I love learning new sewing techniques and threads teaches me so much. I'd love to win.

I'm Jewish so the holidays are somewhat different here... I have made some non-holiday gifts though! I made four matching quilted place mats for a newlywed couple, and a gorgeous baby quilt for my future and first niece! You can see a sneak preview of my creations here:

http://www.sewlavie.com/2011/09/place-mats-in-progress-and-finished.html

http://www.sewlavie.com/2011/09/place-mat-done-photos.html

I'm also making a pillow for a friend that saw a pillow I made and wants one in the same style. I'll probably make more gifts, but I don't like to overload my sewing to-do list! So we'll see...

I hope I win a copy of the quick stuff to sew magazine! I love learning new ideas.

I like the 2053 dress with the multiple pleats. What I look for in a pattern:
- First of all, is it interesting but not overloaded
- does it look like something I would wear and would it flatter my figure
- does it contain a technique I would like to learn (knits, pleats, etc)
- I look at finished projects by other seamstresses and read their reviews - if many of the finished projects aren't flattering, I won't get it
- is it unique, doesn't look like a pattern I already own
- is it on sale (sorry, shipping overseas is so expensive, and McCalls/Vogue/Butterick have sales all the time, where I get great patterns for $4) - I would love to buy simplicity but haven't done so till now because of pricing.
- do I trust the sizing of this pattern company (do I face fitting issues with these patterns)

Regarding your questions:

Sometimes I am looking for a dress that I can wear everyday, and sometimes I want something unique that I will wear once or rarely, such as for a special occasion.

If the pattern has multiple views, that's nice and will increase the chances I would buy it solely because there's a chance I prefer one of the views over the others. But if I love a pattern, I don't mind if it comes in only one view.

I have sewn a few garments, some advanced ones as well. I am fascinated with couture techniques, but I also love quilting. making bags, and such. I would love to improve my hand stitching techniques - I love hand stitching and I would like to use more and more of it. I would also like to improve my fitting expertise. I would love to win a copy of this book!

After sewing my second dress with boning, and purchasing spiral steel boning from overseas, I've become interested in making dresses with boning, and in corsetry in general. This book covers a topic that is fascinating for me and I would love to win a copy!

I love your tutorials! They teach the basics, and the basics are so important! This information about button size and placement is valuable. Thank you! I hope next time you will explain about button holes :)

Hi Judith,

I have watched every episode of "Teach yourself to Sew". I love it. Each episode is packed with information in a short period of time. I love your clear, pleasant way of teaching. Even though I know a lot about sewing, I still pick up a few excellent tips and tricks from you. Thank you!

I guess I do have a method :-)

1. Keep your sewing room and sewing area quaint and tidy. If it's messy, I cannot stand to be there.

2. Work calmly and in a relaxed manner. If I start getting frustrated and annoyed, I'm just going to link that bad feeling to sewing and I'll avoid it.

3. Finish a project before moving on to the next. Don't think about how much you have left to do - set small, reasonable goals - baby steps! Tell yourself "today I'm only hemming the dress" or "today I'm only cutting out the fabric". Many times you will find that if you set *small* goals, you end up doing much more because it is not done out of a feeling of obligation but because you really want to!

4. Don't "over-fix" a project. You made it, you made mistakes, OK, move on. Don't undo the seams and fix it over and over because it'll tire you out. Instead, implement what you've learned into your next project.

5. Remember that if you buy fabric without knowing your pattern, then you are just wasting money because you usually buy excess fabric. Also, the fabric is most suited for the garment when you buy it having the pattern in mind! And when you get to that fabric months later, you would maybe prefer to have spent your money on a different fabric! So first find a pattern, then buy the fabric, and ONLY the fabric you need! Finish the project over a period of a few days or weeks. Congratulate yourself on the progress. Maybe take photos of the progress and post them in a blog or show them to friends who encourage you. It helps!

6. Post up your finished works on a site such as burdastyle. Email the photos to your friends. You will LOVE getting the feedback and you will feel so good to have finished it, and in the future you will really want to finish your projects!

7. Don't start 2 or more projects in parallel. It'll overwhelm you and create a mess in the sewing room, and switching between thread colors and fabrics and tensions is just unnecessary "noise". Also, you can't apply what you've learned from one project on another project unless you do them one after another right? So making a project at a time helps you improve your technique faster. Who wants 2 dresses with the same technical error in them, right?

Enjoy what you do! Make sure to create a positive experience. And then the sewing will flow! One project at a time :-)

Good luck and I hope this helps!

- Keren