What to Know Before you Sew

Hi everyone, Brittany here again with another blog post about what you should keep in mind when you are wanting to learn to sew. Sewing is one of those hobbies that is constantly improving and the possibilities when starting to sew are never ending!!

1 – First thing that I want you to keep in mind is that it will not come overnight. Sure, you may be able to learn how to thread a sewing machine overnight, but after one sleep, you more than likely will not be ready for Project Runway. It takes a lot of time, patience, tears, frustrations, ripping out seams, and even threatening your sewing machine that you will throw it out a window. You will “sew” some gosh awful stuff and then you will get better. I got my first sewing machine for Christmas in 2012, so I have only been sewing for about 3.5 years. I’d like to think I’ve got the basics down and can follow a pattern, but I am no where near some of the folks I follow on YouTube.

2 – The second thing to keep in mind is seam allowance. I’m sure veteran sewers are reading this (if veteran sewers even come to my blog haha) and are thinking, “that is a weird thing to have for her #2”, but in my opinion, it total transformed my items I was sewing. When I sew quilt blocks, I am not satisfied with it unless the back seams are as pretty and even as they appear to be on the front. Typically for quilts, the seam allowance is 1/4 inch and for sewing clothes, it is 5/8 inch.

So what is seam allowance? Simply put, the seam allowance is the extra sliver of fabric that is left on the other side of the area that you stitched. If you are piecing a quilt block together, that sliver should be 1/4 inch and if you are sewing clothes, that sliver should be 5/8 inch (unless a pattern tells you differently). For instance, if you are trying to sew equal strips of fabric together, you want to make sure that you seam allowance is consistent. You don’t want one end of your strip to be 1 inch, while the other end is 3/4 inch, because trust me, you will be able to tell and it will look wonky.

You will be amazed at how much neater your projects will be once you understand the concept of seam allowance. Even if you choose to not use the 1/4 inch or 5/8 inch, at least keep them consistent.

3 – Thirdly is the quality of fabric. I’m not saying to go out and buy the highest quality of fabric that is out there – fabric from Walmart will totally work and DOES WORK NICELY. I just want y’all to learn from my mistake. The Christmas of 2014, I tried to surprise my mother-in-law with a Christmas inspired table runner because she had been talking about how she wanted one. I had seen some pretty green and red table runners at their local Dollar Tree and I wanted to go out, cut it up, and then sew it back together is a braided pattern. Boy was that one of those times where tears and threats came into play. That fabric shredded like crazy and the stitches kept coming apart!!! I was so frustrated and I couldn’t understand why it was not working out the way I wanted it to. My mother-in-law finally explained to me that Dollar Tree fabric probably does not the best quality fabric and that was why it was giving me such a hard time. It was that day that I learned about fabric quality and I will never forget about it.

3.5 – Going along with the quality of fabric is the quality of thread. It can be very annoying to be in the middle of something and then the thread break in your sewing machine. I will say that sometimes the problem isn’t the thread and it is the tension, but that’s a whole nother can of worms. You can typically look at thread and determine if it is a good quality or not. If you’re looking at it and it appears to be very “fuzzy”, chances are it is poor quality thread. Another test you can do is to wrap it around your fingers like you are flossing your teeth and then try to break it in half. If you pull hard enough, most threads will probably break in half. I’m talking about not putting a lot of force into it when you pull it and it coming apart. I have only come across some poor quality thread when it was a “buy 15 spools of thread for $5” (or something ridiculous like that) at Hancock Fabrics (RIP). I have also found that those cones of thread tend to not do very well when it comes to finicky projects, however just sewing 2 pieces of basic cotton together doesn’t seem to cause an issue.

Although this thread did not do well in my sewing machine, it did really well when I was hand binding a table runner or else practicing some hand quilting. Typically I just go to Walmart (I like to use Walmart as an example when I can because I know just about everyone has one in their town), and get the Coats thread in the bin at the end of the shelf for $1.

4 – The next thing to keep in mind is to not let a pattern intimidate you. I personally like to sew bags and quilts and then hoard the clothing patterns for me to use “at a later time”. The first thing to remember about a pattern is the envelope itself. The envelope has a lot of valuable information that you will need in preparation for sewing your item. It will have everything from types of fabric recommended, how much fabric is needed and notions required for each piece.

The inside will have 2 different types of paper, a lightweight piece that is your actual patter piece and then a heavier piece which are the instructions. At a later time, I will go into more detail about reading pattern.

5 – The final thing to keep in mind is to not be afraid to ask for help. I was at a local craft show and I was looking at all of the quilts that this lady had been making. I mentioned to her that I struggled with binding my quilts and they typically look really bad. After talking with her, it clicked about how important the consistency of the seam is (see #2). If my binding is consistently hanging off the edge by 1/4 inch all the way around, then when it is flipped over, it will be consistent on the front.

Also, part of #5 is to utilize social media. There are a lot of great tools online to help you figure out what you want to do. Check out my latest blog post, Top 10 Sewing/Craft YouTubers, to check out some awesome social YouTube folks that can show you anything and everything you ever thought you would need to know about sewing. Chances are, if you have a question about it, someone else has already had the same question and has put it on the internet.

Well that’s about all I have for this post. I’ve still got lots of stuff in the works, including a Dresden Plate Review/Tutorial, Floating Shelves Tutorial, as well as updates on current projects I am working on. Let me know of anything that would’ve really helped you when you started out sewing.

Until next time,

Brittany

*Note: The cute pink polka dot sewing machine is not mine and the original can be found here.