Sewing frustrates me because I don't know how to make up patterns.
Aha! I see. You know until I started figuring out how to do that, I was like the person who commented above-- just thinking of it as something useful, but not necessarily creative, other than that I could pick out the colors and designs of the fabric.
But gradually I got a little more creative with commercial patterns by combining different parts: sleeves from one pattern, bodice from another, collar from a third. This helped me get a bit more sure of my own abilities and also my understanding of what a pattern entailed.
Then I joined the SCA, and began to realize that the commercial patterns for historical garb were either inaccurate or prohibitively expensive for me at the time. But I soon found that there were lots of sites online that have FREE patterns I could make myself-- and learned that mostly early garments were simple geometric shapes. And not only that, but they could be adapted to make modern garments as well! (This pattern can easily be adapted to make a dress for modern streetware.)
I also learned how to make my own dress dummy out of duct tape, which meant I could make up patterns directly on the dummy.
Now I find sewing a much more creative process than I used to.
Your four steps sound rather like my four steps, LOL! Except I'm not sure how deliberate the "never do the same thing twice" is for me, as I may occasionally want to repeat something and never quite seem to be able to. (It may also explain my difficulty with knitting socks in pairs...)
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Aha! I see. You know until I started figuring out how to do that, I was like the person who commented above-- just thinking of it as something useful, but not necessarily creative, other than that I could pick out the colors and designs of the fabric.
But gradually I got a little more creative with commercial patterns by combining different parts: sleeves from one pattern, bodice from another, collar from a third. This helped me get a bit more sure of my own abilities and also my understanding of what a pattern entailed.
Then I joined the SCA, and began to realize that the commercial patterns for historical garb were either inaccurate or prohibitively expensive for me at the time. But I soon found that there were lots of sites online that have FREE patterns I could make myself-- and learned that mostly early garments were simple geometric shapes. And not only that, but they could be adapted to make modern garments as well! (This pattern can easily be adapted to make a dress for modern streetware.)
I also learned how to make my own dress dummy out of duct tape, which meant I could make up patterns directly on the dummy.
Now I find sewing a much more creative process than I used to.
Your four steps sound rather like my four steps, LOL! Except I'm not sure how deliberate the "never do the same thing twice" is for me, as I may occasionally want to repeat something and never quite seem to be able to. (It may also explain my difficulty with knitting socks in pairs...)