Exploring Craftsy

The other evening I was wanging around on t'internet, as I often do, and thought I'd have a butchers at what Craftsy was all about as I kept hearing about it on Twitter and other people's blogs.  If you're not familiar with the site, Craftsy offers a wide range of  video tutorials and courses across a range of creative topics, from weaving to jewellery making, cooking and cake decorating to knitting and quilting.  Naturally, it has a number of courses on sewing.

I took a look around and was quite intrigued by the concept but was unsure whether I could justify the cost of what was on offer.  After all, YouTube has a wealth of free tutorials and for more personalised tuition I have my local sewing and craft centre, which offers great courses like the 4 week beginners course I recently completed.  After clicking around a bit I left it there.

A day or so later I received an email from Craftsy offering me a discount on a course I had been looking at.  I admit that their marketing worked and I decided to take another look.  The course was about creating your own pattern and sewing an A-Line skirt, and after my A-line skirt pattern fiasco  I thought perhaps that could be a way forward.  As the course was so heavily discounted (I paid just £7.50 which I think was around 75% off) I decided to take the plunge and bought it.

I haven't yet watched the whole course but from what I have seen so far I am impressed.  For such a small amount of money I've got unlimited access to 11 HD video tutorials which is around 4 hours in total.  The course covers everything from taking accurate measurements to teaching you how to adapt the basic skirt pattern to add different finishes and details.  The platform itself is very easy to use and has additional features like the ability to make personal notes on the videos and you can even ask the tutor questions directly and interact with other 'students'.  You can see the course details here.  I'll let you know how I get on with it when I start the project.

Starting Out With A Skirt

I start my short sewing course next week and, although it is aimed at beginners, I wanted to feel prepared and not look like the class dunce!  So I found some time this week to crack out the sewing machine and have my first real attempt at making something.  After a bit of deliberation I decided to start off with a simple, elasticated skirt.  

I watched a few YouTube videos and read a couple of blog posts that all featured a similarly constructed skirt.  In the end, because I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and underskilled, I decided to just go for it based on what I had watched and learned without following any one tutorial in particular.  I guess I worked most closely, though, to this video tutorial from Brett Bara from her book Sewing in a Straight Line

And, (*drum roll*) I managed to make this (*taadaa!*)

Although the end result is far from perfect, it is definitely passable and overall I feel quite pleased with my first project.  I was chuffed that I managed to get the hem and tunnel for the elastic (there's probably a proper word for that!) quite straight.  I did make a booboo and sew in the elastic before doing the vertical edge of the skirt meaning that I had to sew over the elastic to finish, but it hasn't affected the way it looks or wears.  

I picked the wrong time of year to make such a summery skirt though, and as I look out of the window at the pouring rain and dark skies I think it may have to go into the wardrobe until next spring!