Mortem's Tricks or Treats: The Introduction

I receive a lot of questions about my sewing; how I learned to sew, can I teach one to sew, or are my sewing skills up for hire.

Because of the frequency of these questions, I've finally decided (after very long consideration) I shall endeavor to teach you, my readers, everything I know.
Now just to clarify, I'm not a tenured professional-- I taught two private classes on the rudimentary skills of sewing and jewelry making, but beyond that, I haven't attempted to teach a larger group of people. I make no claims to be all-knowing in matters of sewing.
But some people seem to believe I have something to share, and I have mentioned in the past about a slight desire to thrust what I know upon the world...

And so, I welcome you to the recent addition to my blog. Knock knock...

Mortem's Sewing Tricks or Treats!

I know, not very clever... but neither are any titles I choose for my blog, eheh.

I'd like to begin the first post with a brief intro into what to expect in this new section.

I absolutely, positively love sewing books, and own quite a bit of them-- you could say I'm a bit of a connoisseur. They're all helpful in their own way to help people on the path to learning how to sew. However, the thing I find distressing is that quite a lot of them cater to the insta-gratification crowd, offering an abundance of projects, but very little in the way of truly beginner content.

In the first few posts I plan on covering the topic most people begin with; getting to know your machine.

I found that most people/books can be vary vague about this topic; covering what they believe is all you need to know, such as thread tensions, types of stitches, machine anatomy... etc.

Yes, those are really important things to know, I won't argue that, but the thing that bothers me is that they very briskly (or not at all) cover other equally important topics, such a needle types, introduction to the various types of fundamental presser feet, and most importantly, preventative maintenance. These things also hardly change with the passing of time, and I feel are just as important to instill into beginners as the rest.

For these reasons, you'll see that many of the recommendations I'll make on reading material are in favor of the books Mary Brooks Picken's wrote or had a contribution in. If her biography isn't enough to impress you, surely the amount of timeless knowledge her books are so popular for will.

But mainly, I hope that my somewhat "self taught" perspective, will supplement and help demystify some of the basics that one finds in the books and other material I shall be posting about.

And now, for the first contribution...

Pick a mascot!

I can't remember where or when I got this, but I recently unearthed it and it was begging to sit atop my machine. I have never owned a machine that didn't eventually have a mascot. It gives me a face to beg to when something doesn't go right with my sewing machine...

By the way, I'm only half serious. In reality, you shouldn't be afraid to customize your machine(s), as long as you're not hindering its functions. Think of your machine as an extension of your creativity (as it really is)-- how can you be inspired to sew when your machine doesn't promote the continuance of the inspirational flow? 

This doesn't seem all that important, and truth be told it isn't actually integral to learning to sew... but it does help ease the process of familiarizing with your machine if it doesn't look nearly as intimidating as it did out of the box.

With thimble on hand, we shall conquer the world of sewing!