Expanding my craftiness

I mentioned the other evening that I had a some big news.  Well here it is. 

Sometimes in life you need a bit of a change and this is mine...

I learnt to sew many years ago in a high school home economics class and hated it.  A few years ago I finally overcame the horrors of my year 8 completely mis-sewn shorts and started flirting with sewing.  But I really have no idea what I'm doing.  I don't know anything about fabric, or seams, or hems or, well, anything sewing related at all really!

So I've taken the plunge and my workplace has kindly allowed me to move to part time hours while I study 'Clothing Production' at the local technical college full time.   It is a course that covers not just sewing, but also understanding fabrics, clothing design and pattern making. 

We are halfway through the second week of classes and it is great.  Yesterday we used overlockers - wow!  Threading an industrial overlocker is complicated, and involves a lot of tweezers work - I wished we'd owned the 'Operation' game when I was a child, I think it would have been good practice!  Pattern making is a bit confusing, but I've never even used the patterns you can buy from sewing shops for domestic use so it is all completely new.  All of the classes are interesting though and I'm very excited about the coming months.

I'm especially excited about learning to sew because we have some gorgeous silk that I want to turn into something beautiful, but I'm currently too nervous about ruining it to touch it. 

This sari silk has been sitting in our cupboard since our return from Sri Lanka a few years ago.  This photo doesn't do justice to the fabric, which is rich and vibrant and shimmers in the light.