Do you always look longingly at others who know how to sew? Never have time to learn, or no one around to teach you? Now your wish can come true! Start with these two helps from here at HomeschoolHowtos.com and then move on to the DVD sewing series referred to below, and you’ll get a full garment sewing course, all without leaving home.
Tips available from us:
These two offer valuable beginner information, tips and tricks right from the get-go:
- Wish You Could Sew? Invaluable sewing tips (available as a downloadable eBook or in print)
- Beginner's Simple Sewing Solutions (downloadable movie)
Additional resources from elsewhere:
I’ve discovered the neatest set of sewing DVDs that would be absolutely perfect and exciting for both you and your daughter.
She (or you) would be an expert after working through this series, because it covers every aspect of garment construction. Over the past six months, in an effort to develop and provide sewing help for moms (just like I’ve tried to do for cooking in years past), I’ve been researching various sewing instructions put out by various companies. I’ve ordered them through libraries, bought some, and studied through all of them.
By far the best series out there is put out by Margaret Islander. She is an older lady, with a very cheerful spirit and an excellent teaching gift…step by step, totally understandable. She used to be a factory seamstress and learned all their tricks and then modified them for home machines. Later she started a sewing school for basic sewing as well as couture sewing (fashion, ultra refined stuff) and pattern drafting. Her tips are remarkable and save tons of time. Eager would-be seamstresses take to all of this stuff like fish to water. If you get them for your daughter, don’t plan on seeing her for months, she’ll be so engrossed in them and excited!!!!!!
I would start with her DVD entitled Shirts, Etc. After viewing this, you (or she) will be able to make everyone shirts that look like a professional made it.
These are the names of all of the instructional sewing DVDs in this series:
- Industrial Shortcuts
- Shirts, Etc.
- Pants, Etc.
- Galaxy of Sewing Techniques 1, 2, 3 and 4 (four separate DVD’s)
- Easy Zippers (demonstrates all zipper types, with professional results)
You can just rent them far cheaper than purchasing them—at www.SmartFlix.com—or purchase them from Islander Sewing Systems (phone 1-248-889-5091), but they are pricey. The first DVD—Shirts, Etc.—costs $79.00.
If your young seamstress (or you!) want to actually make a shirt while watching the Shirts, Etc. DVD, you’ll need a shirt pattern…any old one that you might have from Granny or your mom will do. If you don’t have one, then order the Dress Men’s Shirt Pattern directly from Margaret Islander. If you DO obtain the dress shirt pattern, the instructions will perfectly match the exact pattern that she is using…but not a big deal either way…a shirt is a shirt.
The main thing is to teach your daughter to conquer a pattern and then use the same pattern over and over and over until she is an expert at that one, then switch to a new one. A long time solidifying foundations in developing any skill, makes for zooming later. (Even in cooking, train her to make the same seven evening dinners over and over, until they become mindless…absolutely none of us were taught this fast track to homemaking expertise…and wandered around in the domestic wilderness of trial and error for years!) When she gets married, she’ll have seven meals conquered from day one!
The following is the best way to proceed with acquiring the sewing skill. Have her watch the entire DVD totally through, once, so that she gets a good overview of where she is going. She can watch it while she eats supper over several nights. Then go back and watch it section by section…stopping the DVD to actually do that section on her own garment construction.
(Buy some cheap 100% all cotton fabric off a remnant table…maybe even an entire bolt for her to learn off from…she needs to work out all the bobbles before using expensive fabric…this is cheap training fabric. Wash the whole bolt at once and cut it up in three-foot sections, fold and stack to use on project after project…avoid stripes or checkered squares, which she would have to match up).
Because the DVD is all visual, there are no detailed, technical things to read…nada!!! It is all just sheer fun.
There is just no doubt about it, that becoming an expert cook and seamstress makes a gal a very, very, very capable woman…an asset to any household. These two skill areas need to be incrementally improved constantly, by all of us women, so that we can eventually do them on the backstroke while talking with others, at the same time! That’s the goal! I once knew an 80-year old woman who still didn’t know how to make basic oatmeal, and another woman, age 60, who had no sponge by her kitchen sink, or under her sink…go figure!
If you or your daughter are interested in this skill, these sewing tips could give you real tools, which would help you in SERVING others in a confident and excellent manner. It could be a wonderful next step in your domestic education.
