Sewing takes so much preparation, and the prep is not the fun part.

First you have to spend time looking at the instructions from the pattern you bought.  They are written in such a way as to be as confusing and unintelligible as possible, much like some  academic papers, where the language is so foreign that you wonder if it is still written in English.  You must walk the fine line between studying the sewing instructions for long enough to get the gist of them and studying the instructions for so long you go clinically insane from confusion.  You can fill in the rest of your understanding with some good old fashioned guess work.

 

Then you have to make a pattern.  Here I have made a pattern for fur legwarmers.  It is essentially just a quadrilateral but it is also the most intricate pattern I have made so far.

 

Then you have to pin the patterns on the fabric and cut everything out, trying not to accidentally cut anything you are not supposed to.  The cut pattern pieces are then draped all over every possible surface in your home so as to try to keep them in some kind of order so you don’t sew your arm piece onto where the hood piece should go.

And then the fun part…..  you are finally ready to sew!!  I’m sewing with a machine my Gran gave me years ago.  She was an amazing seamstress and while I can’t do the machine justice (or any pattern I attempt for that matter), I think she would be happy to know that it still makes all of our Halloween costumes every year.  My skill might even be improving!