Start your Sewing Journey

S

My Beginning

About two years ago I began my sewing journey in a small one bedroom apartment with my moms sewing machine she was gifted from her wedding day. I'm not going to lie at first I, like many others, was very intimidated. After some setting up on my then dining room table, it quickly became my sewing table until we moved into our home where I now have a whole room dedicated to all of my crafting, now I was ready to start!

In hindsight, I should have known my man was not too thrilled that we did not have a dining room table at our apartment, but he is one of the reasons I did not give up when I ran into my first complication with my sewing machine.

I first started with learning how to thread my machine, below I will include some videos demonstrating visuals on how to string different sewing machine models. For me, my first and current machine is a singer simple, one of the cult classics, other common brands include brother, janome, juki and bernina.

When looking for a sewing machine I would say to first consider your sewing goals to help facilitate the best match! I personally wanted a machine that could do a little bit of everything while being capable to perform some simple quilting techniques. After some research about the machine my mother gave me, it was a perfect match!!

Materials

Having the right materials to start can really help ease the process when you begin, here are a few non-negotiables in my mine

• thread (*two colors if available)

• scissors

• practice fabric (this can be any material like an old t-shirt, bed sheets, etc)

• needles for your machine

• bobbins (plastic or metal)

*having two different colors is helpful when beginning, you can use one color for the top thread and one for the bottom thread and if there ever is a tension related problem you can easily view which thread is the culprit!

Threading your machine (the top)

Okay, so arguably this is the most challenging part of learning how to sew at first, but once you learn your machine you will become an expert at this process and all that entails fixing any problems that may come along. Since I personally own a singer simple i will likely reference my model, but you can certainly find a video on youtube outlining pretty much any machine out there! Threading on most machines is guided by a series of numbered steps and even printed illustrations on the correct direction to move the tread on the machines themselves. Most machines these days come with an attached needle threader, which is a life and huge time saver in my opinion.

Here is a video that I referenced when I started -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bTGYFQnFqg

The Bobbin Case (the bottom)

The next part of threading your machine is the bobbin thread which serves at the bottom thread when you are sewing. I will share a quick story on my personal first encounter with the bobbin.

When I threaded my machine for the first time, I used a practice piece of scrap fabric and just sewed a bunch of lines back and forth until I felt I had a good enough grasp to begin my first project.

While working with this practice fabric, my lines at first were looking amazing, not straight by any means but a start none the less, and both the top and the bottom stitches were looking as displayed on many of the beginner videos I was watching. I was feeling great and in my mind, everything was looking great. Then tragedy occurred, out of the blue all of my bottom stitches were looking like loose threads , or "nesting", as the community call it.

After multiple failed rethreading attempts with no resolution, in a fit of rage I told my man I will never sew again, I was done! Something about my man, he is super chill, lets find the answer kind of guy, just what a freak like me needs <3

He encouraged me to persevere and I searched high and low for the answer to my problem, I even considered taking my machine to a seamstress for help. I tried it all ; I changed the tension, the needle, the thread, the bobbin and even tried pre-spun bobbins to see if there was a difference... nothing the nesting persisted.

Finally a few days later I was depressed and scrolling on youtube when I came across a video with about 100 views of this elderly man who was explaining all of the reasons why this nesting would be happening. In this video the man also explained that at times the actual bobbin case (where the bobbin rests in) has a small screw that can adjust the tension on the lower thread and fix nesting. This was it! My answer was finally here and I was rejoicing to the fabric gods woohoo!

I share this story to help you feel like you are not alone if you encounter some struggles at first, and if there is ever any questions you may have on sewing comment down below and I will do my best to help you out!

Here is a video explaining more on the bobbin and how to properly thread this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU1j2tdfcYk

Once you are all threaded up, practice on a piece of scrap fabric (something like a light weight cotton would be best) I would work on just a normal straight stitch and move back and forth to feel more comfortable.

In another blog I am going to go more in depth on the tension in sewing , another beast, but very tamable once you understand some basic concepts!

We all have the capability to do this success depends on your personal drive to continue and before you know it you will be sewing just about everything!