Dressmaking as an Art Form, with Helen Haughey | Episode 86

Summary

Threads Magazine Podcast: "Sewing With Threads"
Episode 86: "Dressmaking as an Art Form" with Helen Hoey
Release Date: February 4, 2025

In Episode 86 of the "Sewing With Threads" podcast, host Carol Fraser engages in an enlightening conversation with esteemed dressmaker and educator Helen Hoey. The episode delves deep into the intricacies of dressmaking, exploring its classification as an art form, the myriad skills it encompasses, sources of inspiration, and the nuanced differences between sewing for oneself versus clients. Below is a detailed summary capturing the essence of their discussion, enriched with notable quotes and timestamps for reference.

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1. Introduction to the Episode

The episode begins with a brief promotion ([00:00]-[00:30]) about an exclusive trip to London featuring various sewing-related workshops and tours. This segment is quickly followed by Carol Fraser introducing the podcast and her guest, Helen Hoey ([00:30]-[04:34]). Helen's extensive background is highlighted, including her early start in sewing at age 10, her Master of Sewing and Design Professional certification completed in 2012, and her transition from running a custom sewing business to teaching in Florida.

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2. Defining Dressmaking: Term and Perception

Carol initiates the conversation by discussing the terminology used within the sewing community. She references a survey Helen conducted among her students and custom clothiers regarding the preferred terms for their craft ([02:20]-[04:05]).

Helen Hoey explains, “...the vast majority considered themselves a dressmaker, and especially those who do this as a profession and they're living from what they do” ([02:20]). She notes minimal discussion around the term "dressmaking," with occasional alternatives like "seamster" eliciting unexpected reactions.

Carol Fraser shares a personal anecdote about her mother identifying as a dressmaker rather than a seamstress, emphasizing the distinction between custom garment creation and industrial sewing ([03:36]-[04:34]).

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3. Dressmaking as an Art: Skills and Knowledge

The core theme of the episode revolves around dressmaking as an art form. Helen articulates her perspective by differentiating between art and craft, underscoring that dressmaking amalgamates various skills and knowledge accumulated over a lifetime ([05:15]-[07:49]).

Helen Hoey states, “...the art of dressmaking, to me, is the assembling of every skill and piece of knowledge that I've acquired and absorbed over my lifetime so that I can create the desired garment or ensemble” ([05:15]). She enumerates her top five essential elements: design, fabric, fit, construction, and finishing, highlighting the importance of each in crafting a garment worthy of being considered art.

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4. Teaching vs. Innate Aptitude in Dressmaking

Carol probes into whether the intricate skills involved in dressmaking can be taught or are primarily a result of innate aptitude and years of practice ([07:49]-[10:08]).

Helen Hoey responds by acknowledging a blend of factors, including natural aptitude, quality of instruction, and opportunities to practice. She recounts how some students rapidly honed their skills when exposed to the right teaching at the right time ([08:24]-[10:08]). This highlights the role of both inherent talent and effective education in mastering the art.

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5. Sources of Inspiration in Dressmaking

The conversation transitions to inspiration, a critical component in design. Helen elaborates on her diverse sources, from fabric patterns to architectural elements ([13:52]-[19:37]).

Helen Hoey shares, “My inspiration comes from many sources. For long enough, fabric was the inspiration. I would see a piece of fabric, and I would immediately think of what I wanted to do with that piece of fabric” ([14:12]). She delves into how traveling, especially her annual fashion experience in Italy, reinforces her creative impulses. Her fascination with geometrics and architecture significantly influences her designs, as does her love for intense colors and classical styles inspired by designers like Coco Chanel and Christian Dior.

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6. Sewing for Self vs. Clients

Carol inquires about the differences Helen experiences when sewing for herself compared to sewing for clients ([19:37]-[26:04]).

Helen Hoey explains that sewing for herself allows more experimentation and time, whereas client work often involves adhering to briefs, budgets, and deadlines. She recounts a specific instance where she applied knowledge from her Master of Sewing and Design to enhance a client's neckline, resulting in widespread compliments ([20:06]-[25:31]). This segment underscores the tailored approach required when creating bespoke garments for clients versus personal projects.

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7. Garment Construction and Longevity

The discussion shifts to the importance of robust construction in client garments to ensure longevity, contrasted with her more relaxed approach to personal garments ([25:31]-[28:12]).

Helen Hoey emphasizes, “I wanted the garment to last the distance,” highlighting her commitment to quality. She shares an example of a mother of the bride garment that, despite being a one-time wear, remained cherished over the years ([26:04]-[28:12]).

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8. The Design Process and Editing

Carol and Helen explore the iterative nature of the design process, focusing on editing and refining garments to achieve elegance and coherence ([28:12]-[31:49]).

Helen Hoey reveals her meticulous approach: “Every day I would stand in front of my dress form, take off what I'd done the day before and try something different... And, you know, walk away once I'd done it and look at the photographs and talk with a good friend” ([29:29]-[31:49]). This methodical process of continual refinement underscores the artistic aspect of dressmaking, where each adjustment contributes to the garment's final aesthetic.

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9. Modern Tools and Techniques

The conversation touches on the impact of modern technology, particularly smartphone cameras, on the design and fitting process ([31:49]-[35:23]).

Carol Fraser notes, “It seems to have changed how a lot of people go about designing for themselves and even for others,” highlighting how photography aids in visualizing fit and design elements. Helen Hoey concurs, stating that cameras help identify issues like drag lines more clearly than mirrors ([32:13]-[32:28]).

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10. Conclusion and Final Thoughts

In the closing segments, Carol commends Helen for her artistic approach to dressmaking and the thoughtful execution of her designs ([32:40]-[35:23]). Helen reflects on the benefits of teaching and writing, which have honed her skills and clarified her process ([33:11]-[35:23]).

Helen Hoey shares her strategy for overcoming creative blocks, including taking breaks and seeking inspiration, which enables her to elevate her garments to an art form ([34:50]-[35:23]).

Carol Fraser wraps up by encouraging listeners to embrace patience and the evolutionary process in their sewing endeavors, reinforcing the idea that mastery comes through perseverance and continual learning.

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Additional Resources

Listeners interested in exploring Helen Hoey's work can visit her website at helenhaugheydesigns.com, where they can find more about her projects and her inspirational trips to Italy.

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This episode offers a profound exploration of dressmaking beyond mere craftsmanship, elevating it to an art form through dedication, continuous learning, and a deep well of inspiration. Helen Hoey's insights provide valuable guidance for both novice and seasoned sewers aspiring to infuse their creations with artistic elegance.

Transcript

[Rena O]

Join us on an exclusive trip to London in May 2025. Highlights of this tour are a glovemaking masterclass with luxury designer Rena O, an embroidery workshop at Hand and Lock, a visit to a renowned theatrical costume house, and a guided tour of Savile Row. We'll also visit specialty fabric shops and enjoy afternoon tea at Fortnum and Mason. To find out more, go to threadsmagazine.com.

[Carol Fraser]

Welcome to Sewing with Threads, the monthly podcast from the staff of Threads magazine. I'm your host, Carol Fraser, and today I'm joined by Helen Hoey.

[Helen Hoey]

Hello everyone.

[Carol Fraser]

Hi Helen. Helen has been Sewing since age 10. Taught initially by her mother, who had exacting standards while transitioning to using couture techniques, Helen sewed her eldest daughter's wedding dress. In 2012, she completed her Master of Sewing and Design Professional certification. Helen is a member of the association of Sewing and Design Professionals and has recently stepped down as the coordinator of the annual Threads design challenge. For 10 years, Helen had a custom sewing business, but since moving to Florida, she has concentrated on teaching sewing classes. Helen hosts an annual fashion experience to Italy where participants see and hear how art and other influences impact fashion, both past and and present. Welcome, Helen. Thank you, Helen. The theme of this podcast I've been imagining is dressmaking as an art or the art of dressmaking. And I'd like to mention to our listeners that Helen authored an article on the art of dressmaking in the Winter 2024 issue of Threads, number 228, and when she first pitched that idea to me, I was really intrigued. I started started my career as an art historian and I'm always interested in art versus craft and what makes the difference. So Helen, I think it would be useful if we started out by talking about the term dressmaking. I know that you surveyed a bunch of your students and other custom clothiers about how they describe themselves, what term they use to talk about the business that they're in, and I'd love to hear what their thoughts were on this. Dude, did they like the term dressmaking or did they have other expressions that they preferred?

[Helen Hoey]

Well, as far as those I surveyed is concerned, there really wasn't a lot of discussion about the term dressmaking. However, for most of those, especially the ones who do dressmaking as a hobby or to make their own clothes, they used the term dressmaking predominantly. However, there was one person who used the term seamster and that had a rather visceral reaction from me as I immediately thought of a union worker. And I definitely don't consider myself a Union worker. From another of the respondents came the Spanish word modiste, but it is just literally the translation in Spanish of the word dressmaker. So I would say that the vast majority considered themselves a dressmaker, and especially those who do this as a profession and they're living from what they do.

[Carol Fraser]

I found that interesting because my mother was a dressmaker when I was growing up. And, I mean, that was a long time ago, and I thought by now that there might have been a different term for it. But I remember asking her because somebody said to me once, oh, your mom is a seamstress? And I said to my mom, are you a seamstress? And she goes, oh, I don't call myself a seamstress, because she felt the same way, that that would be somebody in an industrial context making the same garment over and over again. But she made custom clothing and she considered herself a dressmaker.

[Helen Hoey]

And I found it interesting as I was looking online, that the term dressmaking, at least by the Google source that I found, said the activity or job of making clothes for women or girls, and then it had underneath. Today, it is a hobby rather than a necessity.

[Carol Fraser]

Yeah, well, okay.

[Helen Hoey]

Yeah, it didn't really help. Help my. My thought process, but I. I guess it was much more of a necessity when these words came into being.

[Carol Fraser]

That's true, but I. I feel bad that that belittles an entire group of people who are incredibly talented and creative and, you know, make their living with that.

[Helen Hoey]

Yes.

[Carol Fraser]

And that brings us to the idea of what is the art of dressmaking? Why would you consider dressmaking an art rather than a craft or a hobby, even so?

[Helen Hoey]

Well, in art, again, I'm going to give you some definitions, and then I'm going to comment about why I think of it as the art of dressmaking. So art is a skill as the result of knowledge and practice and craft Dictionary definition, again, is a skill and experience. So the art of dressmaking, to me is the assembling of every skill and piece of knowledge that I've acquired and absorbed over my lifetime so that I can create the desired garment or ensemble.

[Carol Fraser]

And what are those skills? What would you put in that list of skills and knowledge? Well, I know it's a long list.

[Helen Hoey]

Yes. It might take a day to tell you all the skills, but we listed some of them in the article. But it's everything from the fabric and the design and the fitness, the inspiration and then the technical skills of actually being able to carry all of that out, from pattern making to cutting the garment to stitching the seams in the right way to get the desired effect to ironing, etc. Etc. Etc. And I would list these. I guess it's a very broad question, but it encompasses the accumulation of my lifetime. And if I was to maybe boil it down to my top five, not necessarily in the order of importance, design, fabric, fit, construction and finishing. So, you know, you can have a wonderful fabric and a great design and a good fit, but if it's poorly finished, you know, if you have a hole at the end of the zipper in the hole in the seaming, or you have a crooked hem, then it can't be classed as a great garment or as a form of art. So that's how I would think about it.

[Carol Fraser]

To my way of thinking, it takes years to get to that point, to be able to bring together all of those different skills and bits of knowledge so that you can use them kind of fluidly, so that your technical ability supports your design ideas and, you know, to choose the right fabric to go with the right pattern and all those. All those different things. Is some of that something that you can just be taught, or do you feel that it is all. Is it really the accumulation of years of just practicing it and doing it and gathering knowledge the entire time?

[Helen Hoey]

Well, it's a variety of factors, Carol. I mean, you know, I started off when I was age 10 and did quite a lot of sewing when I was a teenager. But then in my college years and early years of marriage, we did a lot of moving. We came to the States, we went back to New Zealand, we came to the States again. We were in the first place two years and then moved again. And I had four young children, so there really wasn't a lot of time. I also happened to be married to a busy surgeon, and so I was it as a parent. And so time was a factor in my accumulation of knowledge and refining of my skills. I think I have met a number of women, some who've come to class, some who are colleagues with whom I have discussions about techniques. And some of those have started much later in life to sew than I did and surprisingly have been able to catch up, so to speak, very rapidly. I would consider that aptitude. I would consider that being exposed to the right teaching at the right time and having the time to just hone those skills very quickly.

[Carol Fraser]

That is really interesting. I have noticed that there are people who really seem to have a natural aptitude for sewing. And I. I've met a few who will say, oh, I've only been sewing for two years. Oh, I learned everything off YouTube. And I think, well, if you have this aptitude and you're doing well already, imagine if you sought out a teacher who can bring you to another level or, you know, give yourself some time. But, you know, it's like playing a musical instrument. There are some people who just are never going to be able to pick it up and some people who just do whatever it is. And I think I remember David Coffin saying that what he noticed about every author he worked for, who wrote for Threads, was initially inspired by a love of fashion and beautiful clothing. And then the rest of it would come to serve that well.

[Helen Hoey]

There are a few factors in my own life that are very poignant times. So first of all, my mother was a perfectionist and she expected us to be. And I say us because she taught all of my sisters and me. You know, she saw the value of the best fabric that you could afford because it gave great results and it also meant that the garment would last. So I can remember taking out a zipper five times before she thought it was acceptable. She also believed that you should be able to wear a garment inside out, so it should be as beautifully made inside as on the outside. And I find that in recent years I've actually taught several classes on the aspect of fine finishing. The second thing that I think was a very important point in my career was going to a couture sewing class, the one at which I made my oldest daughters wedding gown, and finding that my love of mathematics had met its match and that had I known a lot of those techniques earlier on, I think my sewing would have progressed much faster in the little time that I had available to sew. So, you know, writing articles is very helpful because you have to refine how you explain what you're doing. Teaching classes has been just a wonderful experience because again, you're trying to help somebody who may not have the same learning style as you have, how to do what you have been able to do.

[Carol Fraser]

When you're teaching, are you teaching a particular project or do you have or do your students bring in something they want to do and then you help them?

[Helen Hoey]

For the vast majority of the classes I've taught, it's been a project oriented class. I'm starting to branch out a little bit more this year and going to offer a couple of classes where it will be entitled the dress or the jacket, and people can bring whatever they would like to do.

[Carol Fraser]

I had a question for you about inspiration because I know that's a really important part of the skills. The dressmaker needs to have is to seek out inspiration and to use it. Can you talk a little bit about that, about where your inspiration comes from or how it can be used?

[Helen Hoey]

Well, my inspiration comes from many sources. For long enough, fabric was the inspiration. I would see a piece of fabric, and I would immediately think of what I wanted to do with that piece of fabric. In the latter years, and especially as I've been traveling more extensively and hosting a fashion experience in Italy for the last few years, I find there are other exposures that have been really significant in what I have gone on to do. One is that I have a fascination with geometrics, so I guess that comes from my mathematics as well. But I love architecture. And it might be a ceiling or it might be a pavement outside, or it might be the structure of the entire building or just a window. So recently I was at the Petit Palais in France in Paris, and there was just an exquisite window there that took my fancy, or there was the roof or the ceiling of the Pantheon that is just marvelous in its construction and detail. So architecture has come to be much more important. Color is right up there at the top of my inspiration. I have had hair going white since I was 18 and always needed to wear a lot of color to counter that over relatively pale skin. And I love intense colors. I'm not very keen on heathered or muted colors patterns. So, you know, I already talked about the patterns that you see in the architecture, but, you know, there might be a pattern in the sky or in nature that really inspires me. And last, but certainly not least, exhibitions of garments. And I was, in preparation for this podcast, just pulling out all of the photos that I had taken over the last year, so 2024, that gave me inspiration and informed some of the work that I've either done or I'm about to do. And it might just be walking down the street and you see a really nicely displayed garment in a shop window. So I take a huge number of photos, and I do go back over those photos when I'm starting out to do a garment for my inspiration. And then I would say that there are designers who really give me a lot of ideas. And I know that I was asked, is there a designer you look to for ideas? And my immediate answer is, yes, definitely the last one whose exhibition I saw. But there are a few that have really stood out over the last few years. So Coco Chanel would be at the top and Christian Dior would be a really close second. But other designers that I have really been inspired by so Sarah burton for Alexander McQueen and Christabel Balenciaga and Giorgio Amani. And I think all of those fit in with my personal style, which is classical. And I'm a less is more person. So I love fine design without a lot of. I was going to say without a lot of fabric, but one of the things that inspired me about the work that Sarah Burton did was a dress that I saw that had 26 meters of silk taffeta. And the top of it all 26 meters were in the top, but they were hidden mostly behind in stitched pleats, and it was fascinating. And then as she got to the bottom of the skirt, there was. Or the. The waist and the skirt downwards, there was just an explosion of fabric, which she then used to create roses, large roses.

[Carol Fraser]

Oh, I'm going to have to look that one up. That sounds amazing. I had another question for you, and now I've kind of lost my train of thought thinking about this Sarah Burton dress. Oh, okay. The question I was going to ask is, if you're sewing for yourself versus sewing for a client, how does that differ for you? I know that for you, maybe you'd find a fabric and then you'd have an inspiration that somehow you can make this fabric work. But if you have a client, they come in with a specific need. How do you work with that?

[Helen Hoey]

Sure. I would say that probably one of the biggest differences is that when I'm sewing for myself, unless I'm up against a deadline, because I've left the process too late to be ready, I have time on my hands, and that allows me to experiment. I do a lot of samples before I commit to the fabric. But, of course, when I'm sewing for a client, I'm usually given a brief, a budget, and a deadline. And I've been fortunate that many times a client has come to me and said, this is the occasion that I want the garment for, and I'm thinking of this color, but what could you find for me? So in St. Louis, up until maybe about 2010, there was a reasonably fine fabric store where I could go and get fabric. But then when I got exposed to European fabrics through my trips up to New York, I really didn't want to sew on anything else because it's just a finesse to these fabrics and a quality that you just don't see and other things. And my least favorite fabric to stitch with is anything from China because it just feels like paper. So I was able to choose the fabrics, and usually I would present my client with four or Five fabrics to choose from. And then they would ask me for ideas of how to bring about the realization of what they wanted. And because of that, you know, I could usually choose the style or I could make refinements on what they had in mind. I remember distinctly, though, one time a client, I said, well, you know, we're doing this ensemble. It was a dress and a coat. What neckline would you like? And she looked at me and she said, well, what neckline do you think I should have? And a light bulb went off. It was not long after I completed my Master of Sewing and Design. And I remembered a design comment in that book of how to choose a well balanced neckline. And it involved taking measurements of the face and the shape of the face and therefore being able to come up with an ideal neckline. So I took photos of this client and said, well, when you come back for fitting next week, I'll have. I'll make some suggestions. And I did. And she liked what she saw. In the meantime, I used. I blew up the photograph and I took my measurements and I placed the neckline and the shape of the neckline where I thought it should be. Sometime later, after, you know, she had gone off on to do whatever it was that she'd required the ensemble for, I saw her and said, well, how was it? And she said, I got so many compliments, especially on the neckline we chose. So it was a vindication that, you know, there was a skill that I wouldn't have known about had I not taken that course. So I would say that I'm also. There was also a feature that I was conscious of when I was making garments for other people, and that is that the garment must be robustly constructed because you don't know how this client is going to wear their garment. And I never wanted a garment to come back because my stitching had failed or my zipper had failed or whatever it was needed repairs. I wanted it to last the distance. Whereas when I am making garments for myself, then perhaps I know that I can, you know, very gently care for a fabric. Often I'll have students say to me, well, how do you clean your boucle garments? And my first comment is, very rarely do I clean them. You know, I'm just very aware that I don't want to send them to the cleaner because I don't want the fibers to be matted. You know, the beauty of something like boucle is that the fibers are three dimensional most of the time. Yeah.

[Carol Fraser]

And don't you find that there are A lot of people who don't really understand that not every piece of clothing should be either, you know, throw it in the washing machine and then the dryer or send it to your local dry cleaner and that, you know, a very, very fancy garment probably should be not cleaned much, if at all. You know, there's. Or I suppose that there are times when you can make it so that if, you know, a difficult or tricky, delicate embellishment can be removed for the cleaning, that kind of thing. But yeah. Do you think any of your clients wear their garments, like, repeatedly or do they have it for a special occasion?

[Helen Hoey]

And that's it, of course, depends on what the garment is. But, you know, I've done my fair share of special event wear and those are usually one offs and they wear them once and, you know, maybe take them out every now and again to look at them. So recently you'll remember that we photographed a mother of the bride garment that I had made that was done with a silk embossed cotton. And it's a really beautiful piece of fabric. And when I asked her if we could borrow it, she said, well, it's in the same place in the same box since the last time you borrowed it. And that was in 2017. So this was a garment that was made for her mother of the bride outfit. And no, she hadn't worn it again, she didn't have another occasion. But there are other garments that I have done that I've seen on some of my clients who are also my friends many times. And so, yes, I think there's the broad variety in that regard.

[Carol Fraser]

Well, I do think that people should take a page from Cate Blanchett and Jane Fonda, I think, both of whom are now starting to rewear clothing on red carpets that they've been seen in before to show that there's nothing wrong with doing that.

[Helen Hoey]

Yes, yes. Actually, interestingly enough, my older daughter attends a good number of social events where she needs ball gowns, and over the years we have made a variety of different ball gowns. She's fortunate she can still wear them all. And she does mothball them and then bring them out and use them, you know, five or 10 years later. So that's been quite nice to see.

[Carol Fraser]

That is. That's got to be very gratifying to know. I was thinking about when you mentioned that you like geometrics and that kind of thing. I was thinking about your winning garment from. I forget what year it was in the threads challenge, the black and white gown, column shaped with a very, very Large zigzag pattern. I'll send the photo to Carrie and then she can edit it into this podcast so that anybody who's viewing this can look at it. It's a really amazing, interesting use of an unusual fabric for incredibly elegant gown. No wonder it was a top winner. You mentioned earlier that you like garments that are. That you yourself have sort of a classical, personal style. And I do notice that when in the garments I've seen you've designed, there's not a lot of fussiness. Every element is really well thought out, and it works well with the entire design. And I consider that to be what I would think of as successful editing. When you're designing, do you. Do you think that being able to edit like that, to create a good design is. Is, again, teachable, or is that something that comes with experience or just an innate sense of what belongs and what doesn't belong?

[Helen Hoey]

Well, I think it's a combination, again, Carol, of everything. I do think you are able to teach some of those elements, mindful of the fact that every student that you have has a different style. And so I'm not going to impose my minimalist style on somebody else. But I might say to them, less is more occasionally, because I think it just bears it out. You know, you can keep adding elements to. To a garment, and all of a sudden it's just a mess instead of something that's really extraordinary to look at. And I don't go about, you know, trying to create a work of art right from the get go that I would say it evolves as you're working on it. And take that 2018 challenge garment, for instance. I played with that for a month. I had the time to do so. And every day I would stand in front of my dress form, take off what I'd done the day before and try something different and take photographs of it, and then, you know, walk away once I'd done it and look at the photographs and talk with a good friend who always gives me good advice and knows me pretty well, and then, you know, come back and either sketch what I had done, and I'm. For all of our readers or listeners, I should say I'm not very good at sketching, but all of us can use a croquis and either with some tissue paper or vellum paper on top, sketch on top of it. And I'm not very good at doing it, but I find it useful at times.

[Carol Fraser]

That makes sense to me. And I think that the rise of the cell phone camera has been amazing. For people. Because you can. Even if you don't have a great dress form, you can put something, wrap it around yourself, photograph yourself in the mirror, and step back and decide what's happening and whether it's working for you or not. It seems to have changed how a lot of people go about designing for themselves and even for others.

[Helen Hoey]

I think it also helps with fit because you can see more clearly where the drag lines are or where there's too much fabric from the photo rather than looking in the mirror.

[Carol Fraser]

Yes, that's true. It is very, very truthful. The camera is. It does not let you make excuses for yourself at all.

[Helen Hoey]

That's right.

[Carol Fraser]

Well, Helen, this has been really interesting to hear how you managed to create these garments that are works of art. They're not what I would call, you know, art to wear. That's a whole different type of thing, but with every aspect of them thought about, carefully executed. Well, it's something that I think we can all aspire to doing. And I really appreciate you taking the time to talk a bit about your process and about your mindset when you're doing this.

[Helen Hoey]

Well, thank you for asking me, Carol, because as I said before, you know, writing and teaching makes you hone your skills and more clearly explain. And so when you asked me a few questions ahead of time about this, it helped me to think through, you know, what it is that I do and how I do it and my process and why it, in the end, could be called an art form. Because I don't. As I said, I don't start out thinking of my garment as wanting to create something worthy of art. But there are definitely times during the process that I'm stumped and I don't know which way to go forward. And I take time out to sometimes pray about it and sometimes to think about it and come back with fresh eyes and work again. And invariably, you solve the problem much more easily. And it's those times that have, I think, have taken my garments to where I think of them, of this was the art of the dressmaker that I employed. Everything that I knew how to do as well as maybe something ahead of time I didn't know how to do. And now this is how I've solved the problem.

[Carol Fraser]

Right, right, exactly. Having sort of the patience to go through the evolution process of having the design come to life and the skill to make that really happen the way that you are envisioning it. That's. Yeah, I think not everybody has that, or maybe we all have it at different periods of time. We lose the patience and then you need to come back to it. Yeah, very interesting. I think that everybody can think about that, even if you're just a beginner, to feel like nobody has the answer 100% of the time right away.

[Helen Hoey]

Right. And I think that there is so much opportunity now to read. There's endless fashion books out there, how tos, et cetera. There's opportunity online to hear and to see what others are doing. There are online classes and there are in person classes and they both have their value. You do need to choose carefully who you go to though, because some have not studied so much or can not present it in a way that is easy for someone with a different learning style to learn. And the other. Of course, I would emphasize that when you go to an in person class, you receive inspiration from what your fellow students are doing as well as what the teacher is telling you.

[Carol Fraser]

That's very true. There's nothing like being around a bunch of other people who are really interested in the same kind of thing you are, but with a different type of taste or different personal style. It does expand your viewpoint. Yeah. Well, thanks so much. Thank you all for listening. We appreciate that you spent some time with me and Helen. You can find Helen at. Can you tell us what your URL is?

[Helen Hoey]

Yes, it's my name, Helen Hoey. H A U G h e y designs. So no spaces.com and you'll find out.

[Carol Fraser]

A lot about what Helen does and you'll also be able to look a little bit at descriptions of her trips to Italy for inspiration in case you need some more inspiration. Thanks again so much, Helen.

[Helen Hoey]

Thank you, Carol.

[Rena O]

Thank you to our guests for joining us and thanks to all of you for listening. Please remember to send your comments, comments, questions and suggestions to th at threadsmagazine. Com and please like comment and subscribe wherever you are listening. Until next time, keep on sewing with threads.