One of the things I enjoy about sewing is that there has, and I imagine, there never will, come a time where I "know everything". I learn something new about sewing all the time. ALL THE TIME. From spending time and talking to others who have a great deal more experience than me, like SuperNova, my neighbors mother who has been sewing for the better part of 50 years. And also, from taking classes.

This summer I took a pattern drafting course from Esther Chung (you gotta follow her blog - she is getting married and making EVERYTHING herself - she was also a semi-finalist on Project Runway!). It's always a great thing to expand and learn new skills.

I have a pretty hefty handful of garment sketches waiting to become part of the Sprouts Sewing pattern line. But I felt like I knew NOTHING about sewing with this class. It was not intuitive to me. It's so new and so many different concepts that I moved through it quite slowly.

Learning how to take measurements and make a flat pattern and muslin. Fittings. Then applying that to your sketch. I think Esther may have been ready to choke me a few times. I asked a lot a lot a lot of questions over and over and over.

I started with the most complicated of sketches thinking that I should take advantage of Esther's expert knowledge. But I'm thinking that rather, I should have done something easy so that I could better grasp the concepts and make sense of it all.

My first muslin was close but certainly needs tweaking. Everything fit but it didn't "twirl" as much as I had hoped. And this is a women's pattern. I think I will repeat it for tweens as well - I really love this skirt. Note all the threads all over the floor...pretty much a constant state in my sewing room. I really need to ditch the carpet but I hate spending money on ripping out perfectly acceptable carpet. We will save that for another day, I guess.

Already thinking about taking the draping class with Esther...I have some ideas cooking for new patterns!