Feels Sew Good: Mastering a Sewing Machine
A friend once told me she chose to do graphic design over fashion design because she couldn’t sew. Having never touched a needle and thread before, I didn’t fully grasp what she meant. Somehow, between dressing up my Barbies and watching Project Runway, it never once occurred to me that sewing could be challenging.
For my first class, I decided to start with a simple T-shir t. Gan, the short-haired woman who runs the sewing workshop, gave me a quick demo on stitching short straight lines. “Looks easy enough,” I thought. But the moment the tip of my foot touched the pedal, the sewing machine transformed into an uncontrollable beast.
Several failed attempts later, I was beginning to understand what my friend had been talking about. I devoted my whole morning to trying to simultaneously control the speed as well as the direction of the needle, as I stitched both forward and backwards. They told me that my machine sounded way too wild. I liked the sound of that, even though it really wasn’t meant as a compliment. Every time I fumbled, I had to cut the threads and start all over again. By noon, my stitching was nowhere near perfect, but I had to move on.
Unlike practicing on cloth scraps, stitching on my plaid fabric was terribly nerve-wracking. I tried new methods for maintaining an even rhythm on the machine, but the more I thought about it, the harder it became. Eventually, I decided to rely on my senses instead of my brain. Speed is key, and next comes precision – but it was hard to prioritize when I couldn’t even manage to keep my stitching an even distance from the fabric’s edge. I had no choice but to keep going, losing control, cutting the threads and redoing them until they were right.
At last, my T-shirt was finished. And it had only taken seven hours! Though my T-shirt looked more like a haphazard square with tiny sleeves, nothing could contain my sense of accomplishment. Staring at the garment I had created, I felt strangely powerful and even fantasized about supplying my whole family with roughly made fat T-shirts. While my ambitious plan to conquer the fashion world in a day had failed, at least now I know how to properly wield a pair of scissors. Yep, there’s a trick to that as well.
The Red Pomegranate DIY Sewing Center is located near Hujialou subway station. Sewing classes cost RMB 150/day. Visit www.douban.com/group/DIYpaopao for more information.
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Photo: Max Wu