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Messages - warpbywarpweft

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16
Access All Accessories / Re: Books about bag making
« on: May 08, 2018, 12:28:25 PM »
Thank you for these, they are great, I'm working my way through them! 

17
Access All Accessories / Books about bag making
« on: May 07, 2018, 17:44:47 PM »
I'm looking for a book to inspire, challenge and instruct, if anyone is able to help?

I've seen lots that cover totes and other fairly simple bags, I make those already so I'm looking for a book that covers slightly more complicated bags.  Rucksacks with fittings and handbag type bags, purses woukd be good too.

TIA!

18
Thank you for the ideas, yes, that could work really well.  In our area the woman's refuges are hard to contact (understandably), but I have a contact who may be able to help.

I am also doing some (non sewing related) work on my confidence, the book 'Feel the fear and do it anyway' by Susan Jeffers is meant to be an oldie, but a goodie so I am reading that among other things. 

19
@Morgan  Hello, I took a bit of a hit health wise at the start of the year, so things got off to a slow start!  I'm back to it again now and thankfully at full health as long as I look after myself.

I have decided to use my own name for cards, website etc.  Looking for the perfect name was serving as a huge distraction and lots of names that start with 'the sewing...' can look like 'these wing...' when pit into a url (I'm probably over thinking things). Plus the really simple, good names are taken.  I also have children at 3 different schools, so if I am chatting to any parents who are interested I will be easy to find.

Thank you for the encouragement!  :loveit:

20
...I Will have another read of the thread tomorrow as there are I think quite a few more places that I could be looking for patterns.

21
Wow, 60 items is a lot.  Keeping a count sounds like a good idea for 2018.

Thank you for all the posts and links (sorry for starting a thread and then vanishing,  RL got a little hectic).

The Kathleen Fasanella article was interesting,  funnily enough I did end up reading what she had to say about arm hole ease  when a top that I was making appeared to have so much ease in the sleeve cap that it was going to end up puffed if I wasn't careful. From what I could gather she can be a bit controversial with her opinions.


22
Patterns Discussion / Is it true that some patterns are just cut better?
« on: December 06, 2017, 13:53:22 PM »
...well, drawn better so that you can make clothes that have a better cut!

I read on another (non sewing forum) a comment that was 'I only buy vogue patters because they are the only ones that I like the cut of'.  I was like, 'oh!. o.k'.   Is was wondering if this was the case?  It seemed a bit extreme to write off an enter swathe of patter brands.

I have always ended up hashing my own patterns up or adjusting ones that I have bought.  I did make 1 pair of trousers recently and I didn't have to to change a thing re the pattern, it was great, I was wondering if this was down to luck or if I could find more patterns like this.  I made a usable toile up of some p.j bottoms for DD, the shape was just odd, so yet again I was hashing about with the curved rule and yard stick.

23
Thank you so much  Roger!  I will.  I'm working on names this week, I keep thinking that I've found 'the one' and then more ideas come to mind. 

24
Thank you all so much for your comments and links and information about starting up sewmuchmore and Morgan. This has all been so much help.

I don't want a teaching qualification as such yet, although this may change in the future, I also have no desire to be bound by rules (I've always been a bit of a maverick) or bogged down by paperwork so it's really helpful to read that it's possible to forge ahead without those. I'm mainly aiming to teach people who want to sew for pleasure rather than to any qualification level.

I'd love to do some courses and self study to further skills that I could pass on.  I'm working my way through the skills set links too, thanks again for those.

Having looked at a few sewing tutors etc locally, many of them had HND's in pattern cutting or similar, had spent years working in costume or textiles and then decided to come out of it and teach.  I just felt rather inadequate!

In the end I invited a couple of freinds round for a trial beginner lesson yesterday morning.  It went very well!  Both of them went away happy and want to come back so that felt like a good start. I did have things to hand that I had made to use as visual aids, this wasn't particularly  planned, we were talking about some of the things that they could make and I happened to have a few bits handy as examples.

I have a freind who did the PETLS course Samantha, gosh it was long winded! She now works in a school.  I like your idea of money off for a testimonial too.

Lots to think about, thanks so much again for all your comments!
 


25
[quoteI too would never pay to be taught by anyone unqualified[/quote]  I hear you!  I guess that would narrow down my customer base for a while. So be it until I can afford course fees.

I guess the qualification issue didn't cross my mind because the woman who taught me to sew when I was a child was so obviously talented.  I have no idea of her  formal qualifications.  Same as the ladies who taught me to curtain make, I was a bottom the pile trainee and they were harsh (which is why I sort of forget that I did that job...) but the stuff they produced was amazing  (methods backed up by well known reputable authors), both for the contract sector and private homes...again not a formal qualification between them.  Perhaps it's a shame to write off anyone not formally qualified because years and years ago we didn't worry anyway.

But, either way it's good to know some people may have an issue with it. 


26
It’s interesting to hear what you did on your workshop Roger, thank you.  Especially after reading your replies I think that I would be wise to start 1-2-1 and build up from there, what may be a more advance skill for once person might be simple and basic for another perhaps?
I remember at the time being very keen on the idea of progressing to the C&G teaching qualification, I also didn’t want to be constrained, it was a very good but very strict.  One of my friends that wants to learn is going to need to be able to sew with very little resources, budget or time so as good as they are C&G methods may not really fit for her.
Can I ask how it works when people bring their own machines?  I did a sewing day with a friend a few months ago (just for fun, a day of child free sewing), she brought along an ancient old beast of a thing that charged off at full speed with when she so much as looked at the foot pedal.  The machine had other issues (it probably needed servicing) so all in all she didn’t enjoy it as much as she might have otherwise.  It was a world away from the experience that you can have from a nice well-behaved modern machine!  I know that you should be able to sew on anything, but I thought if I was in control of the type of machine used then I could provide a better experience. On the other hand, in the area that I live in some people interested in learning could well have bought a machine that was the price of a small car.
Yes to being a week ahead!  I have a list lined up on my mind for my friend, I just need to write it down perhaps!
I don’t think I am that young sadly…I’d love to do a course but I think I need to plan that in for when my smallest gets to junior school and I will be well on the way to a big 0 birthday buy then, but you’re never too old and perhaps that would be something to work towards.

27
Thank you for your replies, it's given me lots to think about.

My plan would be most definitely to further my skills as I went along.  I'm thinking of a very long term plan, my youngest child hasn't even started school yet so I would be starting very small, 1-2-1 with one machine, then 2 machines later on and so on (we're taking tiny start up budget).  I am interested in working with the utterly clueless, not because they are easier to teach, more because I think it would be great to get someone who thought that they would never be able to sew to a place where they can make things on their own.

I'd love a qualification but it's a bit chicken an egg, any courses that stretch me enough cost ££'s, so back to the original idea, I need to further my skills as I go.  City and Guilds used to do great courses but I'm not sure where you can find them now.  I did part 1 of the fashion and design course, it was very good.

Funnily enough the other, logistical side of the idea I have been able to figure out.  I have found people who teach their (non sewing) skill from home and they have been really open about how to make that part of things work.

I did a craft workshop  (I thought pretending that I couldn't sew wouldn't feel quite right) and I, quite openly, got loads of ideas and tips too.

Local to me there are quite a lot of sewing workshops popping up, but we live in quire a densly populated area so I'm not too worried about that. Some of them advertise as being sewing teaching but are more like felt kit assembly... but then part of me thinks goid for them for having a go!

I feel very fortunate to also have a tax accountant in the family, I've already quizzed them on a few things!

28
I'm not sure if this is the correct place for my post, or if it would be better under another topic  (apologies I've got it wrong!).

I used to have a very corporate job, the one bit of it that I loved was training and coaching.  Fast forward a few years and I need very flexible working arrangements. 

I have had an idea that I could teach sewing, it's somthing that I've been able to do since I was 7 or 8.  I have a house full of things I've made, good enough it would seem for freinds to say 'do it'.  The thing is that they can't sew at all...

I have no idea if my sewing is good enough or not!  I seem to be suffering with a massive bout of imposter syndrome.  I would start out with complete and utter beginners, people who don't know a needle from a pin, and go on from there. 

I've always been a bit of a maverick break the rules, try and see just for fun type of sewer but somewhere along the way I've learnt how to follow a pattern and draw up a made to measure skirt block!

Any opinions, thoughts or advice would be wonderful!

29
In the wardrobe / Re: Has anyone made any of these patterns yet?
« on: August 16, 2017, 14:25:28 PM »
Ha ha, yep, I think it may well hang worse!  I actually really like the idea of the pattern as it's so simple.
Good idea, I will post a picture (this may take a few hours as we're on school holidays).
I was going to use an old fleece throw for the toile only to discover that one of the children had become rather attached to it, but it may have given a better idea.

30
In the wardrobe / Has anyone made any of these patterns yet?
« on: August 16, 2017, 12:18:21 PM »
Any from the Lotta Jansdotter book https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lotta-Jansdotter-Everyday-Style/dp/1617691747

Or the Bianca coat from  sew me something patterns here: http://www.sewmesomething.co.uk/catalogue_item.php?catID=11785&prodID=97417

I have made up a toile of the Bianca coat from a fairly thick fabric (my old front door curtains) to make it fairly realistic buthe I can't get the front to hang quite right. 

No toiles for the Lotta Jansdotter patterns  yet but they are next on the list.

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