Mentorship with Sarah Veblen
- MingMakes
- 6 days ago
- 6 min read
I had been aware of Sarah Veblen early on in my sewing journey after struggling to fit the bodice on the first top I made. I looked up several fitting books and it was hard to ignore the many positive reviews of Sarah's book The Complete Photo Guide to Perfect Fitting.
What I particularly liked about this book was how she demonstrates her fitting process with numerous clear photos and describes what she is seeing and thinking when fitting a garment. Whilst I also regularly reference other books, especially Palmer Pletsch Complete Guide to Fitting, this tends to be when I come across a specific issue and want to know the solution. This often does the trick but relies on a proper diagnosis, which is a skill I am still developing.
With Sarah's book, she teaches a way of thinking about the process as a whole which really appealed because it could then be applied to any garment. I had attended some of her courses on sewing.patternreview.com which I found very useful and her broad range of experience clearly shows.
When one of her email newsletters arrived talking about her mentorship programme, I was very interested to learn more. I made an enquiry and soon after, I was signed up and ready to start the process within a week.
Why I signed up
I had several reasons for wanting to sign up to Sarah's mentorship:
It was a unique opportunity to have 1-to-1 contact with Sarah and learn from her as an incredibly knowledgeable and experienced sewing teacher.
I wanted to build a cohesive me-made wardrobe, including creating a capsule wardrobe for a trip to Malaysia and New Zealand later this year to celebrate my 50th birthday.
To gain help with fitting a bodice and sleeve block.
Learn how to use this to fit a commercial pattern or design my own.
Advice on flattering styles. Sometimes it is disappointing to spend time sewing a garment, only to find it doesn’t suit me.
After sharing these with Sarah, she was confident she could help me with these goals. I knew it wouldn't be possible to cover all of this in one programme, but if it was going well I would consider renewing.
Zoom meetings
Sarah offers mentorship programmes for 4 month or 6 week blocks (I chose 4 months), as well as online consulting by the hour. With Sarah in the US and me in the UK, we conduct our meetings over Zoom. Every meeting is recorded and I receive a private YouTube link to the recording which I have lifetime access to. I find this to be really helpful as note-taking can only go so far, for example when Sarah was demonstrating how she presses a bust dart to avoid the bubble at the tip.
Meeting structure
Sarah is happy to be guided towards any topic or direction that I choose. Sometimes we would go into depth into a particular topic such sleeves, necklines or buttonholes, and Sarah is such a font of knowledge she is always throwing in tips that I wouldn't have come across otherwise. She happily answers all my questions, and with an attention to detail I really appreciate. Sometimes I hadn't progressed with my work as much as I'd hoped by the next meeting, but there was always something to discuss at whatever stage I was at, or she was happy to discuss another topic.
My first 4 month programme was largely spent fitting my bodice, and we'd meet most weeks, sometimes more often if it only needed her short assessment of what to try next. I would wear the toile for our meetings so that if she wanted to see the effect of a small adjustment e.g. pinning out a seam or dart, she would be able to guide me there and then. Sometimes we'd arrange to meet later the same day to help accelerate the process instead of waiting for the next week if I just needed her quick opinion. She was very patient if I was adjusting something during a meeting - sewing or pinning under pressure is never great (I don't know how the Great British Sewing Bee contestants do it!).
Other communication
In between meetings, Sarah would happily answer any quick queries on WhatsApp so I didn't get held up on my project. We'd also communicate via email, particularly for sharing photos of my toile after the most recent adjustments, or she would send me examples of things we'd discussed.
Flattering fit
Sarah is happy to help with anything I need guidance on. One of our very early meetings involved discussing garments I enjoy wearing and found flattering, and those I didn't. Sarah's experience is such that she can very quickly assess what elements of a garment work on my particular figure, and what can be changed to improve it. I found this eye-opening, as I had assumed certain styles of garments just don't suit me, but it was often an element I hadn't considered.
For example, I showed her this Zadie Jumpsuit I had made.
Although I loved it when I'd first made it, after several wears I wasn't sure about the proportions. I thought it was the wide cropped trousers on my short figure (5 ft 4 in), and came to the conclusion that the trousers should either be longer or narrower. However, Sarah suggested it might be the trousers in combination with the slightly loose bodice. I pinned the side seams of the bodice to make it more fitted and now it looked more in proportion.
I learnt a lot from our discussions on neckline shapes and what would suit my figure. In general, I found that wider and more open necklines help balance out my wide shoulders.
Fitting a bodice block and sleeve
I wasn't sure how the fitting process would work over Zoom but Sarah was great at describing what I needed to do and I was very pleasantly surprised at how we progressed in this way. She would aid my understanding by digitally marking on my photos or drawing a diagram to demonstrate what she meant.
Here is the before and after shot of the back before we'd added waist darts, my goodness what a difference! I will share more of the process in a future post.
External guidance, personal responsibility
Sarah strikes a great balance between hand-holding, and encouragement for me to figure things out. While there was a part of me that felt completely under her guidance, I also knew I had to take responsibility for my own work and that if I didn't get it right, it would be my fit or garment that suffered or the process would simply take a lot longer.
I started as a student who was looking for Sarah's approval to say yes or no, but ended up trying to assess whether I'd followed the brief to achieve my desired outcome. This was an important realisation, as one day the mentorship would end and I would need to decide for myself what was an acceptable result.
This distinction reminded me of how I felt when starting to see a personal trainer last year. When he asked me to do an exercise, my initial goal was to do the move to the requested number of repetitions. After a while it dawned on me that the goal wasn't to show him that I was doing the move, but for me to strengthen that particular muscle. There was a difference between me just doing the move, and really engaging the muscle. It may have looked quite similar, but I clearly knew the difference.
I needed to ensure all my pattern work was accurate as this is something Sarah couldn't take responsibility for. I'm glad I had a bit of knowledge of pattern work coming into the programme, but Sarah was always sure to check I understood and was happy to expand if I didn't. I made several errors along the way which set me back, but as they say, these were great learning opportunities!
Summary
At the time of writing I am towards the end of my second programme, and I would certainly continue to renew if budget allows. I now have a fitted bodice and sleeve, and a wearable toile based on this block as a test garment. Here it is paired with my linen Saguaro Set Trousers.
While this blouse seemed a straightforward next step, I suddenly realised this meant making a pattern and writing my own instructions which was new territory for me. Having now progressed onto a second blouse, I am really excited to see a world of possibilities of designing my own garments as I develop these skills further.
I am lucky to have the resources to join Sarah's mentorship programme, which is undoubtedly the most efficient and enjoyable way I have come across to learn about fitting, technical aspects of sewing, flattering fit and style considerations. This will certainly help me create a wardrobe that I adore and feel fantastic wearing.
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