
Ask HN: Sewing - Tomte
Are there HNers who sew?<p>I don&#x27;t really mean &quot;I try to fix a button if it gets loose&quot;, but making whole shirts, trousers, and so?<p>How did you get started? Can you reasonably learn to sew from books and YouTube videos, or is an experienced teacher the way to go?<p>What cool things can you reasonably make manually, and which things need a sewing machine?
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tastroder
I sew machine only, picked it up as a "get off of the screen" some winter. I
wanted to get into bag making. Picked up an entry range machine, learned the
initial technique from a bunch of YouTube videos, some written tutorials that
came with free patterns for a bit more specialised stuff. The rest felt
similar to getting into electronics, buy ridiculous amounts of fabric and
stuff you might want for future projects, stumble through early failures and
eventually I ended up with bags good enough to carry out myself or give away.

If you can get somebody experienced to show you the mechanical moves for an
hour that's great but I wouldn't call it necessary. With manual sewing it
helps to see them in the real world for the weirder stitches but you can
mostly get the same from pausing and rewinding a few videos.

If you're willing to spend a bit of money to get started and know what kind of
project you want to do you can get kits that contain all the
fabric/zippers/... you would need. That takes away a bit of the initial
guesswork.

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poormystic
Hi Tastroder :) I see we have quite different "takes" on how to learn sewing.
Of course you are quite right but there are different strokes for different
folks (a clothing designer I once knew told me that)

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tastroder
Haha, definitely. Just thought I'd share what worked for me :) maybe to add:
For more complex constructions than bags I occasionally would have loved to
attend a formal course and from time to time I absolutely notice areas where I
lack that formal training. That just never happened because it didn't fit my
day to day.

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poormystic
Depending entirely on how good a worker you are, almost anything can be sewn
by hand. Designers often start with a picture, so they can calculate the
required dimensions from measurements. There is a lot to learn about different
cloths, their orientation in a garment and the way the garment "falls". There
are often courses in garment design and construction available at technical
colleges. These run anything up to 3 years (in New Zealand, my country) and
end in a degree level qualification.

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Tomte
> There are often courses in garment design and construction available

I was thinking about a different kind of teacher. There are seamstresses in my
town and adjacent towns that offer sewing lessons.

(Also, thanks to tastroder for his advice)

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Kaibeezy
This post I made yesterday a seemed like good gateway project for learning to
sew. In this case, thoughtfully designed masks much better than what’s
available to buy.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23050986](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23050986)

