Some sewing tips work great, but they do not get the attention they deserve. In this post, I want to share 6 underrated sewing tips that will elevate your sewing quality to the next level!
To show how well these tips work, I created this wedding guest outfit using a beginner friendly machine Brother J17s and this post is made in partnership with Brother.
6 Underrated Sewing Tips
If you want to improve your sewing results, one of the easiest ways how to do that is:
FOCUS ON PREPARATION
We very often focus on the sewing part that involves a sewing machine, but in many projects, more time is spent on preparation to sew than actual sewing. If you can improve the preparation part - you can massively improve your sewing results.
For example, my typical routine for getting ready to sew, consists of:
Preparing the fabric - washing, pressing and steaming;
Preparing the pattern - I either make my own pattern to fit my figure or I use ready made pattern and adjust it to fit my figure before cutting fabric;
Cutting fabric while using suitable techniques;
Applying interfacing;
Baste stitching the garment and do first fitting, before any seams are sewn on sewing machine.
And only then, if I’m happy with the fit, will I sit in front of my sewing machine and start sewing.
This routine takes time to complete, but if I skip any of these steps, I usually end up having to take much more time to fix issues later on.
If you want to improve your results - begin by improving preparation.
Second underrated sewing tip:
LEARN TO STEADILY PUSH FOOT CONTROLLER
When you’re learning how to drive a car, one of the first things that you learn is how to operate the gas pedal. More precisely - how to steadily push it down and then release it, to ensure a smooth driving experience. If you push the pedal full force and then release it instantly, then you would have a terrible driving experience on the road.
The very same applies with sewing machine pedal - if you push controller full force and instantly release it, you’ll have a hard time controlling your fabric and seam. One of the first things I teach in the Beginner Sewing course is that you need to learn to operate a foot controller in a smooth manner.
Take time to practice gently pushing and then gently releasing the foot controller, and see how well it’ll affect your sewing experience and sewing results.
Another great way how to improve your results easily is to:
SEW SLOW
Same as with steadily pushing foot controller - sewing slower will give you more control over seam and fabric. When sewing slowly, you’re able to position fabric better, navigate it more accurately and catch any sewing mistake, before they happen. Sure, if you’re sewing a simple straight seam on a straight cut fabric edge - you can sew fast, but for parts that require more precision - you’ll get better results when sewing slower.
On more advanced modern sewing machines, you’ll see a speed adjustment function - if your machine has it, it’s a good idea to activate it when sewing details that need precision. On machines that do not have speed control, manage speed on foot controller by not pressing it all the way down. When you gently press the controller, you can feel that it has several positions, where it will be able to steadily keep the same pace.
Another underrated sewing tip to
WATCH THE FABRIC EDGE, NOT THE NEEDLE
There’s a saying among seamstresses that there’s no need to watch the needle, because it’s not going anywhere. And yet, this tip is not very often about.
So when you want to sew a seam, you have 2 options: watch how fabric aligns with one of the markings on the metal plate of the sewing machine; or watch how fabric edge aligns with the presser foot. When sewing, put all your focus on making sure fabric always aligns at the same position. Then you’ll get nice seam and accurate stitching results.
Fifth tip is of course the classic:
MASTER PRESSING
Every fabric is different and often needs special pressing. For example, this particular fabric that I used for my corset and skirt set, was very tricky to press: the seam allowance easily gets pressed and becomes visible on the right side of the garment; any contact of iron on the right side of the garment results in permanent fabric shine. Because of that, I needed to use extra material to put between fabric and iron to prevent shine; I also had to use thicker piece of paper when pressing seams. Had I not taken these precautions, my garment would have looked disastrous.
Now of course not every fabric is this tricky, but knowing these pressing nuances, definitely helps not only achieve better results, but also protects the results you already made.
Final tip in todays video, is
USE DIFFERENT PRESSER FEET
If you want to enhance the possibilities of what you can do with your sewing machine and get better results easier - then using different presser feet is a must.
While sewing this set, most seams were sewn using universal presser foot, but when sewing invisible zipper, I switched to invisible zipper presser foot and later sided zipper foot; I also used overcast presser foot to sew a concealed seam around the waist. Without using a special invisible zipper foot, I wouldn’t have been able to sew a zipper, because notice that it’s sewn on the side, where we also have the pocket. This was quite a technically challenging part to sew, but proper presser foot definitely made the task easy and doable.
If you want to learn more about different presser feet - this is a video you should watch next:
Thank you for reading and wishing a creative week ahead!
Julija
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