I'm thinking of doing a dressmaking & tailoring course at college and went along last night for the Information Evening but unfortunately they had no information! They are in the process of recruiting a tutor so they will have more information when they are appointed.
What I was expecting was a syllabus of things that would be covered/achieved through the course but the details I have got are very vague - 'You will learn to understand a pattern and choose suitable material. We will look at creating detail on your garment, including pockets and button holes. By the end of the course you will be able to product a personalised garment from stratch.' Now that doesn't sound very thorough to me, it sounds like you would choose your commercial pattern and then make it through the course (2 hrs/ week for 11 weeks) learning the things you would come across on THAT pattern therefore if you had chosen a simple pattern you wouldn't cover things that you would need for a more difficult pattern.
So it got me thinking - what would MY syllabus be? I grew up with my mother sewing loads of clothes both for me and other people and I would make dolls clothes as a child. I later did sewing in school but at a very low level (pre - GCSE) and then did nothing until a couple of years ago. So I have some basics but also lots of holes in my knowledge and definitely in my confidence level. I have now improved lots of my skills (through blogs and web in general) but I know there are lots of things I don't know or am not confident about. So my question is what does a sewer need to know, I mainly make clothes and I'm interested in knowing about designing patterns so here's my brain-dump list of things I'd like to know or have trouble with:-
making button holes
fitting collars
fitting yokes
fitting sleeves
fitting pockets
handling fine fabrics
expected sizings (e.g. children, womens)
different fabric types
accurate measurement
drafting block/sloper
lining clothes e.g. a bodice
designing children's clothes, understanding proportions as they grow
Do I need to go to college to learn these things? I guess not but I think the advantage would be someone to talk to about any problems I have as I don't have anyone in the real world that sews and could help me out. Maybe I need to find a sewing circle or some other method to pick up this knowledge. I live in Sussex if anyone has any information about sewing circles or course in the area.....
