Gooooood morning guys!! How is everything going? Hope very well :)
I've had a few intense weeks of work and A LOT of sewing was involved on those as well... And today I wanted to write about one of those experiences I enjoyed just last week, the Professional Sewing Techniques course I attended at the London College of Fashion. It was a very intense 5-day-course from 10am to 4.30pm Monday to Friday and I have to say I learned a lot. Apart from the fact that we were using industrial machines (I know! They were from Pfaff, my new favorite brand, hehe :) ), the course was very hands on: first learning the technique with the teacher, then practising on our own with her help, if needed, as well.
First, we started with seams and honestly, I think we made a hundred of them or at least it felt like that, hehehe. Here you can see a picture of some of them. Don't pay too much attention to the fabric :) Some like open plain seams or French seams or overlocked seams I already knew, but learned to make the binding seam (a seam that is finish in both raw edges with bias tape) or the one called 'slot channel' that you can see in the picture below.
Then we moved onto front openings for bodices. This part I knew better from experience making blouses and dresses with a similar structure. After this we started with sleeve openings and cuffs. In this section I did for the first time a shirt sleeve opening (the one in the image) and I was so happy with it I almost wore it for the rest of the day. And even though it looks complicated, it was just a matter of following the instructions and knowing where all the pieces were going. I think a good pattern to try this one is the Negroni shirt by Colette (I actually made a version for my boyfriend, but cheeky me, I opted for the short sleeve version, hahaha).
Then in came the pockets. I have already done several times the inseam type which I think it is the quickest and easiest (you just catch your pocket on the side seam), and I had also practiced in the past the slant pocket, so my challenge here were the jetted pockets and welt pockets (on the pictures). Not very happy with the result but happy to know the technique and now practice it.
The zipper part was quite enjoyable as I think I am more or less ok with those. The new one for me was the fly zip (the one on every pair of jeans in the world) and I think the result was good.
On the zips section I actually learned something that it feels very stupid to say out loud and I am sure many of you will think I am totally dumb, but that never came to my mind when sewing zips. My problem with regular zips was that the part with the slider cap and the pull at the beginning of the zip made my stitching look really bad on one of the ends. So what you do it is just unzip the b***** zip so that the cap is not on your way. I just saw the teacher doing this and I was like: "Heck yay! That's how you do it!" hahaha anyway, it was good to know :)
Moving to the next part we did several types of collars (some I already knew, some I already had made).
And then we did sleeves. My favorite one is the raglan sleeve, something I had been wanting to do for a long time but didn't find the pattern to make it (now I will draft it myself!).
Then we finished the course talking about linings, needles, types of threads, types of zips, sewing machines, overlockers/sergers, interfacing... Oh! And pressing! You won't believe the machines they have (something similar to the one in the picture below) and you've got a kind of pedal that you press with your foot so that air comes up and dries your garment after using steam. What our teach told us is that we need to have in mind that when we steam we are making the fabric very humid so it's great to manage the seams and make them face the way we want, but that then we need to just press with no steam to dry it out.
So that's it! In my case, I chose to attend this course because I felt I needed an upgrade on my sewing, learning how to finish garments on a more professional level and reinforce those techniques I already knew but needed polishing. So if you are looking for something similar, you are an intermediate to advance sewer, this is a course for you.
PS. If you want to attend this course make sure the teacher is Jacqui. She is just the best :) And she NEVER uses pins! She says, and I agree, although I think you have to have a lot of experience, that without pins she is in control of the fabric while sewing. Words of wisdom! :)
And that's it for now guys, hope you liked this post, comment below and see you soon!
xx
Ana