To start sewing might have been something that you have wanted to do for a while but you have never got round to actually doing it. If that’s you, its completely understandable because learning to sew can seem quite overwhelming in the beginning. There is so much to take in, tools to learn how to use, techniques to master, different fabrics to get comfortable with, terminology to understand, skills to hone, patterns to interpret, the list goes on!
Like most things in life, breaking it down into small sections makes it that bit more manageable and that’s the intention of my blog going forward. As well as my normal pattern reviews and dressmaking inspiration posts, I will be taking each bit of learning to sew and breaking it down into very small sections to support any beginner sewists out there to start their learning to sew journey.
Today’s post is my own checklist of eight things you need to collect, consider and do in order to start sewing!
1. Obtain a sewing machine. I say ‘obtain’ because you could either buy a brand new one, buy a second hand one, hire one for a period of time or you may already have one that you have inherited or that you bought years back and never used. There is a myriad of different machines out there and my aim with this post is not to give advice on which one to buy but purely to say that you need one, whichever one you decide to go with. Hand sewing is a thing…but it takes **a lot** longer and is never quite as secure as a machine stitch in my opinion, so if you are going to do any kind of projects such as garments, home furnishing, accessories, etc then you do need a machine.
2. Decide on your objectives. As with any project, I always think its useful to have an objective in mind when you start out, albeit a very vague one! Do you want to start sewing your own clothes? Have you just moved house and want to make all of your own soft furnishings? Would you like to be able to make Christmas or birthday gifts to give to family and friends? The options are many and varied but having an idea in mind of what you would like to aim for with your sewing is a good idea to give yourself some direction in the beginning.
3. Dedicate some space for your new hobby. This will be very much dependent on how much room you have in your home but however big or small your house is, it’s good to identify a space that you know you can use for sewing. You may be lucky and have a whole spare room that you can commandeer but if not, you could use your kitchen table, or a desk or a worktop. You just need somewhere where you can sit comfortably at your machine, space for an ironing board and ideally a reasonably large flat surface for cutting out – this could be the floor! Over time you will probably accumulate lots of sewing paraphernalia which will need housing too but in the meantime a home for your sewing machine and an ironing board is more than adequate!
4. Carve out some time in your week. Making time to sew is easier said than done and with everything else going on in our lives, unless we prioritize time for ourselves, other things will undoubtedly take over. That’s why I think its good to start out with at least an idea of when you will be able to do some sewing each week / month. One of the great things about sewing is that you don’t need to have large chunks of time to do it. Each and every sewing project is just a series of smaller steps all put together to create a result. So that means that if you are time poor, you could just do one or two steps at a time and gradually over the period of say, a few months, your project will come together nicely! So have in mind what time you will have available and plan out your project accordingly.
5. Collect the essential equipment. In addition to a sewing machine, there are a few other bits and pieces that you will need to get started. I have covered these in another blog post but in summary, you will need scissors, pins, needles, thread, tape measure, an iron, an un-picker and some chalk or pen markers. There are literally hundreds of other more ‘fancy’ sewing tools available which you can collate over time but in the beginning just focus on the essentials.
6. Buy some fabric. Going forward buying fabric will probably become your new obsession as the sheer variety and beauty of the fabrics available these days is incredible. However, when you start to sew, I would recommend that you don’t spend your money on the shiniest most lovely material in the fabric shop but instead just use some scrap pieces to practice with. You could use an old bed sheet cut up into smaller pieces, or an old shirt that is no longer wearable torn into individual sections. You just need something to test out your machine on and get comfortable with all of the functions that it has. A blatant plug here for my Etsy shop, DBA Snippets, where I sell fabric scraps which are left over from my own sewing projects and would be ideal for this purpose.
7. Try to abandon any thoughts of perfectionism. At this early stage, just allow yourself to experiment with your sewing machine. Don’t be too ambitious and commit to sew your best friend’s wedding dress! Just try out the stitches on your machine – straight stitch, zig zag, sewing a straight line, a curve. Don’t worry if they look a mess or if they look you an hour to figure out, that’s all part of the learning process. Be patient and just keep going and eventually you will get there.
8. Have fun! Sewing is an amazing hobby which you will likely enjoy for years to come. There is so much to learn about which will all come in time, so for now, relax, have fun with it, enjoy the process and start dreaming of all those fantastic things you are going to create in the future.
If you are ready to move on to the next steps, you might want to check out some of my other blog posts below!
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