that you’re marking the same place on the front and back pieces of your garment.

I’ve totally sewn in the in-seam pockets too low, and it sucks because you put in all this effort and you finish the garment and you’re like, I didn’t skip the pockets. Yay me. And then you reach down into your pocket and, like, yeah. Yeah. You have to tilt your body to get down there. It’s not fun.

Caroline: This is a measure twice, sew once situation.

Helen: Yes.

Caroline: After you’ve sewn the pocket pieces to the garment, it’s time to understitch. Don’t skip this step. It might be tempting to do so, but it’s going to keep the pocket fabric from turning out to the outside of your garment, and you can press the seam allowance towards the pocket and understitch on the pocket side next to the seam. It just creates, like, a really clean, professional finish. I find it so satisfying to, like, press that edge stitching and then, know it’s going to disappear into the pocket, but, like, I know it’s there, and it gives me a lot of comfort.

Helen: Yes, it really is a beautiful finish. And finally, when you sew your front and back pieces together, you will sew the side seam, and then you’re going to do a little pivot, go around the pocket shape, and then finish the side seam underneath the pocket. This will give you a pocket bag that seems to disappear into the side seam, an in-seam pocket.

Caroline: Oh, it makes so much sense now. And the great thing about in-seam pockets is that if you have a favourite pocket pattern that, like, fits your hand perfectly, you can use it over and over, and you’ll always have pockets of your favourite size and shape. I like to keep my favourite in-seam pocket pattern piece, like, on my bulletin board in my sewing room…

Helen: So smart.

Caroline: …so it’s always accessible, and I can always just pull it out and use it if there’s, like, a weird shaped or a really small pocket or something.

Helen: Genius. Do you know what pattern it’s from?

Caroline: Honestly, no cause it’s, like, a trace version of an old pattern. I think it might be a Sewaholic one though.

Helen: Oh, yeah.

Caroline: Yeah. Our friend Tasia used to always make really large, perfect pockets, I thought.

Helen: I like my in-seam pockets to be quite large. I want to be able to, like, spread my whole hand open in there.

Caroline: Cause, like, it’s super awkward when you have to, like, squish up your hand to, like, get it into the pocket, and then, you can’t casually put your hands into your pockets when you’re standing around awkwardly.

Helen: Yeah, if you’re standing around awkwardly, then you’re going to be fidgeting. So you need, like, enough room to move your hands around it.

Caroline: Mhm, mhm.

Helen: Yeah, okay. And as you can imagine, in-seam pockets are really easy to add to garments, too. Because basically anywhere where there’s a seam, you could potentially put a pocket. You might not want to put one in every seam, but you can, right? They’re in-seam pockets. So you can pretty much put them anywhere where there’s a seam, so you can really get creative, but they can sometimes get a little unruly since they’re just hanging out on the inside of the garment.

So for a variation that stays firmly in place, you can topstitch the pocket to the front of the garment. Um, and this can look really cool as a design detail, especially in a fabric like linen. I think it can add a really nice detail to the outside of the garment.

Caroline: Yeah, and if your garment has a waist seam, you can also modify your in-seam pocket to be anchored to the waist seam which can be a really cool touch that just, like, keeps it in place facing the front. I’ve also seen pockets anchored to each other or into a seam with, like, a thread chain to keep them sitting in the right direction. So if you’ve forgotten to modify that pocket to, like, go into your waistband, you can make a little thread chain and practice that hand sewing technique and just attach your pockets together.

Helen: Ooh, totally. That’s a great idea. Okay. We’re onto our third type of pocket. We’ve done patch. We’ve done in-seam. Next, there are slash pockets. The opening of a slash pocket slashes from the waistband to the side seam typically. So most jeans have a style of slash pocket in the front.

Caroline: I don’t know why. I feel like slash pockets are, kind of, aggressive.

Helen: Like, an aggressive name?

Caroline: Yeah, as a result, they’re an aggressive pocket. Slash pocket!

Helen: Call them angled pockets or I don’t know. There’s probably different names for it. Cause it seems like you could call it lots of different things.

Caroline: Totally. But they are more stable than in-seam pockets. Slash pockets are anchored at the waistband and at the side seam, whereas inseam pockets are usually only anchored at the side seam. So you’re getting a little bit more, like, stability and structure in that pocket construction.

Helen: Mhm, and you can use that same fabric as your garment to make a slash pocket. This has the benefit of fewer pattern pieces and fabrics, but you can also use a different fabric for the bag of the pocket that will not be visible on the outside. This requires more pattern pieces cause you’ll have to piece the part of the pocket that shows up at the garment hip. Some patterns have this facing already drafted, or you could draft your own.

However, using a different fabric for the bag can be a good thing cause you could use a more tightly woven fabric for the pocket bag, and it will be sturdier and less likely to develop holes. You could also use a more lightweight fabric than your garment fabric to reduce bulk. Think, like, in the jeans pockets is usually not denim, right? It’s usually just white cotton.

Caroline: Yeah, so the point is that, like, if your pattern and fabric isn’t, like, a perfect match with the pocket pieces, you can adjust them so that you have, like, a lighter weight pocket or more stable pocket, depending on your needs. It makes a lot of sense.

And sewing slash pockets isn’t difficult, but it’s, kind of, hard to explain over a podcast, as a lot of things are. It’s a lot like sewing in-seam pockets with some added basting and piecing. Seamwork has a great article called “Design Your Own In-Seam Pockets” which walks you through drafting and sewing a few variations. And on the Helen’s Closet blog, there’s a Winslow Culottes hack to add slash pockets, so we’ll link both of those in the show notes so you can have the visual.

Helen: Yes, and you can make variations on slash pockets by changing the angle and shape of the slash. In that Seamwork article we just mentioned, they demonstrate slash pockets with a really cute little notch in them. You can do a curved slash pocket and a Western slash pocket with a little triangle of fabric that turns over to show the pocket facing fabric. You can really get creative here, but you can also just play with whether or not it’s straight or curved, how curved it is. There’s tons of variation. And, of course, you can also customise the bag shape. Like, with many other pocket designs, they don’t always have deep bags. So if you want a big bag, you get one.

Caroline: You get that bag. Go out there and get it.

Helen: And just like with in-seam pockets, slash pockets call for understitching, and we still don’t want you to skip it. This is going to keep the lines of your pockets crisp even while you move around throughout the day. And because you’re cutting fabric on the bias or on an angle from the grainline, this area is prone to stretching. So you can reinforce the angle on your slash pockets with a bit of interfacing. You could even add some,stay tape in there if you want it to be real sturdy. And this will prevent your pocket from gaping open.

Caroline: Yeah. Slash pockets are usually reinforced at the point where one end of the slash meets the waistband and at the point where the other end of the slash meets the side seam. Just like with patch pockets, you can sew small triangles. Um, you can hav-,hammer in rivets, or you can stitch some bar tacks.

I’ll also mention some slash pockets will have a bit of ease drafted into the slash to accommodate for our hands reaching in. So that might depend on the fit of the garment. If you’re working with really, like, a form fitting or tighter fitting garment, then you need that room to be able to fit your hand in. So the drafting will, kind of, accommodate for that. And you can even add more ease to give the pocket, like, a droopy look which can be, kind of, a cool design detail. Um, so I thought I’d just throw in that little bit of knowledge that I have from design school.

Helen: Very cool. Okay. We mentioned at the top that most jeans have slash pockets in the front. You might not think of jeans pockets as slash pockets because of the shape, but jeans pockets are usually more rounded or scooped, but they are constructed the same as slash pockets. They just require a bit more clipping into those curves, and they often have a facing and a coin pocket in the mix, too. These are not as hard to construct as they look. You can totally sew a jeans pocket if you ever sewn a straight slash pocket.

Caroline: Yeah, it’s pretty much the same thing.

Helen: I also wanted to note that we use slash pockets on our Arden Pants. And one thing we get a lot of questions about is how we adjust the rise on these pants without messing up the pocket shape. Because when you adjust the rise, you would cut across the pattern perpendicular to the grainline around the crotch area, and often, that intersects with where the pockets sit. So what happens when you start to make changes and then your pocket angle gets all out of whack? So we do have a post about how to do this on the blog, and you can use it for most pants with slash pockets. It’s super handy.

And another thing we got a lot of questions about is how to grade between sizes with slash pockets. Because again, you get up to that high hip area and all of a sudden there’s an angle on the pattern piece. And you’re like, what do I do now? So it throws people off, so we have a blog post about that, too. And I just wanted to mention that.

Caroline: Oh, thanks. That’s awesome. Great resource. Okay, next type of pocket is the dreaded welt pocket.

Helen: Wow.

Caroline: And maybe I’m projecting my own personal feelings on that one.

Helen: I mean, maybe, just, like, a little bit.

Caroline: But the only part of a welt pocket that shows on the outside of the garment is, like, that horizontal band of fabric. Or you might be making a double welt pocket which would just give you two horizontal bands, and the pocket bag hangs on the inside of the garment. So you often see pockets like these on blazers, vests, on the back of dressier pants, that kind of thing.

Helen: And sometimes these garments have a lining that hides that pocket bag, um, so you won’t even see that, like, in a nice blazer, or sometimes the pocket bag is just loosey goosey on the inside, like, on a jean jacket. And it’s true that only those little bars show, but they’re not always horizontal because you can actually angle a welt pocket any which way. Vertical, uh, diagonal, horizontal.

Caroline: Any direction you want.

Helen: Any direction. Any size, any direction. Very versatile.

Caroline: Yes, a welt is just another name for abandoned fabric. And in welt pockets, the band finishes the raw edges of the pocket opening and makes the opening stronger by reinforcing it. I’ll speak for myself, also, maybe for some of you, that I think that we often find welt pockets a bit scary, as sewists, because you have to cut a slit into your fabric to make them. And a lot of the time, this is further down in the process.

You’ve already cut out your garment. You’ve maybe done some interfacing and other work on the garment, and then you have to cut into it, but don’t be scared. Let’s all not be scared together. Uh, we definitely recommend trying your first welt pocket on scrap fabric to get the hang of it. Before you cut into your precious wool coating, for example, and it’s, kind of, like, the first pancake in a batch, the first welt pocket you ever do, probably won’t turn out perfect. It’s your learning pocket, and hopefully, that won’t happen every time you have to make a welt pocket like every time I make pancakes. First pancake is always bad.

But I wanted to mention, I still have my welt pocket samples from design school somewhere in my sewing room, and it was one of the first, like, advanced sewing techniques we learned in school. And I remember being, like, terrified, even though it was on a sample, you know? Cause your teachers’ watching you over your shoulder, and I just recommend doing a sample if it’s your first time and just, you know, it’s, it’s not only great for practice, but it’s, kind of, nice to keep it as a reference for the next time that you make a welt pocket. So you can, kind of, look back and look at the guts and see exactly how you did it. And, um, yeah, so definitely practice.

Helen: Always a good idea to practice those more technical sewing things. I’ve only sewn welt pockets a few times, and I definitely shy away from them when it comes to choosing pocket styles, even for our patterns, I don’t think we’ve included one. Oh, we have one in the Dogwood Apron actually. It’s a, it’s a good one. You add it to, like, a smaller project, like a bag or something. I think that’s a great idea.

But it is one of those techniques that when you finish it, you feel like a superhero because it feels very magical when it’s all done. It looks so neat and tidy and cool. And you’re like, I did that. Like, I did that, so cool.

Caroline: It’s just so hard to make that, that first cut.

Helen: I know the first cut is the deepest.

Caroline: First cut is the deepest. Okay. Let’s talk about the basic steps of sewing a welt pocket. So the first thing you’re going to do is mark out the placement on your garment and sew the welt to your garment, cutting the pocket opening, and then turn the welt through, and then you’re going to finish the pocket on the garment’s wrong side. This kind of pocket is definitely one that’s difficult to describe. So we’re going to recommend Jennifer’s tutorial “How to Make Welt Pockets with No Hand Sewing” on the Workroom Social blog. There are tons of pictures, and we’ll link it up in the show notes for you.

Helen: One tip we have for this is to shorten your stitch length as you sew around that rectangle before you cut it open. This helps you to get nice stable corners and to prevent your fabric from.

Caroline: A double welt pocket uses the same process as a single welt pocket, but you have two welts showing on the outside instead of one. The article “Add Polish to your Wardrobe with a Double Welt Pocket” by Andrea Brown on Craftsy is a really great resource.

Helen: Even though very little shows on the outside of a welt pocket, we still recommend trying out the placement. You could cut a strip of paper the size of the finished welt and, like, pin it on your garment. Or you could even stick a strip of masking tape on there to get an idea of where that welt pocket’s going to sit. After a certain point in the making process, welt pockets are not reversible. It is best to double check that you like the placement before you cut that pocket opening.

Caroline: Yeah, there are a few unpicking opportunities with a welt pocket. And you can combine welt pockets with a pocket flat, so all that will be visible on the outside will be the pocket flap, and this is a really cool and unique look. I love to see it on fancy coats. I’ve also seen double welt pockets with a flap. So you do see the welt at the top and then a flap and then there’s a welt below as well. Um, I’ve seen them in blazers before.

Helen: Whoa. Very cool. Welt pockets can be closed with a little button. One option is to add a flap that buttons onto the outside of the garment, like we mentioned before. Another option is to sew the buttonhole through the garment fabric and pocket facing and sew the button inside the pocket bag. From the outside, you’ll see a little horizontal welt with a button centred underneath it, a very classic look.

Caroline: And you can close your welt pockets with a zipper. Oh my gosh. Zippers and welts. I’m terrified. No, these pock-, these pockets can look pretty sporty with a colourful, like, chunky zipper or very cool with a metal zipper. Valerie from Insatiable Need has a great tutorial for these called “Perfect Zippers: Making a Welt Zipper Pocket.”

Helen: Very cool. Yeah. I could picture it on, like, a cool, uh, moto jacket.

Caroline: Mhm, yeah. And in terms of fabric, uh, we wouldn’t recommend a welt pocket in, like, a super delicate shifty or super lightweight fabric because the corners are clipped really close to the stitch line. And those corners, when you’re putting your hands in and out of the pockets, are going to withstand some stress. So holes and fraying could happen more easily on a lightweight or delicate textile. If you absolutely have to use a lightweight or delicate fabric, I would interface the crud out of it.

Helen: Yes. Okay. Those are the four main types of pockets; patch pockets, in-seam pockets, slash pockets, and welt pockets. We’ve gone over a few variations for each already, but we also wanted to talk about combining pocket types. So, for example, let’s say you’re making a jacket and you want the look of patch pockets, but you prefer the functionality of a zippered welt pocket. You can put patch pockets on top of a welt pocket and cover that zipper with a flap. Best of both worlds.

Caroline: Whoa.

Helen: Whoa.

Caroline: That’s a lot of pocket. Yes. And a coin pocket is that little hip pocket that you can find on a lot of jeans. It’s only big enough to hold a little bit of folded up money or coins. I always thought coin pockets were kind of funny, but they’re a patch pocket inside of a slash pocket.

And if you want to make one for yourself and you don’t have a pattern piece, you can position a small patch pocket at the side seam edge of your pocket bag. And your pocket bag should be fashion fabric on the top and pocket fabric on the bottom. And make sure your patch pocket sticks up onto the fashion fabric part. And then sew it on and continue sewing your slash pocket. And you can finish it with bar tacks or rivets, and then you’re done.

Helen: Very cool. I love the idea of adding coin pockets just because they’re fun to sew. I never use them though.

Caroline: Yeah. You don’t put your little toonie in there.

Helen: No, I don’t put my toonies or my loonies in there. We’re showing our Canadian-ness. Alright, hidden pockets I think are so fun, and they can be some of the most practical, too. Hidden pockets can be a safe place to keep important things. Usually they’re either patch pockets or welt pockets that are sewn into the lining of a garment.

You can also sew small hidden pockets into the inside of wide waistbands. There’s a post on Sewing with Sarah about putting a zipper pocket into the back of leggings waistbands. We’ll link that in the show notes, but I love having a safe place to put my phone, or, you know, in a going out outfit, maybe a little hidden pocket to put your credit card, you know? Then you don’t need to have a big purse.

Caroline: This is making me think of, uh, Shea has a jacket with pockets that ha-, have holes. The pockets have holes in them. So he has accidental secret pockets in his jacket where he often will find random things like change and Kleenexes, like, in the lining of the jacket.

And sometimes it, like, migrates to the back and I’m like, Shea, what is in your jacket? And he has to, like, reach in through the hole in the pocket and find it. And then like, that could be useful sometime, maybe.

Helen: If it’s loonies and toonies, thenI’m all in.

Caroline: Okay, and when you’re thinking about what kind of pocket to put in your next project, because naturally you’ll be thinking about that now after this episode, there are some things you might want to consider. So think about: how do you want the garment to hang? If you have a lightweight shift dress that hangs from your shoulders, putting a heavy phone in your pocket could pull your dress to one side so that it, kind of, looks lopsided.

On the other hand, if you have a fit and flare dress where the skirt hangs from your waist, and it’s, kind of, anchored at the waist, putting a phone in the pocket won’t affect the look as much. This totally happens to me. Like, I will put heavy things in my pockets on big, kind of, loose dresses. And then I end up with, like, a lopsided, really heavy side to my dress, and I, kind of, just go with it, but yeah…

Helen: I end up walking around with my hand in my pocket, like, holding my phone, so it doesn’t, like, weigh my…

Caroline: Which defeats the purpose of the pocket.

Helen: I know. This is why we have to consider these things. Maybe we should go back to the slit system where you reach in and you tie the pocket around your waist.

Caroline: Then you just have a slit. I love that.

Helen: The other thing to think about is: do you want your pocket bag fabric facing right side in or right side out? If you have the fabric facing right side in, you’re going to see that cute fabric that you chose when you peek into your pockets while you’re wearing the garment, or if you turn out your pockets to show everyone how broke you are. Everybody will see.

Caroline: Something we do often around here.

Helen: Sorry, I don’t. But if you have the facing right side out, you’ll see it when you’re putting on your jeans or taking them off. There’s no right answer here. It all depends on what you like best. So don’t sweat it if you accidentally sew it the wrong way around. There isn’t really a wrong or right way to do it.

Caroline: Yeah, totally. And it’s also important to think what you’re going to use the pockets for. Do you fill your pockets with heavy keys and a big phone like I do? Maybe you like to carry snacks and a paperback at all times. Will your pockets fit everything you need? If not, you can enlarge the pocket bag.

Helen: Do you have a habit of pushing your hands into your pockets and creating holes because you have beautifully manicured pointy nails? Use a tightly woven fabric for the pocket bags if this is the case for you and reinforce this area with two lines of stitching so that you don’t end up with stuff in the back of your coat, like Shea.

Caroline: Yes, and this is a great place to use some of those fun prints and like cotton lawn or quilting cotton as well. And do you end up losing important things when they fall out of your pockets? You can alter your pattern to deepen the pocket bag or add a closure like a button or a zipper. This is also a pet peeve of mine. Like, the small pockets lead to not only my hand not being comfortable, but when I sit down things just, sort of, like, fall out.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: And that feels like it defeats the purpose too, right?

Helen: Absolutely. I mean, the important thing to remember is that you are in charge here. If you’re not happy with the pockets on a pattern, you have the power to alter your pockets so that they fit your life, and you also get the look you want. There’s so many fun things you can do.

Caroline: Speaking of power… Interfacing is a powerful part of pocket sewing. This is how you’re going to keep pockets from collapsing or gaping, and you can interface along the top of a patch pocket or along the opening of a slash pocket. You can interface an entire patch pocket so that it doesn’t fold up and lose its shape. Pretty much all welt pockets call for a rectangle of interfacing over where the opening of the pocket will be. Even if your pattern doesn’t call for pocket interfacing, you might want to add some if you’re working with a light or medium weight fabric. And remember we have an episode all about interfacing. It’s Episode 78 called Interfacing 101, so check that out if you want more interfacing tips.

Helen: Yeah, and if you’re sewing with a printed fabric, do you want your pockets to match the pattern or to stand out from it? Pattern matching can be challenging, but also really cool when it’s finished. We have a whole episode on pattern matching that we’ll link in the show notes. And you can pattern match patch pockets by tracing the pocket pattern onto tracing paper, place the traced pocket pattern onto the garment shell piece, match where the placement should be, and then take a pencil and draw out the pattern or at least enough of it so you can tell which part of the pattern it is. And then you can use that pattern piece to cut out the correct area of your fabric.

And when you press and finish the patch pocket, you’ll be ready to topstitch it to the garment. Use lots of pins so everything will be really matched up well and then topstitch, and you might find a walking foot also called an even feed foot, helpful in this case. It will make sure that the pocket fabric won’t shift out of place as you sew it onto the garment shell so you get the really clean match. And one thing that I’ve done in the past on projects is to pattern match the pocket, like, really do a good job and then use a contrasting thread so that people can still tell it’s there because there is something nice about being able to see that there is a pocket, but then also being impressed by the pattern matching.

Caroline: I was totally going to bring this up because I remember you made a dress, I want to say, with the patch pocket perfectly, perfectly matched, might I say, Helen, and topstitched with the contrast. And it’s, kind of, your way of being, like, this is a flex. I have matched my pattern perfectly, but I need you to know that I did it, right?

Helen: Right? Look at it.

Caroline: I still want you to look. It shouldn’t be that invisible.

Helen: Total flex. A lot of hard work goes into that.

Caroline: And pattern highlighting can also look great on pockets. Stripes look really cool turned, like, 90 degrees so that they’re perpendicular to the shell fabric. You can do this for cuffs, yokes, and plackets, too. Plaids, ginghams and stripes look great with pockets cut on the bias, as well. So you can, kind of, do a lot playing with pattern direction if you want that to be a design feature.

Helen: Totally, and you can consider using a completely different fabric for pockets. If they are patch pockets, you’ll want to stay within the same general weight and drape category. But pocket bags don’t have to be the same weight and drape. You can use a light cotton lawn for the pocket bags of heavyweight overalls, and that will work really well cause again, it will just reduce that bulk. I like the idea of, like, a solid colored button up shirt with, like, a floral patch pocket or something like that, you know?

Caroline: Yeah, totally. That’d be so cute and also, like, a great way to use up your scraps or…

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: …do, like, a fun, I don’t know, patchy patchwork garment with, like, con-. I feel like you’ve probably done that, right?

Helen: It sounds like something I would do. I’ll add it to the list.

Caroline: Okay, and pockets can definitely go on your knit garments, too. Patch pockets look great on t-shirts. In-seam pockets are great on sweatpants. Kangaroo pockets are a must on hoodies. And in ready to wear, patch pockets are usually cover stitched. A cover stitch machine is a specialised sewing machine that makes a single or double line of stitching on the outside of the garment, and then on the inside, the threads are looped so the seam can stretch.

And if you don’t have a cover stitch machine, you still have options. You can mimic a cover stitch with a twin needle in your regular. The most common issue with using a twin needle is the fabric tunnelling between the lines of stitching. So this can be fixed by adjusting the bobbin tension and make sure you use a ballpoint twin needle for knit fabrics because you can find twin needles for wovens as well.

You can also use a triple stretch stitch, usually represented by an image of three rows of stitches next to each other on sewing machines. This looks like a heavier straight stitch, but it stretches. You can also use zigzag. It won’t look exactly like ready to wear, but it can still look great. If you have a really stable knit, you may be able to get away with using just a regular straight stitch, too, especially for a small patch pocket on a loose knit garment. So you’ve got options with knits. You can do it a lot of ways.

Helen: Definitely, and I am a huge fan of double-sided wash away tape for knit patch pockets.

Caroline: Oh, yeah.

Helen: It’s so handy. You just get some Wonder Tape. You just slap that pocket on there, and then you can do things like a twin needle and not get tunnelling because there’s stabilising under there. You don’t get waves. I mean, Wonder Tape is your friend.

Caroline: Yep. Love Wonder Tape.

Helen: Okay. Let’s talk about pattern hacks. Hashtag #YouCanHackItt. Adding pockets is almost always a good idea, in my opinion. You can add pockets to a pocket-less pattern, or you can add additional pockets to a pattern that already has them. The more, the better we say.

Caroline: Adding patch pockets is pretty simple to draft your own. You can just draw out the shape and size you like and pin them onto your garment to see if you like the placement. And then trace out that shape and add seam allowances around the sides and bottom. For the opening, add length to allow for a hem. Press the seam allowance in towards the centre of the pocket, press the hem under an edge, stitch it down, and then you’re going to pin the pocket on. Double-check that placement and topstitch, and then that’s it.

If you’re using an unusual shape, you might want to draft a facing to finish the opening edge instead of hemming it. And you might also want to interface the opening if you’re using a light or medium weight fabrics, and I’ll also say it might feel daunting to just draft a pocket from scratch if you’ve never done it before, or you’re maybe not sure of, like, the scale or the shape that you want. So Pinterest is your friend here. Also, using patch pocket pattern pieces. That’s a tongue twister. Patch pocket pattern pieces from other patterns that you have in your stash, like, use those and just use them on the garment that you’re working on.

It’s totally okay.

Helen: Totally. I like to cut my pockets bigger, too, when I’m experimenting with patch pockets cause you can always trim down, but you can’t add back.

Caroline: So true.

Helen: Make ‘em big to start and then pin them on, and then you’ll find that shape and size eventually.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Adding in-seam pockets is easy, too. We already went over this when we talked all about the style of pocket, but there’s one variation we didn’t mention yet. You can add a fashion seam to your garment and put an inseam pocket there. A fashion seam isn’t functional. It’s there for looks only. It doesn’t have any shaping or anything in it. You can make these by cutting your pattern open where you want to add a seam, adding some seam allowance there, and then you have two pattern pieces, and inside of that seam is where you can put an in-seam pocket.

So I think that Grainline Studio where’s the crown, when it comes to hiding pockets in cool places, especially in-seam pockets. The Grainline Studio Farrow Dress is a great example of this kind of pocket. It’s a trapeze style dress that has two fashion seams, kind of, coming up from the side at the hips to meet in the centre, and it creates this triangle effect. And then in these seams are in-seam pockets that hang down, and it’s such a cool, kind of, sixties way of doing it a shift dress.

Caroline: Adding slash pockets to a pocket-less pattern, or doing slash pockets instead of in-seam pockets isn’t too bad. We already talked about this one, too. And you don’t need to alter your pattern at all to add a welt pocket. You can use a welt pocket pattern you already like, and you can follow a tutorial like the ones we talked about before. Just don’t forget to interface over the place where the pocket opening will be before you do anything else.

Helen: And there’s another option that almost doesn’t even belong in this episode, but we have to talk about. This is to omit or skip the pockets. And, of course, there are plenty of reasons that you might want to skip pockets. We do it, too. It’s all up to you. You are the boss of your own wardrobe. And skipping patch pockets is the easiest to do. You just skip the steps where you’re asked to cut them out and stitch them on.

Caroline: Yeah, and in-seam pockets are also easy to skip as we’ve already mentioned, but don’t do it. Just sewing a seam up all the way and skip the steps for inserting the pockets. Super easy.

Helen: Skipping slash pockets might take a little bit of adjusting to the pattern. You will need your front pattern piece and the pattern piece for the pocket. Use any notches or markings to line those pieces up at the side seam and the waist seam. And then you can either take the pieces together to make one pattern piece or trace out that corner that you’re missing. And after that, you just skip the steps for making the pockets.

Caroline: Yeah, and welt pockets are also really easy to skip. Just skip the steps for inserting the pockets, and you’ll be left with an intact piece of fabric.

Helen: And you don’t have to cut a hole.

Caroline: Okay, before we go, we wanted to recommend a few patterns with great pockets. The pocket standouts of the episode. If you have any to add to the list, don’t hesitate to let us know. We love pockets clearly, and we want to see what you have to recommend. So the most iconic pockets are probably the ones on classic five pocket jeans. That’s two curved slash pockets on the front, two patch back pockets, and a coin pocket. For jeans patterns, we love the Morgan Jeans by Closet Core and the Dawn Jeans by Megan Nielsen. And as we mentioned, if you want to add a coin pocket to a pattern if it doesn’t have one, you can follow our instructions above. Uh, also Helen, do you want to maybe give a little sneaky peak of one of your oncoming patterns here? I don’t know, maybe you want to.

Helen: I’m so excited. I’ve been wanting to do a jeans pattern since I started my business pretty much, but it is a bit daunting to come up with a jeans pattern that I’m really excited about. So we’ve been working on it for a while and I am thrilled with the results so far. I’m excited to share more. I don’t have a release date just yet, but yes, there will be Helen’s Closet jeans in 2022.

Caroline: I am so excited for this one.

Helen: Thanks!

Caroline: I mean, we can always use another jeans pattern out in the world.

Helen: Absolutely.

Caroline: And yours are pretty dang cute, so I’m excited to make them.

Helen: Aw, thanks.

Caroline: Okay. And the Thayer Jacket by Grainline Studio is a workwear jacket with some really amazing pockets. The pockets over the chest are in-seam that start just under the yoke, and the pockets over the belly are patch pockets with a curve to them, so that it’s easier to put your hands in. And the topstitching goes around the pockets in a really cool and unique way in this pattern, so check it out.

Helen: Yeah, I do love when jacket patterns have, like, a little bit of an angle to the pockets because it’s hard to stick your hands vertically down into patch pockets comfortably, and you end up putting a lot of stress on the pockets, too. I agree the pockets on this pattern are maybe the coolest ever.

Caroline: They’re pretty cool. Yeah, I appreciate the thought that went into them for sure.

Helen: Yes the Peppermint Pocket Skirt, I mean, it’s got the word pocket in it, designed by Tara Vigo from Paper Theory is a sewing community favourite. The elastic waistband makes it comfy, and the oversized panel pockets make it very cool.

Caroline: The Arenite Pants by Sew Liberated have really unique pockets. They’re side panel pockets that curve low at the hip point and they’re, kind of, like, slash pockets, but the slash goes all the way to the back of the pants and the pockets slouch out to make that unique, kind of, slouchy shape.

Helen: Yes, and you can probably tell that I really love pockets. And there’s a few Helen’s Closet Patterns that have some pretty cool pockets. The York Pinafore has two options. These big curved patch pockets, about as big as you can get, maybe the biggest pocket on the market, I might even say.

Caroline: That’s a bold claim: the biggest pocket on the market.

Helen: They’re huge. Like, they’re so fun though. You can fit so much stuff in them. And people have been posting for years since that pattern’s come out, on Instagram, all of the fun things that they put in their York Pinafore pockets, like, cause you literally can put, like, a book in there. It’s a very fun and distinctive look.

And our apron patterns also have so many pockets. The Dogwood has lots of utility pockets and a hidden welt pocket. The Sam Apron, which is free, has lots of pockets, and they look amazing with top stitching and bar tacks. Yanta Overalls got lots of pockets. We are pocket-friendly, and we do not release patterns that don’t have pockets.

Caroline: Another bold claim. I love it. Okay. But listeners, we’d love to hear about your favourite patterns with iconic pockets. Let us know via email, comment, or DM. We can never have enough pockets. We love pockets. I don’t know what else there is to say.

Helen: Thank you for listening. Thank you for coming back for our spring season. Now you’re empowered to make all the pockets you want. Pocket power forever. Hey, what’s your favourite type of pocket, Caroline.

Caroline: Oh, you know, I love an easy win. It’s definitely the patch.

Helen: Yeah, the patch. It’s the patch for me, too. So versatile, too, you know, and you can do all these fun shapes. Yeah, I’m into it.

Caroline: Yeah, I’m Team Patch. Pocket power forever.

Helen: I love that.

Caroline: Bye everyone!

Helen: Bye!

Caroline: That’s it for today’s episode of Love to Sew. You can find me, Caroline, at BlackbirdFabrics.com and Helen at HelensClosetPatterns.com! We’re recording in beautiful, I guess it’s pretty beautiful, British Columbia, Canada.

Helen: Go to lovetosewpodcast.com to find our show notes. They’re filled with links and pictures from this episode. If you’d like to get in touch with us, send us an email at [email protected].

Caroline: And if you love Love to Sew and want more Love to Sew, you can sign up for our Patreon! For $5 a month, you get a full-length bonus episode and weekly behind-the-scenes pics. For $10 a month, you get all that PLUS a mini-episode focused on sewing techniques and 15% off codes for Helen’s Closet and Blackbird Fabrics! Patreon is the best way to support us so that we can keep making quality sewing content. So please, go to patreon.com/LoveToSew, if you can, for more info.

Helen: Thanks to our amazing podcast team. Lisa Ruiz is our creative assistant. Jordan Moore is our editor. And Margaret Wakelee is our transcriber. And thank you so much for listening. We’ll talk to you next week.

Caroline: Bye.

Helen: Buh-bye.

Caroline: Slash pocket!

Helen: Slash pocket!

Caroline: Slash pocket! In-seam pocket!

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Alexandra Morgan is a fitting expert – and today, she brings her expertise to our listeners! Alexandra shares a bit about her experience in the fashion industry and in the home sewing world, walks us through the steps of her fitting process, and helps six listeners with their fitting issues.

The transcript for this episode is on this page at the end of the show notes.

Find Alexandra Online:

Listener Photos:

Sewing Patterns Mentioned:

Other Mentions:

Transcript:

Helen: We are recording today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, including Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and K’ómoks first nations.

Caroline: Hello, and welcome to Love to Sew. I’m Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics.

Helen: And I’m Helen, the designer behind Helen’s Closet Patterns.

Caroline: We’re two sewing buds who love to sew our own clothes and want to encourage you on your sewing journey, too.

Helen: Join us for today’s special fitting episode with Alexandra Morgan of In-House Patterns.

Hello, Alexandra. Thank you so much for coming on the show today.

Alexandra: Thanks, Helen. It’s so great to be here. I really appreciate the opportunity to get introduced to your listeners.

Helen: Oh, we’re so excited to chat with you, and we have to thank you for all your work leading up to this episode, reviewing fitting questions and pictures with us, and planning this whole episode. We’re so excited, but can you start us off by introducing yourself to our listeners?

Alexandra: Absolutely. My name is Alexandra Morgan, and I teach pattern-making and fitting to people who love to sew. Um, I create sewing patterns, online courses, and free video tutorials for garment sewers who want to make their patterns fit and want to learn new pattern making skills.

Caroline: Awesome. And where are you from?

Alexandra: So I’m currently living on Vancouver Island, like Helen, um, but I grew up in Saskatchewan.

Caroline: Awesome fellow Canadian. We love that.

Alexandra: Yes.

Caroline: Can you tell our listeners, um, how, and when you learned to sew. We’d love to hear a little bit about your sewing story.

Alexandra: Absolutely. Um, well I grew up on the farm in Saskatchewan, so we were, kind of, you know, my mom didn’t drive or anything like that. So things that we had to do on the farm, besides the farm work type stuff, was really, um, kind of, uh, the hobby, sort of, stuff, so mom taught me how to sew and, uh, we had Barbie dolls, of course. And so my first sewing project, of course, was a tube top for Barbie.

Um, but I remember just growing up and just having the opportunity to, on weekends to, to sew, and, um, I remember probably the first big project that I made for myself was a dress for my sister’s graduation from high school, and I was 12 at the time, and it’s so funny because I still remember the color, the fabric, and the style of the dress, uh, that I made at that time. And, uh, it’s so funny how your first project is really so prevalent in your memory.

Caroline: Yeah, absolutely. My first project sticks with me, as well, so I can, I can totally relate to that. And so did you continue on, kind of, sewing through your teenage years? How did that go for you?

Alexandra: I did actually, um, there was definitely a gap there because I grew up, my teenage years were, kind of, in the eighties. So that’s when the whole, kind of, the branding and brand name designer, brand names came out. So it was, like, Jordache jeans or Club Monaco sweatshirts. So when you start to get that branding, like, the whole sewing thing, sort of, fell out of favor. So there was a lot of years where I wasn’t sewing at all.

Uh, but it was something that I always loved. So I ended up, you know, when I came to graduate from high school, my dad asked me, “Well, what are you going to do? You have to go to university.” Because he really believed in higher education. And, uh, I, so I went through the university catalog, and I just found the program for home economics which was a major in clothing and textiles, and I, kind of, took that route.

Um, and then I realized after, of course, uh, going through, I think I was in my second year and I said, what am I going to do with this, you know, clothing and textiles, cause it was a very university oriented program, so very theory-based. And uh, so I wasn’t actually doing a lot of sewing. Um, so after the two years, I was like, okay, I have to finish my degree because in the eighties, that’s what you did. You have to finish your education. And then after I finished that degree, I decided, okay, I’m going to take this further.

So what I did is, I went to design school in, uh, Toronto. And so I took the program there which was much more to my liking. I just absolutely loved studying design and, and the pattern making part of it. So, so, that, kind of, threw me into the fashion industry because of course, after I graduated from Ryerson, you have to work in the industry to actually gain experience.

So my background is really in the industry now, not so much in home sewing like it is now, but at the beginning I spent about 20 years, uh, you know, as a pattern maker, a designer, and a fit technician in the industry, so that’s where the, the basis or the foundation of my knowledge comes from.

Caroline: Very cool. Yeah. We were going to ask you about your, kind of, industry experience and was that all in Toronto?

Alexandra: Actually, most of it was kind of across the country as a matter of fact, because I started in Toronto, I had, it was difficult to find a job at that time when I graduated which was in the nineties. And, um, so I ended up, kind of, moving back home to Saskatchewan, and I did some work there for some really small companies. And then, then I ended up going to Calgary, and I worked for some outerwear companies in Calgary. And then I ended up moving to Vancouver where the bulk of my, um, industry experience comes from.

And I worked for a company in Vancouver for, gosh, I can’t even remember, maybe 10 years. And that’s where I was doing the fit technician work, for the most part, which is what my title was actually as a technical designer. And I managed that department at one point. Um, so it was really communicating with overseas manufacturers about fitting and patterns. Um, so that’s, that’s, kind of, where, where I learned, like I said, the bulk about fitting.

Helen: I’m so curious to know, like, what a day in the life of a fit technician looks like. Like, what kind of processes do you go through to fit those garments?

Alexandra: Yeah. So, um, in the industry, you use mannequins, uh, far more than you use, uh, dress forms, we call them, far more than you use actual fit models. So the fit models are there to, kind of, give you the essence of the garment, like what it looks like, how it, how to style it, and all of that stuff, and also to give you an idea about how the person is going to move in that garment.

But generally, you, kind of, just fit them. You put the garment on the dress form, and you, kind of, assess. Is everything where it should be? Is there any fitting issues that are there that you need to correct and communicate to an overseas factory? But it’s really the factory that does all the work. So it’s really almost, like, okay, you’re assessing the garment, but you’re not actually doing the work to correct it. You’re just telling the factory about it so that they can address those issues that you’re having with it.

So it’s, kind of, a back and forth communication over email, actually, at one point, when I first started my job there in Vancouver, we were actually sending things by fax, believe it or not. Um, but yeah, we, we did finally get into the email world and started sending photos and things like that.

Helen: So much faster.

Alexandra: Yes, very much so.

Helen: So at what point did you discover, I guess that there was a home sewing industry that might be of interest to you with your fitting expertise?

Alexandra: Well, there was a point, uh, when I was working at my job that I, sort of, was just like, I don’t know if I want to do this anymore. And I just thought I wanted to, sort of, explore this idea of making patterns for home sewers because what I had, sort of, felt when I was sewing is when I co-, cause when you come from the industry, there are certain efficiencies that you put into a sewing pattern that makes you sew faster and better and more efficiently. So these things are generally missing from sewing patterns or the traditional sewing patterns that I used at the time.

And I wanted to, sort of, introduce this idea to, um, home sewers, where, you know, if you use smaller seam allowances, you kept less trimming to do. There are lots of efficiencies that you can have when you, when you, kind of, think about: how is this going to be constructed in the most efficient way possible? So I originally was thinking that, so I started diving into this idea of creating sewing patterns for the home sewing industry. It didn’t really take off. And I think it’s just simply because, um, there’s not very much understanding about that, like, the connection of the fashion industry and the home sewing industry feels to me very wide apart. And perhaps I just didn’t know how to, um, market it or how to present it. That could have been a possibility, but I find that that, that conversation is hard to have in the home sewing industry. People are interested in it, but they’re, they’re, kind of, not really diving into it, so I’m not sure if that’s just my miscommunication of, of it or, or if there’s just no interest there. Just really quite, not sure about.

Helen: But you’ve pivoted into teaching fitting online with your online classes, which are really cool, so can you tell us a little bit about In-House Patterns and the courses that you offer?

Alexandra: Absolutely. Um, I started teaching online. Actually, I first started teaching when I moved to Vancouver Island. I started teaching in one of the colleges here, and I was terrified my first day. I think I was spent with butterflies about three months before I started teaching because I was so nervous about, about, kind of, being in front of a classroom and, sort of, telling people how to do things.

Um, but when I started, uh, the feedback from the students was so amazing. Like, they, they were so receptive to the things that I was teaching and talking and they somehow, whatever way I have of communicating, they seem to really understand. And, uh, I, when I got feedback about my teaching skills from the students because, of course, there’s always surveys, like, it was just out of this world kind and, and wonderful.

So that, that job lasted for a couple of years. And, of course, it was just, you know, one or two classes, so it wasn’t really a job that could sustain you in any way. So I started teaching home sewers at little, uh, shops. I don’t know if he knows there’s a place here called The Makehouse. They have classes and things like that for people. I started teaching pattern making there, and I really, really enjoyed putting the classes together and planning them and stuff. And so when, when that doesn’t, doesn’t quite, you know, pay the bills either, you, kind of, have to advance to something else. You have to add something else to the list of things that you’re doing.

So then going online really helped a lot because you could get a much wider audience and, and also, kind of, have more time to teach because all the video lessons are online. So you can actually finish your entire thought process in a video, and people get so much more from it than from, than, like, a small, you know, time-sensitive structured class, classroom, in-person classroom situation. So I found it really, um, kind of, fulfilling to be able to, kind of, share everything that I know, um, in the online format and have as much time as I needed to actually start and finish a class like a complete thought about how you should do something. So, um, this, the online thing really, really works well for me.

Um, right now I’m teaching, uh, I have three, just three online classes right now. I teach a Bodice Block class. I teach a Stretch Knit Bodice class, so a t-shirt class, which is, they’re both drafting classes. And the one that I’m going to be doing in January again is called Fitting Essentials. And it shares absolutely everything I know about fitting. And it’s an eight-week online program that I actually go through with the students. Um, so we have, uh, live sessions together where, you know, people ask questions and I share information in addition to all the video lessons that are inside the course. So those are the three that I’m doing, uh, right now.

I’m working on a pant fitting class, which is proving to be quite challenging as most people will probably recognize, but I think it’s going to be probably, I don’t know, I keep telling my husband that I feel like it’s going to be my legacy or my life’s work because it’s really, it was really challenging to get across, um, all the intricacies of pant fitting, but I’m working on it, and I’m really, really excited to get that out, oh, hopefully, next year. We’ll try.

Caroline: Oh, that’s so exciting, Alexandra. I know that from our experience doing a podcast and getting listeners emailing us, pants fitting is a huge, kind of, learning curve for some people. So I’m sure our listeners are going to be really excited to check out your course. And I think it’s so great that you’re doing online courses because longtime listeners might remember that you and I met a few years ago when you came to Blackbird to teach some fitting courses. And you’re such a great teacher and you have such a great structure and, kind of, refined process for fitting. So it’s so great that we can get that information online now and that you are giving people the opportunity to join these courses, um, from anywhere.

Alexandra: Yeah, I really, really enjoy that process, and I love being able to reach so many more people with the information I have because it is, it is different and, you know, the way I approach it is different than, kind of, it’s been traditionally approached.

Caroline: So, yeah. So, okay. We do want to talk about your fitting process before we, sort of, move on to that part of the show. I want to know, just, kind of, more of a broad question that I have for you is why do you think it’s important to have a garment that fits well?

Alexandra: Well, when a garment fits well, it’s comfortable. Um, you feel like yourself in it. Um, you’re not thinking about the garment. You’re, you’re, kind of, projecting your personality. When something doesn’t fit, you’re fidgeting. You, kind of, feel uncomfortable. You’re, you’re wondering what other people think of you. And I just, it’s really a psychological thing in my mind. And, um, at least that’s how I feel. I’m not sure how your listeners will feel about that, but I feel like it is so deeply rooted in, in your personality and, and how you feel about yourself. Um, when something fits, it’s just, it just feels like sunshine. I don’t know how else to put it.

Caroline: It’s true. You, kind of, glow a little bit more when you know your garment fits well, especially as a sewist.

Alexandra: Exactly.

Caroline: Yeah, no, I totally agree. And I think probably we have listeners that, that feel differently. I think we have, there’s so many different ways that you can approach sewing, and some people will care more about fitting and other people won’t. And I think as you move along in your sewing journey, maybe it’ll become a little bit more important. At the beginning, just making a garment is an accomplishment. And as you, kind of, move along in your sewing journey, it might become more important to have something that fits well and learn a little bit more about fitting and, kind of, discover the advantages of having a garment that fits well.

So we’re so excited to get into that topic with you today, Alexandra. And the first thing we want to mention is that you have a free fitting guide on your website that outlines your fitting process. So we’re going to make sure to link that in the show notes for our listeners, but can you just take us through your general fitting process?

Alexandra: Absolutely. So one of the things that I’ve found is that, um, just by teaching and even in my own experience, uh, fitting is, can be a real, really big emotional roller coaster. You know, when you start a sewing project, it always feels so exciting. You’ve got this beautiful fabric and this vision of what’s going to happen at the end. And then when you, kind of, run into fitting issues, um, kind of, all things stop, and you, sort of, sort of, lose that idea of the vision. So what I like to do, I, sort of, lessen that intensity of that roller coaster, that emotional roller coaster and put it in, sort of, a step-by-step form.

So the first step that, uh, I think you should always think about is take your body measurements and definitely choose your size from your body measurements. Now, when I say body measurements, I don’t necessarily mean your, uh, bust, your chest circumference, your waist circumference, your hip circumference. Those are definitely important, but I also want you to take measurements that are length measurements, like a really important one is the center back neck to waist measurement. These, kind of, help you put those, uh, levels of the, uh, of the body in the correct place for you. So to make sure that the chest or the bust level’s in the correct position where the waist level is, is in the right position and where the hip level is, is also really important. This puts the fitting of the garment in the right place. So take more than your bust or chest measurement and your waist and hip measurement. This will help you choose the size, but it doesn’t help you, um, kind of, complete the idea of how that garment is going to fit you, um, when it’s constructed.

Caroline: So interesting. Yeah. It’s not something that. We would traditionally think about, but it’s a great reminder to, kind of, take more measurements. And then do you then, kind of, compare that to the pattern itself?

Alexandra: Exactly. So that’s the next step is to measure the pattern and determine the ease in the pattern. Now I know that some patterns do have measurements written, like they have finished measurements which are great, but often they don’t have them all. So what I always suggest is, kind of, walk yourself through the pattern, spend a little time with the pattern, measure the pattern, and compare those pattern measurements for whatever size you chose to the body measurements that are supposed to be attributed for that size, so that you can understand how much ease is involved in that particular garment. And that, kind of, gives you an idea of the, the designer’s intent for that style. Is it going to be quite a bit loose fitting? Is it going to be snug fitting because of the amount of ease that’s there? So just, it, kind of, gives you a walkthrough of the designer’s intent for that style, if that makes sense.

Caroline: Yeah, it does. I wonder if you have, like, a, almost, like, a cheat sheet for what does a more tight fitting garment ease look like and what does a looser fitting garment ease look like? Is there a measurement that you, sort of, look for to determine fitting each?

Alexandra: Well, ease is a little bit tricky because it’s so personal. Um, there is general guidelines, for sure. Like, a snug fitting garment will be anywhere from zero to two inches of ease, kind of, semi-, semi-fitted would be between two and three. Um, most garments, like if you think about a basic block pattern, I always suggest that you have about three and a half to four inches of ease. And I’m sorry, I don’t have the centimeter equivalent to that on the top of my head. But, um, I usually do, but I don’t have it today, but so you just, kind of, want to have, sort of, this idea of a first, what the designer intended. And then when you know what that is, you have a better idea of what you will need for your garment on your body.

Helen: That makes so much sense. And, like, another thing that I’ve recommended to people in the past is to measure their clothes in their closet, too, because that can be another missing piece is maybe you’re not sure how much ease you actually do like, and in which case, you can try on some of your own garments and see how they fit in whether you like them and then measure those and see how much ease they have.

Alexandra: Absolutely. And as you, kind of, work through this, kind of, process, and you actually look at the patterns and you measure several types of patterns as you’re working, um, you will get to know what ease works for, what types of garments as well, you’ll know what you become comfortable with. Because like I said, it’s a very personal, personal thing.

Caroline: Awesome. Okay. So what would be the next step after you determined that fitting ease?

Alexandra: I always say, make your initial pattern adjustments. So initial pattern adjustments are the adjustments that you can make before you actually cut a sample. So I like to think of this as, sort of, preempting, at least, one sample because I know we don’t like to make a million samples all continually being in this sample making process. Um, so if you can, at all, kind of, figure out some of the adjustments that you can make to the pattern before you actually make a sample that you can test. It will, kind of, help you get a little bit closer at the outset.

Um, so some examples of initial pattern adjustments that you could make is, again, that waist length position, so that if you know the difference between the center back neck to waist of the pattern to what you need, you can make that change before you even sew a sample because you can make that measurement on the pattern.

Uh, another one is a cup size adjustment. Uh, if you know that the pattern that you’re working with is only available in a specific cup size, and you are not that cup size, you can make that before you sew. You already have that solved before you actually see it in the sample.

Caroline: Yeah. That’s a really good point. A fit adjustment that I often make to pants is just lengthening the rise right off the bat because I know that I usually need to do that. Um, so, but it makes so much sense to actually take those measurements to know for sure and really make it a little bit more accurate before you even sew your first sample. So, what’s next?

Alexandra: So the next one is then to cut and mark your sample. And when I say mark your sample, what I’m talking about there is, if at all possible, to mark your horizontal balance lines on your sample. So horizontal balance line is basically the crosswise grainline, but I like to put it at the level of the bust or chest, at the waist, and at the hip because this, kind of, tells you if those are going to align with those positions on your body. And I find it really helpful in creating, sort of, what we call a fitting grid so that you can actually see through by just, kind of, assessing where these lines are on your body where you need to add or remove length or where a contour issue might actually be on, on the garment because sometimes it’s difficult to diagnose, which we’ll see, um, in some of the photos that we’ll, we’ll be looking at today.

Caroline: Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. And you’re doing that on the flat fabric? Like, once you’ve cut out your sample, you kind of do that flat before you sew it up?

Alexandra: That’s correct.

Caroline: Yes. Okay. Right. Perfect.

Caroline: So the next step, of course, is to fit the samples that you’re going to ha-, sew up your sample and try it on, see how it looks. And I always suggest that you take fitting photos, especially. Most of us are on our own in our sewing rooms, and so these fitting photos, which you’ll see examples of, hopefully in the show notes, um, that, uh, if you do take a front, side, and back photo, you actually get to see yourself in the round, I like to say.

Because that way, um, you can view yourself, kind of, more objectively because when you’re standing in front of the mirror, it’s really easy to just only look at the front, right? Because that’s the part that we see. It’s very difficult to fit anything at the back because as soon as you turn and twist, everything changes. So that’s the reason I like to take fitting photos. And when, when you’re looking at your sample to be able to assess it yourself.

Just a warning though, about fitting photos, it does show often more issues than anybody will ever see. This has a tendency to, the camera really picks up those shadows and, and the drag lines. So we’ll always feel like it looks worse. So just a little tip there, don’t be overly concerned. Just, kind of, pick them away one step at a time which we’ll talk about in a bit.

Caroline: It’s so true. Especially when you’re using that, kind of, creamy colored muslin fabric. I feel like everything looks worse in muslin.

Alexandra: Absolutely, it does. It’s a fact, it does.

Caroline: Okay. So you’ve, kind of, looked at your sample on your body, taken pictures, and, kind of, determined what fitting adjustments you need to make. So what is the next step after that?

Alexandra: So the, the last step that I always say is, always go back to your pattern and then refine the fit. So whatever you discover on the sample that you’ve created, go back to fix your pattern with the adjustments that you think are necessary, and that’s going to help you kind of refine the fit over time if you need to. So, for instance, if you only want to make one or maybe two samples and like at sample number two, you’re like, this is pretty good. I’m totally okay with this. Adjust your pattern anyway because then when you go back to use that pattern again, hopefully, you can tweak something that maybe you want it to fix, but was okay, right?

So you can always keep that as a block or a basis for improving the fit of that particular garment. And when you get to a really good point where you’re totally happy with the fit, then you can actually use that particular pattern as a basis for creating other styles and other styles that you create from that pattern become automatically fitting you because you’re already starting with something that fits.

Caroline: Yeah. We know all about that. We love, we call it hacking pattern. So taking a pattern and, kind of, changing it up, adding different style lines or different details. Um, and it makes so much sense that once you get that pattern that fits perfectly, that you would then use it as the basis for other ones.

Alexandra: Yeah, I really highly recommend it because it’s so satisfying to, on the first sample that you created, fits and you feel good in it.

Caroline: Yeah. Yeah. So can you talk to us a little bit more about fitting order? Because I know this is a really important component to the process for you.

Alexandra: It absolutely is. And it’s the number one question I get is: what order do I make these adjustments in? So I want to start by first saying that when you are fitting tops, dresses, or jackets, you’re always going to start at the top of the garment and move down because fitting issues have this, what we call a, cascading effect, meaning that if you correct something at the neck, likely everything below it is going to change.

So if you start at the bottom, one of the one, kind of, big, I would call it a big mistake that people start with this is as soon as people see those, kind of, drag lines or that pooling fabric at their back waist, they automatically want to make a, uh, what they call a sway back adjustment. So I would suggest that you don’t start there because it’s really easy to jump to the most offending wrinkles, but if you start at the top of the garment and move down, those things might disappear as you start working.

Caroline: Oh, wow. That’s so interesting. And then what about for bottoms, like skirts or pants? Is there a particular order or is that, kind of, the same deal?

Alexandra: Yes. So pants are just only slightly different. With pants, you want to make length adjustments from the floor up. So this is because pants are, kind of, anchored by the crotch, right? The crotch level or that, that inseam measurement. And so if you change the length of pants from the bottom up, you’ll at least get all of those positions where the knee position is, where the thigh position is, where the crotch level is, where the hip level is. Those will all be in the right place.

And then from there you can make any other adjustments from the waistline down. So girth adjustments, if you need to increase or decrease the waist girth, for instance, you would start there and then move down the pant from that point. So there are some, uh, specific order of the adjustments that I want to talk about too.

Caroline: Perfect.

Helen: Great.

Caroline: So that’s going to be: first, solving all of your length adjustments first. So that’s just like I just spoke about with the pant length adjustments, then contour adjustments, and then you’re going to do width and then girth. And I want to explain what each of these mean because it, kind of, is, might be new language for everyone. So I always say girth comes last because it’s assumed that you’ve already chosen the correct size to begin with, okay? So just keep that in mind.

So, the first thing you’re going to do is change the length because length adjustments solve for your figure proportion. So what happens is they put the darts and the shaping in the garment in the correct level for your body, so that they address the shape of your body. And, um, these adjustments are usually made equally to the front and back. So if you make a length adjustments, for instance, if you raise the waistline on, on a dress, you want to make that the same on the front and back so that your side seams will continue to match. So that’s an example of length adjustments.

Okay. So, the second one is contour adjustments. These solve for the prominence of the curvy parts and always involve dart shaping. These can be visible or invisible darts, and invisible darts are those, kind of, shaping that you find in seams. Contour adjustments always change the width and length of the pattern and also increase or decrease the dart volume. So a really good example of this is a cup size adjustment.

Now, width is going to come next, and these adjustments always solve for the width of the body and are, kind of, try to accommodate the structure, your skeletal structure. So what that means is, uh, it could be a shoulder width adjustment or perhaps a cross front or a cross back adjustment will change the width of the pattern.

And of course, the last one, which should, everyone will be familiar with is really just changing the circumference or the amount of ease in a garment. And again, these are usually made equally on the front and back and usually at the side seam. Uh, so that just, kind of, makes the garment a little bit more slim fitting or looser, however you like it.

So that’s the order that I think is really important to work in length, contour, width, and then girth.

Helen: Amazing. That’s an awesome process. I know our listeners are probably very excited to hear that and have a little bit more direction with their fitting. And I like that you pointed out that girth comes last because in my experience with designing sewing patterns, we like to put in little fitting checkpoints, and we are usually changing girth at that point. It’s like, now’s a good time to take in the side seam if you want to. But beyond that, at that point where it’s cut out, there’s not a whole lot else you can do. You do need to go back to the fitting process that Alexandra outlined and change the pattern and then proceed from there.

Alexandra: Yeah, absolutely. So there is one, a couple other things that I just quickly wanted to mention that I think is really important. It’s, kind of, a little bit, uh, it might change your perspective a little bit. So, what I want to say is that when fitting, what you need to do is really think of it as negative space and measurement distribution. So, when I say negative space, what you’re, what you, you’re fitting, you’re actually fitting, uh, the inside of the garment to fit your body shape. So, the negative space is the space inside the garment that your body occupies. So, if you think about it in that terms, you’re trying to create this outward shell to match your body shape. Now, measurement distribution comes into play because it, kind of, segments, uh, a linear measurement.

So, an example of a measurement distribution would be this. If you and I have the same hip girth measurement, for example, let’s say it’s 40 inches. If you put your tape measure in a circle at that 40 inch mark, that tape measure can take any shape, right? So imagine this circle, this tape measure in a circle, you can actually, kind of, mold it into whatever shape you want. So, what’s important is where the measurement liesl, and it’s that distribution of measurement that creates the shape that you need for your personal body. So, also think about fitting in terms of negative space and measurement distribution.

Caroline: Amazing. Okay. So does that, kind of, cover everything that you would like to touch on before we move on to the most exciting part of this episode?

Alexandra: Yeah. Sorry. That was a lot of preamble, but…

Caroline: No, it was great.

Alexandra: Yeah. I just, kind of, wanted to set the stage because we will be going through the images in, kind of, this very, very similar way.

Caroline: Amazing. Yeah, I know our listeners are so excited to get your expert fitting advice, and we got some great submissions complete with photos of the garments that our listeners need help with. So we’re going to be describing the photos for everyone here on the podcast, but we will also have them in our show notes. So if you’d like to see the pictures while we’re talking or afterwards, you can go to lovetosewpodcast.com and click on the post for Episode 197. And yeah, let’s get started.

Helen: Alright, so Em wrote, “I attempted a bodice block, which is in the pictures enclosed. I see a lot of drag lines, but not sure how to correct them. Also, the fabric is stiffer cotton than I would choose for a final garment.”

Caroline: Awesome. Okay. Thank you for these fitting photos, Em. So, these pictures are of Em in a white, long sleeve woven shirt with a v-neck line, and the fabric does look pretty stiff. It looks like it might be a muslin fabric, aand there are darts in the front chest and waist and the back waist. And it looks like there’s excess fabric under the chest and at the curve of the back. There are drag lines going up towards the shoulders from under the arms, and the armscye hanging off the curve of the shoulder.

So, Alexandra, tell us your thoughts. How would you fix these issues?

Alexandra: Excellent. Okay. So now I just want to say that this is actually a really good first sample and is a really good example of having several issues occurring all at once. And when they all occur at once, it really makes identifying the issues confusing. So what I suggest that we do is we, kind of, methodically work through that fitting process that we just went through.

So, the first one I would like to talk about is perhaps the length. And to me, it, sort of, seems that the bodice length is just a little bit too long for you. And the reason I say that is because I can see that there are sort of horizontal wrinkles that are, kind of, showing at the sides of the garment.

So, when you have length issues, uh, what you want to do is sort of assess where that excess length may be coming from. So, what you’re going to do starting at the top of the garment is, kind of, assess if the bust level or the chest level, the darts, are pointing in the correct position, which to me, it appears that they are. So, that tells me that the length issue probably is occurring below that level.

So, I would suggest that perhaps, maybe raising the waistline to a little bit higher level on your body. Now, this is where, sort of, some personal idea of where you want that waistline to sit might come into play. So making that adjustment to the waist length, I would again, make it both front and back in then the equivalent amount. I don’t know how much you can just pin it up and see where it feels comfortable.

But if you want the waist level to sit where it is right now on this sample, you may need to actually consider increasing the girth of the waistline. And I say that so that the wrinkles will actually drop and fall away. When you increase the girth of the waist, you will end up, kind of, allowing the whole garment to, sort of, drop a little bit lower on your waist. But I think it needs to come up a little bit. So you can make that decision, by all means, on your own.

The next thing I would like to, sort of, maybe assess is contour issues. So, what I see here happening is perhaps a difference in the shoulder slope of the pattern compared to yours. So, whenever I see, sort of, diagonal wrinkles that run from the neck point to, sort of, pointing to, sort of, the underarm area on both the front and back. I really think that it really is a shoulder slope issue, meaning that you need to increase the slope of the shoulder line of the pattern so that you can pick up that fabric and remove those diagonal wrinkles.

So, what I would suggest you do is simply remove the sleeve. It’ll be easier to, sort of, determine how much you need to bring it up when the sleeve is not there. And quite honestly, I feel like your sleeve fits very well. So, uh, I think I’d like you to keep the sleeve as is, which means that if you pick up that shoulder line of the seam line there, you’ll probably have to drop your arm hole a little bit. And I’ve actually given you a little sketch that shows you how to do that, a little pattern alteration sketch, which I think Caroline and Helen will put in the show notes there for you. Um, I think that’s going to really, really pick things up for you.

Caroline: Yes, we have, um, this adjustment that we’re definitely going to include in the show notes for you, Em. This is so helpful, and it’s so great. I really encourage our listeners to look at the photos, if you can, while Alexandra is walking through these adjustments cause you can really visualize what she’s talking about. Um, but yeah, it sounds like these adjustments might fix some of these issues for Em.

Alexandra: Yeah. There is one more that I would just suggest if we actually go through the width here, it does look like the shoulders a little bit wide for you. So you might want to bring those in a little bit. I almost always suggest that you test this though with the sleeve back in because sometimes you need more ease across the shoulder, then you actually, um, you know, by measurement you might think it’s okay, but in order to move your arms, you need a little bit more, so assess that, kind of, last.

Caroline: And Alexandra, would you make all of these adjustments, kind of, all in a row and then make another sample? Or would you do one at a time?

Alexandra: Well, it’s kind of up to you. So, what I like to do is use the sample for as long as I can. So, what I would do is make that first adjustment for that length adjustment to raise the waistline. You can just pin it up on this sample to begin with to see if that’s going to work for you, if you like that. And then, you can probably, if you remove the sleeves on this sample and then raise up that shoulder line, you’ll probably be able to tell if that’s working. Now, since you have to lower the arm hole, that means you’re going to have to do a little bit bigger adjustment. So, at that point, I might change my pattern and make a new sample. Um, so it’s kind of, you, you want to keep track of the adjustments that you’re making and always go back to your pattern and to see if that adjustment is actually possible the way you intend to do it on, on your pattern and the result that you’re going to get on your sample.

Caroline: Okay, fabulous. That sounds great. I think, are we ready to move on to Eve’s question?

Alexandra: So the only other one thing I wanted to say about Em was just, going back to girth, since we’re doing everything in order. So, just review again, the girth of the, of the waistline to, if you wanted to keep that waistline in this position, then you may not need to, to release it. And there’s just one other thing. You can actually raise the dart points in the back of the garment a little bit. It will actually clean up some of the excess width you have in, in the back as well.

And I just want to also make a note a little bit about asymmetry. You always can, sort of, see asymmetry in a garment when the wrinkles appear differently on one side of the body than the other. And I always say, don’t worry overly much about asymmetries in your garment because when you try to tackle them and make them exactly to follow your body’s asymmetries, often it will actually draw more attention to it. And also it makes sewing and pattern making a lot harder. So I always say, if you can all avoid, kind of, worrying about these asymmetries in the garment, kind of, let it be because we all have wrinkles when we wear garments, when you’re moving around, and actually, you know, living life, it’s okay for your garment to have wrinkles.

Caroline: That’s so comforting.

Alexandra: And coming from me, no one will believe that.

Helen: That’s a great reminder. Um, I always have to remind myself of that when I’m assessing my own fitting issues. I’m like, is this a real problem? Or just what I’m seeing in the mirror?

Alexandra: Yeah, exactly. Um, cause sometimes we do take it too far, and we call that over fitting.

Helen: Alright, our next question is from Eve, “Hello, Alexandra, my fitting issues are many. This is my first sewing project.”

Congratulations, Eve!

“And it is a camisole. It fits me like a bag. The bust dart point is way off. It gapes at the neck. I have drag lines at the side. I can’t get the strap placement right, they slip off my arms. I am not ready to give up yet, but I am quite frustrated. Do I need to move on to another first project? Or should I stick with this one and keep trying? What do you suggest?”

Caroline: So these photos show Eve in a white satin camisole with wide straps and chest darts, and there’s definitely some fabric bunching at the curve of the back, and the darts are pointing out at the sides instead of laying smooth over the chest. So I am dying to know how you would fix these issues, Alexandra. Walk us through it.

Alexandra: Yeah. So Eve, welcome to garment sewing. I totally hear you about the frustration point. Um, but I’m glad you are not ready to give up because your first project is going to be your best learning opportunity. And hopefully, I can help you here, um, with some of the suggestions that I have.

So first, if we look at the length, um, so you mentioned that the dart position or dart position point is too high. So you’ve already identified, uh, that the dart point is just not sitting in the correct position for you. So this usually will mean that the bust or the chest level is just too high for you. So what I suggest you do is maybe lengthen the straps until the dart point is sitting in the correct position for you. So whatever you assess that to be, that’s fine. Just make a decision.

If the neckline becomes too low for your comfort, what this means is that you’ll probably need to add length to the bodice above the bust line. Um, not just lengthen the straps. Um, what you’ll want to do is take a note of how much you’ve lengthened the straps and then make this change to the front and back bodice length instead. And I have also given you a little sketch that you can work from. I have two options there for you actually. Now when you do this, your entire garment will drop to a lower point on your body, and you’ll likely find that there’ll be less neckline gape and, uh, fewer wrinkles at the side of the bust. So that’s the first one, that I’d suggest.

The next one I want you to do after you make that adjustment is I want you to consider, uh, the cup size. So I’m not sure if you have made a cup size adjustment or not. Um, but assess whether that’s something that you’re going to need. And how you’re going to assess that is if you still have these diagonal wrinkles at the side, after that bust start is in the correct position and if you still have that little bit of pooling at the back waist, these are classic signs of needing a larger cup size in, in the garment. So assess that. And if there is that problem, then consider if you need to maybe go up a cup size for your pattern.

Um, the next one would be your strap position cause you did mention that they, they are slipping off of your shoulders. So it is very likely that once you correct this, uh, the dart position, and if you need a cup size adjustment, that’s going to change how your straps are gonna fit. So that’s something that you’ll just need to assess after those, those adjustments. And again, I also think any girth adjustments will, will come to light because you know that a cup size adjustment will change the width of the garment which will ultimately change the girth. So, um, it’s something that’s gonna adjust, and you’ll have to assess on your next sample.

Caroline: Okay. So it sounds like these are going to help Eve quite a bit. Do you have any other thoughts or advice for Eve as they walk through this process?

Alexandra: Um, I think, uh, once you, once you put those things in, in the correct place, you’re going to, your garment is going to change, like, how it fits is going to dramatically change. So once you do at least that, uh, putting the dar point position in the correct place and perhaps doing a cup size adjustment, you’ll probably find that it’s probably gonna fit a lot better. Just those two adjustments.

So that’s one other thing that I can say is that often when we look at a garment, we think that there’s going to be a million things to do. Um, but sometimes it could be one or just two adjustments that, kind of, put everything in the right place.

Caroline: Yeah. Yeah. That’s so true. Awesome. Okay. Let’s move on. We have a question from Lisa.

Helen: Lisa says, ”This top is the Glenelly Top from Itch to Stitch. It has a beautiful square neckline and raglan sleeves. It fits perfectly at the front, but the back is too big at the neckline. I don’t want a center back seam, and I don’t know if I need a small shoulder adjustment. I have a 3″ difference between my high bust and full bust. Can you help?”

Caroline: Alright, Lisa, this is exciting because we have our first knit garment of the day. So these photos are of Lisa in a white t-shirt with a square neckline and short raglan sleeves. And as I mentioned, it’s made in a knit fabric, and there’s extra fabric hanging at the back neckline. It looks a little bit like a cowl neck at the back, and there are drag lines going from under the shoulders that point to the neck. And there’s some fabric bunching at the small of the back. So Alexandra, how would you work on these fit issues?

Alexandra: So t-shirts are definitely be challenging because of the stretch in the fabric takes the place of darts and fitting seams. So what the designer intends to do is, sort of, um, eliminate all of those fitting elements and rely on the stretch in the fabric to create the fit. So when you get a raglan sleeve style like this, there’s usually, um, a dart in the shoulder line of a raglan sleeve, and this is eliminated in knits.

So what I see here is a shoulder slope issue. Now this is probably something that you’ve never even considered, but what can happen when the shoulder slope is too steep for you, in other words, it’s too angled. It can actually cause the neckline to sit up high around your neckline. So I suspect that this is what’s causing this, this issue that you have at the back neckline area. So I have actually given you a illustration of how to solve this, um, because it’s not, kind of, intuitive.

Um, so there’s a couple of illustrations, or options of illustrations, to correct the shoulder slope, um, for your sample. I would start there first and make another sample and see if that’s, uh, gonna solve the issue for you that you’re seeing. Now I do want to, uh, you did mention that you, your cup size, um, is, calculates actually to a C cup, uh, in the sewing world. So, um, you might want to just double check to see if that cup size is working for you. And the only reason I suggest this is because I can see that there’s some tension across the chest and some pooling at the back waist there.

And as I said, this is really a classic sign of needing a cup size adjustment, when you see sort of these diagonal draglines at the side of the bust, pooling at the back waist, and, sort of, tightness across the front chest area. This is, kind of, classic signs. So just double-check and see if perhaps a cup size adjustment might be, um, advantageous for you. And then, of course, the girth will change when you make that cup size adjustment. So you’ll just want to assess if that’s still working for you.

Caroline: Okay. Interesting. So the, the pooling at the back is potentially related to the cup size, and once that adjustment is made, if they’re still pooling at the back, do you have any recommendations on how to fix that? Or is that just, kind of, a natural thing that t-shirts tend to do?

Alexandra: T-shirts do tend to do this because there are no, um, kind of, fitting lines at the back, and we’re, all, almost always have that curvature in our back, right? So it does tend to create it, but I always consider this, I call it a balance issue.

So a balance issue is when the front isn’t long enough for the back. So if you think about a, um, the scales where you have the two weights on either side. One side of the garment is not long enough. So if the front were longer, the back would swing toward the back and the side seam would also swing toward the back.

And when that happens, the back hem of the garment doesn’t sit up against your bum and doesn’t crawl up your back because it’s, there’s just too much tension across the back. Almost always, it’s this type of balance issue. That’s the problem. I do have, um, uh, a video that I talked about, garment balance, um, I dunno. I’ll try to, try to, um, pass along to you guys.

Caroline: Perfect. Yeah. If you can find that we’ll, we’ll definitely include that in the show notes. So do you have any other thoughts for Lisa before we move on?

Alexandra: I think, in general, like, the girth measurements that look really good. I know. I think that you may have suggested that you thought maybe you needed a, uh, is it a wider shoulder or narrow shoulder adjustment? Um, this is something that, uh, you can definitely assess this after you make that shoulder slope adjustment. Everything is going to change when you shoulder slope adjustment.

Caroline: Perfect. Okay, great. Well, good luck, Lisa. And our next question is from Erin.

Helen: Erin writes, “I’ve got some tricky pants draglines I need help with. The photos attached are Anna Allen Persephone pants. Basically, it looks like a vacuum is sucking my back crotch curve through towards the front. I always seem to have excess fabric coming from the bottom of the crotch curve up toward my hip and waist. I have tried flat seat adjustments, extending crotch curves, knock knee/full thigh adjustments, scooping for a low butt. Nothing has fixed it yet. I did recently came across a full thigh adjustment from Colette that doesn’t lengthen the crotch curve. I haven’t had a chance to try that yet. Maybe that’s the solution? Please help! PS – my crotch curves feel like they’re the right length when I’m wearing them, but maybe they aren’t though? I don’t know!”

Caroline: This is so relatable. It’s like, I can, I can feel the stress of pants fitting from this email. Um, okay. So these pictures are of Erin wearing pants in a denim, it’s kinda like a railroad stripe denim, and the pants are closely fitted through the waist and hips with wide legs, and they close with a button and zip fly and have darts only in the back. I think Erin described the issue pretty well in their email. The fabric at the back crotch is, sort of, bunching up. So yeah, I can’t wait to hear what you think of this one, Alexandra.

Alexandra: I was so excited to see this one. I actually saw this one on Instagram first, and I actually asked her to send it in because it is such a good example of this, this issue that I’m hoping, Erin, that this will solve it for you. So, first of all, Erin, I think you’ve actually achieved a really good fit considering that this particular pattern doesn’t have side seams. So when you take out a side seam, you take out a fitting seam. So a way of actually reducing the waist girth, the transition from that hip to the waist, um, at the side seam, so it becomes straight.

So all of the fitting has to be done through the center front and center back seam as well as, uh, there is one dart there in the back. So that’s a lot of fitting to do in just those two seams. So that’s one of the things. So it’s the angle of the center back seam that is actually causing, I think, this bunching look that you’re seeing because I can tell from your email that you’ve tried everything else. So I do have some suggestions for you here.

Actually, I do want to point out another thing. I just see this in my notes that I’ll bet, Erin, if you were to stand with your feet kind of wide apart, I bet you those wrinkles would go away. So if you were to stand in a wide leg stance, a bunch of those will, kind of, all release on the front ones, which are actually, you’ve achieved a very good fit on the front, considering how angled the center front seam is. Um, so I would actually leave the front as is, I think you’ve achieved something very, you know, very, very good for how angled that center front seam is.

But, at the back, what I suggest you do is reduce the angle of the center back seam either by introducing a second dart to the back or possibly increasing the volume of that original dart. Um, because what will happen is you’ll allow the fabric to come away from the center back, but you can take up the excess that you add at center back with that dart. So you’re actually giving a little bit more fitting duty to the darts instead of all at the center back. And I have a feeling that those wrinkles will really, sort of, dissipate a little bit, um, when you do that, now,

This is very typical of jeans fitting to have a lot of fitting in the center back seam, so it’s not a problem with the pattern. The pattern is perfectly fine. It’s just the transition that the pattern needs to make from your hip to your waist, um, is, it’s just too much for that one seam to handle, um, in terms of all the fittings. So adding another dart is gonna I think, make it beautiful and maybe increasing the size of the other dart. I do have a image that I show you which is keeping just the single dart and just increasing its volume, but you can definitely add a secondary dart, um, if you feel like you want to improve the fit of the back there even more.

Caroline: Excellent. Thank you. And yeah, Helen and I were looking at these photos when we were prepping, and totally I’m totally in agreement that I think, Erin, these look great considering there’s no side seam in these pants. And we were, kind of, like, they’re not that bad. Like, I wouldn’t feel terribly bothered with this fit in pants. So with these small adjustments, hopefully you’ll be really happy with them, Erin.

Alexandra: Yes. I hope so, too. Because like I said, they, they you’ve achieved something really, really good again, without the side seam. When, they’re, the less fitting opportunities you have, the more you have to, sort of, allow yourself the okayness of there being some wrinkles because that’s just the, the way the fabric has to hang on your body with those particular fitting pieces there.

Helen: Uh, this is so interesting. I’m so enjoying listening to you talk about these adjustments and especially just the correlation between different areas of the garment because looking at these pictures, you might think the adjustment needs to happen on that lower crotch curve or on that thigh inseam. But in actuality, it’s up at the top of the waist and in that dart, and it’s so cool to realize that other areas of the garment, kind of, cascade down, as you were saying at the beginning of the episode, and affect the areas that you’re actually seeing the issue on. Very cool to learn about.

Alexandra: Yeah. And actually, the other reason I love that Erin sent this photo in is because it, she also has a stripe style which also gives you an idea about, um, that the vertical balance lines of, on a pattern. Um, so you can actually see, physically see, when you look at the photograph, how angled that center back and center front seam is because the stripe is really pitching in toward the center front and center back.

Anyway, so that’s, that’s just something that I think is really, and also you actually see even the, uh, kind of, the curvature that, uh, the side with the grainline of the fabric is taking out the side seam. So it’s really a great study and, in kind, of that relationship.

Helen: Mhm, totally. Alright, well, we’ve got more pants coming up. Next, we have Amy who says, “I’m sending views from my Mountain View jeans muslin. I’ve used a stretch denim as required in the pattern and also used vertical and horizontal lines for fitting as recommended in some of Alexandra’s videos. I’m concerned about the drag lines at the crotch on the front and now that I’m looking, perhaps the back doesn’t fit so well either. I didn’t do a full tummy adjustment cause the stretch denim seems to accommodate my tummy bulge and is not uncomfortable. What am I doing wrong?”

Caroline: Alright. So these pictures are of Amy wearing close-fitting, stretch jeans that are cut off above the knee. And they’re pull on jeans with no closures. There are drag lines radiating horizontally from the crotch, and there’s some extra fabric at the back of the pants under the rear. So Alexandra, how would you correct these issues?

Alexandra: Okay. So again, thanks Amy, for, for sending these in. This is a really good example of, kind of, sharing, kind of, a different concept that’s probably not covered in a lot of fitting books. So what I think is happening at the front there, Amy, is that I think that the crotch level is not high enough for you. So, this, in the reverse, is basically the front crotch seam is too long for you. What I would suggest you do is actually shift that front crotch point up so that it sits higher and closer to your body at the front.

Now it might not feel like it’s low, but because the entire seam line length from front to back might feel okay. But I think that that front crotch point needs to come up to get, sort of, shorten the front rise and reduce the amount of wrinkles there. I think that you are right, that, that the stretch in the fabric is definitely accommodating your tummy. That’s something again that you can assess after you move that crotch point up. And again, I think I have an illustration here available for you, too, cause I know it’s this, this alteration is a little bit, um, probably new to a lot of people.

Uh, so that basically means is that your front rise is too long. I want you to, to bring that up a little bit. Now, when you bring that up, it’s going to make your front inseam of the pant longer than the back which is normal. So you want it to be about three-eighths of an inch for most, kind of, standard pants. So in other words, the back inseam is going to be shorter than the front end seam to the knee level by about three-eighths of an inch. Now in jeans, what tends to happen is you likely need more than that. So if, even if it’s shorter by an inch, you can probably still accommodate that.

So you don’t need to make any change to the back as long as you’re within that range of three-eighths to one inch shorter than the front inseam to the knee level. Does that make sense?

Helen: Yes. This is a great example of where notching is important. We talk on the podcast about notching a lot, and of course, the temptation to skip notches is always high, but when you’re sewing pants, you need that notch inseam because it tells you where you’re going to need to start easing in that fabric, and you want it to be in between those notches. So if you’re not sure, mark your notches because they can be very helpful in certain cases.

Alexandra: Absolutely. I’m a big fan of notches. So that is the one adjustment I would suggest, and that’s going to probably solve for your friend. And as I said, I don’t think that the tummy that you’re talking about is any issue at all. I think that the fabric has probably accommodated for it. What can happen though that might create these wrinkles at the front, too, is if the fabric is, is quite stretchy, what might happen is that the stretchiness, the lengthwise stretch in, in the front rise. It’s going to, kind of, pool under, under your tummy area. So again, that’s still a too long front, front rise. So that adjustment that we talked about should still be okay.

Now, the other thing, cause you did mention the back a little bit and I feel like possibly we can, um, improve this a little bit for you. I want you to, sort of, review the crotch curve shape.

What you want to do is sort of put the front and back pant legs together at the inseam and make sure that you have a really nice smooth curve that’s transitioning through that inseam, and make sure that’s working. Now, after you do that what I want you to try doing is possibly giving yourself a little bit more negative space in the back crotch. Now I have supplied an illustration for this because this is really, kind of, difficult to, um, to explain in words. Um, but basically what I want you to try is try removing fabric from the center back seam and adding it to the side seam.

And I’ve showed you how to do that in, in the illustration because what I’m seeing is that the wrinkles that you’re having, kind of, under your bum are, kind of, pointing to your outside hip area. So that’s, kind of, telling me that perhaps you need more fabric on the side and less in the center. Now, when you remove fabric from the center back seam on jeans, you’re actually making your crotch extension greater because you’re creating more space there. And the illustration that I’ve provided, I’ve also given you, kind of, a dotted line that shows you where the original pattern might’ve been and where your new alteration will take that pattern. So I think it’ll be clearer, um, in, in the image.

Caroline: Yeah.

Alexandra: What do you think?

Caroline: These images are so, so helpful when you’re walking through these adjustments and I have not heard of that adjustment of moving that volume from the center to the side seam, but it makes so much sense. And I, kind of, want to have updates on these fitting issues and hear back from listeners and see pictures of them after because it’s so cool to hear you walk through all of these adjustments.

Alexandra: Yes. I was thinking the same thing. So, um, hopefully what I’m offering in terms of suggestions is going to be helpful cause I, yeah, I would absolutely love to see the results of the changes if they’re made so.

Caroline: Well, if we ever get any follow-up images, we’ll be sure to share them with you, Alexandra, and maybe, um, with our listeners with permission as well.

Alexandra: Yeah, that would be great. So the only other thing, Amy, I would say is just, double-check your overall total crotch length, so from center front to center back through the legs and just compare that to the pattern because that’ll also give you an idea if you need to possibly maybe scoop the back crotch curve a little bit lower, um, that might also give you a little bit more, um, negative space in that crotch curve area as well. So just something to think about. It might be an additional thing that you might want to try.

Caroline: Okay. Fabulous. Thanks, Alexandra. And thanks Amy for sending in these photos. So we have one last pants fitting question to round out this episode.

Helen: Yes. This one comes from Tina, “Thank you so much for this opportunity to share a troublesome fitting issue with your subscribers. I suspect that you will be flooded with pants photos…”

You’re not wrong, Tina.

“Here are mine. I have tried many methods for getting pants to play nicely with my generous bottom; I hope to find a new strategy here.”

Thank you for sending in your fitting photos, Tina.

Caroline: Yes. So in these pictures Tina’s wearing a gray straight-leg pants in a non-stretch fabric. It looks like they have slash pockets in the front, patch pockets in the back, and they close with a button and zipper fly. So there are some drag lines going from the middle of the waist to the outer seam at the hips. And there’s extra fabric pooling at the back under the rear, making drag lines that go from the outer seam at the hips to the knees at the inseam. So I’m very curious to know how you would crack these issues, Alexandra.

Alexandra: Okay. So Tina, you’ve done a really great job actually, but you’re actually really close to a good fit here. So for you, I think your length, um, problems or issues were all solved. I don’t think there’s any issues there. So I would say that most of the pant fitting issues that you have are contour issues.

Um, so we’ll first start with this idea of measurement distribution. So what I’d like you to take a look at is the angle of your center front seam because we see that, sort of, diagonal, kind of, dragline or wrinkle that’s going from, you know, the waistline or the center front area toward the sides of your hips, sort of, thing. So it’s possible that you may need to make a straighter center front line on your, on your pant. This will actually give you a little bit more ease in the tummy area without actually having to do, like, a tummy adjustment or anything like that.

I’d also like you to just double check to make sure the, the side shaping in the high hip area is actually following you because that’s one area that we often forget. We have a hip measurement, and we have a waist measurement, but we often forget about what’s happening in between in terms of the shape of our body or the silhouette of our body. So just double check that area and see if you can adjust things in that area. I have a feeling that some of the wrinkles will disappear there.

Now I think that there is a little bit of fullness at the front crotch area. So what I would suggest you do is possibly remove some measurement from the crotch extension at the front and add it back at the side seam. And again, I have an illustration that, sort of, describes this or shows how to do this. And it’s basically, you’re going to cut a box around that front crotch extension corner and shift it in toward the outside of your body, and then, the side seam area, you’re going to shift it out. So, you’re going to just basically change the distribution of the fabric in the front part of the pant. Does that make sense?

Caroline: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And looking at the visual photo of Tina here, I can totally see what you’re talking about, so that is a great suggestion. Thank you.

Alexandra: Okay. So, basically what will happen at that, it will probably just rearrange the fabric a little bit differently on the front there. Now the last one that I have for you is similar to what I suggested with Amy. I feel like perhaps you need a little bit more negative crotch curve space. So, again, it’s a matter of removing fabric from the center back and adding it at the side seam. So it’s really just a shift in the upper part of, of the pant so that you can alleviate those wrinkles that are coming, kind of, from the inside inner part of the knee and extending up to the outside of your hip. So again, it’s really a distribution of the fabric in a different way on your body. And so it’s, again, it’s a distribution of measurement and again, that illustration is also included. So I think that will probably be pretty clear to you.

Um, but like I said, when you have pants and you like the thigh girth, there, really the only way that you can, um, kind of, change the distribution of measurement around that area is to shift the fabric from the center back and add it to the side. Or the other option, of course, is to increase what I call the wedge in, in the back pant leg. But I don’t think that your wedge needs to be larger at all. I think it’s just a distribution of a little bit more fabric at the side and less at the center.

Caroline: Alright. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Do you have any final thoughts for Tina?

Alexandra: Um, I think that those adjustments are probably going to solve what you have here. So, um, uh, I hope that works. I really do.

Caroline: Yeah, me too. Okay. Well that wraps up our fitting photos and suggested, uh, adjustments for the episode.

Helen: Yes. Before we let you go, I have a question that’s related to just all of the fields that go along with fitting, and we were wondering if you had any tips on how to be kind to ourselves when we’re faced with fitting issues.

Alexandra: Oh, my goodness. Um, what I have found quite honestly, is that with myself, because I’ve always been really hard on myself. I grew up in the eighties when supermodels started, right? So you’re constantly comparing yourself to something outside of yourself. And what I found as I’ve aged, is that, and, and that’s another thing that happens as you age, your body changes even more and you’re even, it feels like you’re further away from what I ever ideal is supposed to be out there.

But I feel like, as I’ve started to really take fitting photos and understand my body in terms of its silhouette, its shape and, and being able to build garments that actually, um, I feel good in, and, and I feel like, look good on me. Um, your whole mindset, sort of, changes you get used to seeing your body, not someone else’s, and you start comparing, uh, clothing to what you feel looks good on you, not comparing yourself to, oh, that looks great on that person who has, you know, a shape that is nothing like my own. So I find that you, sort of, get comfortable by showing yourself to yourself. If that makes any sense.

Helen: Yes, it’s something we may not have a lot of practice in. And for beginners, I know it can be really challenging and daunting, as well, because not only do you have to face some things that maybe you’re not used to facing, but also, there’s a lot of knowledge that you need to gain through the practice of fitting. So it can be a long road but also a very rewarding one.

Alexandra: It really is. I, I feel like it’s really changed, it really helped me accept, accept what I have, what I, what I create for myself because again, it’s an image that I’m seeing of myself. And so when I’m looking at clothing, I already have an image of myself in my mind, not of some, um, you know, unrealistic, ideal that, that, you know, society or magazines or whatever has put into my mind. It’s, it’s actually me, instead of some ideal.

Caroline: Yeah. So many parts of sewing allow us to know ourselves better, get to know our own preferences with fit and clothes and just, yeah, just, kind of, as a self discovery process, so that makes a lot of sense. And this has been so helpful, Alexandra, before you go, we’d like to ask you one more thing and that is, if you could share one piece of advice for our listeners who are struggling with fitting, what would that be?

Alexandra: Let me see, I had, like, three little notes here, but…

Helen: Three is good.

Alexandra: I said, I think one of the most important things is, is to, sort of, again, just talking about, um, understanding your own fitting needs, you know, do, just take some photos like a front, side, and back photo and sort of just take a look at your shape and see where your curves are located. See the balance of your body and, sort of, understand that, that the pattern is never going to be exactly right for you. You’re going to have to create that yourself. So understanding the, the model that you’re working with, is going to be so, so helpful.

And I would say that once you understand that, spend some time with the pattern that you want to work with, because the pattern, again, gives you a clue as to the designer’s intent in terms of, you know, how it’s, it’s supposed to fit, how it’s supposed to hang. You can absolutely change that. But if you understand the intent first, it makes it easier to know what to do for yourself. So that’s what I would say about that.

And then honestly, make initial pattern adjustments, if you can. So anything that you, kind of, are absolutely sure about that, you know you have to do, just do them ahead of time because it’s going to, not only quicken the process, it’s going to quicken that, that fitting process, but you won’t be, kind of, in this, uh, tailspin of, of constantly making samples which we can very easily get into.

And then I always say, if you can find them at all, uh, draw those balance lines on your pattern. They don’t have to be at the bust, waist, and hip. They can be at just the, the grainline of the pattern. So the vertical and the horizontal grainline of the pattern will still give you clues. It’s, consider it a fitting grid that will help you, sort of, isolate the areas that you need to work on.

Caroline: Amazing. Thank you so much, Alexandra. Tell our listeners where they can find you online.

Alexandra: Yes, you can find me at inhousepatternstudio.com. There’s tons of free fitting and pattern making tutorials there already. You’ll also get, um, kind of, introduction into any of the courses that you might be interested in, of course, as well. Um, and yeah, that’s, that’s big that you can find me anywhere if you just type in, In-House Patterns.

Caroline: And we’ll link all of that up in the show notes for everyone, along with all these photos and links for everything we talked about today. Thank you so much, Alexandra, for coming on the show. This was so much fun, and I’m sure our listeners are going to get a lot out of this episode.

Alexandra: Oh, I hope so. Uh, my intention is always to help as much as I can. I really enjoy talking to you both. And thanks so much for having me on. I really, really appreciate it.

Caroline: Aw, thank you so much.

Helen: Thanks. Buh-bye.

Alexandra: Buh-bye.

Helen: That’s it for today’s episode of Love to Sew. You can find me Helen at helensclosetpatterns.com and Caroline at blackbirdfabrics.com. We’re recording in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

Caroline: Go to lovetosewpodcast.com to find our show notes. They’re filled with links and pictures from this episode. And if you’d like to get in touch with us, send us an email at [email protected].

Helen: If you love Love to Sew and you want more, you can sign up for our Patreon. For $5 a month, you’ll get a full length bonus episode and weekly behind the scenes pics. For $10 a month, you get all that plus a mini episode focused on sewing techniques and 15% off discount codes for Helen’s Closet and Blackbird Fabrics. Patreon is the best way to support us so that we can keep making this quality sewing content. Also, if you’ll miss us during our off season, you get more of us over on Patreon, and we’d love to have you there. Go to patrion.com/lovetosew for more info.

Caroline: And thanks to our amazing podcast team. Lisa Ruiz is our creative assistant. Jordan Moore is our editor. And Margaret Wakelee is our transcriber. And thank you for listening and for an amazing season of Love to Sew. We will see you next year.

Helen: Buh-bye. See you in the new year.

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There’s no fabric more glamorous than silk! In this episode, we take a deep dive into this fancy fiber – its history, how it’s made, and how to work with it. Plus, we share a source for custom cutting mats, an amazing sewing song made by a listener, and alternatives to silk!

BLACK FRIDAY SWAG SALE! ⁠

Everything in the Love to Sew Shop is on sale through November 30th! ⁠

Pins are 50% off

Tees and totes are 25% off

Everything must go! After this sale ends, we are closing our shop. This is your last chance to get some Love to Sew swag!

The transcript for this episode is on this page at the end of the show notes.

Previous Episodes:

From Listener Feedback:

Resources:

Silk History:

How Silk Is Made:

Our Favourite Silk Makes:

Tools:

Where to Buy Silk Fabric:

Transcript:

Caroline: We are recording today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, including Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and K’ómoks first nations.

Helen: Hello, and welcome to Love to Sew. I’m Helen, the designer behind Helen’s Closet Patterns.

Caroline: And I’m Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics.

Helen: We’re two sewing buds who love to sew our own clothes and want to encourage you on your sewing journey, too.

Caroline: Join us for today’s topic: silk.

Helen: I think you mean: silk.

Caroline: Join us for today’s topic: silk.

Helen: Perfect. Nailed it.

Caroline: How’s that?

Hi, Helen.

Helen: Hi, Caroline.

Caroline: How are you?

Helen: I’m doing well, thanks. How are you?

Caroline: I’m doing great. I’m so excited to talk about fabric again today. We have another fabric deep dive.

Helen: Splash!

Caroline: And it’s all about silk.

Helen: Silk. You have to put a little emphasis on the “k” at the end to really tie it off.

Caroline: Silk.

Helen: Perfect.

Caroline: Okay. So every time we say that word in this episode, do we have to say it like that?

Helen: Please, no.

Caroline: Why not? Oh my gosh. Okay. Fine, Helen.

Helen: Okay. Before we get into this episode, though, we want to announce our Black Friday swag sale from Monday, November 22nd until the end of the month, everything in the love to sew shop is on sale. We’ve got tees and totes for 25% off, and our pins are 50% off, and this will be your last chance to buy some Love to Sew swag since we will be closing down the shop after the sale is over. Everything must go. When it’s gone, it’s gone. Head to lovetosewshop.com to check it out, uh, maybe buy a gift for a sewist in your life. That’d be cute.

Caroline: Ooh, great idea. Yes. I love that. Um, yeah, sad to see the shop go, but we are onto bigger and better things. Maybe?

Helen: More podcasting.

Caroline: More podcasting. It was such a fun project though. And, um, it’s so, it’s been so fun to see everyone sharing their swag out in the wild, sharing pictures of them wearing their swag, and it’s very comforting and exciting to think about those pieces, kind of, like, living on just out in the world, our Love to Sew swag babies.

Helen: I know I’m going to cherish my Love to Sew pin forever. I should probably get a backup so that if I happen to lose it, I have one still.

Caroline: That’s actually a really good idea. I love my totes, too. I use them all the time, and I wash them all the time and my t-shirts, too. We’re always wearing our t-shirts. I mean…

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: Go get some swag, everyone. Great swag. Now I’m sad.

Helen: Aw, we can do it again one day. We’ll see.

Caroline: Yeah. Alright, let’s move on to some feedback. We have a message from Donna today.

Helen: “I love all your podcasts. During episode 189, I heard you ask for cutting mat resources. I bought a custom sized mat from Rhino mat to fit my custom made table. I love it, and I wanted to share this source.”

So the source that Donna shared is speedpress.com. We’ll link it in our show notes. Uh, since Cutting Dash Mat’s closed down, uh, that was where Caroline and I had previously purchased mats, and we’ve mentioned them on the show many times, but unfortunately, you could no longer get mats from them, so it’s really good to know that there’s another good resource for custom cutting mats out there. Thank you so much for sharing it with us, Donna, so we can pass that along to our listeners.

Caroline: Yes. Thank you. I was trying to figure out where to get cutting mats and now we have a new source, so this is awesome. Okay, everyone, buckle your seatbelts.

Helen: Wait, aren’t you going to? Oh…

Caroline: We also have some amazing feedback from listener, Flo. They wrote, “In Episode 191, there was a mention of a sewing song from a listener’s tip. Behold. I had a lot of fun making it. I hope it brings you as many laughs as it did me.”

Okay. Helen, should we play this song?

Helen: Yes! Obsessed with this song.

Caroline: Okay. Ready?

Helen: Yeah.

Flo: Sew, stop, look, try it on. Just try it on again. Continue, continue. Sew, stop, look, try it on. Just try it on again. Continue, continue. Sew, stop, look, try it on. Just try it on again. Continue, continue. Stop.

Helen: I am dying. It is so good.

Caroline: Oh my gosh. Yeah, it’s, it’s, honestly, if you all could see us doing a little dance here in our video chat.

Helen: How can you not?

Caroline: Miming. It’s a whole vibe.

Helen: It really is. I love the moment where it’s like, try it on again and continue.

Caroline: Continue.

Helen: Continue.

Caroline: Oh, my gosh.

Helen: I’ve got to sing that to myself while I sew now.

Caroline: Me to Flo, you are our new favorite. Thank you so much for this. It made our day, our week, our month. We love it so much.

Helen: We love it. Thank you.

Caroline: Alright, so we have a show today all about silk, and we’re very excited to dive into this. Silk is like the grande dame of fashion fabrics. No matter what you make with it, it feels fancy and special. You see it in couture gowns, historical drama movies, and chic day wear. Today we’ll be talking about what silk is, how it’s made, its history, how to sew with it, how to care for it, and more.

Helen: Yes, so first off, what exactly is silk? Well, silk is a protein fiber. Protein fibers come from animal sources, like wool from sheep, angora from rabbit, mohair from goats, and silk from silkworms. Silk fabric is made from the filaments that silkworms use to make their cocoons. And we’re going to dive deep into the silk making process a bit later in the show.

Caroline: And you might also be wondering why do people love silk so much? What is all the hype about? Well, silk has a beautiful natural sheen thanks to the shape of the proteins making up the fiber. It, kind of, transforms as the light hits it. It’s quite mesmerizing, and there’s nothing fancier than a silk garment. It just looks chic and elevated.

Silk fabrics come in lots of different weights and types. There’s the crisp medium weight shantungs, the soft and warm silk velvets, the sheer and ultra drapey chiffons, and many more. And also, silk is breathable which is a huge selling point for a lot of people.

Helen: Yes, and there are, of course, some drawbacks to sewing with silks, such as some silk fabrics are difficult to sew. Slippery, shifty silk fabrics require special techniques to make them behave, and shiny fabrics like satin and charmeuse show every pucker and wrinkle when you’re working with them.

Cleaning silk can also be a tall order. Some silks can be washed in your machine on a cold delicate cycle, but generally, they do need to be hand washed. Some silks are dry clean only, and they’re not even supposed to touch water ever. Not good for rainy climates.

Caroline: No.

Helen: Silk is also prone to static cling, and silk can be quite expensive.

Caroline: Yeah, it can be a little bit out of the budget for some people. And maybe, especially, if you’re a new sewist and you’re, you know, kind of, ready to make mistakes and do a lot of learning, silk might not be the fabric that you’re going to reach for right at the beginning of your sewing journey.

So now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s get into a mini history of silk. Silk fabric has been around for a long time. And when we say long, we mean long.

Helen: Long, long time. We’re not going to be able to cover it all. But, storytime! Empress Leizu, also known as Xi Ling-shi, was drinking tea in her garden in the 27th century BCE. When a cocoon fell into her hot tea, it began to unravel, and she was enchanted and decided to weave a fabric with the filament, and that’s why we have silk fabric today. History section over.

Caroline: Okay. Helen, that’s a good story, and one that’s been told in China over generations, but it’s pretty clear that it’s a legend and not a historical fact. So we want to get into the actual historical facts here. Silk was first produced in China in the Neolithic period. It first appears in archeological record in about 3,600 BCE, more than 5,000 years ago.

Helen: Whoa! And large-scale production and sophisticated silk weaving techniques were established later in the Shang and Zhou dynasties during the second millennium BCE. That’s when silk became one of China’s most important and valued exports.

Caroline: And silk quality improved even further during the Han dynasty. If you look into Han dynasty silks, you will see how finely woven they are. They often have images woven into them as well. Up until this period, sericulture methods had been exclusive to Chinese manufacturers. By 300 CE, sericulture had been adopted by Korean, Japanese, and Indian producers.

Helen: The Silk Road was developed during the Han Dynasty and lasted until the 15th century BCE. It was an important system of trade routes that stretched over Asia, the Middle East, Northeastern Africa, and Europe. No one ever traveled the full distance. The silk trade went through the hands of many middlemen. Silk wasn’t the only good that was bought and sold on the Silk Road, but it was so valuable and important that the routes got their name from it.

Caroline: And for centuries in China, you could tell the social class of a person by the quality of silk they wore. Aristocrats would wear fine silk and bright colors and with woven or embroidered designs, while lower classes would wear plain silk or cotton. To give you an idea of just how valuable silk was, it was used as currency sometimes to pay taxes or even armies.

Helen: In the 20th century, Japan became the world’s leading producer of silk. It has remained an important fashion fabric and is usually associated with high-end dressy garments.

Caroline: Alright, So that’s a small piece of the story of silk. Now let’s get into the process of producing silk fabric. How is it made, Helen?

Helen: Well, first we mentioned a term earlier, sericulture, the production of silk from breeding and cultivating silkworms to weaving silk. That is sericulture.

Caroline: Silkworms are Bombyx Mori Moths. They’ve been domesticated over thousands of years. They can’t fly, and they have no color pigments. They’re bred and hatched by silk producers.

Helen: The eggs take about two weeks to hatch. The silkworm larvae then eat continuously for a little over a month until they pupate, meaning that they make a cocoon. They mainly eat mulberry leaves, and there are a couple of other types of leaves they can eat, but farmers mainly feed them on the mulberry leaves. So take note when you see the label “mulberry silk,” it sounds nice, but it’s probably not that different from other silks on the market cause that’s just what they ate.

Caroline: Ooh, interesting! And cocoon filaments are made from the saliva of the moth. So to harvest the filaments to make silk, cocoons are boiled in water. This kills the silkworm and makes it easier to unwind the filaments. In some places, the silkworms are eaten after the cocoons are unraveled.

Helen: The filaments that are unwound in this way are very, very long, up to 900 meters or 3,000 feet. This makes for an ultra smooth fabric that is very strong when it’s dry. Silk filaments are wound together to create silk thread which is then woven to create silk fabric.

Caroline: And there’s a type of silk called “Ahimsa Silk” or “Peace Silk” that’s made from the cocoons after the moths emerge from them. Or, sometimes, the cocoon is cut open and the pupae are tipped out. This silk is made over shorter strands, so it has a rougher appearance, but it still has the breathability of a more conventional silk fabric. Sorry, everyone, the word pupae. It just makes me laugh.

Helen: Gets her every time. Okay. Let’s talk silk weaves because there are a lot of different silk fabric types. You may have noticed this if you’ve ever shopped for silk and been like, whoa, I just wanted to get something fancy to make a camisole, and here I am confronted with all these different types of silk I’ve never heard of. What is the deal?

Caroline: Oh my gosh. You are so right. There are so many different types of silk, and no two silks are alike really. Um, so the first one we’ll talk about is silk crepe de chine. It’s very drapey, and it has, kind of, like, a rough, pebbly texture. It’s sometimes sheer, sometimes not, so you really want to look at the weight when you’re looking at crepe de chine cause there’s quite a lot of variants in there.

Helen: I love that pebbly texture.

Caroline: Me, too.

Helen: A little, you know, rough around the edges. Alright, silk satin usually has a bit more body, has a very shiny side and a more matte side. The shiny side is created by floating long threads over the surface of the fabric, so you get those nice, smooth, long threads, and it’s super shiny.

Caroline: Yes, and silk habotai is a lightweight, plain weave silk fabric that’s usually used for linings.

Helen: Silk charmeuse has a satin weave, but is lighter in weight to typical satin. It’s shiny and very drapey.

Caroline: Oh yeah. Silk charmeuse is, like, light as air. It’s just so flowy when you, like, flip it up. It just, like, floats through the air. It’s incredible.

Helen: I want a dress with, like, multiple layers of silk charmeuse, you know?

Caroline: Yeah. Like, cascading down. Oh my gosh. Okay, moving on. Silk velvet has a beautiful luster. So, usually, silk velvet is not a hundred percent silk. Often, the pile will be silk, but the backing fabric might be a different fiber. Often, you’ll see, uh, silk rayon or silk viscose blend when you’re looking at a silk velvet.

Helen: Hmm. And silk shantung is a crisp medium weight fabric that has slubs running across it. A slub is, like, a little lump that runs across a fabric. That’s there because the yarn is uneven. It doesn’t sound pretty, but slubby silks are so beautiful. They have this lovely texture to them. You may have seen slubs in other fabrics, there’s rayon slubs, linen slubs, and it just gives it this natural vibe. But combine that with the beauty and luster of silk and it’s quite enchanting.

Caroline: It really is. And then silk taffeta is a lightweight woven silk fabric with a crisp drape. It makes a really nice rustling sound when you wear it, too. If you watch period dramas and love the silk gowns that the characters wear, you’ll probably love taffeta.

Helen: Yes, raw silk noil also has a nubby texture and less of a sheen than most silk fabrics because it’s made with shorter fibers, so it’s easier to work with and the shiny silks. It has a soft drape, but it’s a little bit less shifty.

Caroline: Yeah, it has, like, more of a look and feel of cotton, almost, I would say. Um, it’s really quite different than a lot of other silks that you’ll see out there, but it has its own, kind of, unique qualities that I think are really special.

And then silk chiffon is a lightweight, sheer fabric. It’s super drapey and dreamy and also, kind of, hard to work with.

Helen: Let’s be real. Yes. Silk organza is another sheer silk fabric, but this one is much stiffer than chiffon. So it’s great for voluminous shapes and is often used in couture as interfacing. You may have worked with silk organza in the past because your press cloth might be made out of silk organza. It’s the most common material for store-bought press cloths, maybe aside from cotton, um, so you might have some in your sewing studio that you can look at.

Caroline: Yes, and silk jersey, finally, is a knit fabric that has a smooth drapey texture, and it’s really stretchy.

Helen: I don’t, I’ve never worked with silk jersey. Have you ever come across that, Caroline?

Caroline: Yes, I have in my, kind of, industry experience and looking at fabrics at fabric wholesalers, it does tend to be delicate and shiny, uh, from what I’ve seen, but I think it comes in a lot of different forms, a lot of different, um, like, different levels of sheen and weights and qualities in terms of, like, how delicate it is. So there’s quite a few different types of silk knit fabrics out there.

Helen: Okay, cool.

Caroline: They’re pretty cool.

Helen: And there are lots of silk blends out there, too. So when you blend another fiber with silk, the fabric will get a lovely sheen. We mentioned before that most silk velvets are blends, but you can also see silk blended with linen, cotton, and viscose. And if you’re shopping for silk, you’ll probably come across “mommes,” and no, we’re not crying out for our mothers. This is a reference to the weight of a silk fabric. It’s the weight in pounds of a fabric that is 45 inches wide by a hundred yards long, so the higher the momme, the heavier the weight.

Caroline: Yeah, and on the super light end, silk gauze will range from, like, three to five mommes, and raw silk. on the other hand, can range from 35 to 40 mommes, and it makes more sense to compare similar weaves, though. So a super lightweight 12 momme charmeuse will be translucent, while a heavier 30 momme charmeuse will be opaque.

Helen: I’ve never heard this term before, until we started prepping for this episode. First of all, it’s very funny.

Caroline: It is funny.

Helen: But how come silk gets its own weight classification system? Is it just because there’s that many different types of silk and they’re so fine?

Caroline: Helen, I wish I had the answer to that question, but I don’t.

Helen: It’s going to be ounces for everything except silk. We’re going with mommes.

Caroline: Yeah, no, it’s true. It is, like, that is the term that is used in the industry. Um, but often, they’ll have the conversion to, like, GSMs or ounces also available. But, yeah, it is, kind of, its own thing, and it is a pretty funny word. Mommes.

Helen: Mommes. Alright, well, we previously mentioned that working with silk can be very tricky, but we’ve got you. We’ve got lots of tips for sewing with silk today. First of which is: pre-wash your fabric. Silks can change slightly in texture and color when you wash them, so if you are planning on ever washing your garment, you do need to prewash. You can test this first to see how things go. You should, especially if you’re working with a pricier fabric. Finish the cut edges of your fabric before you put it in the wash since silk can really fray. Usually, the best idea is to hand wash and line dry. However, if you’re feeling feisty, you can put it in the machine on a cold delicate cycle and see how it goes.

Caroline: If you’re feeling feisty. I like that.

Helen: And if you know that it’s dry clean only, or if you’re planning on dry cleaning, no matter what, then you don’t need to prewash.

Caroline: Exactly. And when you cut out, it’s a good idea to use weights and a rotary cutter, if you have them. If you don’t have weights and a rotary cutter, pin with ultra fine pins within the seam allowance, and try to lift the fabric as little as possible when you cut with your scissors. It’s also a good idea to cut your pieces out flat, not on the fold. You have a little bit more control that way, especially because silks can tend to be quite shifty.

Helen: Yes. And, like you said, special pins and needles will help you here. Ultra-fine or silk needles and pins are made for sewing with delicate fabric, so they keep those fine fibers from snagging. Larger pins can leave permanent holes in a delicate fabric like silk. So a 60 or 70 needle would be best. Some silk fabrics will get permanent, tiny holes, even from my microtex pins, so test it out first. See what you’re working with. You can try to pin only within the seam allowance or alternatively, use wonder clips, or maybe proceed without pinning and use your hands to manage the fabric.

20:41 Caroline: Yeah, totally doable. And you want to test your stitch length and tension on your scraps. This is especially important on fabrics that can take on permanent holes since unpicking and re-sewing can leave these visible.

Helen: Yes. And be careful when you press. Always use a pressing cloth to protect the fabric from the heat of your iron, and keep the iron on a low setting and avoid steam.

Caroline: Yes. And silk fabric can fray a lot since the fibers are so smooth. There are a couple of ways to deal with this. You can serge or zigzag over the cut edges of each of your pattern pieces right after cutting, or you can fuse thin strips of interfacing to the edges of your pieces within the seam allowances. So, this is a lot of extra work, but it’s worth it because you don’t want to lose your seam allowances which is definitely a possibility with some silk fabrics. If you want to use a product like fray check, test it out on a scrap before you use it, because it could damage your fabric.

Helen: Oof. And on that note, finish your seams. French seams work really great for lightweight silk fabrics because they’re very strong, and the ends will be completely enclosed. So, you won’t see any of those finishes from, like, a serger or a zigzag stitch. Especially with sheer fabric, you might want to consider the fact that people will be able to see into the garment and see those seam finishes. Um, so if you do want to do French seams, keep in mind that you might need to redraw the seam allowances on your pattern so that they’re the right width for your technique. If the pattern only has a quarter inch seam allowance or three-eighths inch seam allowance, you want something a little bit wider so that you can do your French seam.

Caroline: Yeah. And one final tip we have is to try a baby hem or a small rolled hem to finish the bottom of your silk garments. It’s a really great way to practice those little, tiny, intricate hems, and it comes out looking really, really nice on a silk fabric.

Helen: Yes. Okay. What about caring for silk garments? Because now we’ve gone through all this care process while we’re sewing, we’ve got this beautiful garment, and we definitely don’t want to ruin it in the wash.

Caroline: Yeah. So some silks are washable, and some are dry clean only. The best thing is to check the care instructions from the place where you buy your silk. And if you don’t have care instructions for your silk fabric, you can test it for color fastness before you clean it. You can take a swatch of the fabric and wet it in cool water. Lay it out on a swatch of white fabric and press it with a warm iron. If no color transfers to the white fabric, the silk is colorfast, and you can go ahead and wash. If it’s not, it’s best to dry clean.

I would also say if you have no care instructions whatsoever for your silk fabric, I wouldn’t throw the whole piece in the wash right away. I would wash a swatch, you know, from beginning to end and see what that looks like, especially if you’re going to be using your washing machine on a delicate cycle. Always good to test when you’re not sure what the care is going to look like.

Helen: Yes. Test, test, test. And if you do take your silk to be dry cleaned, make sure your dry cleaner is experienced with silk fabrics. Check around for ratings or get a recommendation from somebody who knows.

Caroline: Yes. And back to washing. The best way to wash silk is by hand in lukewarm water with a gentle detergent. You want to rinse it, roll it in a towel to dry it part of the way, and then hang dry the rest of the way. The next best way is to wash it on a cold, delicate cycle in a washing machine. And if you’re nervous about using the machine, test a swatch. It’s also not a good idea to put silk in the dryer, so you want to hang to dry or lay flat to dry.

Helen: And thankfully, often these nice, thin silks that you’ll be working with dry really quickly.

Caroline: True.

Helen: So they won’t take long when they’re hanging or sitting on a towel to dry, and you can press silk with a warm, dry iron. It’s a good idea to use a press cloth and using steam or re-wetting the silk can leave watermarks. Uh, if you do get watermarks, re-wet the silk for two to three minutes, let it dry again, and then re-iron it. No one said silk wasn’t fussy. You’re listening to the episode so you probably already know that. It’s a bit of a thing.

Caroline: It’s a whole thing. Yeah. Okay. There are some really beautiful silk makes out there in the sewing community, so we wanted to share a few that we love. Definitely check out our show notes for pictures and links cause we’re going to have beautiful show notes for this episode, including, uh, some pics of some of these garments that we’re going to talk about today.

So, Julia Bobbin on Instagram has so many amazing silk makes, it’s hard to choose a favorite. She made an incredible white silk wool blend blazer that’s perfectly tailored and very lustrous. The pattern is Burda 6875. And she also has a lot of silk satin slip dresses and camisoles that are so luxe.

Helen: Ooh yes. Love Julia Bobbin. What an inspiration. Alright, Leila of Muna and Broad made a black silk satin lounge set from the Nullarbor Cami and a shortened Spinifex PJ bottoms. It looks so luxe. I want to lounge around in silk. Very inspired. Silk PJs for the holidays, maybe?

Caroline: I love it. Speaking of Muna and Broad, Jess made a red Medlow robe from a more matte silk fabric. The color is so rich, and it looks like the perfect, lightweight robe. She also has a moss-colored silk noil Waikerie Dress that looks really cool and modern.

Helen: Past guest, Christy Johnson, made a boxy top out of a vintage peachy silk fabric that was gifted to her by her postal worker. It has a lovely, nubby texture, and she embroidered a gorgeous design on it, of course, it’s Christie Johnson. Lots of animals and a big sun with an eye in the center. Definitely, want to check this one out.

Caroline: So cool. Okay. Elisalex from By Hand London made a gorgeous caftan out of a vintage green silk sari, and she even has a tutorial for how to make your own. We’ll link it in the show notes for sure. Uh, she also made a By Hand London Kim Dress in a silk blend cloqué. Cloqué is a fabric that has a raised design on it and a puckered look. Elisalex’s fabric has a black background with raised lavender flowers and green leaves. It’s so pretty with that fitted bodice and super full skirt.

Helen: Uh, Elisalex always floors me with her makes.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: I want to be this glamorous.

Caroline: The queen of party dresses.

Helen: Fancy Tiger just came out with a tutorial for their Fancy Cowl. It’s silk velvet on one side and silk noil on the other. This is a great way to wear a silk with your everyday clothes and also a good beginner silk project and one that you wouldn’t need to buy too much silk to accomplish.

Caroline: So cute, and silk is a popular choice for wedding dresses. And we know of a few that we’d love to share. So, Ele from Sewn by Ele made her incredible wedding gown from mustard-colored silk gazar, which is a crisp fabric with a smooth texture. She used her embroidery machine to embroider gorgeous flowers on it. You have to check out her pics!

Helen: Oh, yes. And Brittany from Untitled Thoughts made her dove gray wedding gown with silk charmeuse and silk chiffon, with appliqué in embroidered beaded tulle. She has a whole series of posts on her blog about making her muslins, sewing her gown, and her whole wedding. Lots of photos. I just love this unconventional wedding dress color. It’s really beautiful.

Caroline: Yeah. And Ele also has an unconventional color. It’s bright yellow. It’s so cool.

Helen: Gorg.

Caroline: Absolutely beautiful. Okay, and Allie Jackson made a sixties inspired wedding gown in a soft pink silk/cotton blend fabric with a cropped white lace jacket. It has a self fabric belt with a bow on it. This one is so, so cute. I love these non-traditional colors.

Helen: Yes. So much fun. I really enjoy anytime I see a handmade wedding gown on Instagram and I’m scrolling through my feed and I get to see the pictures of the big day. And it is just so impressive that people are out there making their own wedding dress, like, good for you. That is a feat. It’s amazing.

Caroline: Kudos. Yeah.

Helen: Okay. Silk fabric isn’t the easiest thing to find. It’s not like you can just walk into your local chain and expect to see. All of the silks that we’ve talked about today laid out in front of you to choose from, so we’re going to recommend some places that you can buy silk online. In Canada, we’ve got Baudekin Studios. Has a selection of different silk fabrics, like prints, jacquard, habotai. Also, of course, Blackbird has some great raw silk noils right now. And I know you guys stock silk every once in awhile, and I always snap it up when you do.

Caroline: We do, so keep an eye out on our newsletter. We’ll always send that out when we get new silk fabrics.

In the U.S., Prism Silks is a fabric store that is just for silk. They have an enormous selection, and Renaissance Fabrics has a good collection of silk fabrics, especially taffetas, and they’re geared towards historical sewists, but the fabrics can definitely be used for modern makes as well. And finally, Stonemountain and Daughter has a lot of beautiful silks, too.

Helen: In the UK, Beckford Silk has a wide selection of silks made in England. Minerva has a bunch of silk prints and other silk fabrics to choose from as well.

Caroline: And in Australia, Tessuti Fabrics has a huge variety of silks. That definitely seems like the place to buy if you want a big selection. And A+R Fabrics has some beautiful silk noils.

Helen: And, of course, for those of you who don’t want to buy silk, vegans, or those on a limited budget, et cetera, there are great alternatives. So, rayon was originally called artificial silk. The name rayon started to be used in 1924. Rayons, which include viscose, lyocell, and brand names like Tencel, EcoVero, and Modal, are very soft and cool to the touch. They have a lovely drape, and they have a little bit of a sheen that is Similar to silk. They are made of a wood pulp that is processed and spun to create smooth yarns. Rayons are breathable and absorbent, but they may stain easily just like silk. However, they tend to be a bit easier to care for. You can listen to our episode on Lyocell or Tencel to learn more about the most eco-friendly and worker-friendly type of this rayon.

Caroline: Yes. And nylon is another fabric that was created as a silk alternative, especially for stockings. Nylon is a thermo-plastic, that is a plastic that becomes pliable at high temperatures and solidifies when it cools. It’s rare now to see a silk-like fabric made out of nylon, it’s usually reserved for performance and swimwear fabrics.

Helen: A lot of silky fabrics that are available now for blouses and more formal dresses are made of polyester. Polyester is a synthetic fiber that is basically plastic. It’s super easy to care for and doesn’t shrink in the wash. However, it doesn’t breathe, and it doesn’t biodegrade.

Caroline: Yeah, that’s definitely something to keep in mind there. There are probably some listeners out there who don’t feel comfortable buying new silk, but might feel okay buying secondhand silk. So, you can look for yardage or you can look for vintage silk garments that you can repurpose. Just be a little bit careful when buying online. Some sellers might not know a lot about fabric and think they have silk when they really have poly. If the listing doesn’t seem clear, make sure to contact the seller.

Helen: Good tip. Oh man. I’m feeling very inspired. I have a few cuts of silk in my stash that I personally am quite intimidated by because I know I’m going to have to do all those extra little things when I’m working with them and take my time and really care. And sometimes I just, uh, I want to hit the gas pedal as fast as possible when I’m sewing, but this has really inspired me. Do you have any silk in your stash?

Caroline: Do I have any silk in my stash? I’m sure I have a few silk prints kicking around in there. Um, but I don’t sew with silk very often because of the care. I’m, like, kind of, a lazy laundry person, and I like to be able to just throw everything in the washing machine and dryer. I definitely have some silk noil though, like, a raw silk noil that I have some plans for, so that one’s a little bit easier to care for.

Helen: I have, like, a four ply silk, which we didn’t touch on today, but it’s, like, thick. I don’t, I guess it’s just, like, many layers. I don’t actually know what the deal is, but it’s, like, a thicker silk with a lot of body. I have, like, a meter and a half of it, and it’s black, and I’ve had it for years to make a black silk Ashton Top which just sounds like the best thing, right? I would wear that all the time.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: I really need to just go for it.

Caroline: You do. Okay. So, listeners, know that, you know, all about silk. We want to know if you’re planning to make something. Are we all gonna wear a silk for New Years? Let us know on Instagram, via email, or by commenting on our website. And we can’t wait to hear from you.

Helen: Yes. And don’t forget to go shop our swag.

Caroline: That’s it for today’s episode of Love to Sew. You can find me Caroline at blackbirdfabrics.com and Helen at helensclosetpatterns.com. We’re recording in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

Helen: Go to lovetosewpodcast.com to find our show notes. They’re filled with links and pictures from this episode, all the beautiful makes we mentioned, all the fabric stores where you can get silk. And if you’d like to get in touch with us, send us an email at [email protected].

Caroline: If you love Love to Sew and you want more, you can sign up for our Patreon. For $5 a month, you’ll get a full length bonus episode and weekly behind the scenes pics. For $10 a month, you get all that plus a mini episode focused on sewing techniques and 15% off discount codes for Helen’s Closet and Blackbird Fabrics. Patreon is the best way to support us so that we can keep making this quality sewing content for you. Go to patreon.com/lovetosew for more info.

Helen: And we have Love to Sew swag! You can visit our shop to get tees, pins, and tote bags with art by Josie Adams of Hey Miss Designs. Tell the world that you’re a stitch witch, that you can make anything, or that you are a Love to Sew listener. Everything is on sale right now. It all has to go. Go to lovetosewshop.com to get yours.

Caroline: Thanks to our amazing podcast team. Lisa Ruiz is our creative assistant. Jordan Moore is our editor. And Margaret Wakelee is our transcriber. And thank you for listening. We’ll talk to you next week.

Helen: Buh-bye.

I was gonna say are way, way long. Okay. Way, way, way, way, way, way, way long. The filaments that are unwound this way are very, very long up to 900 meters or even 3,000 feet. Oh, no, those are the same thing.

Caroline: It’s the same thing. 3,000 feet! It’s way, way long.

Helen: It’s way, way long.

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