That is, do you do too much? I thought of this when hemming the legs of my DH’s trousers.  I had remembered some advice given by a couture tailor about not trying to ‘nail down’ your hems and seams. He said that very often the hems on couture garments are often just caught by two or three threads in the garment itself and that is sufficient. With this in mind I made sure that only the tiniest marks were made on the outside of the trouser legs but that the hems were nice and secure. After all the expert himself assured us that our garments would not fall apart!

I have often been guilty of ‘over-sewing’. Of wanting to put too much into a garment. This is probably quite a natural reaction to having taken a lot of care and effort with whatever it is you’re making and wanting to make it ‘wear-proof’. I have, on occasions,  used inappropriate finishes in an effort to do a ‘good finish’, e.g. adding seam tape and bias binding to seams that didn’t really need it and that ultimately spoilt the hang of the garment – and yes, ‘nailing down hems’ too.

Let’s make it quite clear though, I am not advocating shoddy or quick finishes. It is important to be proud of your work and to finish anything you make to the best of your abilities. The couturier was merely reminding us to direct our energies to what really matters and to finish delicately. The inside of a garment should be as beautiful as the outside, if not more so. Despite the fact that few will ever see it, you will know and make wearing the clothes far more pleasurable.

It is odd how various snippets of sewing gems come to mind whilst doing the most mundane of sewing jobs, but it confirms what we all know, that the wealth of sewing knowledge out there is invaluable. Tips we think we may never need can often be used in unexpected ways. We can never know enough and would we want to anyway? That would mean the end of a very enjoyable journey in increasing our knowledge and skills. Don’t you agree?