Tatyana's School of Couture - The Melbourne Sewing Group August 1, 2019 15:30

Tatyana’s School of Couture - The Melbourne Couture Sewing Group

Teaching couture sewing seems like a natural progression to me; I have designed and made garments that people love, and so when my group asked me to pass on my skills, first we had to establish what it was everyone wanted to learn. The most popular choices seemed to be a working on a bias cut and working with lace. That made it very easy for me to decide what I could share… The Delicate Nothings range!

We started with the camisole, as it uses both these skill sets, and I was able to let people personalise their camisoles by picking their own combinations of colours and lace types. Originally, we set aside a day for this, and as my making studio was not big enough to host others, we kept the group very small and I went in search of a venue.

Date, time, place, people, equipment all organised, we started! Our first meeting was August 19th 2017 (Of course back then, it wasn’t an official school or anything JUST yet!).

The first thing I learned from that experience was how much I had under estimated how long we would need! Needless to say we did not finish, so I started searching for a second date we could finish it on. One month later…

 

   

What a great time we had! But what an effort it was to organise! If only I had my own space…

 Actually that’s not a true representation of my train of thought. At that time, I genuinely believed this would be a one off! A great excuse to meet up with some fabulous, enthusiastic people with a love of couture sewing. But the journey was only just beginning. What I didn’t know then was that this workshop had sparked interest across the country. First to contact me was the amazing Australian Sewing Guild to ask if I would run a similar workshop through them for their members to access. This was a great opportunity to further connect with my sewing community, of course the answer was yes. This also meant I had a chance to refine some of my ideas regarding the workshop process. And what I mean by that is something quite specific… the fabric!

 Fabric, in both its quality and its amount is crucial to creation. Something I quickly realised I had taken for granted as a designer, was the access and knowledge I had of the fabrics necessary for the workshop. The words ‘silk’ and ‘lace’ are umbrella terms for such a wide variety in quality, shape, size and price. And not everyone has access to the plethora that I do. Even if a person has the knowledge and eye for fabrics, it doesn’t mean that they have the access to them. Ordering over the internet can be amazing, but always comes with risk.

Taking this on board, I decided to that I would also offer kits as part of the workshop so that people could be guaranteed the correct fabrics.

    

 That’s the perfectionist in me…I want to offer all the quality I can! Now to try and get back to my Melbourne group for the next part- the Delicate Nothings French Knickers!