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Elise Blaha Cripe

Caroline Somos

Aaronica Cole

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Transcript:

Helen: We are recording today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, including Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and K’ómoks first nations.

Hello and welcome to Love to Sew. I’m Helen, the designer behind Helen’s Closet Patterns.

Caroline: And I’m Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics.

Helen: We’re two sewing buds who love to sew our own clothes and want to encourage you on your sewing journey, too.

Caroline: Join us today for a supercharged pep talk! Woo!

Helen & Caroline: We’re back!

Helen: We are so happy to be back for our spring season with you all. Thank you so much for your patience and your support over the break and your support of us taking a break. We really, really appreciate it.

Caroline: Yes. Breaks are very healthy, and we had such a great time, but now we’re back, and we really want to thank our patrons. Since we decided not to have advertisements on the show anymore, our patrons are our support network, and Patreon is how we pay our team and ourselves. So thank you all so much for supporting us over there. And if you want to join our Patreon family you can do so at patreon.com/lovetosew. We release bonus episodes every month even in the off season.

Helen: Yes, and we do monthly catch up’s where we talk about what we’re sewing and share our favorite recipes, music, and shows and just have a little bit more of a personal connection with you all which is so lovely. So we would really love to have you join us patreon.com/lovetosew.

Caroline: Yes, and we had a really nice holiday season and super busy start to the new year. We hope that you’ve been well and safe and that you had a chance to do some sewing.

Helen: Yes, and today we have an exciting episode to kick off the season. We invited some of our past guests to record a little pep talk. So we could have an episode dedicated to lifting you up and encouraging you in your sewing. I feel like we could all use a pep talk these days. So this is one we hope that you can return to any time you need a boost and a reminder that you can do it. So without further ado, let’s hear these pep talks.

Caroline: Let’s hear them.

Brooks Ann: Hi there. My name is Brooks Ann Camper, and I am a couture wedding dressmaker who teaches my unconventional methods of custom sewing to those with unconventional bodies who sew for themselves. And for my pep talk I’m going to start with the classic: “You can do it!” Didn’t do the trick? Well, I’m going to talk about hats and flossing my teeth while addressing the inevitable questions that arise while working through a sewing project and making a case to go slow.
So, one of the things I love most about sewing is that it satisfies my nerdy desire to be a detective. I get to look for clues and then follow my leads to solve the case. For me, at least, every step of sewing is peppered with puzzles and questions. Is this true for you, too? Do you often feel like you don’t know what you’re doing?

Well, for those of you who are self-taught, from someone who has a full academic and professional background, I want you to know that I don’t have all the answers, and I don’t know what I’m doing either. I simply do a lot of prep. I am scrappy. I know how to wing it, and I want to empower you to wing it, too. Instead of being frustrated by all the inevitable unknowns, think of your questions as possibilities and opportunities because you don’t have to already know the answers to your questions.

Part of successful sewing is figuring things out, and you get to decide the right answers for you and the best part: you don’t even have to get it right. Often moving forward means you have to go backwards. But you are so smart and lucky to have chosen sewing which is full of reversible, adjustable processes at almost every step.

As a couture wedding dress maker, you probably think that I am big on precision and insist on proper technique, but, y’all, I am loosey-goosey, and I find a lot of advantages to being loosey-goosey. The maker gets to decide their path and their goals, and if you reached your goal, then you did everything properly. So many sewists fear a bunch of mysterious rules and worry that they’re not doing things right, when sewing steps can really just be a puzzle that you get to solve in your own way.

So my work is not successful because I know what I’m doing. It’s that I have gotten good at, and enjoy, revising and editing throughout the process. I am not afraid to try and get something wrong and go back. In fact, I expect it. I welcome revisions and puzzles and questions with curiosity rather than approaching them with frustration. So when I say I’m someone who wings it, I may sound like I mean I throw caution to the wind, but that is rarely my style. I wing it cautiously. I’ll wing it slow.

For example, I incorporate a lot of hand sewing into my garment making which may lead you to think about meticulous, persnickety finishing stitches, but the vast majority of hand stitches used in my garments are temporary. The stitches aren’t part of the final garment. They just help me make the garment a success. The easiest hand stitch, which is the running stitch, is by far my most employed and most useful stitch. Basting is a marvelous tool that gives me tons of information without any risk. Basting allows me to quickly go back which allows me the confidence to go forward.

Basting stitches don’t need to look pretty and can be quick to stitch, but the greatest feature is that you can remove them without a trace in about one second. Basting can be your command + Z button. You get to try out the seam or placement of a pocket or whatever, with no risk and no commitment. And if you love it, then basting helped you make your decision and most often, will also aid you in making the temporary permanent.

But the true value of basting is that you can discover early when something isn’t doing it for you. You gain the knowledge and can make improvements without a seam ripper, which is a huge time-saver. So as I wing it and forge my own path, I rarely know how I’m going to complete a step before I get there. Instead, I keep things as temporary as possible for as long as possible, and I move forward cautiously one step at a time.

And while I do a lot of prep work and experimenting and I take a lot of care while sewing, I also have zero expectations for perfection. I am experienced enough to know that it will never be perfect. And after 20 years of sewing custom professionally, I have never made anything that I wouldn’t do a little differently the next time around, but that’s also, kind of, my favorite part. I love learning. I am not a factory. I am one human being, and I love that my handcrafted clothes have that human element to them.

To me, the most interesting and beautiful parts of a handmade garment are where you can see the mark of the maker. And personally, I love the history and the stories that are stitched inside something custom made. So keep it real. Perfect is boring. For me, realizing that perfection is unrealistic and unnecessary has been fantastically freeing. The questions that naturally will arise during a sewing project and the answers that you’re looking for are most often about your specific project, your specific tools and materials, your specific body, your specific skills, and your specific personal preferences.

These are not answers that can be found in a book or that could have been predicted by your commercial pattern’s designer. So your questions are a natural and imperative part of the process. Loosening perfectionism and abandoning dependence on someone else’s work forces you to consider the exact moment of the process that you are in, and staying in the moment forces you to consider your specific goals and needs for your unique mash up of elements which will lead you to being successful with these elements. And what’s the worst that could happen?

For several years, I worked for the theatrical milliner Lynne Mackey making custom hats for Broadway shows. Often fellow hat makers and I would head to her table scared or confused or frustrated over something that we were working on, and so often Lynne would put it into perspective by simply saying, “It’s only a hat.” So y’all, it’s only clothes. Relax, learn a lot, cut that delicious fabric, and enjoy every minute of it.

But what if you feel stuck, like you have no way to figure out the answers? Well, this is usually telling you that you are getting ahead of yourself or that you have a barrier in place. Instead of figuring out the answer to your original question, you may need to slow down and figure out what barrier is keeping you from success and how you can eliminate this barrier.

So, for example, up until recently I rarely ever flossed my teeth. It’s not that I didn’t know that it would be beneficial. It’s not that I didn’t want to have flossed teeth. So I started to think about why I wasn’t doing it. And what I came up with is: flossing is super boring, and I don’t want to stand around and complete the task, even if it only takes one minute, which helped me come up with a plan that turned me into a flosser.

What if I combined it with something that I love? Well, any excuse to stay in the bubble bath just a few minutes longer is fine by me. So now I keep my floss with my soaps and I get more time in the bath, and my teeth are thankful. And I’ll never forget one of the brides that I worked with who used me, kind of, like the bathtub. As soon as Greta got engaged, the part of wedding planning that she looked forward to the least was the wedding dress.

So she made the decision to instead do whatever she could to make it the most fun part of all. Instead of salon shopping, she hired me, and we had an absolute blast together. And I often think of Greta’s way of conquering her challenges by making sure she approached them with the mindset of having fun.

So the crux of most failures isn’t that you don’t know what you’re doing, it is impatience. If you can relax your need for speed to the finish line, I think you’ll find more peace and more success. Wait for that swatch, work through that mock up, do practice samples, baste. Sewing is fun, and doing it well is a lot of work. Recognize this, plan for this, celebrate this. Find ways to make each step fun while taking it slow.

Be someone who is willing to put in the work, conquer the challenges, and forge your own path to make beautiful things. And another thing I think is important to recognize is when it’s time for, to quit for the day and when it’s time to wrap up a pep talk. So in closing, questions are good. Sewing includes command Z. It’s only a hat. Floss your teeth. And you can do it. Buh-bye.

Jasika Nicole: Hey, all you Love to Sew listeners? This is Jasika Nicole here with a little bit of a pep talk for all of the makers out in the world who are looking to reinvigorate their making process. I have a couple of big Ideas that really hit home for me over the past year that I would love to share with you all.

So at the beginning of the pandemic, I got back into pottery for the first time in a few years. I used to belong to a local pottery studio where I learned how to use the wheel. I learned a little bit about hand building. I learned about glazing. And I had a really great time at that studio. And I really love the man who owned the place. He was kind and gentle and very generous with his knowledge. The pottery that I made at this studio was always pretty small because I was too afraid to throw anything bigger than, like, a pound at a time, but I was still really proud of the stuff that I made there.

Now fast forward to early 2020 when a friend of I’m gifted me her pottery wheel because she just wasn’t using it anymore. And I obviously, you know, had not been doing pottery for a while at that point, but I happily accepted this free gift. And I decided to set up shop in the storage room beneath our garage, and over the span of a couple of months, I turned that storage room into a really lovely, little pottery studio for myself.

Um, I have shelves for all my greenware so that it can dry. I’ve got a table where I work on handbuilding. I’ve got a nook for my pottery books. I’ve got a little unit to put all my glazes and hand building tools. And of course, I’ve got my little used wheel and my stool that goes with it. Now it took me a little while to get back into the groove of throwing, but once I did, I started noticing that the things I was creating were so different than what I had created when I was a member of the pottery studio.

Now, I loved the work that I had done before. Again, I really did feel proud of it. But when I was working in my own studio, it was the first time that I felt like I was creating pieces that looked and felt like me. I was all of a sudden inspired to experiment with different techniques and inspired to try out weird things, and I would keep what worked for me, and I would discard what didn’t, but I wouldn’t have any judgment of myself or my work in this process.
I was just way less consumed by the aesthetics of what I was creating, and I was able to just focus on the excitement and the novelty of, you know, using a material and process that are very different from sewing.

I started wondering why my pottery experience at home was so different than it had been at the studio, and I realized that that was exactly my answer. It was my environment, being able to work at home in my own curated space with nobody looking over my shoulder and telling me that what I was doing was quote unquote wrong, which did happen more than once with some of the men who were also members of the studio, and I really hated it.

It just unlocked something in me where I suddenly, I didn’t have the need to, to be, like, performatively creative. That is a term I just made up, literally just now, but I feel like it describes the mindset that we sometimes have as artists where we try to create and the way that we have been taught or to create in the way that we think others will respond to instead of in a way that feels really authentic to our own style and experience and comfort level.

So the pieces that I was making in my own home, they felt, like, a world apart from what I had created in the pottery studio I belonged to, and now I, kind of, wonder how long, if ever, it would have taken me to, kind of, find my own voice through this medium if I had stayed at the studio and not been able to build a practice on my own terms in my own space.

The point of the story isn’t to say that everybody needs to create in isolation at all. But rather, that everybody should really try and pay attention to the environment that generates the most, the most peace, the most comfort for you individually because that is the type of environment that you are going to end up thriving in. There are some people, like me, who love to create in isolation. There’s other people that are going to soar when they are in a group setting because they find so much inspiration from the energy that is being cultivated around them. There are other people that are going to realize that they don’t really care who’s around them, that they just like to create while they’re outside in nature. There are other people that are going to realize they like to create to the rhythm of music or to podcasts or to make when everybody in the house is asleep or to make when everybody in the house is awake.

There’s obviously no right or wrong answer to what your environment should look like. But I do think it’s really important to pay attention to what supports you and your ability to focus and to dream and to create the things that you are excited about.

Okay. So, the last part of my making pep talk intersects a bit with my previous idea. Essentially, I have learned to stop using the word failure in the realm of my making because I realized, through all aspects of my making, with sewing, with pottery, with knitting, with cooking, with all sorts of things, that there is actually no space for that word. Failure is a word that is used to denote something that doesn’t work out as planned, something that has no worth, no merit, aesthetically or otherwise, but the truth is that even my ugliest, worst fitting projects that did not work out as planned have taught me something really valuable that I was able to utilize in other projects that I worked on in the future.
So, the cigarette pants that I was so excited to make several years ago, right in the beginning of my sewing journey, that I accidentally cut out on the wrong grainline, so that the stretch was going up and down my leg instead of around my leg. Um, I mean, I don’t know if you have seen pictures of this because I definitely shared it on my Instagram, but I am talking like butt skin is overflowing from the waistband. They were so tight I could not pull them up. And of course, it felt like a failure at the time, and I was really crushed because, you know, I’d spend so much time planning this project out. But guess what? I have never, ever cut my pants on the wrong grainline again. I only had to do it once. Because I never forgot what an important lesson it was, so it can’t be a failure if it has positively influenced the way that I make for years afterwards. So instead of thinking of them as failures, I have started to call them “learning successes.”

This, uh, really beautifully shaped cup, you know, that I molded out of clay to try and make into this really interesting shape that fell apart right before I was ready to take it off of the wheel, I no longer look at that as a failure because I learned that my walls were too thin to hold up such a large piece, so that is a learning success. The sweater that I knitted for what felt like 12 years because I could not get the sleeves to attach, like, nicely to the armholes, I did not fail at that because I learned that I have a preferred method of attaching sleeves, and now I know what to look for in the sweater patterns that are drafted in the way that I want them to be drafted. And also, by the way, I did finally get the sleeves right. It took me four times, but that is a learning success. This gorgeous pair of knee-high boots that took me hours to pull off of the last because I couldn’t break the last to pull it out of the shoe, and I ended up having to use, like, all these random tools from my garage and a metal spatula to pry it out. It felt like a real failure in the moment, and I was so upset about it, but the truth is that it was totally a learning success because I did manage to get the lasts out of the boots, even though it took a lot of time, and I can also guarantee you that I will never, ever try to make a boot with an unbreakable last inside of it.

You know, the concept is, is very simple. But the truth is that the language we use to talk to ourselves in our heads has a huge impact on our emotional well-being. If we tell ourselves that we failed at making something, then it follows that we might start thinking of ourselves as failures, too. And so I want to right here and right now debunk that thought process. The word failure has no business being in the vernacular of any maker. If you are a visionary, if you have the ability to create something new out of nothing, if you can look at lifeless materials and mold them into something new that is beautiful or functional or interesting or pleasing, then you have done the opposite of fail. You have created. To fail is to reach a dead end. To fail is to run out of options. But to succeed is to keep going and to continue to say yes to yourself despite the obstacles that might have come up for you in the process. So makers, collectively, I want us all to feel like we are not failures. We are winners.

Alright, that is all the pep talk that I have for today. Thanks so much for listening. Happy making everybody, and thank you Helen and Caroline for having me on again!

Elise: Hey, I’m Elise and I’m the creator of the Get To Work Book. I don’t have any sewing businesses, but I do love to encourage people to set goals, especially goals around creative things. So it is a gift to get to share a pep talk with you today, and my pep talk, this is something that I think about all the time when I am sewing or I’ve been, like, out of the habit of sewing, and I really want to get back into it.
It’s just thinking of one step that I can take to get me closer to starting. So sometimes my one step is changing my serger thread to the color that I know I’m going to need for a project. Sometimes my one step is printing a pattern. Sometimes my one step is I’m going to glue that pattern together today.

I use glue sticks now instead of tape when I’m tiling my patterns. I have to say it’s really, really helpful if you’re not already doing it. You probably already are. I think I’m behind. It’s amazing. And so sometimes my step is, like, cutting out a pattern right and I will often break down the project into a lot of little steps like that and then schedule it out. So Monday, I’m going to change my serger thread. Tuesday, I’m going to print my pattern. Wednesday, I’m going to tape, or glue, my pattern together. Thursday, I’m going to cut it out. Really, simple breakdown. If you feel like your steps are too big, break them down even smaller.

It is okay if it takes you three months to make a pair of pants, okay? The idea is just to get back into it and figuring out a way that you’re not overwhelmed by the project. We all know how good it feels to be able to say, thanks, I made it, right? So do that, like, to get there. Just think about the next step only. Don’t worry about if the pants are going to fit. Just worry about changing that serger thread. And if we piece all those little steps together, suddenly, we get to have a garment that we made, and, um, it’s so exciting, and then I think getting into that next project is easier when you’ve just gotten over the hump and have just gotten over the overwhelm.

So that’s my pep talk. Happy making!

Caroline: Hello, listeners. Caroline here. I am so excited to give you a pep talk today because really, who doesn’t need a pep talk right now? I hope that this feels like a big hug from me to you. I hope that it inspires you and makes you feel supported and loved because you deserve that. You are awesome.

So I learned to sew about 20 years ago. What? And I’ve had a lot of ups and downs throughout my sewing journey. I actually learned when I was a kid, and I forced my mom to teach me how to use her old Singer sewing machine because I was just drawn to it and fascinated by this idea of making clothes for myself. I really loved clothing and fashion at the time, and when I learned at this young age, there really were no rules. I didn’t use patterns. I didn’t know what I was doing. I just cut into fabric. I draped it over my body. I tried my best, and I made some cool things. And then I sewed on and off throughout my adolescence, but my next real stint was sewing was during my fashion design studies.

I decided to go to school for fashion design because obviously, I had this interest in sewing. I was drawn to it. And this time in my life was all about rules. I mean, I learned some great sewing skills and habits during this time, and that was really important I think and foundational for my sewing journey in the future. But, you know, I sewed on and off for a few years after school not a ton and the focus real-, wasn’t really about sewing for myself.
It wasn’t until I discovered the home sewing world that I truly fell in love with sewing my own clothes.

But in some ways, I, kind of, wish I could go back to those early years when I was a kid and there were no rules. There were no expectations. I was simply sewing because I thought it was so cool, and I wanted to do it. It was pure fun. It was a creative outlet for my young self, and that was such a special time. But of course, it’s not that simple. Sewing as an adult in the age of social media and podcasting, there is so much more that goes along in this practice, and I love those parts, too. I love that our podcast explores all of the complicated layers of sewing clothes for yourself, and there are so many feelings involved in this hobby, and that’s okay.

But one of the things that has enriched my sewing practice lately is to try to ditch the negative self-talk. I’ve spent many years with feelings of guilt wrapped up into my sewing I was telling myself that I wasn’t sewing enough or that I wasn’t sharing enough and that was making me feel not worthy of participating in this community in ways that I wanted to, but I am here to tell you that however much you sew, it’s enough. It’s enough for you. It’s enough for this day or week or month of your life. It’s more than enough. It’s great. It’s time that you are spending on yourself, and that is so special.

So don’t feel guilty for not sewing all the time. Stop comparing yourself to everyone else. You are worthy of sewing just as much as anyone else, and I don’t want you to let guilt or shame stop you from taking that step to just start a project. Make a plan, take small steps, schedule it in, sew for 10, 20, 30 minutes, stop thinking about other people, and just think about yourself.

I also want to encourage you to take a step back and evaluate what you love most about sewing. Take a look back at your sewing journey and think about the times that you felt really good. Don’t worry about what you think you should be sewing or what you feel like you need. Remember it’s okay not to sew everything. Figure out what you love about sewing and chase that. Chase that joy and satisfaction. Do more of what feels good and right. And take that precious sewing time that you’re carving out for yourself, and sew what you want, especially if you’re like me and you feel like you don’t always have time to sew and you have trouble fitting it in and there’s a lot of feelings around that.

Take that time that you do have and make sure that you make it special for yourself. And remember to have fun. Experiment. Drop all of your rules and expectations and pretend you’re a kid just doing this because you think it’s cool. Embrace that childlike curiosity. I’ve been playing with brighter color lately, and it’s bringing me so much joy and inspiration. So even making a small change like that, injecting something new into your sewing practice, remembering why you love it and doing more of that. I think that is going to help you feel inspired and joyful in your sewing practice.

So to recap: ditch the guilt. Embrace your sewing practice where it’s at. Chase that feel good sewing feeling. And have fun.

Aaronica: Hi, my name is Aaronica Cole, and I run The Needle & The Belle. So since I’ve been sharing more and more pictures online within this sewing community, or even just period, one of the things that I hear often is, I just love your style. And it’s so wild to me that people say that to me now because when I think about how I get dressed or even choosing the fabrics that I use and the patterns that I use to make myself things, I don’t often think of myself as being someone who’s, like, trendy or stylish or any of those things.
In fact, it actually has taken me quite a few years to, kind of, develop a closet that I feel is cohesive. And I want to share just, kind of, some of the tips and tricks that I’ve used and even some of the things that I failed at over the years to help out new sewists or people who are just like, I just, kind of, want to know how to create a cohesive closet.

When I first started out sewing, one of the things that I used to do was I would just go and buy up fabric. I remember, uh, joining a Facebook group, and they would have all of these auctions, and I would just buy, just to be buying. I had no concept of what I was going to be making with the fabric, and I had no real concept of even how the the fabric felt because I was essentially rejoining, um, sewing in my adult life.

And I fell in love, or rather, the hot fabric in the moment was Liverpool, and y’all, I bought up all this Liverpool only to have it delivered, and I was like, hmm. I actually don’t particularly love the way that Liverpool feels on my skin. So I had all of this Liverpool, and I still have some of it left, I ended up just, kind of, not using it. And in fact, I did this for years, like two to three years where I was just, kind of, buying fabric that I saw with no particular thought in mind of how this would play into my closet until about three years ago when I started to really develop an aesthetic.

In my head, I thought I was, like, this really bright, bubbly, and pattern loving person. And in reality, I love the way that earth tones make me feel. So the first thing that I would suggest is: decide on a color palette. So I love the color mustard, and that was, at the time, what I, kind of, used to base all of the other colors and patterns that I chose, as far as fabrics, off of. In order to make that work, what I would do is I would actually just go ahead and put in the color mustard in the search bar of any, kind of, any fabric website that I went to just to see what fabrics that they had.

Um, whether they were patterns or just straight solids. And then I actually expanded upon what my color palette looked like. I love mustard, rust, olive green, and blush, as well as, like, a deep coral. All of those colors just scream, ah, I love that! And then I love camouflage, just like your basic traditional olive base camouflage, and cheetah print. I also have an affection for some stripes, and it’s so classic, right? So once I decided on the colors and, like, patterns that I was going for, then I would just begin to search that out.

And even now I do that. I have it set up for my kids, as well, where each one of them has, kind of, like, a color that’s strongest in their closets, and that’s just so that as we get dressed nothing goes to waste, like, we can find anything in our closets and mix-and-match them. And that was my goal. I would like to say that we do have a capsule wardrobe, but in truth, our wardrobes are a little bit too robust for them to be considered a capsule. But we do have a cohesive wardrobe, and starting out with that color palette is one of the things that really works well for us.

The next thing that I do is I have a set of, like, just certain cuts that I love on myself. Like, I love crop tops. I know as a plus size woman, you know, it’s been said for so long that we are not supposed to be wearing crop tops, and I’m so excited about the body positivity movement, just empowering many women and men to feel like we can actually just wear whatever, you know, makes our hearts happy. Crop tops make my heart happy. Crop tops and bodysuits are oftentimes, um, the basis for m-, or the foundation for, whatever outfit that I’m about to build.

I love a good body suit, too. The main reason why I love a body suit is because the way that my body is set up, there is always my shirt in the back rising, and I love to have, like, a nice, sleek, smooth line as opposed to consistently feeling like I have to fight with my clothing back there. So within my wardrobe there are some consistencies, right? Like, I love turtlenecks. I love the way that I look in turtlenecks. So I have a lot of turtleneck dresses. Some are sleeveless. Some are long sleeve. I love a sleeveless turtleneck dress because that layering, it’s so classic. And then having bodysuits, as well, because if you have a sleeveless turtleneck dress and you put on a bodysuit, now you have an entirely different look.

So that’s what I did first was, I decided what I wanted my wardrobe to look like, as far as layering went, because I am also hot natured, so I needed something that I was going to be able to get in and out of. And then I also took a look at how it played into my day-to-day, like, lifestyle. Now prior to COVID hitting, I did a lot of traveling for work, so I would need to have items that could pull double duty that didn’t need to be ironed because I was oftentimes folding things up and, like, literally shaking them out to go.

So a lot of the fabrics that I use are knit, and the reason why is because they just typically do not hold wrinkles, and it makes it so much easier to just, kind of, smooth those wrinkles out and have a cohesive and nice, neat look. The other thing that I do within my wardrobe is, I’m not afraid to mix and match patterns. In fact, in my opinion, camo as well as cheetah print are neutrals, so are stripes actually. So when you pair them all together, all you have is just a bunch of neutrals just, kind of, hanging out together. But I feel like that’s one of the statements that my wardrobe makes is that, you know, it’s, it’s bold and, and in a muted way because they’re bold with earth tones, you know?

And the other, and the last final piece that I’ll say about developing a wardrobe is that you have to do it for comfort. If you’re comfortable in dresses, then you should absolutely be sewing dresses. If you’re more comfortable in pants, you should absolutely be sewing more pants. The key to having, like, really great style and a cohesive wardrobe is really dressing for what feels good to you as opposed to trying to, you know, fit in with some other, kind of, um, life that may not be your’s.

Like right now, I’m living in all of my, you know, loungewear, and I love it. I’m absolutely having the time of my life in, like, my super plush loungewear. And I think that style, you know, we can all be trendy, right? But style is what makes it personal. Style is what makes it our own, you know? It’s our own twist on it. And for me, comfort is what does it for me, you know? I’d like for my clothes to scream, oh, she looks like she would be really fun to sit and have a cup of coffee with, and I think I do a good job tying that together.

Jenny: Hi, everyone. This is Jenny Rushmore of Cashmerette, and I’m giving you a pep talk today all about sewing clothes that fit, especially when you’re plus size. So, many of us, including me, decided to start sewing because it’s just so difficult to find clothes that fit and are nice and are made out of nice fabrics and are constructed well if you’re anything other than a totally standard size.

But, as I well know, because this is why I set up my company, it can also be frustrating when it comes to sewing patterns, and there are several things that I always want, especially beginner plus-size sewing people to know about to make you have, like, a much higher chance that you’re going to have a really fantastic outcome. Now, the very first thing I want to say is: you need to always bear in mind what has become my mantra which is that you’re going to be changing the clothes to fit your body and not your body to fit the clothes.

What that means is if a sleeve doesn’t fit you very well, it’s not the fault of your body. There is nothing wrong with your arm. It’s the problem with a sleeve, and the amazing thing about sewing is that anyone can make any sleeve in any size. There absolutely are no limits. So it’s a really, really exciting prospect. If you’re just beginning now, it takes a little while to get there, you know, like naturally you’re not going to be, like, fantastic at everything overnight, but there are a couple of things that you can do that are going to maximize the chance that you’re going to have a really good first garment and you’re going to find it a positive experience.

So, the first thing is, how do you know what size to make? Now, this is a really big one because if you’ve already started looking into patterns, you’re going to find that the numbers on sewing patterns are often not the same as the numbers of clothes that you would pick in the shops. So, for instance, I’m about, I don’t know, an 18 or a 20 in American ready-to-wear sizes right now if I went in a store, but depending on the sewing pattern, some people I’m in a 26. Some I’m in a 2X. Some I’m in an 18 G/H. But the thing is, that might sound really frustrating, but actually as sewists, it’s a really great opportunity, and the reason is, because we pick our sizes based on our measurements, not just based on a single number.

So what you need to do is, you need to measure the key parts of your body, and you can get, um, there’s loads of help on that online, but on the Cashmerette website, you go to sizing, you can find it there. You measure those points, and then you can actually pick the size that fits you best from the measurement tables. Now over 80 percent of people are going to find that their numbers aren’t all in one size. So you might be like, hold on. My boobs are a size 28, but my waist is a 32, and my hips are a 24. Oh, no, like, I’m, I’m, I’m disheartened. What am I going to do?

Well, the number one thing I recommend for people when they’re starting their journey of fitting is learning how to grade between sizes. What you basically do is join up, dot-to-dot, the different sizes and make a totally custom garment for you. And when you start to think about it, of course nothing fits you in the shops right if you’re different sizes. Like, I don’t know, I’m, like, an 18 to a 22 to a 16. Of course, I can’t find dresses to fit me in a shop because no one makes dresses for that, but I can sew my own.

If you want to learn about grading between sizes, you can go to cashmerette.com/grading and we actually have lots and lots of different tutorials on how to do that. So if there’s one thing I’d recommend you learn as a beginner who’s plus size, it’s grading between sizes.

Now, what’s the next thing? It’s so much easier if you can start with a pattern that’s more or less going to fit you. The good news is that in the last five years since I launched Cashmerette, there’s actually been tons of progress in sewing pattern companies going up to larger sizes. So now, in fact the last count, I think I saw somewhere that there are over a hundred sewing pattern companies now that go at least to, I think it was a 56 inch hip I saw on that one. If you see something you really love and you’re like six sizes out of it, I mean, first of all, I think you do have to think, does that sewing pattern company, like, deserve my money, right? And I think the very first thing I’d recommend you do is see, is there another sewing pattern company that has something really similar or maybe something that’s in the same ballpark, but you could adjust it a little bit?

So for instance, maybe there’s a new t-shirt out and you love the v-neck, but you can’t fit in that one brand. Have a look for other brands with t-shirts and you can actually change it pretty easily to have that v-neck. So you, we’re in a much better situation now than we were a couple of years ago, and we actually have a guide, there are many places now where you can find lists of companies that go into plus sizes. So on our website, if you go to cashmerette.com/plussizepatterns, we have a big list. But there are also lists available, um, there’s the Curvy Pattern Database, you can look at online. And you can also go to the Curvy Sewing Collective, and there’s lots of reviews there. and you’ll probably find that there are loads and loads more patterns there than you really ever imagined.

Now just because you do find one that fits you, say you’re like, okay, it turns out, like, I’m a size 26 in this pattern. Great. I can make it. Does that mean it will definitely fit you perfectly straight off? No, it doesn’t because there is so much variety, and sewing pattern companies have to pick a certain body type, right? They have to say, well, the shoulders are this wide. Because, you know, they have to go with something but, you know, your shoulders might be wider. Your shoulders might be narrower. Who knows? So learning to do basic fitting is really then, like, the gateway into clothes that fit you really fabulously unless you’re lucky enough that you precisely fit a sewing company.

So learning to fit, again, there are loads of online resources these days. We have a online workshop called Fitting for Curves, but there’s also, like, tons on YouTube. A lot of your sewing pattern designers will have individual blog posts. So you shouldn’t feel that, you know, there’s no pull that, you know, it’s hopeless trying to fit. I know a lot of people start off like that because now there are, there are lots and lots of places that you can learn how to do things. Again, sometimes you can make it easier. Our patterns at Cashmerette come in cup sizes up to a G/H, and we also have full bicep sleeves, if sleeves are usually too small for you, but different pattern companies have, like, different pieces. So sometimes you can really even skip the fitting altogether.

The final thing I wanted to talk about is community, so it’s really easy when you’re plus size to end up feeling very excluded and very different and trust me, like, I know how bad that feels. But what’s amazing is that, especially online, There are now these really big communities where you can fit in. You can get advice, and you can interact with people.

So just a few, the Curvy Sewing Collective, which is originally a website which I co-founded in 2014 I think, quite a long time ago now, has a super active Facebook group. And I really recommend it to all plus size and curvy sewists. It’s incredibly positive. It’s a really safe space, you know, people are putting pictures of themselves in their underwear or skimpy things. And really, you post there and you’re going to have, like, a hundred people within 10 minutes telling you, you look awesome, which indeed you should. But there is a wealth of knowledge in there because there are so many people who have so much experience that if you have a question, you can get it answered really easily. And it’s just a really fantastic sense of camaraderie in there.

And increasingly online, like, if you go on Instagram, there are loads of plus-size sewing people on there now, and I found it really helpful to like curate my Instagram feed when I was starting out because I found myself so inspired by seeing people who look like me, and sometimes I might be like, well, I can’t wear that, you know? I’m too big, and then I would see someone who was quite significantly bigger than me looking incredible, and it would be such a wake-up call that, you know, your size really doesn’t dictate whether you can look gorgeous. It doesn’t dictate what you can wear. It doesn’t dictate what your style is.

And that’s the magic of sewing because if you don’t sew, well you, kind of, are limited actually to, like, what some buyer in a shop decided, like, three years ago at some fashion trend conference, you know, what they thought the plus-size people should wear. That’s how we end up with, you know, a lot of butterflies and cold shoulders, but it doesn’t matter what your style is if you can sew. Like, if you want to go minimalist, you can do that. If you want to go goth, you can do that. If you just want to go, like, simple chic, and to me that’s the most exciting thing about sewing. If you’re just beginning, yeah, it takes a little bit of time to get there, but pick a pattern that comes in your size, learn to do some basic fitting, and take your measurements, and I think you will be super happy super quick.

Alright, guys, get sewing. I’m excited to see what everyone makes.

Julian: Hello. My name is Julian, and I am the creator behind Julian Creates. And I, kind of, want to just, kind of, talk to you today about ways to really invigorate your creativity, especially this year. One of the ways that I get excited about new projects, or just to really use my creative muscles sometimes, is by getting a new gadget, be it a sewing machine, be it an iron, or sometimes, as simple as a new set of pins or other notions. Sometimes you just need a little something new to play with to really help get the juices flowing.

Understand that though sometimes projects can be hard and we are a little scared to try different things, if we don’t try, we don’t succeed. So it’s ok, even if you make a mistake or mess up because usually in those mess-ups and mistakes, you learn something. So always have, even if it’s just some scrap fabrics or something that you’re not too sentimental about, just some, some plain fabric that you can play with and try. The biggest thing is that you try because even in every trial, that’s where you get your best lessons.

I know, for me, the reason that I started making men’s clothing is because I saw a pattern that said it was easy. It was my second actual garment. It was a button-up shirt. Now when I actually got into it, it wasn’t that easy, but I had started already, and I just took it step by step. Is it perfect? Heavens, no, but that’s okay. From that shirt, I learned so much, and it led to other shirts and other pair of pants and coats and other different projects that gets me to where I am today.

And even today, of course, I still make mistakes, but in every mistake, usually there’s a learning lesson. Be it around, making sure that I stay stitch certain parts of shirts before putting on collars or making sure that I’m using the right correct tension or differential feed with my overlocker. All these different things lead to great learnings to make, for me, a better sewist going forward. So don’t be afraid to try.

One of the things I do is, I always make sure I have scrap fabrics available, be it from older projects or anything else. Just sometimes, I need something to sew, especially if you don’t understand a big project that you want to do right now. Sometimes you just need a little something that you can keep running under the sewing machine. Fo-, when I first started sewing, I would buy scraps of fabric from IKEA. Um, they used to sew big squares that you can sew together, and I always made sure, even when I wasn’t working on a project I had some squares of something that I could sew together.

Even to this day, I usually keep a jelly roll or a charm pack or something like that that I can just sew together as a way to keep me moving and keep some part of that creativity going because it’s like a meditation for me. It’s really about self-care. So find that thing that helps you just keep going. Even if you are coming across a road block, don’t stop. Don’t put it up and just never pick it up again. Sometimes you just might need to take a moment, sew on something simple, and then come back to it.

Note that you have a community that is always behind you, that you can always ask questions to, that you can always go to for cheering on, or just to commiserate about learning lessons. We won’t call them ails or anything like that, but learning lessons, so really dive into that community. Reach out to us. We’re all here to help because we’re all wanting the same thing. We want people to be excited about the makes that they’re making. So I-, just know if you ever see me online. I’m always going to be a cheerleader for you, and I hope you can do the same for others.

We are all one big worldwide sewing community. So let’s all make sure that we are providing that positive energy to make sure that others know that this is a welcoming space that other people can come and sew, too, as well. Take it a day at a time. Sometimes you need to take it a moment at a time. But even in those great problem moments, you’ll get through it.

Note: we’re rooting for you.

50:41 Hello, dear listener, this is Helen from the podcast and from Helen’s Closet Patterns. And I want to talk to you today about taking charge because you are in charge of the sewing process and the design. And I know it might not seem like this when your machine eats your project or your iron burns your fabric or the pattern instructions make no sense to you, but you are in charge of your sewing and you are the boss of your sewing space and I want to talk today about getting creative and trusting your instincts.

So first, let’s talk about taking charge of the sewing process. There are lots of ways to approach things when sewing, so if you want to try a different method or technique, you should do that. Sewing pattern designers, like myself, love to use certain methods that we enjoy, or we like to include new ways to approach things in our patterns to make them all these unique learning experiences and bring new things to the table every time, but I’m here to tell you that, as a pattern designer, it’s okay to veer from the instruction booklet. It’s okay if the methods presented make you roll your eyes and want to do it another way. I’m not there. I can’t see you, and even if I was there and I was watching you, I would be cheering you on and encouraging you to do whatever works for you.

You can use whatever method that you prefer and even tried and true instructions from one pattern for a step in another pattern, like a zipper fly or a shirt placket. If you have a pattern in your collection that you know works for you, pull it out and use it. Curate your sewing experience to avoid frustration and feel so empowered in your sewing. As a beginner, I want to say that I know this is really daunting. Sticking to the instructions can be super important for a lot of people when they start sewing, and that’s totally fine. But one day you’re going to come across a step in the instructions and you’re going to think, really I have to do it that way? Can’t I just do it the other way that I liked in my last project? And you can because you are the boss.

And another aspect of taking charge in your sewing is taking ownership of the design. Now, this does take some practice. Seeing beyond the pattern envelope line drawings does not come easy. The more garments you sew, the more styles you try, the more you’re going to start to see these illustrations and pattern pieces as a suggestion not a directive. You’re the real designer, not me. The pattern is only the roadmap, but you can take detours. You can stop to get gas. You can even change your mind halfway there and decide to go somewhere completely different. Okay now, I just want to go on a road trip.

But I want to encourage you to look closely at the pattern designs and try to see opportunities to get more mileage out of the pattern and customize it for your needs. This can be just a brainstorming session, and you don’t need to commit to sewing anything just yet. Just look at some of the patterns in your collection and think about things, like can you change or add pockets? Maybe you want to eliminate pockets? Could a top also be a dress if it was lengthened? Could you modify the neckline to suit your personal style? Change the rise on a pair of pants to make them just perfect for you? Could you layer a garment to work for you for more seasons? Could a skirt or a dress have a gathered panel added to the bottom? One of my favorite hacks. Can you make a pair of pants into shorts, too? Maybe you can do a mash-up of a top and a bottom to make a cool jumpsuit, and yeah, you might have to add a zipper or something to get in and out, but you can do that. I know you can.

And one of my favorite things to look for in patterns is where you can add seams because you can add seams wherever you want. There’s no limit. You can cut the pattern up and add a seam allowance and put a seam anywhere. This lets you mix and match fabrics, if you want to do some scrap busting. It lets you add little hidden pockets. It lets you add details like piping. It’s so exciting to take a boxy top and add seams in places where you think they should be and mix and match your fabrics and have so much fun with the design.

You can make these kinds of changes and begin flexing those design muscles. It’s so much fun to take ownership of your sewing project and make it exactly what you want. And remember that this is all a big experiment and a learning process. So if it doesn’t work out the way you plan, don’t sweat it. The practice you got and the lessons you learned are what are important. I want to remind you also to follow our #youcanhackit hashtag for inspiration. A lot of sewists out there are using that one on Instagram, and it is amazing to see what people are doing with the patterns available.

Okay, that’s all I have for you today. To recap: bossy pattern designers, like myself, finicky sewing machines, and aggressive irons are not in charge of your sewing. You are.

Denise: Hello, Love to Sew listeners. I’m Denise Archer, otherwise known as @pinprick on Instagram. I’m going to begin with a story. When I was a 21 year old student living in southern France, four of my British friends drove down to see me so we could celebrate the New Year. We fumbled around together for a week in our carefree imprudent way and laughed through it all. We had a wonderful time.

However, on the day my friends needed to return home, they suggested I hitch a ride with them. And I hesitated. I had planned to take the train up to Paris to meet a new group of incoming American students, but I had wanted to travel alone. Also, my friend’s car was a tiny British thing, and five people squished inside didn’t sound so appealing. But my friends begged, and I said, okay, so in the ba-, afternoon, we took off.

The drive up to Paris wasn’t quick. We were slowed down by the constant barrage of toll booths, bathroom breaks, dinner, and a flat tire, and we arrived in Paris in the middle of the night at one am, totally exhausted. My friend pulled over the car and parked. We had no idea where we were, just that we needed to sleep. It was too late to check into a hotel, and we didn’t have extra money for such conveniences anyway. So we decided to sleep sitting upright in the tiny car in Paris in the middle of winter.

Hours later, I woke up to my head resting on the cold window. I opened my eyes and saw the beginning of dawn outside, veiled in a dusky gray, and inside the car, all the windows were wet with condensation from our breathing. The five of us were shivering, and our necks, backs, and hips ached, and then there was a sudden explosion of cussing as everyone wanted to get out of the car. But the two in front had a difficult time stepping out because their joints wouldn’t function, and the three of us and back were hitting the seats yelling for them to release us. But once outside, we stretched and limped with our cold stiff bodies, and we blinked and exchanged glances.

My friends just wanted to get back to England, and I just wanted a hotel. It was getting lighter and some activity had begun on the sidewalk shop, so it was my chance to exit. I gave everyone a quick, miserable hug and set off to find a warm bed, and I found a decent one star hotel with just the basics, and I was so relieved when I sat down on that bed, and that’s when the first wave hit me. I was coming down with a nasty cold.

My original plan was to arrive in Paris three days before the American crew so I could visit museums and sit in cafes and study. But what I ended up doing for three days was shivering underneath the covers of my hotel bed, sponge bathing my stinky armpits whenever I woke up in a pool of sweat because my room just had a toilet and a sink, and whenever I was hungry, I had to dress myself in my feeble weakened state, hobble down three flights of stairs, find the nearest convenience store, and barely make it back up to my room.

Even worse, there was no TV, and I didn’t bring a single novel because I didn’t want to be distracted from my studies. All I had brought were French grammar textbooks and notebooks filled with grammar notes. And the reason I did this is because as soon as the American students were scheduled to arrive, everyone was to be tested and placed in one of two intensive French classes, either introductory French or Advanced French. And even though I only had a year of college French under my belt, I knew which track I wanted to be in. I had paid for this year wi-, myself and I wanted that advanced French class. So while I slept a lot during those three days in my hotel room, there was also a lot of downtime, and I was so painfully bored. I pulled out my French grammar notes and textbooks and read those because it was the, only a little less painful than laying in bed staring at the stained wallpaper.

And after three days, I met the American students at another hotel where there was a shower and a TV, and once cleaned and in my bed, I got sucked into a documentary on mating lions, which was also very graphic, but I pulled myself away from the mating lions because even though I felt like garbage, I needed to study for that test. And the next day, I took that test even though I wasn’t sure of the outcome because getting really, really sick wasn’t part of the plan.

On a more serious note, me getting breast cancer was also not part of the plan, and now I have a lot of friends who have had breast cancer because eventually, we all find one another. And some of those friends have had their breast cancer returned as stage 4, which means that while they are still living they are also preparing for their death because the average life expectancy from stage 4 breast cancer is three years. And when you only have three years, your priorities straighten up very quickly. And that’s not to say that there aren’t days of wallowing grief because there certainly are.

But in between my friends have to make a choice. And they choose to live. They choose to play with and hug their children. To have those meaningful, difficult conversations with their spouses. To accept with grace that a stepparent most likely will be involved in raising their children because to insist otherwise is not a good outcome for anyone. And of course, they go on lots of vacations.

You know, we’re all so caught up in our plans. We casually throw around these entitled statements like, “when I’m retired” or “later, after I’ve done such and such” or “when I’m a grandparent,” but you know, not all of us will get there. Even though our entitlement says that we will, life just doesn’t work that way. So what I’m saying is that the time is now. Whatever that now is for you, whether it’s to speed up or slow down, jump in or jump out, or simply appreciate what you have in this moment because despite all the fear and grief in the world, there is one truth: we’ve all been given a whole lot of time. We are blessed with time in a way that we’ve never had before and will never have after.

So the time is now. It’s your moment. Become reacquainted with your sewing machine. Finally, make those darn pair of jeans that you’ve always wanted to make if you only had the time. Or pick up another hobby you’ve always thought about. Get out of your head and into your hands. Or delve deeper into your head if you feel that’s where self-improvement is at.
I do not know what you are grappling with, but believe me, as much as I love you, I don’t want to own your issues. I have plenty of my own that were given to me without my approval, like the seriousness of cancer or, like the absurd ones, like being deathly ill for three days in a hotel room with nothing to entertain me but French grammar textbooks because I made the choice to sleep upright in a clown car in the middle of winter.

You know, everyone has a fire in their belly. Even if it’s just a little pilot light, that still counts. Use it. You have the power to change those things given to you without your permission for your time now. Because in a sea of fails, and you will have many, many fails, we all know we have many, many fails, you never know when you’re going to catch that win, like me making the cut into that advanced French class.

And also, when we all get the chance again, hug your friends. I mean really hug them. Let them know how much better your life is because they’re in it. I didn’t realize that the last time I would ever see my four British friends would be at dawn in Paris when we were all shivering, and I basically gave them back pats. I don’t know when any of my cancer friends will suddenly have a complication that results in hospitalization and a possible death. You never know when that final moment with your loved ones will be or when that final moment will be to love yourself. So the time is now.

Helen: That’s it for today’s episode of Love to Sew. You can find me Helen at helensclosetpatterns.com and Caroline at blackbirdfabrics.com.

Caroline: We’re recording today in beautiful British Columbia, Canada, and you can get in touch with us and get links for everything we talked about in this episode at lovetosewpodcast.com.

Helen: And a little reminder, if you are enjoying the show and you want to help us out, you can support us over on Patreon. Contribute $5 or more a month and you’ll get access to our bonus episode feed. And if you contribute $10 or more a month, you alsol get a 15% discount code for both of our shops and another bonus minisode on a specific sewing topic. So go to patreon.com/lovetosew for more info.

Caroline: Thanks to our amazing podcast team. Thank you to all of our lovely past guests who sent us pep talks. And thank you all so much for listening. We will talk to you next week.

Helen: Bye-bye.

Caroline: Bye.
.
Gonna go sew now.

Helen: Oh, yeah. I gotta take charge. Gonna ditch the guilt.

Caroline: Gonna go, gonna go have fun in my sewing room.

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