• You can sew a pull-on trouser and a trouser with a zip, start to finish, without a step-by-step guide open beside you.
• The trousers you make are worn often, not kept for best because they are uncomfortable.
• You can see a fit problem on someone else and know which lesson in Module 3 or Module 11 explains it.
• You enjoy it. If sewing has started to feel like a chore, rest on this rung longer.

• Measuring other people calmly and accurately (Module 4, Measuring women, men and children).
• A block that fits you, and one for a second person.
• Three seam finishes and two hem finishes, done neatly.
• One fastening you trust: a fly front, a side zip or a nada casing.
• Pressing as you sew, which makes home sewing look professional.
• Timing your work. Note when you start and stop each stage: cutting, sewing, finishing.

No money is earned on this rung, but this is where you learn to count it.

• Time: keep a simple log. For each trouser, record T_cut, T_sew and T_finish. Over ten trousers, your average total time T will fall. That fall is your skill growing.
• Materials: record what each trouser used: cloth length L, plus zip, thread, elastic, interfacing and buttons. Add them up as M.
• Tools: a working machine, good scissors, a tape, a pressing set-up (Module 2, Cutting, sewing and pressing tools). Buy better tools only when a tool is holding your work back.
• Space: a table, good light and a safe place for pins and blades. A corner is enough.

When you reach Rung 2, M and T become the first two parts of costing.

• People: a sewing friend, a club or a class helps you finish more and learn faster. The Bangalore Sewing Club and D&D workshops are two places to find others.
• Fair from the start: if someone helps you, such as a relative who hems or a tailor who shows you a trick, thank them properly and credit them.
• Systems: one notebook or phone folder per person you sew for, with their measurements and a photo of each finished trouser. One box per project, so pieces don’t get lost.

There is nothing to sell yet. But this is when your portfolio begins.

• Photograph every finished trouser in daylight: front, back and side, on a person and flat.
• Take one close photo of the inside: seams, waistband and hem. A clean inside is what later customers will trust.
• Keep the photos in one album, dated, with a line about the style and the cloth.
• Share them only with permission from the person wearing them.

On the hobby rung you are not trading, so there is little to ask. Keep these for later:

• When does sewing for friends become a business in the eyes of the tax office? (CA)
• If I post photos of other people wearing my trousers, what permission should I get? (lawyer)

• Jumping rungs: taking paid work before you can fit reliably. One bad experience can put you off for years.
• Only sewing for yourself: you learn one body’s fit and think you know trousers.
• Buying expensive tools first: skill comes from practice, not from a new machine.
• No records: you will need your times and materials on the next rung.
• Comparing yourself with professionals online: you see their best photo, not their years of practice.

You are ready for pocket-money work when most of these are true:

• You have finished at least six or seven trousers in two or more styles, and they are worn.
• You have fitted at least three different people successfully.
• You can sew a zip or a nada casing and a clean waistband without unpicking more than once.
• Your time log shows your average time has settled.
• You have a dated photo album of real work, inside and out.
• Someone has asked, without being prompted, “Can you make one for me?”

A made-up example. Lata sews in the evenings. In her first year she makes two palazzos for herself, pull-on trousers for her nephew and a kurta pyjama for her father’s birthday. Her father’s pyjama sits wrongly at the seat, so she works through Module 3 and fixes it on the second try. She logs every trouser: the first takes her most of a week of evenings; the sixth takes far less. Her album has twelve dated photos. When a neighbour asks for a palazzo like hers, Lata checks the list above, sees she can tick five of six, and decides to say yes, at cost, as her first step onto Rung 2.

• Do I finish what I start, and are my trousers worn?
• Have I fitted people other than myself?
• Do I record time and materials for each trouser?
• Do I have dated photos of real work, inside and out?
• Am I still enjoying it?