At twelve years old, I went to sewing lessons. A sewing teacher in my town had a basement set up with a dozen sewing machines. She was dedicated to showing us the techniques to turn out a stellar product.
I bought plaid fabric to make a skirt. Who doesn’t love plaid? My teacher had the perfect opportunity to show me what excellence is. It’s necessary that I follow the steps to have the plaid design line up. This is so our fabric perfectly matches across a seam. Honestly, it’s not the easiest thing to achieve.
If you don’t line up across the seam you will have a terrible mismatch.
Some extra steps were to cut on a single layer to make sure everything lines up the way it should. This takes more time but to get it right, you do it. Then you align pattern notches with the fabric design (sewing speak). When sewing, place a pin in each stripe. It might seem excessive, but this will help you keep everything lined up.
Also, baste first. Change to a walking foot on your machine to feed the fabric evenly and ensure that your stripes and plaids stay lined up.
One could skip expert advice. Then you have seams that are not matched up.
Once I know what high quality looks like, I can’t go back. I’d walk into luxury stores and scrutinize their plaid’s seams. I’m appalled at how many costly garments are not to standard.
The point I’m making here is that through the guidance of my teacher I learned what high standards are. And sure, it takes more time and finesse but it’s worth doing it right.
The way you do anything is the way you do everything.
So, what does this mean to you? Don’t cut corners (no pun intended). In this fast-paced, gotta have it now world, we cannot afford to lose our standards.
It takes time and effort to do it right.
(And, don’t get me started on zippers…)
Who doesn’t love plaid?
