Figured out how to draft myself a curved waistband for a skirt I've been making, and it fit first time! Very proud because I'm not a very experienced sewist and usually just stick to whatever the pattern tells me to do.

More info for those who don't mind being educated about sewing first thing in the morning:

Basically most sewing patterns come with a straight rectangular waistband, but those only fit on people who are relatively straight up and down where the band is gonna sit. Meanwhile I'm so short-waisted and big-hipped that everywhere is massively curvy and there's not a straight up and down bit anywhere to be found on my torso.

So since this one is a wide waistband, there's a full three inches more circumference needed at the bottom of where the band sits than the top. Therefore it needs to be curved, therefore I had to break away from the pattern and do it all myself.

If you can never get waistbands that fit right and everything always gapes weirdly, you too may be cursed with curves. I recommend learning to sew.

[–] ScottyB@kbin.social -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's awesome.

I have been trying to subliminally encourage my wife to learn to knit/crochet/sew for years, I think it's a great hobby to have but I'm just not dexterous enough. It would be a good one to keep her from mindlessly scrolling as she's trying to avoid at the moment and it would also allow me to ask for cool crocheted figures and I've always liked the idea of having a bunch of plain shirts that have some custom pattern sewn into them. Selfish? Maybe.

Got any patterns and tools I could casually leave in her evening chill spot and she may just suddenly do from a beginner and get her excited to do more?

[–] thegiddystitcher@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Well, not to derail your dastardly plan or anything but if you're so into the idea of crocheted toys and etc maybe it is actually worth giving it a go yourself! I taught my other half to crochet and he made a series of animal amigurumis (all named after himself because learning crafts makes you feel like a god I guess), and then presented me with this little fella for Valentine's Day.

It took him like two weeks to get to this point and he's rather ham-fisted himself, so I totally believe in you! Always happy to enable a beginner and I'm sure the crochet community here would welcome you too.

This doesn't help you offload it all onto your wife ofc, but I can't tell from your question if she's ever shown the slightest bit of interest in learning any of this so that's probably step 1. If she has, crochet is probably the easiest to pick up (knitting is a bit harder for total newbies in my experience, and sewing needs a machine to do much interesting).

Whichever of you is learning I'd recommend picking up a cheap beginner kit off Amazon or similar with a set of hooks in different sizes, and some stitch markers (don't skip the stitch markers as a newbie!). You'll want to start off in "aran" weight yarn (they call it "worsted" in the US so don't let that confuse you) in a light colour so you can see what you're doing. Either acrylic or cotton is a good place to start. I usually recommend newbies make something like a cotton washcoth since it's basically just a square of the same stitch over and over again, really helps you learn how to keep your stitch count right from one row to the next and then it's also a practical item you can use!

(Obligatory self plug for my beginner crochet tutorial but fair warning it's like 40mins long and also I like to go into the theory of what I'm teaching to help it sink in)

Ok that was a wall of text. You started it! 😅