Learning to sew really isn't hard! In this post, you'll find out how to successfully start your sewing journey. Soon, you'll be able to sew the most amazing projects yourself with ease.
With these 11 essential tips, you'll learn to sew faster than you think!
Perhaps you've been planning to start sewing for a long time, but haven't quite dared to take the plunge. With this post, I want to encourage you to put your sewing plans into action.
Starting to sew requires a bit of courage at first. But it's actually quite easy—after all, it's an adventure that brings creative work, happiness, relaxation, and satisfaction along with it.
I’d like to give you a few tips that can make your start into sewing happiness easier. Before we begin: We have a huge sewing lexicon where virtually all terms are explained—please take a look at it!
Dare to just get started. It's worth it!
You can also find plenty of tips, tutorials, and tricks in our sewing bible for beginners.
Simply download and start sewing! ;)
Learning to sew: 11 tips for sewing beginners
Use a sewing network
Acquire sewing knowledge by talking to sewing pros. This could be while buying fabric at a sewing shop, or at a sewing machine dealership. They employ people who know the subject well and are happy to share their knowledge with you.
Take notes. Knowledge that isn't applied immediately disappears quickly. With notes, you preserve your new sewing insights.
Check if there is a nice sewing café or a handmade shop near you. These are often meeting places where you can exchange ideas with other sewing enthusiasts. You can get a lot of great tips there—and learn a lot.
Of course, the internet is also a brilliant source for gathering information and skills related to sewing. Whether in Facebook groups, on blogs, or on YouTube—here you will find out whatever you want to know (and a little bit more!).
Anyone who really wants to learn to sew—simply, with fun, and stress-free—should definitely sign up for my newsletter :)
I have collected many tips and tricks on individual sewing topics for you here.
Keep a photo sewing journal
Get yourself a nice, reasonably sized notebook.
I bought this one*, which has a folding pocket on the back cover where I can keep fabric samples, drawings, newspaper clippings, photos, and notes. I find that practical because I always find them there again! Plus, I think the lace pattern suits my hobby well. ;)
This book will be your sewing journal, your logbook of your sewing adventure.
Write down sewing ideas, tutorials that worked well, measurements, color combinations you love, and paste in photos and clippings.
Make drawings of great projects you want to sew.
This way, you won't run out of ideas and will soon have a rich fund of sewing inspiration to draw from.
By the way: Definitely write down when something didn't work out. And also, why it went wrong.
You learn a lot from that. Learning to sew also means constantly developing yourself.
Make notes on corrections and improvements. Then you will always have the necessary information at hand if you want to sew a project a second or third time.
Get to know your sewing machine
Be sure to take the time to really get to know your sewing machine. Especially at the beginning of your sewing journey, this means: don't overwhelm yourself. And try everything out.
Set goals, but none that are too ambitious. You will gradually become more confident and seek out increasingly challenging tasks.
If possible, set things up so that you avoid a feeling of failure, but also don't under-challenge yourself.
On some days it's okay to conjure up something very simple; on other days, you might feel like trying something new while sewing and taking on a small challenge. :)
By the way, sewing projects that have gone wrong are good study objects that are usually still suitable as test pieces. For example, for practicing new stitches or sewing techniques.
And definitely read the instruction manuals for your equipment!
Does that sound boring?
Instruction manuals can be as exciting as a thriller!
Especially when they reveal information that helps you perfectly handle your sewing equipment. Whether it concerns eyelets, sewing machines, rotary cutters, or iron-on interfacing.
Being well-informed makes sewing twice as easy—and the error rate drops noticeably!
Forgive yourself!
Is it terrible for you if a sewing project fails?
Of course it is! The time invested! The money for the material! All for nothing!
But it doesn't help. If the piece keeps lying around, it will always remind you of your supposed failure.
And we don't even want those kinds of thoughts to arise.
There is no such thing as failing.
It's schooling. That means every failed sewing project has a lesson in store for you!
And you need to find out what it is. Consider where things went wrong. Inaccurate cutting? Not pinned properly? Measured incorrectly? Unsuitable fabric? Didn't iron?
There can be 1,000 reasons why something didn't work as you thought it would.
Find the concrete reason. Write the experience in your sewing journal.
Then cut out the usable pieces of fabric and place them lovingly in your scrap box. You can use them later for great fabric scrap projects!
Say goodbye to the learning object. And throw it in the trash.
Clarify what you learned from it.
What was the good thing about this experience?
Time and money are only wasted if you learn nothing from it.
So forgive yourself.
Then you are free for the next wonderful sewing project!
Learning to sew is a marathon, not a sprint! ;)
Cultivate your own style!
Look around in handmade shops, magazines, fabric stores, and on the internet. Pinterest in particular is an excellent source of inspiration.
Through this, you will learn to understand your own wishes and needs.
Develop a feel for what you like. And create your own, unmistakable style from it. Over time, you will continue to develop this style.
It's no fun sewing the way everyone else does.
Be bold. Be crazy. Awaken the explorer in you!
Sewing is a hobby where you can design everything exactly according to your ideas.
And that is exactly what makes up the true magic of sewing.
Because whoever wants to learn to sew also gets to know themselves a little better :)
The right sewing accessories (important!)
A range of sewing accessories adapted to your needs is absolutely necessary—and by no means a luxury. It is important not to just start buying, but to inform yourself.
In this post, I have put together the top ten best sewing accessories for you. These are not only the favorite helpers I can personally recommend, but also absolute bestsellers on Amazon.
It can help to read reviews carefully to find out if a specific accessory should find its way into your personal sewing kit. Learning to sew also means being able to distinguish good sewing accessories from bad ones and knowing which helpers you really need.
Let your desire guide you!
That sounds a bit frivolous, admittedly. But it gets to the heart of the matter.
Sewing is fun. It makes you happy to be creative.
And you are only creative when you follow your sense of discovery and your desire to sew.
Commissioned work (see below) kills creativity and will drive you to mothball your sewing machine (along with the unfinished commissions).
And nobody wants that, right?
Which fabrics are suitable for sewing beginners?
Especially at the beginning of your sewing career, it doesn't necessarily have to be the most expensive fabrics that you use. The error rate is relatively high at the beginning. And the more expensive the fabric was, the harder it is for you to say goodbye to failed sewing projects.
But exactly that farewell is important. Clarify what went wrong, mentally thank your project, and then place it lovingly—in the trash.
Only then do you make yourself free for new projects—and exciting new learning experiences!
Fabrics from discount stores or big-box stores are absolutely sufficient to realize your first sewing projects. They are also a great solution for many sewing tasks later on.
It's even cheaper to use upcycling not just to do something for your sewing skills but also for the environment!
Bags made from jeans, corduroy, & Co look super cool—and are a very personal gift for someone you really care about.
If you want to sew clothing from jersey, I have a checklist for you here. It notes all the points you should pay attention to when sewing jersey to get beautiful results.
You can print out the list and hang it in a visible place above your sewing table. Then nothing can go wrong! :)
At the beginning of your sewing career, you certainly don't have such a large selection of fabrics. For smaller projects like bags and pouches, potholders, or appliqués, fabric bundles* are great! You get a whole bunch of different patterns right away that you can combine. This is what fabric bundles look like.
Some are wildly mixed together, others are put together in different shades of a color family:
*
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*For learning to sew, I find these fabric sections ideal. You can combine them great with solid-colored fabrics. And it's fun to be able to experiment with colors and combinations. At the same time, it trains your feel for what you personally like—and what you don't.
Don't get tied down!
Even if friends and family are happy when there is suddenly someone who can shorten pants and hem curtains for free: If you don't feel like doing such jobs, you should tell your loved ones directly.
Otherwise, you will quickly find yourself unable to get to anything else.
On to new shores!
Even if it is tempting to only ever sew what you already know how to do, you should occasionally leave your safe terrain.
Enjoy making mistakes.
Mistakes are just gifts wrapped in sandpaper.
Dare to learn something new. That is good for your self-confidence.
And it just feels so insanely great to master a new hurdle!
Find the right sewing project
One of the most important tips if you want to learn to sew: Start with suitable sewing projects! Why? Because otherwise you could quickly become frustrated. And in the beginning, you need exactly the opposite: Quick experiences of success!
Our tutorials and patterns here on SewSimple are perfect for beginners who are just starting to learn to sew. This is simply because I focus specifically on the needs and problems of sewing beginners—and I design tutorials and patterns in such a way that even sewing novices can celebrate beautiful successes!
Here you can find beautiful sewing tutorials and patterns if you are just starting to learn to sew:
- Clothing patterns to learn to sew
- Bag patterns to learn to sew
- Free patterns to learn to sew
- Big overview: Learning to sew (tips, tricks, tutorials)
Do you like my tips for sewing beginners to learn to sew?
Feel free to leave a comment :)
Happy simple sewing,
your Sabine
Conclusion
Learning to sew isn't actually that hard! My tip: take all the points in this post to heart and choose a simple free pattern or sewing pattern for your first project to really learn how to sew. The rest is "learning by doing".
At the beginning, not everything will work out – and that is perfectly okay! Don't be so hard on yourself and have fun! Because that's what it's all about, right? And if you ever find yourself at a loss, you can find almost all the answers online. If you use our search function, you will see that we have answered almost all of your questions in one post :)
What are you waiting for? I promise you one thing: if today is the day you start learning to sew, you will always remember it :)
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