You are not alone in this. I used to almost get a panic attack when I had to cut my leather hides, yeah, you read it correctly. I was a leather design student, therefore I made leather garments. When it comes to garment manufacturing, leather is one of the most costly materials. If you’re afraid of cutting cloth, consider what it’s like to cut a valuable piece of hide on which you’ve spent your entire months budget.
Here are few tips and tricks that can help you over come those fears 🙂
1. Convince yourself that you can accomplish it.
You’ve seen a stunning style that appears to be absolutely out of this world; look at it and convince yourself you can accomplish it. Remove the notion that makes you feel inadequate.
Yes, you are just beginning out as a dress maker, and you may not be familiar with fabric, but tell yourself you can do it. You’re already on your way to successfully cutting and sewing a garment without fear if you keep a good attitude.
2. Visualize
Sewing is similar to photocopying. The way you see it is how it was probably drafted. Keeping the end result in mind can help you keep going and identify any mistakes you are making. If you don’t get it right the first time, try again. You will ultimately achieve the appropriate outcome through stitching by trial and error. When you consider how an item was cut and you have learned the fundamentals of sewing, project gets easier and easier day by day. And if you wish to ‘up’ your sewing game, pick up a good online pattern making course.
3. Practice is progress
After you’ve analysed a design and imagined how it might be cut and assembled, the following step is to practise. Instead of practising on textiles, practise on newspapers, brown papers, pattern papers, and so on.
Practice as often as possible, and begin with tiny quantities rather than huge portions. Practice makes perfect and helps you overcome any fears you may have.
When you are certain that you have mastered the art of cutting, you may progress to working with textiles. Always begin with a low-cost cloth.
4. Use pattern with seam allowance to cut your fabric.
Try to avoid the temptation of marking the measurements directly on the fabric. Use patterns, your own or ready made, that have seam allowance marked already. This will give you extra boost of confidence.
5. Smooth out your fabric and check that it is even on all sides.
When it comes to basic bodice design and cutting, your fabric is generally folded into four. Make certain that your cloth is smoothed out at each step of the folding process. Iron it if it is rumpled since little imperfections on the cloth impair your cutting .
Also, ensure that the fabric hems are even on all sides. If you’re dealing with a meter wide cloth, make sure each side is a meter long before cutting. If it is not , you can trim the extra with scissors ( perhaps mark first !)
6. Cut and Sew.
Go ahead and cut once you’ve double-checked that everything is in order. When you set your mind to it, cutting and stitching are really straightforward.
When you’ve cut everything on your inexpensive fabric, stitch it up and figure out where you went wrong and what you need to fix. Continue doing it, and you will undoubtedly improve.
Just start! It’s not as hard as it seems. Mistakes are ok, it’s just material 🙂
