Hi, I am new to this group!

Ayup: try something, mess up, come here, describe the symptoms and ask us what went wrong. You won't find a more concentrated deposit of expertise anywhere.

You might want to join the Yahoo group "How to Make Sewing Patterns" <

> so that you can look over the "Apron Project" in the Photos section.Don McCunn is developing an explanation of the very basics ofdressmaking by designing aprons for wine bottles. The bottles areabout the size of a quarter-scale dress form, but don't have anyconfusing details. My own _Rough Sewing_ is meant for beginners, but it isn't finished yet.

Joy Beeson

Hi Pam! Welcome to the group! I am new too and everyone's been so nice to me that I wanted to pay it forward to another new person. I know you're looking for online resources, so I'm sorry I don't know many but if it helps at all to hear other ideas... I learned to use my machine more from a friend who gave me a lesson one day and by reading things like (insert bashful face here) Sewing for Dummies and obviously the manual to my machine, which was way more helpful that I expected (I have a Brother cs 6080). That, and just plain trying stuff. Sew News has a couple issues out of a news-stand-only magazine called Sew Simple that is full of pretty easy projects that helped me get to know little things about my machine and my skills.

Anyhow. Hope that helps! Best of luck, see you around the group!

-Laura

ScrapNana22 wrote:

Laura, you mentioned "a bashful face" when you said Sewing for Dummies is a good resource. I was over 70 YO when I looked through the book one evening at Borders; it was so interesting that it came home with me, and at that time, I'd been sewing for over 50 years. It is one of the resources I use many times along with the original Readers Digest Complete Guide to Sewing, bought in the 1970s. I have the later copy, too, but find the older one is easier to comprehend, at least to me. I recently found a copy of the original at Amazon.com for one of my daughters, who sews some, when she isn't too involved with other things. Emily

Looking at my desk, I see quite a few "Dummies" books -- which are good reference for a number of subjects. If a person doesn't do something on a regular basis, when going back to do it again, it really helps to have a guide. Being of simple mind, I prefer simple, clear instructions. I don't care what the name of a book is - I want what is inside to be useful to me. An advantage of "Dummies" is that their editorial staff seems to share that philosophy. ;-)

Thanks for your support- I too have several different dummies books, which was why I started with their book when i started sewing. I guess I didn't consider that other people use them too (I guess otherwise they wouldn't be so successful!). At any rate, I found it very helpful and I'm glad I don't have to be bashful around you! :oD

-Laura

Pog> > Laura, you mentioned "a bashful face" when you said Sewing for Dummies is a