Sewing for Everyone's Body: See It, Be It

New to sewing?

Welcome to the Pride Edition of: If You Want It, You Should Wear It.

I am very Team "See the Thing, Make The Thing Fit You". If you see yourself as Princess Aurora, you should dress as Princess Aurora. Or Glinda. This is why cosplay is so attractive, and why most of my IG feed is cosplayers.

 So Much Creativity. So Little Judgement.

See It. Be It.

Here's me:

Are we clear? Good. 

It's easier to find a pattern and make it fit you than make you fit the pattern you think you are supposed to want. This is why sewing is a superpower, because we can see how to make the thing work for us. And we all know how powerful the image we present to the world is.

Even if it's really goofy and too warm. And nobody got it.

Look in all the pages of the pattern books. You never know what will spark joy.

If you have ambitions bigger than your present set of talents, there's information galore to bridge that gap.

Some times we go back to the classics so we are reminded of what we thought we knew. I will sit down and watch 'Singing in the Rain' and read 'Better Dressmaking' and the collected works of Kenneth King to remind me what I'm doing and why I'm here.

But on the interweb of sewing, when you want that reminder,  those classics are this:

http://www.ikatbag.com/2014/03/subtelties-in-drafting-sleeves.html

original idea at http://www.dellacivetta.org/lorenzo/techniques/drafting-sleeves/

There are many tutorials on sewing and drafting on their site, but this is the beginning introduction to Ikat Bag's gifts I point people to. It's friendly and really sums up what you are going to get: a clear eyed and friendly instruction in how to make this pattern stuff work for you, with incredible common sense presentation. 

And the other thing, a set of well considered generic patterns so you don't experience unwanted nudity, is located at:

https://freesewing.org/

Come for the patterns, stay for the community. They aren't kidding. Join the fam!

Key to this site: there's an instruction set for how to take your measurements. Please follow this, take your time, do it right, and it will all be sugar and happiness. Or jalapenos and happiness. Whichever.

Don't let anyone shame you into thinking you aren't good enough; how will you get better if you don't screw it up?