Welcome to Gaia! ::

I frankly suck at sewing... I have a sewing machine, but I've decided I want to make my costume by hand... my machine is a hastle, and I don't ever end up with good things out of it.. only pain, misery, broken needles, unthreaded clothing and lots and lots of curses... it's.. very old.. yard sale -____- My dad calls it a bargain!!!

Anyways, since I'll be sewing a good deal of costumes by hand this year, I think it'd be a great idea for me to.. iunno.. learn how to sew? I only know one stitch! I think it's called the backstitch? But it's definetely meant to make pictures with, not sew things together... anyways, anyone want to tell me a few stitches that would be good for sewing the clothing together an hemming it? Just a couple of basic ones that I can whiddle away time doing while watching tv (and stabbing my fingers ><)

Thank you! ^^ Also.. happen to know exactly how to use a pattern? I'll eventually have to figure it out.. but I'm scared of messing it up... ^^;

lol I've actually only gotten into using patterns lately ;;. I actually kind of make them up from out of my head, but of course looking at a pattern site or a sewing book will give you a heads up before you attempt to do it on your own ^_^;;. Actually that's how I learned to do it lol.

Patterns are surprisingly simpler than I thought, and the end result comes out alot better than not attempting to divide your garment into sections.

I would tell you how I do patterns, but it's kind of confusing and hard to explain ;;, so I'll give you a site that explains it a lot better than I can smile

http://www.mccallpattern.com/charts/index.htm

patterns make everything easy. it gives you a guidline on what you should do to make an outfit or an article of clothing. each pattern has a piece. For example, I'm making a shirt. You get a packet of very thin paper with lots of numbers on each piece. Inside, there is a thicker piece of parper that tells you what pieces you need to make a certain thing, like the shirt. More than likely, you'd need a front, a back, and pieces for the sleeves. That piece will also tell you how to put the pieces together after you cut them out and how many pieces of material and interfacing you'd need.
if you need any more help, pm me. I'll be glad to help! blaugh