I enjoy most every kind of needle-work craft, though I'm better at some than others. I've done card-making, counted cross-stitch, and knitting, a bit of crochet, and I love patchwork, though I have yet to finish a full-sized quilt top. The quilted projects I've done have been successful, and I get lots of compliments. At this point in my "crafting career" I have put aside all of those crafts in order to concentrate on dressmaking. I have been ... Read Full Bio »

I enjoy most every kind of needle-work craft, though I'm better at some than others. I've done card-making, counted cross-stitch, and knitting, a bit of crochet, and I love patchwork, though I have yet to finish a full-sized quilt top. The quilted projects I've done have been successful, and I get lots of compliments. At this point in my "crafting career" I have put aside all of those crafts in order to concentrate on dressmaking. I have been sewing since before I can even remember--first doll dresses, then my own clothes. I learned a great deal of sewing from my grandmother, some from my mother, and a lot in home-ec classes in high school. This was all when I lived in America (my home country.) I moved to England & married an awesome Englishman who is supportive of me, no matter what craft I'm doing, but he advised me to put aside the cross-stitch, knitting, quilting, and such in order to concentrate on dressmaking, because I've never been happy with the way my home-sewn garments have turned out. In the past year, I have bought some DVD's from Threads to enhance my learning, and I've taken some informal classes in my community (with an awesome instructor who has over 30 years experience in dressmaking, design, couture, retail, etc.) These have helped me a lot, but mostly in a generalized way. I've wanted to learn couture techniques to use, thinking that it was just what I need to make my own wardrobe more classy. My lifestyle doesn't require a couture wardrobe, though, thankfully, so while I'm learning a lot from "The Couture Dress," I'm grateful that it's not something I'll be doing over and over. I'm a "plus-size" gal, and one of my biggest frustration is getting patterns to fit correctly so that the clothes look good on me. I've lost about 35 lbs over the past 9 months, so I desperately need new clothes, but can't afford to buy them, and even if I could, ready-to-wear doesn't look good on me. I do, however, have a lovely collection of patterns, and a stash of fashion fabrics that are dying to become my new wardrobe. So I've just started Barbara Deckert's "Plus-Size Pattern Fitting & Design." I think it's going to be a huge help to me, and while I'm also going through Susan Khalje's "The Couture Dress" at the same time, I think the two classes will overlap a bit. My pattern fitting will help with my couture dress, and my couture techniques will enhance my project from Barbara's class. So I'm on my way to a new wardrobe, and would love to make sewing a career some day, in some way.