Watching While Waiting

It will be a couple more weeks before I can take the new machine for a test drive. I hesitate to play with it until I get it serviced. I’m afraid I'll be disappointed with it if it has glitches.

I’ll be getting it serviced at my “vacation” home, which is really a corporate townhouse in the southern Virginia town of Abingdon, near my husband's work. I’ll be joining him there in a couple of weeks for an extended stay. In town, there’s a quilt shop owned by the same woman for 40 years. Her husband services machines (and magically digs out Gandini silk from the back room). I’m pretty sure he knows what he’s doing. I hope he gives my new machine his stamp of approval. Just wait till I tell him I saved him from having to give me bad news about my Viking 4500!

Meanwhile, I’m not wasting time while waiting to start on my sewing projects. I’ve been reading sewing blogs and posts on the Stitcher’s Guild Forums, watching helpful tutorials, gathering yet more essential supplies.

Some favorite tutorial sites:
-Thread’s Magazine Video Tutorials: I had oodles of “ah-ha” moments watching these videos. Simple things. Big results.
-Palmer Pletsch: Body type advice.

Fashion Incubator is a site for a more professional sewist than I will become, but I found this article “How to Sew Faster” quite an inspiration. I’m glad I found it now, at the beginning of my sewing venture, rather than later. You might be surprised at what you learn.

Sewing.org has oodles of information.

I have also bookmarked quite a few patterns I’d love to try. I think I'm going to be a pattern junkie. I even bought one! Saf-T-Pocket’s Flounce About Jacket 2009. I know exactly how I want the final project to look: all I need now is to find a lovely, soft, winter white wool. I won’t make it right away, even if I do find the wool, as I’d like to refine what sewing skills I do have. I envision the lining an off white silk with self-florals (there’s got to be a name for this type of fabric) and with a gold trim. Since I want this to be a bit formal, I’ll probably omit some of the saf-t-pockets.

I still need to learn about facings. I know how to work with them (sorta kinda). What I don’t know are about the varieties and what type of facing I should use for which material. I’m still hunting down a succinct tutorial or article. It seems that everyone has their favorite brand or weight or fabric. I want that knowledge!

I think I need a good book or two. Maybe that will help fill in a few of the missing holes in my information.