Learning to Sew

For the first week, we focused on learning the different techniques in the world of sewing. We learned a few different hand sewing techniques, like the invisible stitch and the cross stitch. These were difficult to learn for it is very easy to make these messy and one of the main goals of sewing is to make items look nice. My favorite sewing exercise was when we worked on sewing buttons and snaps on.  With most buttons and snaps, you sew out over the edge- kind of like the needle and thread are jumping off a jumping board over the edge of the snap and then swimming under back up to the jumping

Whopper Popper snap on right, Hook and Eye on left

board. Do this three times for each hole, and make sure the needle swims underwater (on the bottom side of the cloth) when switching holes. 

Machine Gathered fabric sample

During this time we also worked on sewing with the machines. We learned how to sew a straight seam (just sewing straight down the piece of fabric with backwards stitching at each end to secure the thread) and more complicated sewing such as darts and gathering. When gathering a fabric, all you have to do is sew two straight lines down the fabric- about an inch apart- without backstitching. This allows the fabric to gather at a later point. The physical act of gathering is simple as well. Holding tightly to one set of threads (two top or two bottom) pull the fabric towards the middle gently so it scrunches together. This is the act of gathering.

The first week was helpful to me, because I learned many things that I did not know, and was given the essential knowledge needed to complete later tasks.