Last year I taught my first men’s sewing workshop where four beginner students come to my home studio and learn how to make there own self drafted organic cotton tee-shirt.
I was curious what motivated these men to want to learn how to sew? They all had similar answers they were all “looking for an alternate shop for clothes that didnt involve participating in fast fashion where explotation and eco damage are rife”
I felt so humbled by their motivations and honored that they choose me a newbie to having a sewing workshop business to start their sewing and sustainable wardrobe journey.
Scroll down to see the process for tee-shirt making. I have included links to sustainable suppliers.
First we talk through how to take accurate measurements and use those to choose the best fitting base pattern to work from and what amendments to make to produce a good fit across the shoulder/body length and any alterations they wanted to make.
Each student uses on of my cardboard base patterns to trace out their own tee-shirt pattern. Once their pattern is finished they carefully lay the organic cotton fabric and cut out all four pieces.
None of the students had used an over locker before and two hadn’t used a sewing machine before so I advised all the students to first sew the seams on the sewing machine before the over locker. Particularly with the collar it can be tricky to ensure all layers of the jersey are caught in the over-locker and this helps.
All the guys did a fantastic job of sewing! I was so impressed by them. It was ambitious to teach four beginners to draft and sew a t-shirt from scratch. I learnt quite a lot during this workshop and these are the changes I will make for the next one:
more lighting!
increase the workshop length to 6hrs
to have two workshop tables in the same room so I don’t repeat the teaching in two different rooms
make t-shirts up for students to try on and feel which size fits them best
purchase another overlocker
This workshop journey is a rich one but I am always learning!
And we finished off their organic t-shirts with beers and crisps!
I have been so surprised by the interest in men’s sewing….its been more popular than women’s sewing! So here is a link to the next tee-shirt workshop in April, there are two spaces left.
All these beautiful photos have been taken by Kim Gribbon you can see more of his delightful work here.
