Sewing 101: Picking your first pattern and material

Ivy says:

The very best time to go buy your first pattern is when they’re having a hot sale. Simplicity and McCall’s patterns go on sale frequently at the fabric stores I go to- JoAnn’s and Hancock Fabrics. Don’t take any kids with you if that’s at all possible- you want some time to sit and peruse slowly through the patterns. There are a few things you want to look for.

First of all, is it your size? Your size in patterns is not the same as your ready-to-wear size. Generally, your pattern size is about 2 sizes up from your RTW size, but not always. Check the back of the pattern for measurements. Also, be sure to check the measurements of the finished garment against your own measurements. There will be ease* built in to the pattern. Depending on how much ease is built in and how you want the pattern to fit, you may need to go a size down even for your regular pattern size.

The next thing you need to look at is how hard the pattern will be. For your first pattern, you will most likely want to avoid things like tightly curved seams, pleats, buttonholes**, gathers, and darts***.
Finally, look at the type of material the pattern requires. Stretch knits can be hard to work with, as are any kinds of material that are slick like satin or silk. Denim and fleece can be thick and your machine may hate it. Anything you can use a nice cotton material is your best bet. Besides the fact that cotton is usually fairly inexpensive, it’s very easy to work with.

It seems like I’ve written a whole lot of “don’ts” here, but you can still find lots of patterns that fit the bill here. Try a nice A-line or gored skirt, or a pair of bed pants. For my first pattern, I made a 4 gore skirt with a zipper (zippers seem hard, but are fairly easy), Burda 8427. I managed to lose the instructions after I cut the pattern out and still got it together halfway decently. I skipped the fringe on it, because I hate stupid fringe on anything.

The second thing I made was McCall’s 2101. This is where I should have checked the ease- the size I made ended up being HUGE on me. If I hadn’t used a sheet that had cowboy boots, sheriff stars and pony heads on it, I could have given these to my husband. Fortunately, they’re drawstring so they fit me well enough for bed pants. If I had cut out a smaller size, I would probably be able to wear them out somewhere. They went together very easily and quickly. So easily and quickly, that I thought, “I need something harder.”

Enter my triumph and my Waterloo:

That’s McCall’s 5233. They claim it is an easy pattern, but I’m nearly bald from ripping my hair out over it. The problem is first, that the directions are fairly unclear about how to do the sleeves. I spent 2 hours trying to figure out what they meant before just putting the sleeves together in a way that made sense to me. I don’t think I did them right, but they look okay, so whatever. That wasn’t even the hard part, though, the hard part was the collar. That’s why I say no tightly curved seams up there. It was just harder than it needed to be. It turned out pretty well, though, and looks cute on me, and fits perfectly, so I can’t complain too much.
If you’re having a tough time picking out a pattern, leave me a comment and let me know, I’ll be glad to help!

*There are two kinds of ease- wearing ease and design ease. Wearing ease is how much space your body needs between you and the clothing to be comfortable. Industry standard is 2 inches at the bust, 1 inch in the waist, & 3 inches in the hip. Design ease is where the design has more space than necessary for comfort, for style’s sake.

**This is depending on how hard it is to make buttonholes on your machine. Some people’s machines have a nifty one-step buttonhole. Mine does, but it’s still complicated so I have avoided buttonholes so far.

***Darts are actually not that hard. But for your first pattern, it might be better just to get used to the sewing, since darts are the very first thing you have to do if they are in a pattern, and you don’t want to deal with a puckery dart as the very first thing you sew.

Ask the audience: Throwing a book at ya

Ivy says:

People are always asking us, “When are you going to have a book for us to buy?” We usually answer something like, “Um, well, um, and, er…” You get the picture. The problem is not knowing how to proceed, whether there’s interest in a cookbook or something general like the site is, or what.

So, we’re asking you, our loyal readers. Would you rather read a cookbook from us? (Recipes by Heather, snarky commentary from me, natch.) Or would you rather have a bunch of general stuff? Does anyone know how to go about getting a book like this published? Do we get an agent? Do we send stuff to editors somewhere? Do we wait around and hope the right person notices us? What? Help!

Sewing 101: What equipment do you need?

Ivy says:

So, to begin my “How to sew for people who have no clue” series, let’s talk about what you are going to need. The first thing that comes to mind usually, other than a sewing machine, is material and patterns. Because, come on, there’s nothing more enticing than a pattern for a gorgeous dress or some yummy fabric. But we’re not going to cover material and patterns in this post because those are such big subjects they really need their own posts.

So, what do you need other than material and patterns?

A sewing machine. Natch. This is probably the hardest decision you will make when starting to sew. What kind of sewing machine should you buy? A Dress A Day has a good answer for this one. But let me add a bit about getting a vintage machine, since that’s what I’m using. Often, you can find a good used machine for half nothing at a thrift store, and sometimes you’ll get really lucky and someone will give you a vintage sewing machine. If the machine has sat unused for several years, or you don’t know if it has been unused for several years, take it into a local repair shop and have it tuned up. If you go to the website for the manufacturer of your machine, you can find where they have authorized repair shops. These are generally good places to go. I had an excellent experience with my local authorized Singer repair shop.

The sewing machine’s manual and accessories. If you don’t buy your machine new and instead get your machine from a thrift shop, it may not come with things you really need like a zipper foot, and in the case of the above picture, a buttonhole foot. It may not come with a manual. You can purchase a manual from eBay, the manufacturer’s website, or you can Google your machine’s name, model number, and the word “manual” and sometimes you can download a PDF of your manual for free.

Once you have a manual, read it from cover to cover. Seriously. Read it twice. This will teach you all about how to use your machine, and it’ll also teach you a bit about sewing. I’ll do a tutorial later on about how to thread your machine, but all sewing machines thread a little bit differently, so it’s important to read your own manual. Read the manual. Read the manual. READ THE MANUAL!

Whoo, got a bit excited there. You’re also going to need bobbins. Lots and lots of bobbins. You can buy bobbins at any fabric store for most models of sewing machines. Just take your bobbin in there or know your model number and brand, and you can buy them fairly cheaply.

Pins and a pincushion. Or something to put your pins in, it doesn’t have to be a tomato like mine. I’m thinking about making myself something I can stick on my wrist, since I seem to leave my tomato across the room whenever I need it to be next to me. This is where having kids comes in handy, though. “Nate, can you bring mommy’s tomato over here?” When my kids grow up, I’m either going to have to train my dog to bring my tomato or else I’m going to have to make that wrist pincushion. Or I could always get up off my lazy tush and get my own tomato. Hmmm, a quandary.

Good, sharp scissors. Ideally, you should have a pair of scissors for cutting fabric, a pair of pinking shears, and a pair to give the kids when they want to cut stuff out because you are cutting stuff out. Never use your good fabric-cutting scissors to cut paper. Ever. Nobody is really sure why, but my mom told me that, her mom told her that, and her mom’s mom told her that. I think it’s a big conspiracy by the scissors companies to sell more scissors.

(Just kidding, cutting paper with scissors dulls them and eventually, they won’t be able to cut fabric. Or so I hear. I’m still thinking conspiracy.)

A steam iron, and an ironing board. Remember yesterday I said you were going to have to become one with the iron? I wasn’t joking. So, if you don’t own a steam iron, get one. If you don’t own an ironing board, get one. You are going to use these a LOT. There’s just no way around it.

A seam ripper. Preferably a good one. Take it from me, either buy a good seam ripper or else never seam rip while angry. Otherwise you’ll end up with the handle of your seam ripper in one hand and the point in your cat’s eye.

Something to mark your patterns with. The cheap way is to use chalk. The not-very expensive but might make you have a coronary from being totally irritated way is to use tracing paper and a tracing wheel. Or you can do a combination of both. Or you can use specially designed markers. Or whatever. Just make sure you mark your patterns. No worries, we’ll get to this in its very own tutorial. But if you start without me, mark your patterns.

A nice, floppy measuring tape. Sure, you could always use a string and a carpenter’s measuring tape, but accuracy is key. Not to mention I have six measuring tapes. Six RETRO measuring tapes. Let me know if you need one. Centimeters not included.

More measuring implements. I have no idea what the blue thing is called, but it sure is handy to have. The only problem with these blue things is that they tend to just vanish, so get two. You also need a ruler and a yardstick. Well, you technically don’t have to have a yardstick, but it’s handy to have to help you cut things out straight and draw straight lines, etc. I don’t have a yardstick yet, but I’m going to steal acquire one from my mother very soon.

Something to put all your junk in. Or else you’ll lose something you need and then you’ll go stomping around grumbling about how the kids moved the very item you need, and then you’ll find it under your seat cushion just where you left it. Well, maybe that’s just me. But definitely get a place to keep your stuff.

And that’s all I’ve got for you, except a link to another “basic stuff you need to start sewing with” for your perusing pleasure. Our lists are pretty similar because, well, there’s only so much stuff you need to start sewing. But hers and mine are a bit different, so go check out Life With Monkey’s list while you’re at it.

Helping Out the Googlers

Heather says:

I enjoy seeing what brings Home Eccers to our site and I spend far too much time looking at our statistics. Every once in a while the queries either repulse me or cause me to laugh hysterically. I won’t share the depraved, but here are a couple that gave me a giggle.

• Kool-aid Satan - No, but if you give my two year old red dye #40 he’ll give Old Scratch a run for his money.
• Stop Hitmen Getting into My House - Really, Ivy and I try not to tick anyone off quite that badly.
• Why am I addicted to dry oatmeal? - I kind of like it myself and it’s healthy so there are worse things to be “addicted” to.
• See me in my house on internet - Not likely, but wipe your cheek, you have a little schmutz. No, not there, a little to the left. There, you got it.
• Make a house look clean without cleaning - Unless you hire out, you’re going to have to do a little, sorry.
• Flames shoot out of oven - Please use your fire extinguisher or hang up and dial 911

Finally we have my favorite and the one I am posing to you, Home Eccers - Excuses to get rid of your mother?

Notes from the sewing table

Ivy says:

I’ve been working on my sewing skills, so I can do some photo tutorials. I’d like to be able to show people who have no earthly idea how to sew or where to start with sewing, what to do. Now, my sewing skills are both rusty and new all at once (I’ve hardly done any sewing by myself. I’ve mainly been my mom’s “helper” which involves not much more pouring her some Diet Coke and ironing and taking pins out and putting pins in than actual sewing), and it’s been quite awhile since I’ve even done that.

So, I hauled out my mother’s old sewing machine, I got some patterns, and I started sewing. I’m here to tell you, you can teach yourself to sew.  It’s not rocket science, and there is plenty of information on the internet to help you learn to sew. I’m going to post over the next several days how to get started sewing. I’m going to cover what supplies you need, how to choose your first pattern for sewing, how to choose material, and then we’ll get into some photo tutorials on how to pin, how to cut out your patterns, all kinds of things I have been having trouble finding tutorials on because they are so basic.

Experienced seamstresses, feel free to comment on these upcoming posts if I’m teaching people to do things a more complicated way than necessary- I tend to overcomplicate things, and I am learning this essentially myself, with some help from my mom. My mom is a wonderful seamstress, but she’s like me and tends to overcomplicate things as well. I got a 45 minute lecture on how to make darts from her, when all I asked was if they were hard to do.

Let me throw in a word of warning for you. If you hate ironing, you’re either going to have to suck it up and learn to become one with the iron, or you’re going to have to forget about sewing. There’s a ridiculous amount of ironing involved in sewing, I had forgotten that. A friend of mine called me yesterday and asked what I was doing. I said, “I’m ironing.” She laughed and said every time she had called in the last week, I had been ironing. I think you spend more time ironing than anything else when sewing. Seriously. So, become one with your iron.

Let me know if there’s anything specific you want to know about, and I’ll try to get tutorials up about your specific concerns!

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