AHH!!! Thats what a thimble is for. (Basic Sewing - self modded)

[Eninia Moonstar]

Junctior 7th of XIII PF

Eninia returned two days later to begin her lessons in sewing. She was simply dressed today. Her hair was braided so that if hung down her back all the way to her waist. Eninia looked around before knocking on the front door. The seemstress open the door and looked at her student and motioned for her to join her as they went into the back. "It is good to see you again." She indicated to a seat. "Please sit down, and we will begin."

Eninia took a seat next to the grandmotherly looking woman. The woman was winding up a cloth tap mesure. The rest of her supplies were placed neatly on a small table. Needles of various sizes were resting in a stiff pieces. She also had a thimble sitting next to her.

"The first thing to know as a Seemstress is the various tools of the trade. Your main tools are your cloth and your needles." She said indicating to the needles. "The cloth is usually choosen by your customers, but you need to choose what types of needels you prefer. Sometimes though the cloth makes specific demands on the type of needle."

Eninia nodded and listened as the woman pulled out the different types of needles and explained each of them.

[Eninia Moonstar]

Eninia nodded as each of the needles was explained. "These are the sharp needles. The are the middle length needles, and the most commonly used for regular sewing." She then picked up the longer needles "These are embroidery needles." She then indicated to the shorter needles. "These are the detail needles. You won't actually see until you get more training. The detail work is for the higher level experts." She contiuned to explain the rest. She showed the Beading, Chenille, clovers and Tapestry Neeldes.

"Okay now that you understand the needles let us begin with actually creation of clothing." She stood up and walked over to a drawer and pulled out a several drawings. "First you need to figure out what types of patterns you are going to use. How is the clothing going to hang, and were are the seems going to be. I need you to begin memorizing these simple patterns. Shirts, dresses, skirts, and pants. You will learn more as you progress but for know lets start with these."

The Kemite nodded her head and took the instructions and began to look them over. She notted that the sleave was a seperate parts of the shirt. Also the seems along the pants, and more complexly the seams in a dress. unlike the shirt and pants the dress required that they be sewn together and one still have to balance they holds in the skirt.

Eninia looked over them for a few moments long, gain an idea of how to read the instructions what would be expected when she made her first of any of these.

[Eninia Moonstar]

Eninia contiuned to look over the patterns and sat down and in her minds eye drew each of the lines in her head before she finaly set the drawing aside. She looked over at her teacher. She looked up from a note book that she was reading. "All right the next part is that we need to teach you how to take a persons mesurments." She motioned for Eninia to stand up. "Something to keep in mind that the differences in men and woman require slight variations in sizing for obvious reasons."

She pulled out a mesuring tap and motioned for Eninia to stand back up. "Let me show you how you measure someone and were you need to measure." She began to point to each of the areas. She motioned to the neck, she also indicated to the She proceded to indicate to the shoulders, length of the arms, the chest, and the belly. She pointed out what some of the differnt mesurements are that need to be take between men and woman. She also pointed out that the waist need measuring and the inseam and so forth. Eninia was suprised by how many part of the body needed to be measured. "It is possible to make clothing based on some main measurements. Such as the waist and inseem, but thoughts are usually simple cheeper clothing. To truely master the art of clothing you need to know every mesurements. Now I need you to take my mesaurements." The woman stripped to her underclothing. "That is something else. You better get used ot people in underware."

Eninia stepped forward and starting at the inseems and waist she traveled up wards until she had taken all the necissary mesurements and recorded then. While her teacher slipped back into her clothing.

[Eninia Moonstar]

Eninia finished writing down all of the mesurements that she had taken and then looked them over. The seemstress walked over and nodded her head. "Good. Always remember to start with the mesurements. Something about mesurements is that these are the basics that you work from. Follow me."

Eninia followed her teacher over to a large table were several bolts of cloth were laid out. "The type of cloth will require adjustments in your mesurements." She pointed to some cotton cloth and then leather. "If you are making it out of leather you will need to give it some more. Either way never cut at exactly the body measurements as you need to make the seems. Other wise your clothing will begin to unravel and then you will loose your seam, and your customers."

She then began to lay out several pieces of cloth. "Lets look at the different types of clothing." She contiuned to work them "Your customers are going to want to wear a verity of clothing, and will want a verity of materials."

Eninia stood looking over the various types of clothing feeling them as her teacher began to explain the differnt types. She ran her hand over the wool feeling its warmth but also the scruffness that was so common. She then felt the smoothness of silk, and satin. She picked up and held for a moment the ruff and stiff leather cloth. Setting it down she then turned her attention to the normal everyday cotton. She put them down for a moment and listened as her teacher spoke.

"At first I would recomend sticking to simpler less expencive coasts. Making a mistake in cotton, and other similar cloths is less costly then in silks." The kemite nodded her head and turned back to looking over the various styles of cloth.

[Eninia Moonstar]

Eninia looked at the cloth for only a moment longer before turning back to her teacher. "Okay your assignment is to sew a skirt and bloose for myself. You have my measurements and you can go back to look at the patterns that to remember how to create it." Eninia nodded and then looked back at the woman. "I can put a needle through cloth, but I am still not sure if I would be doing it right."

The woman smiled and then said, "I will take care of that. Don't worry. First I need you to cut our the patterns and we will go from there." the young woman nodded her head and then asked. "What type of clothing would you like? the color and the type of fabrics."

The seemstress nodded her head and said "Excellent. I would just like cotton, black skirt and white bloose."

Eninia nodded her head and picked up the cloth to give the nesissary mersurements.

[Eninia Moonstar]

Eninia pulled out the the simple but sturdy black cotton for the skirt, and white for a bloose. Her instructor pointed to a table that had the necissary equipment on it. Eninia walked over and set the clothing down and walked back towards the patterns. Looking at them again she looked first at the one of the skirt. She contiuned to look at it for a long moment before she finally set it down and walked back over towards the table.

She grabbed the mesuring tap and then setting the white cloth to the side unfolded the black cloth. She moved it until she had one corner were she could work from.

Using a pencil she marked out the corners and outline of one half skirt. She carefully folded it in half. so that she would be able to cut on time and not twice. She then pulled out some pins and placed them along the edge so that it would hold the cloth firmly in places.

Eninia straightened and shook out her hand before looking for the siccors. With slow and careful pratices she trimed the clothing out of the cloth, pausing once she hand finished the whole skirt.

[Eninia Moonstar]

Eninia pulled out the messering tape and checked her measurements. She nodded feeling that it would work. She had given the mesurements and additional inch on each side for the sewing. Eninia looked at it and then walked over towards her teacher. "I have the skirt ready for sewing."

Her teacher nodded and motioned for her to sit next to her. "Lets teach you how to sew and to keep the thread from unwinding." Eninia took the seat next to the elderly woman and pulled out a needle that she had indicated.

Over the next hour Eninia was shown how to hold the cloth while sewing it. She also learned the importance of preventing the threads from unraveling. Eninia watched as she was down how to keep the threads tight so that the seems hold.

Eninia then picked up her own work and pulling out some black thread began the process of sewing along each of the fabrics edges to keep then from begining to unravel. Eninia after a few jabs grabbed a thumbal and placed it over the thumb as she contiuned to work on the edging.

[Eninia Moonstar]

Eninia finally set the cloth down looking at the edging. It was finally finished around the edges. She carefully tested the edges to make sure that there was no unraveling. It had taken a couple hours to actually sew the edges of the cloth, but now that it was done .

She then grabbed the two parts of the skirt. Grabbing one corner she linned up the edge and then placed a pin to hold it in place. following the edges of the garment she countined down the edges pinning as she went on until she had pinned one whole edge of the skirt. She paused and looked at it realizings she had just pinned the wrong side. Sighing she pulled out the pins and flipping the cloth changed it so that she would be what would be the interior of the skirt was on the outside. She then once again began to pin the edge of the skirt confirming that the edges were matched.

She then picked up the needle and then picked up the black thread. She proceded to sew the seams together. Once again placing a thimbal on her thumbs. She contiuned along the seem pausing ever now and then to collect more string. Her teacher made her pause for a moment to show wer how to tie off the knotes.

Eninia flipped the skirt around and pinned along the other side. After finishing the side of the skirt she picked up the needle and contiuned to sew the other side.

[Eninia Moonstar]

Eninia stood up and and looked at the skirt she had sown so far. The stitching seemed to be firm, which gave Eninia reason to smile. She turned to her teacher and held it up for her to inspect. Standing up the teacher looked over the skirt before handing it back. "Okay now finish the waist." She said indicating to the waist area.

Eninia took the skirt back and sat back down. Once again pulling on her safty pins she folded over the top of the skirt to give it a seem. Carefully she pinned along the way until it was all safely secured. Setting it aside she once again pulled out her needle and thread. She began the careful process of threading the needle. Picking back up her first project she contiuned with her project along the seem.

The seem turned out to be the hardest as you bunched it a little but not to much. Her teacher paused ever once and while to point out mistakes to the young woman as she sewed. Eninia contiuned as her figures were begining to get a little sore.

Eventually Eninia finished the waist and handed it over to her teacher. Pointing out a few mistakes the teacher nodded her head and then tried on the skirt. It was a little loose around the waist. Her teacher gave her an example of how to fix the problem. "Now go home get some rest, the tomorrow morning come back and I will show you how to fix this problem and let you get to the shirt which will take more focus,"

"Oh course. I will see tomorrow." Eninia said as she rubed her fingures to decrease the soreness.

[Eninia Moonstar]

Eninia arrived the next day to find her teacher working. Eninia walked over and picked up the skirt she was working on. She then sat down and picked up the seem ripper. She ripped out part of the seam and pulled it closer she then pinned it closed. Picking up the needles and began sewing the last of the skirt. Eventually she finished the skirt and handed it towards to her teacher. The woman looked it over and nodded her head.

Eninia stepped back over to the cutting table. She pulled out the patterns again and laid them down on the table. She then picked up the white cotton cloth she was going to use and placed it on the counter. She measured of the main shirt and then the sleaves. She carefully cut the various parts of the shirt taking time to make sure that the parts measured up.

Afterwards she asked her teacher to stand and placed the sleeves over her arms and pinned it up so that it would give enough room to move the arm. She paused and began to pin down each of the sleeves. Then taking them off she began to sew the sleeves together. Eninia first sewed the egdes against unraveling then turned her attention towards sewing the edges of the sleeves together.

She then turned her attention towards the body of the shirt. First sewing the edges to prevent raveling. She pinned up both sides, and then began to sew up each side of the shirt.

After checking every seem and also checking to see how the shirt fit Eninia turned towards combining the sleaves the to shirt. Eninia having already sewing the edges pinned each sleeve so that the seem was along the bottom. Then she carefully began to sew around the edges. Evntually Eninia was getting better at not stabling her self with the fan everytime.

After Eninia had finished sewing the shirt she turned it back so that the ouside was out. She handed it to her teacher. Setting aside her own sewing the seamstress looked over the shirt and nodded her head. "Looks good."