My First Sewing Project.

One of the things that often comes up when purchasing new items of clothing is the fit of said items. As a vertically challenged individual, relatively speaking, I pretty much wind up getting most, if not all, of my clothes altered in one way or another. If it’s a pair of pants, they’ll need to be shortened, likewise, the sleeves on my shirts or the length of the body. But after a while, it gets a little tiresome and also can add up to be a not insignificant sum of money.

So one day I decided to take a sewing course, which I finished last month. I know, not really the manliest or coolest hobby to take up. But, heck, my mom’s friends already think I’m gay anyway (and I believe that she’s a little worried as well); so there probably wasn’t anything more that I could really do to improve or diminish my reputation in their eyes.


The first thing I needed, of course, was a sewing machine. As luck would have it, my mom had one that’d been gathering dust in the garage for quite some time. A Baycrest special, this machine is unbelievably heavy, it has to weigh at least 60 lbs. It’s also very likely to be older than me as my mom informed me that she had bought it when I was just a wee baby, and it was used at that. But, what’s great is that they built things to last in those days, so it only needed a little bit of servicing and now works perfectly well.

I signed up for the beginner sewing class at A Great Notion, a sewing supply store in Langley that also conducts sewing classes on premises. Our first project? A pillow!


I picked my fabric a few days before the class as per requirements, a nifty little stripe pattern that I thought would be fun. And it was on sale. That, in and of itself, is no big deal.


What was crazy was that Marie, who was in the same class, on a completely separate day, out of hundreds of fabrics to choose from, bought the exact same fabric. Spooky.

Anyways, the goal of the project was to basically to get us using a sewing machine as well as learning to sew three basic components.


One was the dart, which is basically a fold that’s sewn into the fabric. Common in women’s tops, it’s used to give shape to an item of clothing, giving you that form fitted looked. Coincidentally, I’ve got a couple of dress shirts from Mexx that have darts in them. Gotta show off the manly figure.


The second item was a flat-felt seam, which is a common seam used in pants. If you look at the outside of your pair of jeans, you’ll see it running along the length.


Last, was learning to sew a zipper. This was a part of the project that I had some struggles with. It was after working with this aspect that I suddenly rediscovered the merits of using buttons.


The two sides of the pillow fabric were then sewn together...


and then stuffed with the cushion and...


Voila! The finished product.


I liked how my flat-felt seam turned out; but I have to admit that Marie did a much better job with her zipper.

Next up, pajama bottoms.