Greetings HTA Community!
I just finished watching the handcraft coat series, and I've watched the full trouser series as well; I figured it'd be helpful to see the making of each garment all the way through once before attempting to follow along. Since I'm a beginner, I was hoping to tell you all a bit about my experience to see where you think I should start.
I'm a self-taught sewist with a bit of experience drafting patterns, mostly for shirts. Over the last couple years I've been able to develop a shirt pattern that accounts for my body's various peculiarities and fits very cleanly. I'm pretty good on a sewing machine but am a novice at hand sewing and haven't done much iron-work. My goal is to be able to make myself trousers and sport coats one day.
For those of you that have made some of the beautiful garments I've seen posted on the forum, I'd be curious to know what your experience level was going in, how long it took you to be able to make yourself something wearable, and if you have any tips for someone starting from the beginning. I plan to spend some time just practicing my hand sewing before I go to draft my first pattern. I assume it would be best to start with trousers, right? I've considered doing the waistcoat series, but frankly there just isn't a place in my wardrobe for a waistcoat (although I'm sure there's general knowledge in there that's worth learning - I do plan to get to that one eventually).
Thanks everyone!
Hi Krudsma! I can only speak from my own experience of attending textile school and having internships at two tailoring houses that trousers, like you said, are the right place to start. Most of the work is done using the machine and the construction is relatively simple.
Then try waist coats. And you don’t have to make a finished waist coat if you don’t want to. Try making a basted fitting that you can rip apart and redo over and over. Then you can have a go at the coat. You can also try to make samples of pockets, felling linings and collars separately from your project. Both to get more comfortable with hand sewing and not be disappointed with the whole garment because of poorly made pockets (like I am with my first coat hahah)