Barbara Emodi - SEW ... The Garment-Making Book of Knowledge: Real-Life Lessons from a Serial Sewist

PUBLISHER: Amy Marson

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Gailen Runge

EDITOR: Karla Menaugh

TECHNICAL EDITOR: Debbie Rodgers

COVER/BOOK DESIGNER: April Mostek

PRODUCTION COORDINATOR: Zinnia Heinzmann

PRODUCTION EDITOR: Alice Mace Nakanishi

ILLUSTRATORS: Kirstie L. Pettersen and Leo Booth

PHOTO ASSISTANT: Mai Yong Vang

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY by Lucy Glover and Mai Yong Vang of C&T Publishing, Inc.,

STYLE PHOTOGRAPHY by Lucy Glover and
INSTRUCTIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY by Mai Yong Vang of C&T Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted

Published by Stash Books, an imprint of C&T Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 1456, Lafayette, CA 94549

Dedication

In memory of the Sew n Sews, my grandmothers sewing group for 65 years in Winnipeg, and for my creative grandchildrenScarlett, Heidi, and Billywho will take all this much further.

Acknowledgments

First I have to thank my mother, who taught me to sew. You were the only mother in town to send a twelve-year-old off to take adult sewing classes. Still not sure what a kid that age was supposed to do with a fully lined wool suit, but I do know the skills I learned then I still use today.

My love and appreciation, too, to my most wonderful children. Thank you, Katrina, for wearing every one of my experiments to school without complaining and for the pen you gave me once long ago to my mother the writer. Thank you, Nat, for being my consigliere in life and all projects and for sharing my love of fine fabrics and construction. And to my youngest, Ben, who once shouted to me from the sandbox, I dont want to go to shopping, Mom, just take my measurements, thank you for summing up the house you all grew up in.

Hugs as well to my infinitely patient and kind husband, Leo , who did the technical drawings in Chapter 5. No one will ever know how much you did to make this book happen, but I do.

My sewing buddies , Trudy Winfield and the late Sue Mowat Perry; my friends at the Atlantic Sewing Guild in Halifax, Nova Scotia; and my many sewing students over the yearsyou all have taught me so much about good sewing and good company.

Thanks to Martin Favre and Adrienne Gallagher of BERNINA , who made it possible for me to work with a machine that was frequently smarter than I amthe BERNINA 740and made sewing the samples and garments pictured throughout the book nothing but a pleasure.

Special thanks, too, to the talented designers who have continued to produce amazing sewing patterns Jeanne and milie at Jalie Patterns, Louise Cutting of Cutting Line Designs, and Chloe and her team at Style Arc, among many others

Finally, a special mention for my small black rescue dog who sat pressed to my hip while I sewed every sample and wrote every word. Its done now, Daisy, good girl lets go get the leash!

I decided to write this book the day I realized how lucky I was. I was reading the sewing blogs of some fabulous young sewists when it hit memy people are back.

Interest in sewing has skipped at least one generation, but sewing, my culture, is experiencing a resurgence.

I am thrilled about this. I feel lucky to be part of this energy. At the same time, I also feel lucky to have had access in my own life to so much fundamental sewing knowledge, almost as a birthright.

So much of what I know about sewing was passed down to me. My mother, never in love with things domestic, still made sure I knew about grain, how to make a tailor tack, and why the inside should always look as good as the outside. She learned these things from her own mother, who had learned them during an apprenticeship with an Edinburgh tailor.

I also grew up in a time when all the big stores had fabric departments and when newspapers sold good mail-order patterns. I grew up when home economics was a serious profession for serious women and when girls made their graduation dresses and even their wedding gowns. I grew up in a time when every house had a sewing machine.

However, at some point the sewing crowd around me thinned out. Friends started to ask me to sew for them, rather than with them. I am not sure where all the sewists went. When women were no longer expected to sew, many of them didnt.

So those of us who started to sew as children and never stopped have in our own way become sort of sewing cultural repositories. In our heads are all the things our mothers and grandmothers taught us, all the information we acquired in countless classes, and all the tips we picked up from sewing buddies and friends. It surprises me how many sewing facts, how many handy hints, a woman can collect in one lifetime.

Until now there havent been many people to share all this with. Fortunately, for sewists like me, thats changing. A whole new world of garment makers wants to know more, do more, try more, invent more. And when these new sewists feel inspired, they inspire us, too.

I cant tell you how complete I feel when I see a picture on a blog or on Instagram of something some new sewist has made. It makes me infinitely happy to see others enjoy an activity I have loved myself for so long. This also makes me want to start a conversation.

The idea of a conversation is how I have organized this book. A conversation because this book isnt, nor is it intended to be, a complete encyclopedia of sewing or a textbook of any kind. Other folks have written those books and done a very good job.

So there is a bit of a journal in the narrative of this book. I havent tried to separate how I sew from who I have sewed for or how sewing makes me feel. How could I? Figuring out construction problems and spending an infinite amount of time planning the next project is where my brain has spent most of its time. The techniques included here are among those I have found most useful. If something has helped me, I want to share it with you.

I have also tried to include information that is not regularly repeated elsewhere. I have included random facts I have found pretty interesting, concepts that have helped me work my own way out of a few sewing corners, and a few tactics I made up myself.

So thats how this book works. I have begun with why I think its a good idea to sew. I have ended with why I think its an even better idea to keep sewing. In between I have grouped my thoughts into categories I think new and returning sewists think about most. How do you decide what to sew? How do you find a good pattern and what size should it be? How do you make a garment fit? What fabric goes with what pattern? What gear do you really need, and finally, how do you sew so it mostly turns out?

Now you and I both know my answers to these questions are not the last word or even the first one on these subjects. But its a start and at least mine. Also I have almost come to terms with the reality I cant fit it all into one book. I know I am going to be waking up in the middle of the night a lot in my future with thoughts like Presser foot I didnt tell them to raise the presser foot! or Seam binding Why didnt I put in anything about seam binding?

Thats okay. I am reminded thats how sewing works. Its never really finished. Not the fabric and pattern buying, not the scheming and the wardrobe planning and the project contemplating. Not the stitching and the pressing and the failures and the trying-agains. Not the garments that turned out so much better than expected. Not the feeling of power you will have when you know you made it yourself, for yourself, and you did a pretty amazing job of it, too.

Sewing doesnt need to be done, in fact, its never supposed to be finished. It just feels good to be doing it. In writing this book I have decided what you need from me most is not really the facts or the absolute best of the techniques. Most of that you will figure out on your own. But you need the company of someone who is going that way, too. I am here to get you thinking.