>Investing Some Skill Points Into Sewing

~I Underestimated It

I thought it was fun and games. I thought this shiz was sweet. I couldn't have been more wrong. This sport is not for the weak (this skill is for everybody, I just like writing unnecessarily dramatic statements for fun). Its for the patient and precise. Two attributes which I lack heavily (that was a joke, please don't percieve me as an impatient and clumsy man). I would like to preface this blog by stating that I used a sewing machine, I did not hand sew and that I had no sewing skill/experience in my entire life before taking on this project.

~Why Invest Points in the Sewing Skill Tree?

I want to be self reliant, I want to save money, I was told it was fun (spoiler, it is), but the main reasons were because I wanted to learn a new valuable skill and be self reliant.

Sewing is an extremely valuable skill anyone can learn. It teaches you how cheap it truly is to repair/customize clothes, how achievable it is to alter your things, and most importantly it reinforces the concept of self reliability. Besides what sewing teaches you, it also happens to be really fun and utilizes a lot of that creative muscle.

~Starting

I put off repairing my backpack because I was intimitaded by the idea that I had to learn how to sew. I never repaired any type of clothing/materials that involve sewing in my life and I just kept avoiding it. Until yesterday.

Out of nowhere I decided that I'm going to set aside the rest of my day, learn to use my mom's sewing machine and repair my backpack.

I plopped down the large, intimidating machine on my desk, searched and found its user manual and started to learn. As I learned how to set up and utilize the sewing machine, my overwhelming feelings and sense of confusion turned to fun. That sounds really cringe but it is true. Yea putting the threading into a million places was a bit confusing but it is definitely something that will be straight forward and second nature after a couple iterations.

What I Learned:

1. Setting up the machine: bringing the thread to the needle, bobbin, threading the needle, etc.
2. Changing the type of stitch and altering the shape of the stitch
3. Pedal sensitivity and reverse stitching

~Tangent

I remember I called my local alteration store and asked if I can get an estimate on the repair I wanted to do on my backpack, which is the same one that made me learn to sew and write this blog. I called, some lady answers, I tell her the 411, but the way I asked must of struck a nerve. I asked "I want to do this to my backpack ... I just want a simple cover up on the front pocket" then the lady loses some composure and says "yea its not that simple ... " going on about how and why its a damn near impossible job. Like I just spat in her face and told her to hand sew me a new backpack. First off the lady hasn't even seen the bag and she is already tripping. Also my intention was not to be naive and call a really hard job easy, but deep down I knew IT WASN'T A NEAR IMPOSSIBLE JOB. I brought it to the store to get a more in depth estimate and the lady said yea this can't be done or something like the store is too busy right now to take on a job like this which is understandable but damn dude.

Now I was thinking if I said something wrong or was being very negligent (although my intention was to be as kind as possible). A individual who sews for a living told me that the job I wanted to do was not simple at all. Fastforward to now, I learned the barebone basics of sewing and it turns out the job was not hard at all (there was friction but that friction only arose considering my absolute novice background). The job was somewhat time consuming but I feel like that is also coming from my beginner background and learning the ropes of the machine and sewing overall. The same day I first touched the sewing machine is the SAME DAY that I patched up my backpack.

Moral of the story, do it yourself. Also to make sure to choose your words wisely when talking to the lady that works at the local alterations store.

I saved myself money, proved some whack ah lady wrong (when I pulled up to the store the lady was sweet and very honest but for the sake of my story she needs to be percieved as a individual capable of wrong doing so I can look like the hero/chad), had fun, learned a new valuable skill, I had full creative freedom, did this in the comfort of my own home, and I can tell myself that I was the one that did that.

Now back to the main story, sorry for the tangent.

~The Project

Back to the story or blog or whatever you want to call this. Up to this point I have learned the very basic things I need to know to operate the sewing machine. I then proceed to start the project that sparked my interest to learn to sew, patching up my backpack.

~Backpack Lore

It was first my older brother's but he never really used backpacks like that so he passed it down to me in a pretty good condition as well. I have had this backpack since high school and used it through a good amount of time in college. I have added iron-on patches, ripped them off, thrown it on the floor a million times, painted on it, the list goes on. My mom sewed on the Mayan calendar which is my favorite part of the bag. The thing that bothered me the most was the amount of damage and experimentation I left on the front pouch section. I asked my mom to cover it up and she did but it wasn't really how I wanted it, but she did an amazing job, it's just that I was super picky. I am forever grateful for the things she does for me by the way but I knew deep down it was something that had to be done with a sewing machine instead of by hand. At the time we didn't have one. So I put it to rest in my closet.

After that I just went through a series of backpacks to better suit my style and experiment. New, used, mute colors, vibrant with colors, you name it. The other bags were nice and all but I would always just end up giving them away because they didn't quite cut it. I wanted my old bag back but with a fixed front pouch that was to my liking.

Time goes by and I use whatever backpack I have at hand. I have "Fix backpack" on my todo list for a very long time. Then my siblings and I decide to gift my mom a sewing machine for her birthday. A random day rolls around (yesterday) where I say enough is enough and take the time and effort to finally bring back to life the backpack I love (my mom of course gave me permission to use the sewing machine).

~The Before

The state of the bag before I worked on it was nothing crazy. I mean its an old bag, the thing is that the front pouch just has paint from whatever I was trying to draw on it and residue from a Rick and Morty patch I had ironed on it. The goal was to cover it up with some material I bought online.

~The Process

Fun. The process summarized in one word. I ran a couple of test runs on some of the material I was going to use and that gave me a pretty good feel on how it would go on the backpack. The process overall was very satisfying seeing how well and precise the machine does the work for you. I did one side at a time and although it did take a while it was mainly because of my planning and sewing at a very cautious speed.

~Challenges

A couple challenges I had was holding the material in place the way I wanted so I used some pins. The pins I used would end up stabbing me a couple times by accident which would put me back on my guard a couple times. Also sewing in a straight line was a bit hard because it was difficult putting the material down and going inside the enclosed spaces if that makes sense. Another annoying part was sewing in the tucked away corners.

As for getting the sewing speed down, it came to experimenting with different amounts of pressure on the pedal. I did find it a little inconsistent to be honest but it was completely managable.

Reverse stitching is also slightly hard. Not doing the act itself but doing it well in the sense that it is aligned with the initial pass through.

~The After

This is exactly what I wanted. Something simple.

~Final Remarks

I think sewing sewing is amazing and my first crack at it has left me beyond satisfied. Altough I only have one day of experience under my belt (yesterday), there are already a long list of alterations I have in mind.

~Departure

I want to say my goodbye by using the new code snippet component I just implemeneted from Prism.js. I added this earlier this week and couldn't wait to show them off.

goodbye = "Catch you on the flip side" 
# Me commenting in my code snippet like a pro
print(goodbye)

Go ahead and copy it. Just in case you wanted those lines of code just chilling in your clipboard.

Here it is in javascript:

console.log("Peace");

Why not in Java as well:

System.out.println("adios");

And lastly in bash:

npm install goodbye

Ok I'm done now, thank you for reading, goodbye.