MINI FUNDAMENTALS COURSE: Learning the Basics of Sewing

Basic Sewing Terms covers the most useful sewing words (and their meanings) that you should know and understand for sewing. It is always easier when you have a bank of knowledge to assist you.

How can one go about learning how to sew without knowing or having access to the important Tools of the Trade! This lecture covers the most useful pieces of sewing equipment and their functions.

Every sewing machine has the same components in roughly the same areas. Knowing the names (and the purpose of) each part is essential for the correct threading and use of the sewing machine.

When first learning how to sew, threading the sewing machine correctly can often be the most complicated process of the whole project. All sewing machines will be slightly different in their set up, so it is always best to follow the manufacturer’s guidelines in your sewing machine’s manual. However, this video clip will guide you through the process step by step and can be easily replicated on any sewing machine.

You can’t thread a sewing machine fully without a bobbin! While all sewing machines have a slightly different way to wind the bobbin for the all important bottom thread, this video clip runs through how to do it from start to finish on a Janome. This will give you an idea of how to do it and what it should look like. Use your own sewing machine manual to know the specifics for your personal sewing machine.

Now to experiment on our sewing machine! In this section we will begin by using an unthreaded sewing machine to sew on paper. This will help us learn to guide (not force!) our project through the presser foot so we stitch exactly where we need to.

Download and print the Paper Sewing Practice Sheets PDF onto A4 paper, one side only. Each page utilises different movements that we need to accomplish in order to keep our ‘stitching’ as close to the lines as we can.

You will need:

• Access to a Printer

• 7 sheets of A4 paper

• Access to the Paper Sewing Practice Sheets PDF document from the downloadable materials section

For this lecture you will be learning how to stitch straight and curved lines.

Once you have accomplished, practised or are comfortable keeping your sewing machine needle moving along the straight and curved lines, we get to add in some Pivots! Pivoting is changing the stitch direction at a corner or other angled point in the stitching line and is one of the most important elements to understand when sewing with a fully threaded machine. Using pivots can make our sewing look more professional as well as speeding up the amount of time we will spend stitching project pieces together.

Make sure to spend lots of time practising the skills covered in this lecture because you need to be able to pivot correctly on paper before trying it on the fabric with a threaded sewing machine.

The supplies you will need to make a Corner Bookmark include:

• Pattern (cut or traced from the instructions)

• Patterned cotton fabric

• Matching thread

• Pins

• Fabric Scissors

• Sewing Machine

This lecture shows you how to pin and cut out the pattern from the fabric. Tick these steps off in the written instructions!

This lecture shows you how to pin the bookmark together and get it ready for stitching. Tick these steps off in the written instructions!

This lecture shows you how to stitch the bookmark together. This is where you get to apply your skill and understanding of neat and even straight stitching and pivots! Tick these steps off in the written instructions.

This lecture shows you how to clip corners (to remove bulk) and invert/turn your (almost complete!) bookmark through so the right sides of the fabric are now on the outside. Tick these steps off in the written instructions.

Now for the final step to finish your bookmark! This lecture shows you how to close the opening that you used to turn your bookmark through and topstitch around the edge so the gap closure doesn’t look obvious. Tick off the last steps on the written instructions and you are ready to use (or gift!) your Corner Bookmark.