In a previous post I mentioned that my mom sewed a lot of my dresses and skirts as I was growing up. In fact, she still makes some of my skirts. When you have a good thing going, why stop? 😉

I have sewn quite a few dresses for the girls in Haiti, but I have absolutely zero interest in sewing clothes for myself. Why? Because I hate clothes. Don’t worry! I’m not going to become a Nudist! I think that would be considered cruel and unusual punishment to others, and I’m sure that it’s specifically listed as a crime against Humanity under the Geneva Convention. It’s just that I hate clothes shopping or even trying on clothes because it’s rare that something fits perfectly or looks good on me. I would rather clean the house than go clothes shopping.

With that being said, I have yet to figure out how to make my mom live on this earth for ever. So I suppose that at some point VERY FAR AWAY, I will actually have to do it myself. *Sigh*

With that thought in mind I saw this class at Craftsy and decided that maybe I should purchase it. Technically I haven’t purchased it yet, but they are having a big sale on a ton of their classes and this one is on sale for $19.99. Why would I need this class? Because I have weird measurements. Ask my mom… she’ll tell you how difficult it is to make a dress for me because you have to adjust for my ample bosom, and then you have to adjust for my child-bearing hips. Not to mention the fact that I’m a tall woman so there often has to be an adjustment for the length of my skirts. This class helps you to create a body double so that you can make clothes and have a much easier time of doing the adjustments. It’s kind of hard to figure out how to move the darts around on your bosom to prevent the Madonna Cones when you’re moving the fabric as you’re trying to adjust the fabric while wearing it.

The next class that I would purchase would be this Sew the Perfect Fit class for $24.99 (normally $49.99). This shows you how to take any pattern and adjust it in various ways for your shape. She shows you how by adjusting one part of the pattern it actually fixes an issue that you might be having in another area of the piece. This would be good for me, again, because I know that no matter what I will need to adjust something on a pattern. Just thinking about all of this exhausts me, though, and makes me think that perhaps I should just stick to buying clothes.

If I’m going to do that then I guess that I should perhaps purchase this class from Craftsy. Normally this class is $59.99, but right now it’s on sale for $29.99. Like I said earlier, even off-the-rack clothing usually doesn’t fit me very well. I guess that when God made me He broke the mold before they were able to make a dress form for the clothing manufacturers to make clothes that actually fit me. Anyway, this would be a class that you might not use all the time, but would be handy to have when you needed it.

If you are interested in trying to make something, but you’re feeling a bit intimidated you should definitely check out the patterns on Craftsy. There are quite a few free patterns on there so if you attempt to sew something and it doesn’t turn out, at least you don’t feel as bad because you didn’t waste money on a pattern. Or, there are some really decent inexpensive patterns on there, too. I’ve purchased a few patterns from various designers on Craftsy and I have to say that even the instructions have been clear and well-written.

And don’t worry… not everything is going to come out perfectly each time. I refer to myself as a Sewer (not a sewist!!) because it’s true… some of the stuff I attempt ends up looking like crap. 😉

The great thing about sewing, though, is that you can usually almost always take a fail and turn it into something else. Even if you just cut it up into scraps to make a quilt. Never let your frustration gets the best of you. Step away for a little bit, hide it out of your sight, but return to it because it’s not all for naught.