Back to school

September is here and that means back to school, but not just for my DD but for me also. I am going to sewing school. This is a big step for me as I have dabbled in the past with mixed success. I usually leave all sewing to my wonderful Mum, who does a great job.

So Tuesday of this week I walked DD to school for her first day of year four, then jumped into the car to drive into town. While feeling a little nervous, I was excited more than anything. I have spent all summer looking for the perfect pattern, which I finally did, but then became stuck when I was unable to find any fabric that I liked that would suit the pattern. Luckily for me where are classes are held in a fabric shop.

The class is being taught by a lovely lady called Pat, who was very welcoming. There were four other ladies in the class all with different sewing abilities. Our first step was to measure one another, not a great after the school holidays but I guess it had to be done. Then Pat took a look at our patterns to see if they were suitable, luckily for me mine was. Then it was a trip down stairs to find fabric, again I got lucky and found some lovely suit fabric.

So the photo below shows my pattern, fabric, lining, zip and thread. Pat assures me that I will have a completed dress by the end of the course.

This is great news for me as I am know for not finishing anything and thanks to a lady called Susan Carlson who has a lovely blog called Felted Button I am going to borrow her categories. An Unfinished Project will now be know as a UFO and a Work In Progress will be a WIP. This dress is in the WIP pile, it will be finished. Many of my crochet attempts are in the UFO pile.

So back to my class, once we had the fabric, we then had to cut out our patterns, if anybody has ever opened a pattern you will know that they are folded and a little fragile, so you have to unravel them very carefully, otherwise you might tear or lose a bit. Luckily for me I only had four pieces of the pattern to cut out, a couple of the other ladies had many pieces to cut out. Once cut out you then have to pin the pattern to the fabric, in line with the grain of the fabric. I had no idea that fabric had grain but apparently it does.

Now my teacher Pat, said at the beginning of the class that if she says "are you happy with that" she actually means that she is not happy with it. So I awaited with baited breath and got a well done, hooray. Next task to cut out, then also cut a lining to match.

So there we have my first class, I am feeling a little chuffed with myself and can't wait to go back next week. I will be pinning it all together and then sewing!