Your Tip for Tuesday: Diane Gilleland

In her upcoming book, Kanzashi in Bloom: 20 Simple Fold and Sew Projects to Wear and Give (available for pre-order now!), Diane Gilleland demystifies an ancient Japanese art form into projects even a beginning crafter can relate to. Through her blog CraftyPod and her numerous pod casts on everything from All About Glue to Crafting as Spirituality, Diane guides us in all things craft. She is a beacon to Portland crafters with her DIY Alerts website and her tutorials in Craft Magazine and Craftstylish have been aide and inspiration to the entire online crafting community. Today, lucky readers, Sister Diane has been kind enough to share her top sewing tips and advice with us.

– Sewing is full of little steps that may not seem to relate to the finished project: measuring out the straight of grain, pressing your seams, clipping the seam allowances at corners. But don’t skip them! All these tiny techniques make a huge difference in the quality of the finished project.

– Start with small, simple projects, and work your way up to garments. When you make clothing, you’ll need to pay lots of attention to fit (see the next tip) – so it’s a good idea to be comfortable with the basics of sewing seams and pressing first. Tote bags are great beginner projects, as are pillows.

– When you work your way up to garment sewing, try your project on frequently during the process. With most garment projects, you’ll need to make little adjustments in the fit – taking in a seam here, letting a seam out there. You want to find and make these adjustments as early in the process as possible. Nothing’s sadder than finishing a whole garment, trying it on, and THEN finding out that it doesn’t fit right!

Thank you so much for the advice, Diane! Those are tips everyone can use.