This month we’re going to be talking about things to do before you sew: planning, cutting, marking, treating your fabrics, and all the other little things that can make your projects go a little more smoothly. Stay tuned!
September is “Before You Sew” Month
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Meet the Writer 
Sarai Mitnick
Colette Patterns
Founder and Designer
Sarai is the designer behind Colette Patterns and the author of The Colette Sewing Handbook. She loves sewing as a means to bring creativity and personal expression into daily life. She’s also a Crazy Cat Lady, vegetable grower, gin drinker, traveler, knitter, and bookworm.
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Wonderful!
I’ve just bought my first (of many) Colette Patterns: Nutmeg, and I all the advice I can get :)
I just bought my first three Colette patterns but I haven’t sewn clothing in several years. Can’t wait for some tips on how to prepare these projects!
Sounds like this will tie in perfectly with the Lady Grey Sew Along!
I hope you explain the whole pattern weight idea, because I don’t understand why it’s better than pinning. It sounds like a bunch of extra work.
Thanks for the suggestion, I will definitely explain this in a post! The short version is that pinning the pattern to your fabric distorts the fabric and pattern, and so your pieces are less accurate. I’ll try to illustrate this with photos.
By the way, if you use a rotary cutter, it’s much much faster, even faster than pinning + cutting! But that is personal preference.
I love pattern weights — and I don’t even use actual pattern weights, just anything that’s flat-surfaced and heavy for its size. I definitely get much better results with weights, and I actually find it about thirty-five times easier than pins. This is probably also a personal preference, and maybe just related to a lack of finesse with pins, but all the wrestling to get the pattern to lay flat ended up meaning a lot more work for me.
All the annoying things, haha! :) I’m sure you’ll have some great tips. I’m looking forward these posts!
Wonderful idea! Can’t wait to see all the tips :)
I’m really looking forward to this and it couldn’t come at a better time following my first dodgy attempt at making a dress. Thank you from a nervous novice. Eeek!
Excellent news. I just bought the missing manual to a second-hand machine a friend gave me (years ago). I’ve been wanting to get back to sewing, especially since there are so many clothes easily made (well, it used to be easy for me) on the racks at hideous expense & poorly made. Not news, I know. Just had to type it:)
I look forward to this refresher course.