Today marked the end of week one for Palomar's Beginning Sewing course. I am happy to announce that the class is a lot of work but a lot of fun and the instructor named Ken is just an awesome person.
Lecture always come first in the day and then to sewing lab. The first set of lectures were on the parts of the woven fabric. In this class, we will be only working on woven fabrics such as cotton and cotton blends; no stretchy or knit fabrics.
Parts of the fabric: The selvage is the finished edge of the fabric. It is slightly thicker than the rest of the material. Sometimes, it may be white or lighter in color and printed on it are all the individual colors that can be found on the printed fabric.
The grainline runs parallel beside selvage from north to south.
The crossgrain is the fabric weave that goes east to west, perpendicular to the crossgrain.
The grainline and crossgrain make 90 degree angles taking turns going over and under on a 1:1 ratio.
Ease: The amount of grace or resistance a fabric has is called ease. Basic cotton woven fabric have little or no ease compared to stretch or knit fabric.
When fabric is pulled at its 45 degree angle to the selvage, there is much more ease than pulling the same fabric on its grainline or crossgrain. This 45 degree angle is called the bias. The fabric may be cut on its bias for pieces of a garment construction that need more ease, such as a waistine. Some dresses or outfits are fully consructed on its bias for a desired fit or look - or a full outfit may be sewn on a bias such as in the constructing of an evening dress or fitted clothing.
This week, we started on our first project - drawstring pants - after learning the parts of our classroom sewing machine (Pfaff ClassicStyle 1520?) and how to properly thread the machine, we worked on the transfer of a pattern to paper, then to our cotton woven fabric. Specifics on this will be on the following post.
So this week in sewing class:
Monday: Introductions, parts of fabric and sewing machine lecture
Tuesday: Sewing straight and curved lines on sheet of paper
Wednesday: Transfer pattern to paper and to fabric
Thursday: Cutting and sewing of fabric for drawstring pants
The classmate in general:
I have met some great students in the class. Some have clothing lines (Take Me back Clothing Company), some conduct a clothing business overseas (India), and some students are new to everything and some literally say they want to kill their sewing machine. Level of skill and learning styles vary just like any other learning environment but for some reason may be more obvious in the sewing room and some fashion girls have burnt other girls with the iron. Talk about mean girls!
Lecture always come first in the day and then to sewing lab. The first set of lectures were on the parts of the woven fabric. In this class, we will be only working on woven fabrics such as cotton and cotton blends; no stretchy or knit fabrics.
Parts of the fabric: The selvage is the finished edge of the fabric. It is slightly thicker than the rest of the material. Sometimes, it may be white or lighter in color and printed on it are all the individual colors that can be found on the printed fabric.
The grainline runs parallel beside selvage from north to south.
The crossgrain is the fabric weave that goes east to west, perpendicular to the crossgrain.
The grainline and crossgrain make 90 degree angles taking turns going over and under on a 1:1 ratio.
Ease: The amount of grace or resistance a fabric has is called ease. Basic cotton woven fabric have little or no ease compared to stretch or knit fabric.
When fabric is pulled at its 45 degree angle to the selvage, there is much more ease than pulling the same fabric on its grainline or crossgrain. This 45 degree angle is called the bias. The fabric may be cut on its bias for pieces of a garment construction that need more ease, such as a waistine. Some dresses or outfits are fully consructed on its bias for a desired fit or look - or a full outfit may be sewn on a bias such as in the constructing of an evening dress or fitted clothing.
This week, we started on our first project - drawstring pants - after learning the parts of our classroom sewing machine (Pfaff ClassicStyle 1520?) and how to properly thread the machine, we worked on the transfer of a pattern to paper, then to our cotton woven fabric. Specifics on this will be on the following post.
So this week in sewing class:
Monday: Introductions, parts of fabric and sewing machine lecture
Tuesday: Sewing straight and curved lines on sheet of paper
Wednesday: Transfer pattern to paper and to fabric
Thursday: Cutting and sewing of fabric for drawstring pants
The classmate in general:
I have met some great students in the class. Some have clothing lines (Take Me back Clothing Company), some conduct a clothing business overseas (India), and some students are new to everything and some literally say they want to kill their sewing machine. Level of skill and learning styles vary just like any other learning environment but for some reason may be more obvious in the sewing room and some fashion girls have burnt other girls with the iron. Talk about mean girls!
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