Hey, someone here with thousands of dollars of sewing supplies at hand (thanks to my very talented seamstress mother with almost 30 years of work under her belt) and here is some wisdom and some resources that helped me:
- You dont need a serger for 90% of the stuff you will make, unless youre trying to do professional grade dresses or suits or use it on specific fabrics like knits. Is using a serger easier than other methods? Yeah! But if your end goal is to have a nicely finished seam for your shirt/pants/whatever you can instead use zigzag/overcast stiches, french seams or flat felled seams. Im pretty sure most modern sewing machines can work them out!
- There are also a few stiches for people who hand sew and dont use sergers, most notably the backstitch. If you dont mind the double edge it creates then its honestly the best option and easiest to do. Some notable hand stitching tutorials are Here, Here, Here and Here. Iy honestly depends on what you were using the serger for in the first place, but its genuinely not that important, its mostly used for how fast it works and that it has a double feature (cutting the edge and then sewing it).
- A cutting table is very unnecessary in my opinion. As long as you have a table/spacious floor then thats all you need! But do be mindful of your back if your go to is the floor.
- Invest in good quality iron scissors. For some reason a lot of scissors are very unfit to do their job and so if you can try to find ones made out of iron or steel and then get ready to sharpen them at home. For some reason also, every single pair of scissors with the part you hold onto made out of plastic has been a complete disappointment so I’d avoid those.
- Buy yourself some magnets. I knooow the little pin cushions look very cute and aesthetic, but there comes a time in your life when you will accidentally misplace a needle and step on it. Its easier to store them by getting a big magnet and a box and just putting them there. Also keep a clean magnet (as in not full of needles) on hand to hover around the area you worked in after youre finished.
- You need to learn the basics of how to work with the machine like how to put thread in it, what each stitch does, how to change every setting and what every setting does. Sewing with a machine (even the smaller type) is a technical ordeal. Once you know your machine you will be able to do so much more. Theres not many rules to sewing so if you dont know much about the technical part of your sewing machine you should definitely take notes and then have fun with it!
- Another thing you should learn is how to read a pattern. There are a lot of technical terms and it will all look like a puzzle the first time but there are numerous videos and posts about how to read them. This guide is pretty good in my opinion. If you know how to read a pattern then its easier for you to customize it as needed.
- I would advise to print your patterns either on cardboard or to later transfer them on cardboard. Its so much fun sometimes to find a part of a specific pattern and then mix it with another one, like taking the sleves from a blouse and mixing them with a top for example. Also keeping the physical prints is always better than always reprinting them. Also! When cutting the fabric its always easier to trace the pattern with chalk/wax chalk on the fabric then to keep the oattern in place.
- Unfortunately you will have to use the iron a lot after sewing, to keep the seams looking nice and flat and to keep the material itself flat during everything from cutting to sewing to biasing. Honestly you might wanna invest in a good handheld iron as 20% of sewing is ironing.
- Never pull on the fabric or push it while sewing or cutting. Go slow with your sewing machine if needed and if you feel like you always somehow get crooked lines out of cutting 2 layers either make a basting (temporary stitch) or use pins to keep the material flat and folded.
- Also I saw this in one of the tags and I almost cried, DONT work on materials that make your sewing machine clank. If you know your machine isnt equipped for that kind of material (Like sequins, harsh leather, hard denim) then please dont push the machine to its limit. Best case scenario you do your piece and its wonky and maybe you broke 1-2 needles, worst case scenario you ruin your sewing machine. I felt it myself on a Singer Heavy Duty I almost ruined because of a denim jacket.
- You cant 100% rely on your sewing machine. Some things just arent doable and you have to accept that. For me my first heartbreak was a curved stitch that I just couldn’t do so i had to hand sew it. It was frustrating but what was more frustrating was sewing it wrong the first time and then having to undo the stitch.
- Building onto what I just said, Sometimes hand sewing will look better than machine, especially if you have more background in embroidery. The only issue of hand sewing besides the obvious that it takes longer would be the issue of tension that you exert onto the fabric and the stitch not being eqqual in size but thats easy to train. Genuinely in my opinion if something has a pattern, its doable by hand too, not just by machine.
- Take the time to make your pieces look good. It is laborious to cut the loose threads, to make sure the stitch is perfectly symetrical, to fold the material perfectly in half, to put the half finished garment on multiple times, but in the end your garment will look better as its these little things that really make the difference.
- Ebay, Facebook marketplace and thrift stores are gonna be your best friend from now on for materials and such, and if youre lucky you can even find supplies for cheap. Another thing to note is that old sewing machines (pre 2000) are godly and if you can get your hands on one its genuinely worth the money in my opinion if its still working (there is a shortage of machanics for older sewing machines unfortunately)
- For free patterns theres tailornova.com, sewingsupport.com, lovesewing.com, freesewing.org, moodfabrics.com, helenclosetpatterns.org, sewist.com, so-sew-easy.com, cosplay.com ,unfetteredpatterns, dmc.com (this one is for embroidery), r/freepatterns, this one german website, a few mori style patterns, this list for cosplay patterns, and to top it all off this beautifully curated list of free patterns curtesy of u/Idontknowmanork on reddit. There is also the option to look through the internet archive for specific sewing magazines, the best one I know of is Burda/Anna which is an oldie but goldie.
- For other free patterns obviously Pinterest is a good resource for scouring the kind of patterns youre looking for as the algorithm quickly finds the same style of pattern youre looking for and it oftentimes shows a lot of smaller designers who have truly amazing work that might fit your niche better. Youtube has tutorials and patterns galore, but the algorithm usually works by ‘most watched’ so you might miss out on some good designers if you dont have the time to really look through the page, plus some designers just will not work for you which happened to me and thats okay, unfortunately not every cute desing will work out.
- Dont be afraid to do your own patterns. After using patterns for a while you will be able to make your own as a lot of clothing uses a pretty familiar algorithm of production, so sometimes you will definitely be able to Frankenstein it, even by just looking at a photo.
I wanted to add other things but I forgot them as i was writing this lmao. Hope this helped someone.
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