Sarge wrote:

Wow..thank you all for the suggestions.

Kinda figured it wouldn't be that easy. Started sewing with a pretty
good idea how it worked (I'm a sculptor, so patterns and assembly are
second nature) but not how to work the blasted machine. Like having a
road atlas in your head, but not knowing how to operate a car. Thought
I might have good luck having a hands-on tutor to help me with fancy
bits (an instructor vs learning to drive via the driver's manual).

If it's mainly the machine, it might be worth while checking with the
HomeEc teacher of the nearest highschool or maybe even middle school;
s/he might be willing to spend half an hour with you acquainting you
with the basics of the machine, and that might be all you need to be up
and running.

Another possibility would be to check for a local quilting group.
Quilters love to snare new members into their craft and are very
generous about sharing their skills and experience. Many quilters also
sew garments, so if you attend a workshop you're likely to get more help
than you ever wanted. Your name suggests that you're a guy, which is an
advantage if you go to a quilting group. There aren't many guys
quilting, but some of the most famous and well known quilters (and
coutiers) are guys, so the ladies will probably fall all over themselves
to help you out, and any other guys present will be glad to have more
male reinforcement.

My goal is to be able to make structured, properly tailored clothes.
Got my eye on some nice waistcoats and a frock coat.

Pleats and darts are basically the same thing: with a pleat you just
fold the fabric over at the seam to make for instance the waist smaller,
but leave the body relaxed so you have room for shoulders or hips. The
pattern or maybe even the garment sketch will show whether to fold
toward or away from the center. Darts do the same job, but you sew them
down (and the trick is to sew from the wide area to the point and off
the fabric, then tie the thread.) For collars, the two main tips I'd
offer are 1) trim the points to reduce bulk so you get a nice point when
you turn it right side out, 2) clip just to but not across the seam line
to fit the collar to the neck opening or collar stand, and 3) grade the
seams. (Okay, so I can't count. There are three kinds of people in the
world: those who can count and those who can't.)

In fact, grading the seams will improve almost any part of the garment
where you have several layers of fabric. Grading means trimming away
the excess material from the seam allowance after you've sewn it,
trimming one layer (usually the innermost) very close to the stitching,
the next layer not quite so close, etc., so there's not a big hump of
layers of fabric all dropping off at the same point.

Making structured, properly tailored clothes is a whole other ballgame
that I've not yet gotten the nerve to try, but there's no reason why you
can't do it. I'd practice first by making an ordinary shirt, which is
going to involve basic skills with pleats, maybe a yoke, a collar and
maybe a collar stand, and cuffs. Cuffs are IMO a bit easier than
collars but it's a similar process, so you might want to do the cuffs
first. OTOH, facing the sleeve opening can be a real b*tch, depending
on the method used for that shirt, and fortunately waistcoats and
jackets use a different method to face the opening and skip the cuff
which just can't be as bad as a shirt sleeve opening.

--
Kathy