Hello and welcome back to my blog. This post will cover my progress on my in-depth project.

How to Have Beautiful Mind

When looking for a mentor I had a really hard time finding someone that was experienced enough and would willingly give up some of their time. As a last resort, I went to my grandma. When meeting with her for this project I make sure to practice the techniques that the book provides on building better relationships and treat her like a mentor. I think that this has helped deepen my relationship with her.

Most of the time when my grandma gave me instructions I would follow through, however sometimes I would pose a “what if” question, inquiring if it could be done a slightly different way. My ideas weren’t always the better option, but it helped me grow my thinking and understanding of the topic. Not only was I able to grow, but so did my grandma.

Progress Update

This was my first clothing item that I had ever sewn. They are a pair of plaid fuzzy pyjama pants. I began by meeting with my grandma and we went over the entire process of sewing the pants and she gave me instructions that I wrote down. If I was ever struggling, I asked my grandma questions and she would help me out; however, all of the sewings was done by me. I began the process of making the pants by taking my measurements. Since my grandma had made me a pair of pyjama pants this past winter, she already had a pattern with my measurements. That pair of pants was made with thinner fabric, so when cutting out the fabric I made them a bit bigger to account for thicker fabric and seam allowance. When cutting out and sewing the pants I made sure to align the pattern with the drape of the fabric and it was done inside out. I first sewed all sides of the pants together with a straight stitch however, such fluffy fabric can begin to fall apart if left like that. So, I also did a zig-zag stitch on the edges to help secure it better. After sewing the pant legs, I sewed the waistband, and then the bottom of the pant legs.

Struggles

While making my pants I still struggled to understand patterns, which led to me having to repin the pattern multiple times. My grandma always says “Breaking isn’t building,” so I double-checked multiple times that the pattern was laid out correctly before cutting. When using patterns you have to think critically and creatively. You need to be able to imagine how all the pieces connect and you also have to consider how the design of the fabric will align and put the pattern in such a way that you will be wasting the least amount of fabric. If you look at the picture of the final pants you can see that the lines between both pant legs line up with each other which took a lot of thought and repining to get right. I also struggled with making the fabric cooperate as it was thick and fuzzy which made it slide around a lot. I was able to overcome this by pinning the fabric more frequently. I had bumblebunching happen a few times, which is when you get this tangled loop of stitching on the bobbin side of the fabric because of improper tension that is applied to the sewing machine. The waistband turned out a bit too thick for my liking so next time I will use a different method.

Goals

For my next project, I am planning on sewing a shirt and I already have an idea for the fabric and style it will be. I will try to just use a pattern, but if I’ll still be a bit lost, I’ll follow a tutorial on YouTube then. I also won’t need as much guidance from my grandma now, but I will still consult with her as she definitely still has some valuable knowledge to share with me. I also want to do a bit more research on sewing terminology as currently I’m only being exposed to terms in Russian, which makes it harder for me to write my blog posts explaining what I did.