On How sewing is an engineering discipline (an Intro to Engineering My Own Wardrobe)

I'm an engineer and I sew and I see these things as pulling on the same part of my brain.

I've always enjoyed creative outlets, I love painting, drawing, photography, embroidery, crochet and, obviously, dressmaking. As an aside, my Mum tells me that in my first school report at just 4 years old I was told that although I tried hard at art, it clearly wasn't my forte, and I was too damned determined to succeed and prove the teacher wrong that I 'got good'. This logic did not motivate me with music, however, which I was told I sucked at and wholeheartedly agreed. Whatever the reason, I'm pleased I found creativity as an outlet because I love it now!. I'm also pretty keen on maths, numbers, science and its applications. All in all, a bit of a nerd. I think it confused my school when I wanted to pursue Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Art at A-Level and I think that speaks volumes about the way the education system works, in the UK at least - which is probably a rant I will save for a later blog (or if you ever happen to have the misfortune of bringing up the topic over a pint, or two**.)

I could list up some dictionary definitions of the two disciplines, engineering and dressmaking - but in reality I think both of them can be boiled down to the following: Designing, developing and creating products/items/constructions from raw materials that fulfill a purpose, achieved through solving a number of problems.

Maybe that is a bit broad-brush and could be used for a whole host of professions/hobbies- but really, in both engineering and dressmaking I see my job as turning raw materials into stuff, that fits the bill (whether that be a monitoring device for a substation, or a dress for my body). It's a bit like piecing together puzzles - some with cement and steel and some with viscose and thread. For me, I just like solving problems, I love the satisfaction of really needing to use my brainpower to figure something out and then breaking through. The satisfaction of trying something from different angles and then finding a solution that works.

When I was talking about setting up this blog I nearly went for 'Engineering my Own Wardrobe' and I still love the idea. I think I am going to use to it to talk about creating myself clothes that fit my life - so in that vein I have begun to itemise the clothes that I have in my wardrobe, the RTW items I've worn the most (And the least) and work on my makes around that. I'll call It the EMOW series on the blog and hope to have an installation once a month. It's been 6 months since I started sewing and I started with a lot of novelty dresses in OTT prints - that I love - but will not be worn everyday. I originally wanted to learn to sew to make clothes for work, that were a bit more fun than I could find in the shops, but were still work appropriate. So, now is the time to plan and sew accordingly. Let's engineer this wardrobe (*geek out*)

**If you’d like to read more about the way in which the sciences and the arts are actually way closer than we are indoctrinated to believe - I would recommend reading Moab is my Washpot by Stephen Fry - because he is far more educated and eloquent than I am (and his excellent use of swear words on the matter are, well, excellent).