Show Notes

• Tips to Slow Down and Enjoy Your Sewing


• Our Top 10 Favorite Fabrics and Where to Find Them
  


• 
  Learn to Sew: For Absolute Beginners course! In this course, Sarai and Haley walk you through each component skill you need to make your own clothing, from using your machine to sewing seams of all kinds to sleeves and facings. 


• 
  Podcast listeners get half off an unlimited Seamwork membership when you use this link, plus you get to keep that price as long as you’re a member!


• Tell us your idea for the next icebreakers for makers!

Podcast Transcript

Sarai
I'm Sarai.

Haley
And I'm Haley.

Sarai
And this is Seamwork Radio.

Sarai
Welcome back to Seamwork Radio, where we share practical ideas for building a creative process so you can sew with intention and joy.

And this week, we're going to cover the ten things we wish that we'd known as beginners. So we're going to be sharing our own personal journeys from when Haley and I were beginners, and we're going to share the most valuable lessons we've learned since then, and hopefully they will be helpful to you, too, no matter where you are in your sewing journey.

So, Haley, let's start with our icebreaker for this week. What is one thing that you sewed as a beginner that you still feel really proud?

Haley
Well, there's one particular dress that comes to mind, and it was a yellow shift dress, and it wasn't because it was particularly challenging or anything, but it was, like, the moment I felt like I kind of found my voice as a designer. I'd maybe been sewing for a little bit over a year, and I'd taken this course on designing for children's wear, and I had this amazing instructor, very blunt and brash, and she was kind of like an icon in the children's wear industry. And she just really challenged me to get out of my head of the way that I thought things should look or the types of clothing I thought people would like and then just make things that I liked.

So I made this not even for a class I was taking with her. I made this yellow shift dress, very, like, 60s inspired, out of this wool, and it was so cute. To this day, I stand by that design. I would put it out as a Seamwork pattern. It was really cute, and I feel most proud of it just because it was, like, a real light bulb moment for me.

Prior to that, I was kind of kind of felt like, I don't know. Can I do this? Is this really, like, a career path that I want to take? And it was like, during that time, around the time I made that, that I was like, yeah, I can do this because I have good taste. You can't learn good taste. You can, actually, but back then, I thought you couldn't learn good taste.

Sarai
I think for me what I think about. I just think about the ambitious projects that I did when I was a beginner and some of them worked out and some of them did not work out. But I think the fact that I was able to tackle them, to have the confidence to even try, I think is what I'm proud of. So one thing that comes to mind is a costume I made. It was a historical pattern. I think it was, like, an 18th century polonaise or something like that, but it was just, like, ten yards of fabric, and I just bought this crazy taffeta fabric that I found on sale, and it came out really pretty cool. Like, really interesting. Not an everyday thing or something you'd wear in your life, but it was for a Halloween party or something.

But I'm just so proud of it because I remember it had so many gathers in it. It had, like the whole back of it had staggered little gathered sections, and it took me so long to finish. It just was really a lot of work, and I think that's what makes me feel so proud of it.

I put in the effort, and I really wanted to learn how to do this and figure it out, and I did. It's cool to think back on those things and the confidence they gave you and how that moved you forward and allowed you to do more and more and more.

Haley
Yeah, definitely.

Sarai
Well, that's our icebreaker for today. And if you have an icebreaker question for a future episode, then if you're a Seamwork member, you can go to seamwork.com/go/icebreakers. And I am laughing because my puppy is thumping all over the floor for unknown reasons.

All right, so let's talk about our topic for today. So I think the thing about sewing, and this is true for a lot of things in life, is that you just don't know what you don't know. And especially when you're a beginner, you don't know what you don't know. So I think a lot of us probably have this feeling like, you ever wish that you could just go back in time and give your past self a little advice? I know that I do. Not just with sewing, but with life.

Haley
Everything.

Sarai
With everything. I don't know that I would have listened to it, but I would like the opportunity to at least tell myself some things.

So I think that's why being part of a community of people who share in your creative practice is so valuable, because you can learn from the victories and the mistakes of other people. So even if you don't know what you don't know, you can learn from the people around you and kind of absorb all of that and everybody else's experience.

So let's start with this question. Haley, what do you think was your greatest strength when you were a beginner?

Haley
I think my greatest strength when I was a beginner was that I didn't know what was challenging before I did it, so I just did things. This kind of, like, blind optimism that I had for everything—I definitely missed that a little.

Sarai
Yeah. It's so funny when you're brand new to something how in a way, things are they're not easier, but they seem easier at the outset, at least, and that gives you a lot of motivation to try things and keep going.

Haley
What about you?

Sarai
Well, I think that's true for myself as well. I think another strength when I was a beginner, and this might have something to do with my age at the time, but I think I was pretty fearless in my choices. So I didn't hem and haw about what would be the perfect fabric for this, or is this going to have the right drape? Because I didn't know those things.

My taste was different. I just wanted to be experimental and have fun and do all these crazy things. So I think that was a real boon to me at that time because I would just get excited about a fabric or about a style or an idea I had, and I would go all in on it without a lot of hemming and hawing. So I think that's a nice thing about being a beginner or maybe just being very young.

Haley
So what would you say is like, a lesson that you could take or learn from your beginner self?

Sarai
Have fun. Just have fun.

Haley
Yeah.

Sarai
Sometimes I get so hung up on making the perfect thing or making sure everything I make is useful and wearable. And fits my style to a T. And I think that's all really important because I don't want to be wasteful. And I do want to spend my time intentionally.

But at the same time, I think there's room for just if you get excited about something, maybe just go for it sometimes. So I think that's a lesson I can take from being a beginner. What about you?

Haley
I agree. Definitely. There's like a time and a place for overthinking. But that it doesn't need to make its way into every single sewing project.

I think the other thing that kind of comes to mind. I don't even know if this is, like, a lesson I could learn from my beginner self, but if I just think of my current sewing, the projects I currently make with relative ease, if I imagine what my beginner self would think or say about those projects, she would be, like, amazed. I would blow her away.

And so it's more of just like kind of taking time to turn around and look at how far that you've come and stop being so hard on yourself.

Sarai
Yeah, absolutely.

Haley
What areas would you say that you've grown the most since you were a beginner?

Sarai
What areas have I grown the most since being a beginner? Well, I want to say there's something around confidence, but it's not like we're just talking about, I think I had confidence to tackle a lot of things, but now I have more of a sense of the breadth of different types of projects I could do. So whereas I think when I was a beginner, maybe I would just have a random idea and try and pursue it and not know if it was going to come out, but be willing to try. I think now I know that I could sew almost anything. And if I don't know how to do it, I can learn to do it. And not just sew, but a lot of other creative things, too.

And I feel like there's a different type of confidence. It's more of the confidence of experience versus the confidence of a blind confidence. What about you?

Haley
I think that when I was a beginner, even though I threw myself into projects with little regard for how challenging or appropriate they were for my skill level, I think that when I ran into problems when I was a beginner, I felt, like, really stupid. And now, in hindsight, I know that I just didn't have the right techniques and the right tools to deal with the issues as they came up. And now when I run into an issue, first of all, I feel like I have this kind of arsenal of techniques and tools. I know the things I need to do to try, but also, I don't take it personally.

Sarai
Yeah.

Haley
So part of that is having the actual experience to handle issues as they come up, but also just the grace for myself that it's okay, I can mess up—a tolerance for failure.

Sarai
Yeah, that's a really good point. It's kind of funny because as you get more experience, you have more of a tolerance for failure, and at the same time, you're having fewer failures at the same time. It's interesting.

All right, well, let's get into the ten things that we wanted to cover today. So I'm going to start, we'll switch off here. But the first one that I think is really important is to embrace your seam ripper.

And what I mean by that is you're going to make a lot of mistakes, and you're never going to stop making mistakes. And I think if you've been sewing for a while, you probably know this. If you haven't been sewing for a while, you're probably learning this. But there's just a lot of mistakes in sewing. It's very normal if you sew a project from start to finish without using your seam ripper. That's very rare thing indeed. It's like finding a unicorn. So you're also not going to love everything you make. That's another thing that I think you have to kind of embrace.

Sometimes, you’re going to finish a project and you're going to try it on in front of the mirror. You're going to take it off, and then you're going to immediately donate it or give it away. Or if you're like me, you might throw it into the back of your closet and forget about it for two years and then eventually donate it because you feel guilty.

So that's just something you have to realize as you get more and more into your sewing. So when that happens, instead of getting mad that you made it in the first place, just try to think about all the new things that you learned because there's always so much to learn from every project, whether it was a success or whether it was a failure. So you might have picked up a new technique, or maybe you learned to avoid buying that type of fabric again, or maybe just using that type of fabric for the specific type of project. There are so many lessons that you can learn from a failure in sewing. So I think that's a really important lesson that we all learn as we grow.

Haley
Yeah. So the next tip is to avoid giving yourself arbitrary deadlines. I think especially when you first start sewing, you have all of this momentum and this boundless energy for sewing an infinite amount of projects. But I would encourage you to slow down and really try to enjoy the process and try to avoid turning your sewing queue into this unforgiving calendar of to-do items, because I think really, it's a slippery slope, it can feel really fun, and it can turn against you really quickly. I definitely recommend checking out a previous episode of the podcast, and it's called Ten Tips for Slowing Down. That's episode 127 could give you kind of like, some tips to consider before you burn yourself out on sewing.

Sarai
Yeah, really good point. All right, number three learn how to read a pattern.

I think this is something that I really wish I had understood better when I was brand new to sewing. I think understanding the anatomy of a sewing pattern before you even start sewing is the best way to set a strong foundation for your entire sewing practice.

I think when I first learned to sew, I didn't really understand what all the markings were, how to adjust a pattern in very, very basic ways, even how to pick out the right size. All of those things kind of eluded me at first, and the Internet was not the vast resource that it is today.

So there's a lot you can learn before you even start today about how to use a sewing pattern. And I think that's a really important, very basic skill before you start sewing that's going to make the rest of your sewing a lot easier.

Haley
All right, our next tip is a favorite of mine, and it is to tackle a new skill with every sewing project. Now, when I used to teach in person sewing classes, this is what I recommended for people, whether they were in my class or they were attempting a project without the instruction of a teacher for the first time. I think that this is like, a really good way to build your skills slowly in a sustainable way without—I feel like when you tackle a project, sometimes that is too challenging for you, that can be really discouraging. When you do a project that's maybe not challenging enough, then you might feel a little bit bored. But picking something that has at least one new skill is like, I find, to be the real sweet spot when you're learning how to sew.

Sarai
Yeah, absolutely. And this is something that I did with knitting, too. When I was learning how to knit, every time I would do a new knitting project, I would choose a skill that I wanted to try and make sure that it was incorporated into that knitting project. And that really helped me to grow my skills in knitting and be able to do a lot of cool stuff like color work and lace and all kinds of interesting things that I wouldn't have been able to do if I just kind of stuck with the basics.

Haley
And something I think worth adding here is that there is a benefit, too, to repeating projects. So if you did something, a simple dress and it had a zipper, it was your first time doing a zipper, there's no shame in repeating it to just get the zipper a little bit better next time. You can always incorporate something new but simple into your next version. Maybe you could add a trim you've never worked with before, use a different finish for the neckline. I feel like a lot of learning comes with repetition as well.

Sarai
Yeah, absolutely. All right, number five. I think this is a huge one, which is to learn about fabric.

Your fabric choice is going to impact your finished garment more than anything else. So it's really important to get to know your fibers and your fabric. So if you want to learn a little bit more about fabric, you can read about the ten fabrics that we think are ideal for garment sewing. We have an article about that. It's called our top ten favorite fabrics and where to find them. It's on the Seamwork website, and we'll also put a link to that in the show notes as well.

But overall, I think fabric, in addition to learning how to use a sewing pattern, I think learning about fabric and how fabric behaves is the key thing for making things that you actually want to wear. And I'll also say it's an ongoing process that never ends. It's not like you just need to learn a few things about fabric and you're done. It's a constant process of experimentation and learning about how different weights perform, how to match a pattern and a fabric together, even about color, how to choose fabrics that are going to look like the finished garment that you have in your mind and work on you and work the way you want them to work.

So I think that's something that—I don't know if all sewers underappreciate that, but I definitely did when I was a beginner and didn't really understand what a complex world fabric is, which I think is fine. It's kind of nice not knowing that, because it is a vast area to learn about, and maybe it gave me a little bit more confidence in not knowing how much there was to learn, but at the same time, I think it's so fun to learn and experiment with fabric. And I do wish I had kind of invested a little bit more in that upfront and I probably would have had a little more successes.

Haley
I think it can be really helpful to from the beginning, for many reasons, start documenting your projects because it's a great way to catalog the things as you learn them. And with every new project, with every new fabric you work with, you're going to learn something that you like about it, that you don't like about it, what worked, what didn't. So start writing that stuff down.

Sarai
Yeah, absolutely. I think the Seamwork community is another great place to go for this. If you have questions about fabric, you're considering a specific fabric for a specific pattern, you're not sure if it's going to work. People there are so nice and they'll be happy to pitch in and offer you their ideas and their own takes and their own experiences. So that's a really great resource.

Haley
Okay, so our next tip is don't take shortcuts. Don't get me wrong, I love something that's like quick and easy, but that's very different than skipping steps because you feel like you're rushing through.

So what kinds of things am I talking about here? I'm talking about pressing. You all know how much I love talking about pressing, things like staystitching, clipping, making, like a little doing little tests of new techniques, pre, washing, marking, making a muslin.

Sewing by nature is time intensive and skipping these little steps doesn't really make it I mean, I guess technically it makes it less time or makes it take less time, but you're probably going to end up having to undo things to fix your mistakes or you're just not going to wear what you make.

So the ten minutes that you're saving is probably not worth it. Another piece of advice that I would tack onto that is to really trust your pattern makers to guide you through each step as you sew. So you can learn all of the rules in the beginning and then later on you can find ways that you can bend them and shave off a little time.

But treat each pattern like a new learning experience in the meantime, and really take your time with it.

Sarai
Yeah. All right. Number seven, find a trustworthy source to use as you're learning.

I think there are a lot of great options for sewing books out there, and I think the fact that there are so many great sewing books out there can make it seem really overwhelming and can make it harder to find the information that you need. Same with the Internet. There's a vast amount of information out there and finding what you actually need and just quickly being able to answer your questions can be difficult just because of the sheer volume of information.

So what I'd suggest is to pick one book, one sewing class at a fabric store, or one online sewing class and use that as your guide while you're just getting started. So if you're brand new to sewing, choose one really comprehensive resource and go with that. And if you're a total beginner, you can take our Learn to Sew for Absolute Beginners course, where we walk you through each of the component skills you need in order to make your own clothing. So we talk about everything from using your machine to sewing seams to all kinds of sleeves and facings.

It's really perfect for anyone who's brand new to sewing. Or if you've taken a break from sewing and you need a refresher, it's great for those people, too. So that's one resource.

But there are lots of other really great resources out there, and the main thing you want to do is choose one, make it something helpful and comprehensive and use that one as much as possible. And that'll really cut down the sense of overwhelm you might have around all there is to learn about sewing.

Haley
That's such a good tip. Kind of eliminate that analysis paralysis. One less decision to make.

Sarai
Yeah.

Haley
All right. Our next tip is use your body measurements as data. I think that learning how to take accurate measurements is my number one tip for making sure that you're going to get good fit.

I think sometimes people tend to avoid it because it can bring up a lot of feelings to have to take your measurements. So something that I always recommend to students is to just detach yourself from it. If you're feeling a little icky about it, detach yourself from it and remember that it's just data, and all it's going to do is going to help us make clothing that fits you and honors your body in the best way that we can.

And in addition to that, I would recommend as you're sewing things, don't wait till the end to try on your garment. You can try your garment on as you go and see how it fits. Make little tweaks along the way. I think, especially when you're a beginner and maybe you don't know a ton about fitting yet, that this is the easiest way that you can make a better fitting garment from the beginning—good measurements and trying things on as you go.

Sarai
Yeah, absolutely. Very simple. Or at least it sounds simple, but those two things really make a huge difference in the final fit.

Number nine is to take care of your machine and tools. So when you're sewing, you depend on a lot of stuff to help you sew. And if something's going wrong, we always say this: it's either your technique or it's your tool. Maybe you have the wrong tool, or maybe your tool is not performing the way you need it to perform.

So change your needles, clean your machine, and invest in notions that work so you don't get frustrated just because you have subpar tools.

I think this is a big one. It doesn't necessarily need to be the most expensive thing or the most expensive machine or the most expensive iron. It needs to be something that works well for you and doesn't frustrate you every time you use it. So if you have an iron that spits rusty water every time you use it, replace it or fix it, do what you can to make sure that you're not frustrating yourself just because of your tools, and take care of the tools that you do have so that they last you a good, long time.

Make sure that your machine is getting serviced and oiled up when it needs to be oiled up. Invest in learning about how to do that and make sure that you're taking care of what you have.

Haley
All right. And our last tip is a great tip, and it's just to have fun.

You know, all of these tips and lessons that Sarai and I are sharing are all good and fun, but none of it really matters unless you're having fun with what you. So like, go ahead and make the thing that excites you. Use the wild fabric that you're obsessed with at the fabric store.

I just think that there's so much fun in this craft, and it's important not to lose all of that in your quest to become better at it.

Sarai
Yeah, absolutely. It's so tempting to just try to make everything perfect. I know I have a lot of perfectionist tendencies myself, and to try to just get everything right 100% of the time, and if you can let go of some of that—so it's kind of going back to what I was saying about my strength when I was a beginner. If you can let go of some of that need for everything to be just so and just remember how fun it is to be able to make whatever you want to make practically anything with any color, any fabric, any look you want. I mean, that's so empowering.

And if you can remember that and lean into that as you get better and better at sewing, you're going to have a blast.

All right, so those are our ten tips. Those are the ten things that we wish we had known as beginners that have helped us on our sewing journeys all along the way for the last few decades. Can't believe it's been that long that I've been sewing.

All right, so what's your favorite tip of all these tips, Haley?

Haley
Today I'm going to go with my old faithful, and that is tackle a new skill with every project, because I will preach that forever and ever.

Sarai
Yeah, that's a really good one and a great way to learn. I think, for me, learning about fabric is the best. I just think that that is something that is so easily overlooked and I think you can blame yourself a lot for sewing fails because the fabric didn't do what you thought it would do. And I think a little bit of knowledge and a little bit of—some of it is knowledge, and some of it is just thinking things through before you start doing things, like holding the fabric up to your body in the fabric store, if you can, looking at how it drapes, trying to envision it before you actually use it. Just simple things like that, I think can make such a huge difference and eliminate a lot of heartache in the end.

And even if things don't come out the way you envisioned after doing all of that, you've probably still learned about that fabric and how you might use it again in the future. So I think that's something that's easily overlooked, but really important.

All right, well, we mentioned the Seamwork community in this episode a few times, and I just think we're really lucky to have some of the most helpful sewists that you can imagine in our private community.

And our team is there too. So, along with thousands of Seamworkers, we're here to talk to you and to cheer you on and to help you out. And you can ask any question about sewing and get absolutely no judgment. And you'll also get some amazing answers for some really nice people.

You can share your finished projects there, you can create goals that you can track there, and we'll even email you reminders to keep you on track if you want that. So it's the perfect place to go if you need a quick boost of creative energy.

And if you are interested in checking it out, Seamwork Podcast listeners get a 50% off lifetime discount when you join us@seamwork.com/go/podcast50 and then you can join our community. And if you liked this episode, please leave us a five star review. We would really, really appreciate it. We are review today that I'd like to read from Just Melanie and she says:

“A great show. Just listened to the last Sewing Camp podcast and figured out how to leave a review. I've been listening to your podcast since January after becoming a Seamwork member in December. Just wanted to share that I love the podcast and the Seamwork community. Your voices are so calm and soothing and it feels like my day slows down a little as I take you guys to my sewing room and listen while I sew or work on reorganizing my sewing space. Love the sewing camp and design your wardrobe series. If you're interested in sewing or are a sewer—beginner or experienced—the guidance in the show and on the website are invaluable. You get to experience the highs and lows of sewing projects, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat with other sewers as we all learn to get better at what we love.”

Oh, thank you, Melanie. That's a great review. Thank you for taking the time to leave that. And if you'd like to leave a review for us, if you're enjoying the show, it's a great way to let other people know about it and hopefully get us more listeners, so we really appreciate that.

And if you'd like, you can also follow us on YouTube at Seamwork Video. If you like hearing from me and Haley each week. You'll love our YouTube channel. We're also there every week making really fun videos. You can follow us on Instagram at Seamwork, and if you'd like to join Seamwork and become part of our private community, plus get access to hundreds of sewing patterns and dozens of sewalong classes. Once again, our podcast listeners get a 50% off lifetime discount at seamwork.com/go/podcast50.

And that does it for us this week. I'm Sarai.

Haley
And I'm Haley.

Sarai
And this is Seamwork Radio.