29th July 2012

Day 1 of sewing class

Today was the very first day of my three part sewing session at Craftland, Town Centre, Jumeirah beach Road. Waking up early is always a hustle for me and my nervousness was getting to me earlier than expected but I managed to end up in one piece to my class. Once there, I had to buy a few extra supplies to aid in my course.

Sewing Machine( I had to rent one because I previously didn’t own any)

2 fat  pink colored quarters for practice sewing.

Fabric Scissors

Glass Head Pins

Tape Measure

 Fabric Marker

Thread

           Bobbin (This is free as each bobbin is specifically made for a specific make of machine)

At 10:05 a.m. I took my place in the classroom alongside with 5 other people and our teacher Ms. Maria from the Netherlands welcomed us and we had a little introduction with just who was who. This course was an Introduction to Basic Sewing so most of us had no prior experience excepting two people who know some of the basics but need extra help so the rest of us were all at the same level and that made it easier both for the teacher and the students because we would most probably end up having the same questions and problems.

We started off by just taking a moment to observe our sewing machines and everyone else’s as well because three people had brought their own machines so there were different specifications and its always good to know different makes or types of machines. The machine that I was using was the Brother sewing machine. Its very modern and easy to use and is perfect for beginners who want to do basic sewing and also perfect for experienced seamstresses.

First look at the machine, it seemed sort of complicated because it had a lot of buttons but when Ms.Maria told me what they were designed for, it made sense. The first thing we learnt about our machine was the turn on and turn off switch. Its black in color and its located in the right hand side bottom corner but it might vary for different machines. Second thing, the speed control. In older machines, there was no electronic speed control and it all depended on the pressure of your foot. Ex, if you press your foot really lightly, it will go slowly and the needle will do one press consistently but if you press your foot hard on the pedal, it will go extremely fast and the needle will do more than one press.

In my machine, the speed control was located directly towards me and it was sliding switch. Three were three levels: slow, medium or fast. When you’re a beginner like me, its always best to start off with a slow and then proceed to medium. After we selected that, Ms. Maria told us about the different stich pattern buttons located on the right hand side. There were two straight stiches and the rest were all different types of zig zags.

We then practiced whatever we wanted and we cut a 5x5 fabric piece and stiched it together using the pins and ironed it. Then we drew a square pattern and spiral pattern and attempted them and soon enough the class was over and Ms.Maria told us that the next lesson would involve us learning about elastics and a method used to make clothes stand out or look even better called gathering.