Sewing Tutorials and Tips @sewingtutes - Tumblr Blog

do you have some favorite pants sewing patterns you recommend? (esp for beginners)?

top left is my fave pants sewing pattern of all time, the fremantle pants by elbe textiles. i've made 5 pairs for myself in varying weights/fabrics and i love them dearly and will continue to make pants with this pattern forever

top right: pleat pants by readytosew. the asymmetry is unusual and not for everyone but i really really love these and find them so comfortable. when making them, the big pleat adds a bit of complexity but i'd say if you've made 1 pair of pants before you'd be able to do this for sure

bottom left: the alexandra morocco pants (free pattern) are really great too, i think these would be a good beginner pattern because there aren't any pockets to fiddle around with but i have hacked these to add inseam pockets before. these are also nice when hacked into shorts

bottom right: the all well studio pants are awesome, versatile, excellent beginner instructions and the designer has a hacking guide you can follow to modify the pants in various ways. the other patterns by this designer are also fantastic btw

i generally wear a US size 20/22 and all of these patterns come in sizes that fit me. all photos are taken from the designers websites. i like pants that hit at my high waist/a few inches above my belly button and all these hit the mark, so keep that in mind.

wastelesscrafts

Embroidery 101

Introduction:

Embroidery is a craft that uses thread to decorate fabric (and other materials). It's a great way to spruce up a garment, customise objects, and to hide mends you've made!

Embroidery is usually done with embroidery floss, but depending on the base material you're working on, you could also use yarn, ribbons, or plain old sewing thread. Don't be afraid to experiment!

Embroidery is easier to do on taut fabric than limp fabric. That's why most people use embroidery hoops. While not strictly necessary, a hoop will make your life so much easier.

Using the right needle will help, too. Use a crewel needle if you're working with embroidery floss, a chenille needle if you're working with ribbon or yarn, or a tapestry needle if you're doing cross-stitch embroidery on open-weave fabrics.

While there are many types of embroidery from all over the world, this post will focus on some basic stitches you can use in your own work.

Basic embroidery stitches:

For a more thorough overview of embroidery stitches, check out these embroidery tutorials by Mary Corbet's Needle 'n Thread.

The following images show some of the most basic stitches:

(Image source)

The 16 stitches in the images above can be combined into any shape or form you want. You might recognise some from my hand sewing post: embroidery is a type of hand sewing, after all.

You don't need to know all of these to be able to make beautiful things. Even just one of these is a great start for a project.

This sampler by Sew Nancy shows how these basic stitches can be used to outline shapes or form flowers, for example.

(Image source)

Fiorelila used a combination of the stem stitch, satin stitch, lazy daisy, and french knots to spruce up this sweater:

(Image source)

And this person used lazy daisies to add some flair to their jeans:

(Image source)

Embroidery for visible mending:

Embroidery is a useful tool to hide mends you've made, or to even accentuate them if that's your style. This is called visible mending. While this is a topic that deserves a post on its own, here are some quick examples:

Like this fix by Redditor Takemythyme who embroidered a rose over a hole in a knit fabric:

(Image source)

Or like how this person has spruced up their jeans repairs with embroidery:

(Image source)

In this example, The Woolery Guy chose to use flower embroidery to make a hole in a knit fabric look like it was there by design:

(Image source)

For more examples, check out Pinterest or VisibleMending.com.

Conclusion:

Embroidery is a useful skill to give new life to your wardrobe. You can use it to give some flair to items you've grown bored off, or even to mend your clothes.

Once you've got a few basic stitches under your belt, the possibilities are endless. Be creative and have fun with it!

Good luck and feel free to show me your work!

wastelesscrafts

so I've noticed that you and the tutorials you recommend for darning use an embroidery hoop. which frankly I've never heard of. I've only ever seen darning done with one of those wooden "eggs" and I'm curious as to why an embroidery hoop over the more traditional method? or is the egg only for socks?

Interesting question! Let's take a look at darning and darning tools.

Darning eggs or embroidery hoops?

What is darning:

Darning is a sewing technique used to repair holes or worn areas in fabric, using a needle and thread.

Woven fabric consists threads crisscrossing each other. These threads are called a warp and a weft: the warp threads are the vertical base of the fabric, while the weft threads are the threads that are drawn through these warp threads during the weaving process.

When we're darning woven fabrics, we first create new warp threads across our hole, then weave new weft threads through them.

(There's also Swiss darning which is a technique used on knits, but let's leave that for another day.)

(Image source)

Darning tools:

Darning is a whole lot easier when the fabric you're trying to repair is pulled taut, similar to how weaving is usually done on a loom. This helps to keep the tension on your fabric even, avoiding loose or uneven stitching.

Both darning mushrooms/eggs and embroidery hoops can be used to pull your fabric taut.

For example, if you're fixing something that's difficult to handle (e.g. small cylinders like socks or gloves), you can employ a darning egg to pull the fabric taut while darning so you don't need to put your hand inside of your garment. Situations like these won't work with a hoop because those cylindrical items are too small for most hoops.

(Image source)

If you're fixing up bigger holes, or holes in fabric of which you can easily reach the back, an embroidery hoop might be more convenient depending on your personal habits.

(Image source)

You could also use something else to pull your fabric over, like a jam jar, a light bulb, or a tennis ball. I personally don't own a darning egg, so I tend to use glass bottles when darning items that can't be put into an embroidery hoop.

(Image source)

Conclusion:

You can use both a darning egg/mushroom and an embroidery hoop to darn your clothes. Which one to choose depends on your personal preferences and the type and size of garment you're trying to mend.

EDIT: someone commented not to use light bulbs as they may shatter and hurt you, which is a good point. The ones I've got around aren't made from glass, but I didn't consider that might not be the case for all types of bulbs.

wastelesscrafts

Are you ready to sew your first piece of clothing? Break n Remake has a tutorial available for the easiest skirt you'll ever make. You only need two measurements and a tiny bit of math!

You'll need:

Fabric (preferably woven)

A piece of elastic about the length of your waist

Needle and thread, or a threaded sewing machine

Your waist measurement + how long you want your skirt to be

Scissors

Pins

An iron (if you want to make things easier on yourself)

A safety pin

Some chalk or soap to mark your fabric with

(If you don't have a measuring tape, use a piece of string to measure yourself.)

The video shows how to make this skirt by machine, but as always you can also do it by hand. If you're working by machine, you'll need a topstitch and a zig-zag stitch. If you're working by hand, all you need is a backstitch and a blanket stitch.

As this skirt is basically just a rectangle with an elastic waist, you can make it for any size, age, gender, or body type. It also allows for a lot of customisation: why not add pockets, or some frills or lace at the bottom?

If you want to make this skirt zero waste, use an old curtain, bedsheet, or even pillow cases as your raw materials.

You could also sew a bunch of scrap fabric together until you've got a rectangle your size for a quilted look. Just make sure to use similar fabrics if you do so. Combining vastly different fabric types may result in a skirt that's uncomfortable, difficult to wash, or that hangs in a weird way.

wastelesscrafts

Check out this tutorial by Break n Remake on how to make pockets and put them into pretty much anything.

Adding pockets to your clothes is an easy way to make your garments more practical and to use up your scrap fabric.

Want more inspiration? Break n Remake, Morgan Donner, and Bernadette Banner all have made videos on how they've added pockets to their pre-existing clothes, and so did Loepsie.

quixiiify

Make Some Pocket Extenders for Your Pants

So I don’t know about you, but I’m often frustrated by the ridiculous smallness of girls’ pockets. At a bare minimum, I need to be able to shove my cellphone in there - come on, pants companies! So what I started doing was making myself pocket extenders. I’ve done this several times, for pants and shorts. It’s great.

I just got this pair of jeans, so I thought I’d show you how to do it. I kind of feel like it just hasn’t occurred to some of you that this is an option, so maybe now it will. All you need is your pants, some fabric (I just took a random piece from a scrap bin), a needle, and some thread (thread doesn’t even need to match the fabric since literally no one will see it).

See? Ridiculous. Like, half a cellphone, or only 2.5″. Useless.

So turn those inside out to expose the pockets.

Figure out how big you want your pockets to actually be. I kinda go by whatever looks like might be right. I didn’t really measure them. Fold the fabric in half, so you have a pocket, and then fold it in half again so you can have two equal ones.

Try to get the edges to line up enough, pin it in place, then sew up the sides! Are your stitches crazy uneven and wonky looking? Doesn’t matter; nobody’s going to see it. These are in the inside of your pants. The only thing that matters is that it holds up. So I double-did the corners, since those tend to get the most stress.

Cut open the bottom of the existing pockets.

Pin it in place, then sew around, joining the new pocket to the old pocket. I did this by keeping my hand on the inside, so I wouldn’t accidentally sew through the other side. Again, I reinforced the corners, and didn’t worry about what it actually looks like. Then I turned it in side out to make sure the inside was all joined properly.

Yay all done! And the pockets are so much bigger now!

Whaaaat I can fit my entire phone and entire hand and probably something else now, are girls’ pockets even allowed to do that?! Heck yeah they are.

wastelesscrafts

Let's talk stitches!

While a sewing machine is super convenient, having access to one is not required for mending. Most mends can easily be done by hand. If you're really patient, you can even make entire garments by hand, just like they did in ye olden days.

So, let's take a look at a few basic hand sewing stitches to get you started.

(Image source) [ID: hand stitches for quilters: the running stitch, slipstitch, backstitch, whipstitch, and blanket stitch.]

The running stitch

The running stitch can be used for many purposes. It's popular in embroidery, and can be used to outline shapes or baste (temporarily secure) pieces together. It can also be used to ruffle fabric by hand, and I personally use it a lot to secure patches in place when covering up holes in garments. The running stitch is also the base stitch for sashiko, a popular style of visible mending.

Video tutorial for the running stitch

Text tutorial for the running stitch

The slipstitch

The slipstitch, also known as the ladder stitch, is my go-to stitch for closing tears and fixing torn seams. This stitch is frequently used to sew pieces of knitting together, too. You can also use it to make small size corrections in a garment, for example to add a quick dart or to make a side seam smaller. It's invisible on the outside, which makes it a great stitch to fix up things like plushies, duvet covers, or pillows.

Video tutorial for the slipstitch

Text tutorial for the slipstitch

The backstitch

The backstitch will likely be the stitch you'll be using the most when working on a project. It's a strong, clean stitch that can be used for almost anything: seams, hems, embroidery, attaching two pieces of fabric together, zippers,... This is also the best stitch to imitate machine sewing with. If you're only going to learn one hand sewing stitch, then make it the backstitch!

Video tutorial for the backstitch

Text tutorial for the backstitch

The whipstitch

The whipstitch, also known as the overcast stitch, can be used to stop fabric edges from fraying and is great to finish seams off with. It can also be used to quickly sew two pieces of fabric together, for appliqué, or as a decorative technique. I personally prefer the blanket stitch over the whipstitch because it's a little cleaner, but the whipstitch is faster than the blanket stitch.

Video tutorial for the whipstitch

Text tutorial for the whipstitch

The blanket stitch

The blanket stitch is great for finishing off seams and stopping fabric from fraying. It's also frequently used for appliqué and embroidery, and can be used to make button holes by hand. It looks neater than the whipstitch, but is also slower to get done.

Video tutorial for the blanket stitch

Text tutorial for the blanket stitch

Conclusion

Get yourself a spare piece of fabric and try these stitches out before attempting them on a real project. I promise you'll get the hang of them quickly!

If you're only going to learn one of these, then make it the backstitch as it's the most versatile hand stitch.

thoughtportal

jackironsides

@wastelesscrafts

wastelesscrafts

Thank you for tagging me!

This Tiktok is a good example of how to mend a seam using the ladder stitch.

loftycastles

Look at what my mom made! She’s so talented. She loves making jewelery and any kind of beadwork. She’s always so supportive of my art since I was a kid, she deserves some more recognition. This bracelet is for sale, if anyone is interested. (I’d buy it myself but she wouldn’t make me pay and I’d feel bad…)