By the time my sewing class ends this week, my two couches will be seven pillows richer. Every time I look at one of my six finished pillows, I have a little moment of disbelief. Did I really do that? It seems that with each pillow, I’ve become more interested in sewing, clothes, and fashion. (I’m almost through Season 2 of Project Runway on DVD and can’t wait for Season 4 to start! And why the heck isn’t Season 3 on DVD yet?) Being laid off recently allowed me to consider what interests I’d always wanted to pursue. When I came across my old sewing machine stashed in my closet, I remembered all the times I’d said I wished I’d properly learned how to sew. Instead of thinking that it was too late for me to learn a new time-consuming skill, I now had no excuse.
Searching for fabric was a blast, of course; it’s like shopping for clothes except you can’t try anything on. At Jo-Ann Fabrics in West Roxbury, my husband and I picked three complementary patterns: a maroon stretch corduroy, a red cotton ticking, and a cherry-red stiff cotton with white-and-metallic circles. In the first class, our teacher gave us three simple rules: no fabrics with a nap, durable easy-to-work-with fabrics (no silks), and no patterns that would need to match up. Turns out I broke two of those rules. The corduroy had a nap, which meant that during construction I needed to keep checking which direction the nap was running so that the front and back matched up. The red ticking was the sort of pattern that should match up on both sides, something which turned out to be close to impossible by perfectionist’s standards.
Like all things Boston, the Eliot School has a claim to historical fame, being the fourth oldest school in the country. At its current address since 1832, the classrooms have a distinctly dated and threadbare (pun intended!) feel. This summer, we sewing students often had to step over a sleepy Golden Retriever to enter the two-story building, go past the large first-floor room for woodworking and upholstery classes, up the creaky uneven stairs to the smaller of two classrooms. After choosing one of the Singer machines lined up on either side of the room, we spread out our fabric for cutting on a large table in the middle.
The biggest lesson I’ve learned over the course of three sessions is how much patience is needed to turn cool fabric into cool pillows (at least I think they're cool). While I can’t be positive I remember how to thread a machine correctly, I can recognize when the bobbin is in incorrectly. If a peek underneath the fabric reveals long, wasteful loops of thread, then the bobbin is in incorrectly and the stitches need to be taken out, pronto! Another challenge, depending on how high your standards are, is getting seams straight. My standards are still high, but after undoing and resewing my first hundred seams, I may think differently. I’ve learned a few tricks, like reinforcing seams by backing up and going forward a few times. Or snipping off extra fabric (after the seam is set) with pinking shears, in order to prevent threads from unraveling.
There is so much more to learn. I will probably sign up for another session this fall. I saw a Very Easy Vogue pattern online for a nice LBD. Or maybe I’ll make an apron out of all my leftover pillow fabric! Or an iPhone holder for my new iPhone!???
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