Sewing 101

I’m sure everyone has heard of the BBC TV series ‘The Great British Sewing Bee’ by now. I happened to watch the second episode this week and got so hooked on it that I had to go back to watch the first episode. I even had a chat to the ladies at the haberdashery shop I go to about this TV series. We were going on about how we ‘would have done it’ but we all agreed that the time constraint was enough to put us off from actually joining the show! But it was amazing to find out a lot of their customers got so inspired that they had come in to buy fabrics, sewing machines and patterns after watching the show.

One of the task that the contestant had to struggle with was tailored trousers. Although they didn’t have to put in pockets, the contestants still had to put in a fly, create a waistband and sew the entire trousers up in a set amount of time. While watching this, I noticed how the centre front and centre back seams were sewn together last. It’s different to how I would usually do it as I usually sew the centre front and centre back first, then proceed to the side seams and inside leg seam.

I’m not sure how I learnt this method but it may be due to the fact that while I was teaching myself to sew trousers, I concentrated too much in getting the fly done that I just assumed that’s what followed next. However, after watching how the contestant did theirs, I decided to try this alternative method out but on shorts instead.

It’s surprising how there is only so much you can learn yourself. The rest requires you to learn from others (even from their mistakes) and in this situation, this is exactly what happened. I noticed that the shape looked much better than how it previously was and strangely, it fits quite well when I was wearing it too.

I’m sure most of you would have seen this print before (as a shirt and as a bag). I had enough left to make a pair of short and on a very boring and cloudy day, this is what I did. I am very pleased, not only because I managed to learn and practise something new, but I also have something new to wear if summer miraculously decides to arrive early.