It is great to create your own clothes through Dressmaking but unfortunately sometimes, if you aren't careful, your garments can look a little 'homemade' rather than having a more professional finish. By taking a little bit of time at the end stages of your sewing project you can accomplish more accuracy which will give your garment a more polished look. The first stage of achieving accurate Dressmaking is getting a neat finish when you are cutting out your fabric. Although, here at Calico Laine, we use fiskars Dressmaking scissors to cut our fabric, when you are cutting out and want to achieve accurate cutting it is a an idea to use a rotary cutter which will give you a neat, crisp line. Using a grid ruler such as the ones produced by Olfa, you can measure where you need to cut exactly and this will give you a better overall finish to your project. Another thing that you can do to carry out a accurate piece of work is pinning your seams together to make sure all of your points will be in the correct position when you sew them together. You could also tack your garment as well as pinning to ensure that the pieces do not move when you are sewing however I always find that pinning is sufficient enough. It is also important when you are Dressmaking to make sure that you maintain a consistent seam allowance. On most sewing machines, there will be a seam allowance guide which you can follow to ensure your seams stay accurate. If you do not have this on your machine, you can use a magnetic seam guide which will attach to your machine or use a coloured tape to mark a seam allowance which you can use to keep a consistent size. You must be careful when you get to the end of the fabric that you still keep the same seam as there is a tendency for the fabric to move and you end up with a wonky seam. Take your time here and slow down on your foot pedal! When you are pressing your fabric before sewing or pressing out seams I would suggest using a dry iron rather than any steam. This way the steam will not distort the seams and remember also to press the fabric instead of ironing it as this will also cause your fabric to distort. Hopefully this has provided you with some useful tips and will help you get the best finish possible in your Dressmaking.