Sew Frustrating

I used to sew a lot. In high school and my early twenties, I made a bunch of my own clothes, even complex coats with linings. Then later on I made clothes and Halloween costumes for my kids. For the last 20 years I’ve exclusively been a quilter but lately I’ve wanted to go back to making some clothes. So I bought some semi-expensive material to make a simple pair of pants, what I figured would be a good project to restart my sewing career. I pulled out a pattern I had from long ago, laid everything out, cut it, and sewed the pants. They turned out great and looked awesome except for one thing. They were too small. I was extremely annoyed but like Elizabeth Warren a few years ago, I persisted. I went back to the store, where luckily they still had the fabric. This large urban store has mostly males working there and I was surprised to discover I had a sexist bias. I was prejudiced. Skeptical about asking advice from one of those dudes. But I ended up telling my sad story to the guy who was doing my cutting. I found out these guys design and make costumes for cosplay and theater and they really know their stuff. He suggested I buy some cheap muslin and do what he does when he’s going to construct an elaborate costume: Make a “mock-up” before committing the project to expensive material. At 60 inches wide and less than 3 bucks a yard, I thought it was brilliant. I decided he was too.

Photo courtesy monicore at Pixabay.com