7 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Sewing

Hey ghouls and creeps! Slight disclaimer here, I started sewing roughly at the age of eight or nine. However, these knowledge nuggets would have been extremely helpful to know as I continued to sew into my teens and later my twenties. Some of this information I didn’t become familiar with until I was pursuing my bachelor’s in Fashion Design! So maybe a more accurate title would have been, The Seven Things I Eventually Found Out About Sewing that are Super Important. But the latter doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it? The image farthest to the left above is of one of my earliest fashion shows that I participated in that was a zombie-themed benefit for local charities in 2011. The two images to the right are of garments made for a circus-themed photoshoot I organized in 2016. I thought it would be fun to show some of my earlier work since we are, after all, reflecting on the past. As a blogger that is trying to provide content with immense value, I thought that this topic was a must! So here are my seven pieces of knowledge that would have saved me time, stress, and aggravation. Let’s get started!

1) Choosing the Right Fabric: When sewing your first handful of sewing projects, I would highly recommend avoiding knit(or stretchy) fabrics. Instead, use woven material selections such as quilting cotton, linen, denim, or poplin. Stretchy materials require different treatment than woven fabrics and can be more challenging to manage when you are new to sewing.

Another fabric trait to consider when choosing material for your project is the print. Is the print directional? This means that the print has an obvious top and bottom, which may mean that you will need to purchase more material to make sure that the print direction is consistent. If you happen to be using a commercial pattern, look for mentions or an asterisk key for material nap. Some patterns will provide fabric quantities and layouts accounting for the nap(or direction-specific) of the fabric.

Other textile print information to consider is if your fabric is a plaid or stripe. Plaids and stripes you will want to match, which can be accomplished with three different methods.

The first is to cut your larger pieces single layer one at a time. For example, start by cutting your right bodice front, take the material cut out, and mirror it for the bodice left. Line up the horizontal and vertical stripes in the plaid/stripes with the material cut out, then cut around the piece. Continue this process for all pieces, taking into consideration which pieces will be sewn together. You’ll want to match the plaids/stripes of your bodice fronts to your skirt fronts, and the plaid/stripes around the armholes with the plaid/stripes on the sleeves if applicable.

The second is to draw the horizontal or vertical lines of your plaid/stripes onto the pattern. These lines will serve as a reference to match when laying out the pattern on the material.

The third technique is to fold your material in half lengthwise or widthwise depending on your cutting layout making sure to match up your plaid/stripes on both layers.

2) Picking the Project: When embarking on the first couple of sewing projects, I would recommend projects such as pillowcases, pillow covers, placemats, blankets, aprons, or mug rugs. I’m sure you noticed a theme with these, basically items that are two-dimensional with straight seams. If you are feeling a little more ambitious, consider a smaller quilted wall hanging.

I would hold off on garment sewing until later because many projects will include intermediate sewing processes like zippers, velcro, buttonholes, and easing sleeves. Great beginner garment sewing projects to consider later are pajama pants, simple skirts, and sleeveless shirts.

3) Getting Started: Before you sit down to read through your project instructions, do you need to prewash your material? If your material has a fiber content of 100% cotton, I would definitely prewash prior to sewing, even more so if it is flannel. If instead, your material is a cotton polyester blend, with a mostly equal ratio you can skip the wash.

Once you have determined whether to wash your material, read through the project instructions completely. This will alleviate possible confusion later because you know the process needed to make your project. This will also be helpful to not kill the momentum of a project because further research was needed for those more challenging steps!

When you are expanding your skill sets and trying intermediate or difficult projects for the first time, consider prototyping! Personally, I’ll use muslin to sew up and fit a garment before cutting into my expensive material. I’ve made the mistake of being overly ambitious, thinking that prototyping is completely unnecessary. Only to find out that I was wrong, and now I have to go source more material.

4) Tool Inventory: While reading your project instructions prior to getting started, take note of the tools needed to make your project. You can also reference the post I wrote about my eleven sewing tool staples here: https://britnijade.com/my-top-11-sewing-tools/

5) Machine Maintenance Basics: How often sewing machine maintenance occurs directly correlates to how often you sew. For me, I sew on average five hours per week and consequently clean my machine every other week. In addition to bi-weekly maintenance, I try to wipe the dust off my machine after every use.

My maintenance routine includes disassembling the bobbin housing and cleaning out all the crevices with a nylon brush. I then take canned air and clear any hard-to-reach areas. My machine strangely enough does not require oil, so no oiling is necessary. I would look at your machine manual for the specific maintenance steps your machine needs. I also try to replace my sewing machine needle at most after every project. This will help your machine from having to work so hard shoving a dull needle through your material!

6) Machine Stitching Troubleshooting Basics: When your machine isn’t stitching properly, it most often is a threading issue. Try rethreading both your top thread and bobbin to see if the issue resolves. If the issue continues, reference your sewing machine manual for a threading guide if you need help with this!

Try to keep tension adjustments to a minimum, because most sewing machines are automatically set to the correct tension when leaving the manufacturer. If your stitches are skipping try replacing the sewing machine needle. It could be a matter of the needle being too dull to pierce through the fabric every time. Browse your sewing machine manual for specific troubleshooting regarding your machine.

7) How a Machine Works: How a stitch is made, sounds super basic but is often taken for granted. Knowing how your machine is creating stitches is great to know in the event that you need to troubleshoot minor mechanical issues. Basically, the process begins with the take-up lever which alleviates and creates tension with your top thread. When the take-up lever lowers, the needle also lowers into the bobbin housing creating slack in the top thread. The top thread slack gets hooked by the bobbin hook, and then gets pulled around the bobbin. The take-up lever then goes up retracting the top thread that then tightens around the bobbin thread. This series of steps continues, creating the stitch line you see!

There it is! I hope you found this information helpful! Feel free to elaborate on any of the topics mentioned in this post below in the comments, or to suggest any crafting/sewing-related topics you would like me to cover!

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Ready for your next project? Here are some tutorials on the blog I think you’ll like! Frame Flip tutorial: https://britnijade.com/frame-flip/, Macrame Wall Hanging: https://britnijade.com/macrame-wall-hanging-w-bones/, or the Spider Web Macrame: https://britnijade.com/spider-web-macrame/. Enjoy!