Sew U – A Review
June 21, 2010 8:34 am Gillian Crafts, Holidays, Home Decor, Kid's Crafts, Sewing
By Kid’s Craft Contributor, Gillian from the blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.
While I sew quite a bit for my kids, particularly for my daughter, I rarely make things for myself anymore. It wasn’t always true. In highschool I regularly made gotta-get-there-before-closing trips to the local fabric store to pick up a few yards for some outfit that I NEEDED for the next day. In fact, I was far more likely to run my bank account dry those days on fabric purchases than anything else. I helped my mom make both my prom dresses and my wedding dress and continued to putter around with making clothes through college when I could afford to buy material. But as the years went by, I stopped sewing things for myself altogether. For one thing, fabric started getting more and more pricy, and clothes could be found on the cheap. And I got into quilting which took up a lot of sewing time. And then I had kids and switched over to making things for them. I still think about it at times though. Particularly when I’m in a fabric store and see something lovely that would make the perfect dress or skirt or pants.
So when I saw Sew U from Wendy Mullin, I was intrigued. I loved the idea of brushing up on my tailoring skills and was fascinated by the thought of using base patterns to make something the way I wanted it, not just they way the pattern called for it.
The book is, for the most part, divided into two parts. The first is one of the best primers on sewing I’ve seen. Both for beginners and for more advanced seamstresses. It goes over pretty much everything you should know to get sewing – from shopping for a sewing machine and learning how to use it to choosing fabrics to how to read and use patterns. It also includes basic instructions for making the three types of projects, skirts, shirts and pants, that come in the second part of the book. There you find three or more options for each project to help you design different looks. It also has hints on how to make further variations and a place to record your own project notes. At the back of the book is a pocket with the three base patterns for the projects which is roomy enough to keep the patterns even after you have unfolded them, which isn’t always true of pattern envelopes.
Because skirts were always my favorite thing to make I decided to start there. That and I had the perfect piece of linen that just begged to be a light weight, a-line skirt sitting in my “current projects” box. Using the premise of “the Summer Skirt” I made a few changes that I thought woudl better suit the skirt I was looking for (and that’s the whole point of the book, isn’t it?) I decided against adding a ruffle to the bottom and cut the fabric on a bias, since I like the way linen hangs when cut that way.
Her hints for adjusting patterns to fit you helped a great deal since most skirt patterns end up too wide in the hips for me and I ended up with just about the perfectly fit skirt. ( I had to go back and adjust the waist size a bit) In fact, now that I’ve made one, I’m hunting for some more fabric to get working on my new, adjusted pattern. I can see a lot of linen skirts in my future!
I’m hoping to get my hands on her other two books, Built by Wendy Dresses and the other one is Sew U Home Stretch Book. I don’t wear a lot of button up shirts so I’m curious to try my hand at making some tee’s and tanks for myself and, next to skirts, dresses are my favorite thing to make. Wendy also carries a line of stand alone patterns but I think this book is still the best place to start, even for an experienced sewer.
Do you sew for yourself? What Wendy project would you like to try?
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Jessica Ubel :
Date: June 21, 2010 @ 12:14 PM
I will have to check it out! I just took the first in a series of a pattern design class & it’s so nice to have tailored clothes! This book sounds intriguing. And nice skirt!