This post has been inspired by an email I received today from a student who asked should they continue to subscribe as they have made all the notes they need. I believe this statement is link to the phenomenon created by video sharing websites like YouTube and Instagram. We see something, we watch it and rewatch to gain the knowledge of how it is done, but if we never actually do it, do we really know how it’s done? I say, without putting it into action and gaining the experience our knowledge is only superficial. Making this video series has made it easier for you to learn the skills it took me seven years to accumulate and master. Don’t underestimate how long it will take you to do the same. When I returned to Ireland I joined the local football team (Gaelic football), I had passed the Army Reserve fitness test and felt good, fitter than I had ever been in my life. I knew the theory behind the game, kick pass, fist pass, drop kick, block etc. Every training night was like being taught in a classroom, no one on one training just instructions to the masses. My skills slowly improved but I didn’t have the time and commitment needed to truly prefect the skills I had the knowing of. The skills never passed from my head to my hands. I never made it off the bench. I am not so old that I have forgotten the arrogance of my youth, the confidence I had in what I knew and the total mystery of what I didn’t. There’s a certain blind pride to ones own work, a failure to look at it critically and understand how to make it better. You are at the start of your journey, one that will have its peaks and it’s troughs. Making one coat doesn’t make you a coat maker, making a coat and not having to think about it does. As a teacher when I would enter a classroom I could tell how much work was actually being done. If their lips were moving their hands weren’t. It wasn’t until I had finished my apprenticeship that I could hold a conversation and still get my work done that I was really confident that I knew what I was doing. Today I will make a coat and I will most likely watch a movie when I am doing it. By the end of the coat I will still be able to give a summary of the film I watched because the knowledge and experience of tailoring has passed from my head and into my hands. Doing something without thinking about it, is true knowledge.
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I love this conversation and it makes me feel at home. I was an instructor in the US Navy, and an IT instructor since out, for the last 20 years. I teach my students and staff the same way I want to be taught, which is sharing the why, of the who, what, where and when list. Most instructors leave out the 'Why" unless they use the 'Because I said So ... Because that is how it was designed" or similar. Then they do not share as much information because they have their own assumptions. I start no training with assumptions, when it is an open class. I assume everyone is a completely blank slate and I work from there.
This class for me, I am a blank slate. I have learned to sew throughout my life, being taught by my mom and 2 generations of grandmothers.... but I never learned professional terminology. My answers were, do what the a pattern says....
This will never be a career for me, but so far, the videos have ignited a passion to learn as much as I can.
With that said, these classes being Global, if timer permits, could we get some videos- similar to the sticking videos - which explain the differences in the types of thread we will need for the different tasks, as well as explanation of the different types of fabric found in the different parts from the Suit Materials, Silesia, the Holland, the sleeve lining vs back lining if any and what materials to use (satin or other) .
I am in USA and when I go to any fabric store within an hour in an any direction, finding cotton thread for the basting and stitch marks is impossible, They all have tried to five me quilting thread.. then finding the thread for the finishing, the silk and then the button holes, the fusing and finally the bias tape... There are so many selections, and I do not have the words to describe exactly what I need and so far, none of the staff are educated enough to understand what I need when I explain what I am doing and what I am looking for in my ignorant terms.
I apologize for the length. I am a new student, day one level and there is a lot I do not know. I am not sure if there are others like me jumping in feet first this green, but I am ready to drink from the firehose. Thanks for any pointers...