L---P----1----+----2----+----3----+@10-4----T----R C:\PAGESEW\RUFFTEXT\ROUGH029.HTM E:\PAGESEW\RUFFTEXT\ROUGH029.TXT Random musings ------------------------------------------------------------ Since the warranty on our bodies runs out when we are thirty, it is popularly supposed that only the most fortunate of our remote ancestors lived much longer than that. A person with such a short life could not afford to waste time re-learning the same thing over and over; I imagine that a cave man who had hit upon a technique that worked, however poorly, would regard any alternate technique -- if he could conceive of there being an alternate technique -- as disgusting and immoral. Nowadays, all but the most sickly of us can afford to learn fifteen or twenty ways to do our chores, but we persist in thinking that there is One True Way, and all other ways are somehow "wrong". Every how-to mailing list and Usenet group spends half its time whapping newbies upside the head and saying "You're not *wrong*, you're Eastern Catalonian with a half gainer!" If I catch you citing me as an authority, I'll crack your knuckles with a ruler -- if you want to tell someone that he should be using another technique, don't say "that is wrong"; say "that way takes longer than this way," or "this way makes it easier to avoid wrinkles". I shall now proceed to teach you The One True Way. ------------------------------------------------------------ If you don't understand why, you don't understand how. Most of the time, even in the most impractical arts, when a teacher is particularly insistent on a method, the "why" is that it's easier or less time-consuming than a method that appears to be simpler. Either that, or he doesn't have the tools to make the other method work properly. ------------------------------------------------------------ HAND VS. MACHINE Hobbyists usually have a strong preference for sewing one way or the other. Someone who likes sewing because he enjoys running the machine will feel great triumph at accomplishing something on the machine that would have been much easier to do with a needle. Someone who enjoys handwork will stitch something by hand that could have been done faster and just as well by machine, so that he can lean back and listen to a tape while he works. If you want to turn out wearable clothing with minimum effort, you are going to have to learn both methods and use each where it's appropriate. But speed of getting through the sewing task isn't the only consideration -- you may chose a method because you can accomplish some other task at the same time, or because it provides a needed change of pace and can be done while resting up for some other task, or just because you need the practice. ------------------------------------------------------------ FOLLOWING THE RULES Every rule has a reason. If you don't know the reason for a rule, you can neither reject it nor follow it with any success. When you don't care how the product looks, you may "skimp" by leaving out a step that would have made subsequent steps much easier. And when you are trying to be meticulous, you may follow a rule meant to save work at the expense of the effect. In sewing, as in everything else, you can't switch off your brain and follow blindly; you have to know what you want, and choose techniques that will help you to get it. ------------------------------------------------------------ When taking well-meant advice, remember the story about the helpful fellow who made himself an extra pair of eyes for a driver who was jittering back and forth in a tight parking space, and issued orders that quickly got the car parked neatly -- only to be told "I was trying to get out!" ------------------------------------------------------------ You can learn a lot by studying what professionals do, and factory workers are apt to be your only model, but don't think that what's best for the professional is certain to be what's best for you. A trick that produces substantial savings when you are making several thousand copies may save nothing or less when applied to a single garment. And don't forget that sewing-machine operators operate their machines all day every day, not even stopping to cut out. If someone points out that pros never pin, "but rely on their skill and experience," pause to consider whether your skill and experience are equal. Not to mention that a factory worker may well spoil a few garments getting warmed up! ------------------------------------------------------------ The traditional learning projects are household linens, underwear, dirty-work clothes, play-in-the-mud clothes, and nightwear. ------------------------------------------------------------ EOF