What Are Friends For

August 29, 2025

After spending a wonderful retreat at my friend's I enjoyed some wonderful sewing time, and got into the joy of sewing all over again.  One problem, I lost my script sunglasses (ugh...those expensive kind), and I left all my hanging clothes in the closet!  Yikes!

So I told her to simply roll them up (they were in plastic bags -- and more on that later-- so rolling would be easy compact and work the easiet).  We chatted back and forth about it, and since she had a free weekend coming up she said, I'll just bring them to you!  Yeah!  That's a great friend, but you have to understand we've been through everything together - from marriages we thought were wonderful and stable, to being broke with about 6 zeros added at the end. And then back in happy marriages.  We've survived and both of us love sewing - it's been a respite to both of us.

So she comes up for the weekend at my place and I can return the hospitality she gave me at her place!  And one of the things we both realize is that we have what's clinically called Open Mindset.  

When you have a growth mindset, you are not only willing to share your information but also willing to listen to others.  There's more than just words to this advice; the actions that this kind of mindset can afford are subtle and essential.  Once you learn, you can learn anything, then doors will open that you didn't know were closed.  Once we realize that we can still learn a lot even from sources we didn't expect, we can begin to do things that are way beyond our expectations.  As a matter of fact, your expectations will be blown away.  

To think that one day I would have enough knowledge that I could make anything I wanted in my closet, I would have told you that was impossible.  But the attitude that I can always learn something has helped me get to the point that I know I can create anything, with the understanding that I can learn anything.  Without that mindset, I'm stuck where my teacher left off in the 60s, and can't progress any further.  Fortunately she told me I can learn for the rest of my life.  

One of the things that she shared was well-thought out and very useful.  Whenever I do one of those housetop placket...

...the biggest problem I have is making each side of the housetop even.  It seems to me that it's verging on getting out the mm ruler to make sure that all the measurements are the same.  

Over the weekend, my good friend shared with me the end-all method to make sure your housetop plackets really do "square" at the top without having to do micro-measurements of each side of the square to work.  

Here's a video - not too short, but worth the time to see how to do this exactly.

And I'd like to thank my good friend Susan Knowles for sharing.  

Remember we are never too old (or too smart) to learn.  Knowing that we can learn anything is really the secret to being confident and secure in our sewing.  It's only another puzzle waiting to be solved!  

So what's the deal with cleaning bags over your clothes.  The first time I heard this little gem of a technique, I didn't believe it, but I was going to Tokyo and Hong Kong.  This was during the early 90's when Hong Kong was still part of the British Empire.  I knew I wouldn't have access to an iron and besides I didn't trust anyone to press my clothes but me.  I knew how they were made and knew how I wanted them pressed.  But I knew that linen would be the perfect thing to wear in Hong Kong (being the tropics and all).  
 

Part of being in the garment-making business, you hear all sorts of ways to preserve, repair, maintain, and care for your clothes after they are made, and that means how to travel with even the most wrinkle-prone garments, without a luggage trunk.

I look at this thing today and think that's like traveling with your closet, which is precisely what I do in my RV!  

Anyway, I didn't have a luggage trunk so I needed another way to get my clothes to Hong Kong w/o wrinkles.  So I had heard that if you pack your clothes in plastic cleaner bags, you can preserve the great press in your clothes.  And remember this is all clothes that I've made, and want to show them off in their best light.  

I'll never forget after we arrived late afternoon from Tokyo, I opened my bag (which I sat on and squeezed stuff into when we left Tokyo), and hung all my clothes in the closet and lifted the bags so the clothes could hang out.  My linen suits and pants looked spectacular.  So much so that when we showed up for dinner with our group, they were all like, "Where did you get your clothes pressed?" and I told them and they were astonished to hear of my insider knowledge.  

Ever since, when I travel, even if it's to a friend's home and I'm traveling by car, air or whatever I travel with my clothes in cleaning bags.  It keeps them looking fresh and just pressed and ready to wear!

The SewingArtistry Resource Library is designed to contain information to not only make your sewing better, but to aid in you fitting and flattering your shape, size and style.  Check it out. 

Look for future classes coming in 2024
The Core Pattern Shirt, (one of my favorites for woven core pattern that you can make into a myriad of different garments), 
Basic Knit Top (core pattern class for knit basic tops, shells, tees, dresses, and tunics)
 

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