Do you use YouTube or some other video site to learn sewing? Do you have a favorite channel(s)?
I’ve just discovered Paul Chevallier’s channel and he’s hilarious and super educational. Lots of useful info in short, easily digestible videos. No loud background music.
Also, my local library system has a free subscription to Craftsy, and there’s a lot of useful sewing (and knitting, etc.) videos there. What have you found?
I find Craftsy has the most comprehensive sewing tutorials. Janet Pray. Kenneth D King, Alison Smith are some of my favorites. But, they have beginner classes as well. Craftsy is almost always on sale for $5 or less for a year’s subscription. Just be sure to put a note in your calendar to cancel before the renewal date. Or remove the automatic renewal in your account. Good luck and Happy sewing. As for YouTube, there’s so much out there and most of it is garbage. But, I’m a total fanboy for Silhouette Patterns because she makes everything so easy. But, she is best known for her simple fitting tips (Fit 2 Stitch on PBS) which is where I think most people have problems. They make something that doesn’t look good and think they have done something wrong. When it’s usually a simple fitting issue. Made-to-measure patterns like Freesewing help, but they are still 2D and we need to fit them to a 3D body. p.s. If you get to the library be sure to check out Janet Pray’s shirtmaking class on Craftsy, even if you don’t intend to make any shirts. Just learning how to hold the fabric so you can control it going through the machines is worth the price of admission. Good luck and happy sewing.
Excellent tips, thank you! I’ll be looking those up, especially the fitting channel. I’m just starting to dabble with going beyond existing patterns.
I’ve made 3 Fairfield button up shirts from Thread Theory, and my next FreeSewing project may be a Simon shirt to compare.
I like https://www.youtube.com/@TheClosetHistorian She likes to wear mid-century fashions. She takes a basic block and shows you how to adapt it to make what she wants to make. I have leaned a lot about dart manipulation.
Whoa, such a talented & creative person! She does sewing and carpentry/house renovations! Incredible depth of videos over 10 years, with lots of playlists. So much research, and she shows us where to find information.
I’ve watched many vintage sewing videos from Bernadette Banner (great deep dive into buying linen, recently), Evelyn Wood, & Nicole Rudolph, but had never seen a Bianca Esposito video before. Thanks!
P.S. I just discovered @SewRena, and her latest short includes a description of her fixing up her old Chevy Corvair. What a Renaissance woman! She’s so elegant modeling her clothing, I never expected that at all. When we don’t limit ourselves to societal expectations/“norms”, we can do anything we want.
She has taught me a lot. I wouldn’t call what she does carpentry exactly. Although I have seen her use a jig saw. But she does a lot of home decorating since she bought an old victorian house about a year ago. She also does a lot of sequins and beading. Her embellishments of her clothing and her home are over the top. It’s not exactly to my taste. I don’t feel like I have to like the end result to enjoy the process.
Oh, I agree. I’ll never make a dress or hand-sew antique clothing, but I’ve learned a lot about fabric, techniques, and processes by watching Evelyn Wood & Bernadette Banner.
