Questions

[j4]

Questions (mixed bag). Will swap for answers. All reasonable offers considered.

Glastonbury:

My mum is planning on going to Glastonbury. She's phoning me tonight (before ticket o'clock!) to ask about stuff. I'm worried that if I tell her the horrid bits (toilets, not being able to sleep EVER, etc.) she'll feel I'm trying to put her off going because I'm embarrassed about having parents there, but if I don't tell her, she'll be miserable when she's there. What do you reckon I should tell her?

Church:

The other day I got a mailshot from a church I used to go to. God knows (ha!) why they're sending me the 2002-03 newsletter, but anyway: they've included a "Do you want to stay on our mailing list?" card, and I definitely don't want to stay on their mailing list, but I'm wondering whether I should try to tell them why.

Sewing:

I want to learn the basics of sewing with a sewing machine. I have a very old hand-cranked sewing machine, and ideally I'd like to learn to use that -- a) because I already own it so I wouldn't have to buy one, and b) it's not as scary as electric ones. Would anybody be willing to teach me the very basic basics if I came round with a sewing machine? Will buy beer/food/etc. in return.

Web design:

Or, "Do my job for me". But seriously: I want to do some pages with tabbed sections, but with the tabs down the side of the page, displaying the sidebar menu for that section when that tab is selected (if that makes sense). What I'm looking for is examples where somebody else has already done this well, so I can a) convince people that it'll work, and b) get an idea of how to do it neatly.

Comments

[j4.livejournal.com]

I'd be happy to come and visit and bring sewing-machine, I have a car & it's only a 2-hour-ish drive.

Working out how to thread the thing is half the problem, I can't follow the diagrams in the manual and I don't really know what I'm trying to do, IYSWIM, I can't fill in the assumption-gaps that the manual makes. The other half of the problem is I don't really know how to sew stuff together sensibly to make stuff... didn't pay attention in sewing classes at school, partly because our teacher was crap and horrible, but partly just because I was lazy... :-/

[taimatsu]

That'd be great, but at present you'd barely be able to get in the door with it, the house is such a filth-pit!

I had the same problem - I bought an old electric from a mate but it had the wrong manual with it, and I simply had no idea where to start. Then Robert bought me the new electric, and that has little arrows on it to tell you where the thread should go :)

Once you know the principles it's not hard - a bit fiddly sometimes - but I agree that starting from scratch is not really feasible.

As for sewing things, it really depends what you are trying to sew :) I started off making big lumpy T-shirt-shaped tunics as costume, and those are mostly straight seams. Then I moved on to rather neater robes, skirts and aprons and things, and then a very simple bodice and a tunic with set-in sleeves, and then just this past weekend I made a BAG which is actually lined and has a flap and a strap and everything :) That's the hardest thing I have done so far. I don't really use proper tissue patterns from shops, though I have lots; but the bodice was done on a 'draw out your own pattern' basis and that was quite easy in the end.

Again, it's a learning curve and knowing some basic principles. I'm finding it hard to think of practical things to do on a very very easy kind of level - all the first things I made were as fancy-dress or costume of one sort or another. I'll have a think if you like and see what I can come up with - possibly easy bags and the odd cushion, and then a skirt. What kind of things would you like to make eventually?

[j4.livejournal.com]

I'm finding it hard to think of practical things to do on a very very easy kind of level - all the first things I made were as fancy-dress or costume of one sort or another. I'll have a think if you like and see what I can come up with - possibly easy bags and the odd cushion, and then a skirt. What kind of things would you like to make eventually?

Well, eventually in-the-long-term-future I want to be able to make exciting clothes. Things like cloaks and waistcoats don't look like they should be too hard (so long as they're not too fitted), and I figure if I learn to sew then I can learn to follow patterns, and then I can make anything (hahahahahahaha yeah right).

Right now I want to make cushions, which can't be very hard. I could make them by hand but there's just too much sewing in straight lines, I get bored doing that. I'm sure they'd only take minutes if I knew what I was doing.... maybe.

[taimatsu]

With the sewing-machine they *will* only take minutes :) That would be a great place to start, because you can begin by just sewing two squares together and learning how to set a zip into one of the seams. Then you could move on to adding trimmings or more than one type of fabric or using buttons or piping or something.

Cloaks are not hard. I have made one. The more difficult bit is if you want the inside to look nice you have to line them, and while that would be fine if you had a pattern to tell you where to match the bits up I usually haven't.

I have a pattern for a simple skirt made in gored panels which I keep meaning to try, but I'm a bit scared of it :)