How To Teach Yourself Sewing (Beginner’s Guide)

How To Teach Yourself Sewing when you want to make some projects at home, today there is an opportunity for anyone who is interested to learn, and it’s easier than ever!

How To Teach Yourself Sewing. Every sewer was a beginner one day, some had the option to go to a sewing school to learn the basics, some gave themselves the opportunity to learn how to sew by themselves at home.

If you are reading this post, that means you might be in the second group and you want to know if you can teach yourself to sew at home.

From my experience, I can share with you some of my paths as a sewer, I started young about at the age of 8 years old, maybe 9, and my mom took me to a sewing classes after school, one hour twice every week. It didn’t last long, I only learned how to take the measures, how to trace a blouse pattern, how to make a paper blouse all stitched by hand, and then the teacher told me to make a dress for my self, which went well and I felt very proud of myself.

Then I kept learning to sew different projects by myself at home, some projects took me longer to learn how to do it, some are easier, but if I could learn, so can you to!

How To Teach Yourself Sewing

Where To Start

When you have on your mind that sewing might be a good hobby for you, then you need to find a sewing machine that is good for beginners but that has enough features to help you to get more skilled as you work on some projects, and without the need to buy a model that has all the whistles and that you might not know how to work with it.

Anyone who is looking to learn to sew, can find a good sewing machine model at an affordable price and easy to set up and start sewing, but keep in mind that you might need some time to get used to the machine and learn the basics of sewing.

Another good idea when you are wanting to learn how to sew is to find a second hand sewing machine, if you have a friend or a relative that loves to sew, ask her/him about it, they might have a back up machine that might be good for you, or they might know about another sewer who might want to sell one of their machines.

Get All The Sewing Tools and Supplies

Whether you have a sewing machine or not, you always can start by getting some of the sewing tools and supplies you will need.

Sewing tools and supplies are designed to help sewers of all levels to make any project with ease, most of them have an affordable price and we would like to share a list of them.

A Sewing Machine: A Basic model with enough features and some built-in stitches will be a great addition to your sewing room without the need to break the bank.

Sewing Thread: Have always a few spools of thread of the most used thread color like: white, beige, black, brown, red, gray and blue. As a good tip, buy always the best thread you can afford and stay away from the thread that comes for a very cheap price, as this thread is not good quality and it won’t help you to work with ease, when you buy the best thread you can afford, you will notice the difference of sewing with this thread, it makes the difference.

Scissors For Fabric: These scissors are designed to help you to cut any type of fabric very accurate, to help you to get any project well done. There are some good brands well-known around the world, and you can find a pair of scissors at the right price.

Scissors For Paper: As a sewer of different projects, I know the need to have a pair of scissors to cut paper, as you will be working with paper templates and pattern.

Sewing Basket: Having everything in one place will help you find anything that you need to work on your project in no time. You might get the idea of our grandmothers sewing basket, but believe me, they are a must in the sewing room.

Seam Ripper: All sewers need to undo a seam once in a while, well I should say very often, when sewing you need to get accurate seams and many times you will find that one seam is not that accurate and you need to do it again, a seam ripper can be your best friend in that moment.

Measuring Tape: Get one from a good brand, it will have the accurate measures and it will help you to work with ease on any project.

Pins and Safety Pins: Learn how to pin a seam to get it right the first time and you’ll save a lot of time and work on any project.

Pencil and Pen for Fabric:On the market you will find different brands, you will need to get a pencil in a different color to help you to trace patterns and templates on different color fabrics,

Fabric: Star sewing with an affordable fabric in case your first projects go wrong that would not cost you much, as you get more skilled you can buy better quality fabrics and you will get better results on your projects.

Learn How To Sew With A Sewing Machine

When you get your own sewing machine or if you get the invitation from a friend who likes to sew to try her/his machine, give yourself the opportunity to learn how to sew with it.

Some sewers might learn the first time and it won’t take much to understand how to work with a sewing machine, but some sewers will need more than one day to learn how all the features on a machine work and when to use each feature.

Give yourself time and start with an easy to make project of better if you just start testing the machine on a piece of fabric just testing all the features, also if the machine comes with some built-in stitches, make a sampler on a piece of fabric.

Try also different threads to test your machines, this will help you to know in advance how to thread the machine and how to set up the tension to get better stitching.

Learning Curve To Sew

Not everyone learns the same, and this happens the same when learning to sew, start with some easy to make projects and as you get skilled, try some intermediate level projects, soon you will feel yourself skilled enough to try different projects.

Sewing Projects For Beginners

There are plenty of easy to make projects any beginner will love to make: tote bag, bread bag, home decor projects, young girls dress, and more.

Related: Tips To Start Sewing (Beginners Guide) –

Taking Sewing To The Next Level

As you keep working on different projects, you will notice that you get skilled and you can work well with different fabrics and projects, then you might want to take the next level.

You always can sign up to a sewing class or follow a new YouTube channel to try new projects, soon you can make any project you have in your list, then this might be the moment you need to take a look to a better sewing machine model that will help you to work on other projects that require better features on your machine.

How To Teach Yourself To Sew, Closing Thoughts

Sewing is a hobby worth to try, and you can teach yourself to sew, start with easy to make projects and with any fabric you may have at home already, learn how to work with a sewing machine and some basic sewing skills, then try some new projects, before you notice you will be good at it.

Not everyone lean at the same speed, you might make some mistakes, every sewer did it, but don’t let a mistake stops you, try again, and soon you will learn more about the tricks and hacks every sewer has, enjoy your work on every project, this is a very creative hobby and it worths to try it!

Thanks so much for reading our blog, we love to hear from our readers, let us know how did you learn to sew, by yourself or a good friend was your sewing teacher.

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How To Teach Yourself Sewing

4 thoughts on “How To Teach Yourself Sewing (Beginner’s Guide)”

  1. I must be honest, I was always afraid of sewing. My girlfriend actually is heavily into sewing and I see how much patience it takes. She taught herself as well and I saw how much focus she put into. The one thing I noticed when she would start sewing, is that she seemed so relaxed and had ton of patience. So I started wondering would it help me relax as well. One of the things that held me back, is honestly a fear of messing up. But it’s like you said, “Every sewer was a beginner one day…”

    You’re so right! Thank you for this post. It was very helpful.  I’m getting ready to share this with my girlfriend right now.

    She’ll be pleased to hear that I plan on giving it a try with her 🙂

  2. I tried to take sewing lessons but I wasn’t patient enough and also I had too much work during that period… Now, I know that you must be patient with yourself in everything, including sewing. I bought a sewing machine and I intend to start again next year, god-willing. However, I do believe that each person is unique and my progress will be measured according to my willpower and my regularity.

  3. I like to sew and make simple crafts; my favourite is scrunchie. But I realized it was very time consuming when I want to make higher volumes to gift to friends. So I actually took an online class on Craftsy which teaches some basic sewing techniques that I never knew. The step-by-steps are very clear for anyone who wants to learn sewing on their own. Highly recommend you check out the platform.  

    • Hi Cathy, thanks so much for sharing your thoughts about how much time takes to make a serie of the same project, I know, it’s not the same to make just one item than making 10, 12 or even 100 of the same item. Thanks also for sharing with us that anyone who is interested to learn more about how to teach themselves to sew, they can find a good online course on Craftsy.

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