Clothes are not my joy, but quilts, embroidery those are my favorites. I find that when I began sewing that my patience was not there at all. I wanted everything to hurry up and be finished and be beautiful. I began my journey when making quilts when I became pregnant with my son, but at that point I simply took embroidery kits and made those. Then in May of 1999, I met my soul mate, the man who inspired me to try something different. I am a loner it is not easy for me to ask for help, and I have a difficult time sitting and waiting while someone attempts to teach me through explaining what they do. So, how was I suppose to learn what I wanted to do, I bought books, and I still by books. The only problem with buying books is you have to have the time and patience to sit and read the books in order to use the books. Me, I look at the pictures, and if the pictures entice me enough I might read that section. However, I don't want to copy somebodies else's work all the time, I want what I see in my dreams and my thoughts to come out using the various techniques available. From the books, to the internet I traveled. The next step was to begin, how to begin when you have no one to show you or explain to you how to begin your desire of sewing. There are sew many different techniques and tools out there, and there are also just as many opinions on what is the right way to learn how to do something.
Here are a few tips to start first you really need to understand what it is you wish to do when you sew, do you want to make clothes, or do you want to make quilts, blankets, baby items, toys. Because each one has a few must haves and must not. If your attempting to learn how to sew clothes, you have a whole lot of curves to learn, however the basic width of your seam is either 3/8's of an inch or 5/8's of an inch. Your fabric, well there you get to learn about knits, polyester, spandex, cotton, rayon, flannel, and and and. Yep, there is a lot and the list goes on, but when it comes to quilting you will run into the same issue, however, the most ardent quilters will commence to state to you that you must use only the highest grade of cotton, the kind that only is sold in a Quilter's store. When your new though, the idea of spending up to $15 for 36" X 42" or 46" of fabric can be difficult to justify. My suggestion is that you buy a couple yards of plain muslin.
Muslin is 100% cotton, it is cheap and it is versatile. When learning how to sew quilts it is important to remember it takes time to learn how to do everything you want to do. Taking the time to get the basics down is important. When quilting the seam is always 1/4" some will tell you that a seam is better if you take a scant 1/4". But you know you really can't measure a scant 1/4" seam. The definition of a scant 1/4" seam is when you draw a line on your fabric marking the 1/4" seam you sew a thread distance to the inside of the line. The inside of the line is the side farthest away from the edge. There are other things you need to learn as well, before you really get to sew anything, you have to learn about tension and cutting the fabric. So how to start, you first start with buying the muslin, and cotton thread, either a nice pair of fabric scissors, or a rotary cutter and cutting mat (a self healing mat is best, rather than a hard plastic one), a quilting ruler, either a 6" X 24" or a 12" X 12" one. Pick a ruler that is easily readable to you, don't ask for opinions because you will get all kinds and it will just confuse you more. Go to a local fabric store, either a quilt shop but understand you go to a quilt shop you will spend a lot of money, fair warning. Prices at JoAnn's, Hancocks, Hobby Lobby or others's like these stores are better when your just learning. Find a brand of ruler's that you like in person, then go online and shop for the best price if you want. General rule of thumb, buy one brand of rulers and stick with that brand. The reason being is that not all rulers are exactly the same. Quilting is all about precision, you strive for precision rather than perfection. You will need some needles and pins, and if you can a sewing machine, but you can learn to quilt without a sewing machine as well.
So those are my suggestions for now. Come back and next time I will go over some basic cutting tips, because come on you really didn't expect me to teach you everything at once right.
