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Sew What? Beginner Sewing, One Seam at a Time by Lorraine G., 4-H Sewing Project Leader

Welcome! I've been leading the sewing project for our county 4-H club for twenty years this fall, which means I've taught somewhere around two hundred children (and a good many of their mothers, and two fathers) to sew. In all that time I have learned that anybody can sew if you go slowly, in order, and nobody yells. I don't yell. This page goes slowly and in order. My daughter set this up for me so I could stop photocopying my lesson sheets for people. I'll add lessons as I get them typed. If you're a beginner, start at the top and don't skip ahead. If you're a 4-H leader and want to use any of this with your own club, please do; just drop me a note so I know where it's gone. The lessons: Getting to know your sewing machine Threading it (without tears) Reading a pattern envelope Your first project: a pillowcase or an elastic-waist skirt Press as you go When things go wrong: skipped stitches, tension and other troubles Also: our club's 1999 fair results and a few words about choosing a machine.

Before we start: choosing a machine You do not need a fancy machine. You need one that makes a good straight stitch and a zigzag, goes forward and backward, and doesn't jam. That's it. Everything I have ever made was made on a machine that does those four things. If you're buying used (and I'd start there): a good all-metal machine from the 1960s or 70s will outlast most of what's sold new today, and they turn up at estate sales and repair shops for $50 to $100. Ask the sewing machine repair shop in town if they have a reconditioned one; they'll usually stand behind it. Bring a scrap of fabric and try it before you pay. If you're buying new: a basic mechanical machine from a sewing store (not a department store) runs $150 to $300 and will do everything a beginner needs. Buy from a store that gives lessons with the machine. The computerized machines with 200 stitches are lovely, but you will use about four of those stitches, and the money is better spent on good scissors and a good iron. Whatever you get, get the manual. If it's lost, write to the manufacturer with the model number; most will send a copy for a few dollars. The manual tells you how to thread that particular machine and wind that particular bobbin, and every machine is a little different.

Lesson 1: Getting to know your sewing machine Sit down at your machine with the manual open and find each of these. Touch them. Say the name out loud if you're alone. Every machine has them, though they may be in slightly different places. Part What it does Spool pin The post on top that holds your spool of thread. Thread guides Little hooks and loops the thread passes through on its way to the needle. They keep it in line. Tension discs and dial Two discs the thread passes between. The dial sets how tightly they squeeze it. Most sewing is done with the dial in the middle of its range. We'll come back to this in Lesson 6. Take-up lever The arm that goes up and down as you sew. The thread must go through its eye, or you'll get a bird's nest underneath. When you stop sewing, this lever should be at its highest point. Needle and needle clamp The needle has a flat side on its shank; that flat side faces the back (on most machines; check the manual). The clamp screw holds it. Presser foot and lifter The little metal foot that holds the fabric down. The lever behind the machine raises and lowers it. Foot down to sew, foot up to thread and to move fabric. Feed dogs The little metal teeth under the presser foot that move the fabric along. You don't push the fabric; you guide it. The feed dogs do the pushing. Throat plate The metal plate under the foot, with lines marked on it for seam widths. The 5/8" line is the one you'll use most. Bobbin and bobbin case The little spool underneath that supplies the bottom thread. Every stitch is two threads locked together, one from the top and one from the bobbin. Hand wheel The wheel on the right side. Turn it toward you to move the needle by hand. Never turn it away from you; it can tangle the thread. Stitch length and width dials Length: how far apart the stitches are. Width: how far side-to-side the zigzag swings. Set width to zero for straight stitching. Reverse lever or button Sews backward. You'll use it for a few stitches at the beginning and end of every seam to lock it. Foot pedal Like a gas pedal. Press gently. Beginners floor it. Don't floor it. Homework: with the machine unthreaded, put a piece of notebook paper under the foot, lower the foot, and sew along the lines. Then sew a curve. Then sew a corner: stop with the needle down in the paper, lift the foot, turn the paper, lower the foot, go. Do this until it's boring. Then do it a while longer.

Lesson 2: Threading it (without tears) The manual has the exact path for your machine. Follow it with your finger first. But the general idea is the same on nearly every machine, and it goes like this: First, wind a bobbin. Put the thread on the spool pin, follow the manual's path to the bobbin winder, wind a few turns by hand around the empty bobbin, click it into the winder, and run the machine (some machines need you to loosen the hand wheel so the needle doesn't go up and down). Fill it evenly, not so full it bulges. Put the bobbin into its case or well, threaded the direction the manual shows, and pull the thread through the little slot until it clicks under the spring. Then thread the top. Raise the presser foot first. This is the step everyone skips, and it's the one that matters most: with the foot up, the tension discs are open and the thread can seat between them. With the foot down, the thread rides on the outside of the discs and you get loops and nests underneath and a great deal of frustration. Foot up. Then: spool pin, through the guide(s) on top, down through the tension discs, up through the eye of the take-up lever (turn the hand wheel toward you until it's at its highest so you can see it), down through the guides above the needle, and through the needle's eye, front to back on most machines. Leave a six-inch tail. Bring up the bobbin thread. Hold the top thread tail loosely with your left hand, turn the hand wheel toward you one full turn so the needle goes down and comes back up, and the bobbin thread will come up as a loop. Pull it up, and lay both tails to the back under the foot. Test it. Fold a scrap of cotton in half and sew a few inches. Look at both sides. If it looks the same top and bottom, you're threaded. If not, take the top thread out and do it again, with the foot up. It's almost always the top thread, and it's almost always the foot.

Lesson 3: Reading a pattern envelope A pattern envelope tells you everything you need to buy, if you know where to look. Take one out of the drawer at the fabric store and follow along. On the front: drawings or photos of the different views (View A might be the long skirt, View B the short one), the pattern number, and the sizes included in that envelope. Patterns come in size ranges, so make sure the envelope you pick up has your size in it. On the back: The body measurement chart. Pattern sizes are not store sizes. Measure yourself (bust, waist, hips) with a tape measure over your underthings, write the numbers down, and find them on the chart. Most people are one or two sizes larger in a pattern than in ready-to-wear, and that's normal. For a skirt or pants, go by the hip measurement; for a top, go by the bust. Don't take it personally. Suggested fabrics. The pattern company has already figured out what works for this design. A beginner should stay on this list. If it says "cotton, cotton blends, chambray, lightweight denim," don't buy slippery satin for your first try. (Every year somebody does.) The yardage chart. Find your view along the side and your size across the top, and the box where they meet tells you how many yards to buy. There are separate rows for 45-inch-wide and 60-inch-wide fabric, so check the bolt end to see which you're buying. If your fabric has a nap (corduroy, velvet) or a one-way print, use the "with nap" row; it's a little more. Notions. The small things: thread, a zipper of a certain length, elastic of a certain width, buttons, hooks and eyes, interfacing. Buy them all at the same time as the fabric, while you have the envelope in your hand. Nobody wants to go back for a zipper. Finished garment measurements and a line drawing of the back. The finished measurements tell you how much ease (room) the design has. If the finished hip is 8 inches bigger than your hip, it's a loose style; if it's 2 inches, it's fitted. Inside the envelope are the tissue pattern pieces and the instruction sheet. Before you cut anything, read the instructions all the way through, once, even the parts you don't understand yet. Then read the cutting layout for your view and fabric width. Then, and only then, pick up the scissors.

Lesson 4: Your first project I start every beginner with one of these two. They're all straight seams, they don't need a pattern, and you get to use the thing you made. Project A: A pillowcase. The very first 4-H project. Buy 1 yard of 45-inch cotton (a fun print is nice) and matching thread. Wash and dry it first, so it shrinks now and not after you've sewn it. Cut a rectangle 41 inches by 36 inches. (A standard pillowcase is about 20 by 30 finished. Fold your rectangle in half the short way and you'll see it.) On one 41-inch edge, make the hem: fold over 1/2 inch to the wrong side and press; then fold over 3 more inches and press. Stitch close to the inner fold. That's your open end. Fold the rectangle in half, right sides together, so the hemmed edges meet. Pin the long side and the short unhemmed end. Sew those two sides with a 1/2-inch seam. Backstitch at the beginning and end. Turn the corner with the needle down. Trim the corner diagonally, close to the stitching but not through it. Turn it right side out, poke the corner out gently with a knitting needle or a chopstick, and press. Done. You made a pillowcase. Put a pillow in it and admire it. Project B: An elastic-waist skirt. A little more grown-up, still all straight lines. Measure around your hips at the fullest part. Add 10 inches for ease. That's your width. Measure from your waist to where you want the hem, and add 3 inches (1-1/2 for the casing, 1-1/2 for the hem). That's your length. Buy enough fabric for a rectangle of that size (usually 1-1/2 yards of 45-inch cotton for an adult, plus thread, plus 1-inch-wide elastic the length of your waist measurement). Wash and press the fabric. Cut your rectangle. If the fabric is 45 inches wide and your width is more than 45, cut two pieces each half the width plus seam allowances and you'll have two side seams instead of one. Fold right sides together and sew the side seam(s) with a 5/8-inch seam. Press the seam open (Lesson 5). Make the casing at the top: fold 1/4 inch to the wrong side and press, then fold 1-1/4 inches and press. Stitch close to the inner fold, leaving a 2-inch opening at the side seam. Put a big safety pin on the end of the elastic and work it through the casing. Don't let the other end disappear inside (pin it to the fabric). Overlap the ends an inch and stitch them together firmly. Stitch the opening closed. Try it on and mark the hem. Fold 1/4 inch and press, then 1-1/4 inches and press, and stitch. Press once more. Now you have a skirt, and you have done a seam, a casing, and a hem, which is most of sewing.

Lesson 5: Press as you go If you want to know the difference between something that looks homemade and something that looks handmade, it's the iron. Set up the ironing board next to the sewing machine before you start, and press every seam before you sew across it. Every one. Pressing is not ironing. Ironing is sliding the iron back and forth, which stretches fabric out of shape. Pressing is lifting the iron, setting it down, holding a moment, lifting it, and moving to the next spot. Up, down, up, down. The order: first press the seam flat, just as it was sewn, to set the stitches into the fabric. Then open the seam and press the allowances apart (or to one side, if the instructions say so). Then turn it right side up and press again. Three passes. It sounds like a lot; it takes a minute, and it's the minute that matters. Use steam on cotton and linen, a press cloth (a scrap of clean muslin) on wool and anything dark or shiny, and a low setting with no steam on anything synthetic. When in doubt, test on a scrap. A tailor's ham (a firm stuffed cushion) is a fine thing to own for pressing curves, but a rolled-up towel will do to begin with.

Lesson 6: When things go wrong Before you adjust anything, do these three things, in this order, because they fix nine problems out of ten: Rethread the top, with the presser foot up. Put in a new needle. Needles get dull and bent long before you can see it. A new needle costs less than a dollar. Change it every project, or every eight hours of sewing. Take out the bobbin, brush the lint out from under the throat plate, and put the bobbin back in the right direction. Then, if it's still misbehaving: Skipped stitches (gaps in the line of stitching). Usually the needle: bent, dull, or the wrong kind. Knits need a ballpoint needle; woven fabrics take a regular sharp. Very heavy fabric needs a bigger needle (a 14 or 16), very fine fabric a smaller one (a 9 or 11). Make sure the needle is pushed all the way up into the clamp and the flat side faces the right way. Loops or a "bird's nest" on the underside. This looks like a bobbin problem, and it almost never is. It means the top thread has no tension, which means it isn't seated in the tension discs, which means you threaded with the foot down. Rethread. If that's not it, check that the thread hasn't jumped out of the take-up lever. Loops on the top side. Now it's the bobbin. Rethread the bobbin case, make sure the thread is under the little spring, and check that the bobbin isn't wound loose or lumpy. Puckered seams. Tension too tight, stitch too long for a fine fabric, or you're pulling the fabric instead of letting the feed dogs move it. Try a shorter stitch and a lighter hand first. The tension dial. After all that, if the stitches still don't look the same on both sides, adjust the top tension a little at a time, testing on a folded scrap of your actual fabric. If the bobbin thread is being pulled up to the top, the top tension is too tight; turn it to a lower number. If the top thread is being pulled through to the bottom, it's too loose; turn it higher. Small moves. Write down where it was before you started so you can go back. Leave the bobbin tension screw alone; that's the repair shop's job. Thread keeps breaking. Old thread (it gets brittle; throw out Grandma's wooden spools, lovely as they are), a burr on the needle, the thread caught on the spool pin, or the tension way too high. The machine is jammed and won't move. Stop. Don't force the hand wheel. Raise the foot, cut the threads, take out the bobbin case, and gently pull the tangle out from underneath. Then rethread everything and start over on a scrap. It happens to everybody, including me, including last week.

Our Club at the 1999 County Fair I could not be prouder of these young people. Eleven members of our sewing project entered the 4-H clothing exhibits at the county fair in August, and here's how it went (first names only; they know who they are). Member Project Ribbon Emily, 16 Lined wool blazer with bound buttonholes Blue, and Grand Champion, Senior Clothing. Goes on to the State Fair! Sarah, 14 Sundress with a zipper and facings Blue Jacob, 13 Flannel pajama pants (and he made a second pair for his dad) Blue Megan, 12 Elastic-waist skirt and matching hair scrunchie Blue Ashley, 11 Pillowcase with a contrast band Blue Hannah, 15 Quilted tote bag Blue Brittany, 10 Pillowcase (her very first project) Red Tyler, 11 Drawstring gym bag Red Kayla, 13 Vest with buttons and lining Blue Amber, 12 Apron with pockets Red Rachel, 17 Formal dress (her prom dress, actually) Blue, Reserve Champion, Senior Clothing Eight blue ribbons out of eleven, two champions, and not a single unpicked seam on the fairgrounds. The judges said our hems and our pressing were the best they saw all day, and I'll take that as a compliment to Lesson 5. Brittany's red-ribbon pillowcase, by the way, was a beautiful pillowcase; the judge just wanted her corners a little sharper, and next year they will be. Emily models her blazer at the State Fair in October. We are all going.

Friends of the sewing room Stitches & Stories Quilt Guild. Once you can sew a straight seam, quilting is where a lot of my former students end up. Thrift Store Chic. A young woman in Chicago who buys good wool at thrift stores and has it tailored. Sensible girl. I keep telling her she could do the hems herself. Second Glance Consignment Boutique. A nice source of good-quality fabric if you don't mind that it's already a dress; I've taken apart more than one consignment find for the material. Rosa's Kitchen Table, who runs our WebRing, and Betty's Backyard Vegetable Patch, my other favorite in the ring. Fashion Avenue, the neighborhood.

Stuck on something? E-mail me at [email protected] and describe what the stitches look like, top and bottom. I'll do my best. Sewers who've stopped by since June 1999: Last updated September 20, 1999 (fair results and Lesson 6 added).   © 1999 Lorraine G. Coming when I get them typed: sewing on a button, putting in a zipper, and what to do with all those scraps. This site is a member of the Kitchen Table WebRing, owned by Lorraine G. [ << Prev | List Sites | Next >> ]