What Was Your First - Steph from SewingCake

Things got away from me and before I knew it 4 months had passed since I introduced this series, whoops! Sorry about that. Let's try again and this time get things rolling a bit more regularly. Today we are lucky enough to hear about Steph, the talented lady behind SewingCake Patterns, and her first...

Steph resting in one of her hummingbirds | Source

First, introductions: 
I'm StephC from 3 Hours Past the Edge of the World, creator of Cake Patterns. I've been sewing as long as I can remember, I started out making clothes for my dolls and costumes to supplement my imagination. I would say I'm an advanced sewist.

What was the first "real" garment you sewed? 
The first "real" garment I sewed was a sleeveless rayon bias sheath when I was 12 or so. It was awful! My mom bought me a sewing machine but neither of us knew how to use it. I was undeterred. The fabric was a butter yellow color, sprinkled with blue irises. Grown-up me knows to avoid yellow, but tweenie me loved the color. I wore it to church, very pleased with my new make. A kind older lady pulled me aside and whispered in my ear "You have to put down the presser foot before you sew, it will make much neater stitches that way." This tip revolutionized my sewing. She came by and taught me a few basics about using my machine- winding bobbins, backstitching, etc. I don't know why I started sewing, it's a compulsion. No, I don't still have that yellow dress, definitely don't wear it. I'm not sure what happened to her- I never wore her again once I realized what a mess I made of the stitching!

If you were making it now, what would you do differently? Would you remake the garment now? 
No, I don't think I would remake that dress because I don't wear that cut (bias sheath), I don't wear that color (yellow) and I don't wear much rayon. I had zero clue how to dress myself when I was 12!

If you could go back in time and tell past-you one tip to improve your early garments, what would it be?
Learn to put in a zipper nicely before your early 20's. It's ridiculous the things you do to avoid putting in a zipper, and it's not that hard! You could learn in 20 minutes if you weren't strangely scared of your machine, the zipper, and the fabric. What they ever do to you? Nothing. So get cracking, time's a-wasting.
Tip: Invisibles are simplest to learn.

Thanks Steph! Stay tuned for the next post in this series, hopefully a little sooner than this one was after the last one ;)