LUDLOW QUILT AND SEW
QUILTING AND SEWING MADE EASY
HOW TO SEW FOR BEGINNERS
Sewing area
Slipstitching
6mm seam
Chain stitching
Chain stitched patches
Quilting and Sewing Tips
These are some ideas that may help you if you are starting out sewing. A number of these topics will be covered in greater depths in later articles.
Be Prepared
Make life easy for yourself: try and have everything you might need to hand before you begin. Have you got enough thread, elastic, buttons or whatever the project requires?
Seating Arrangements
Try and sit up straight at the sewing machine. You may be there for quite a while. I've often found myself hunched over the machine and it's quite a crunch to straighten my back and shoulders when I get up.
New Needles
Do you need a new needle on the sewing machine? The old one may look okay but they do blunt with usage. A new one will be sharper and make smaller holes in the fabric as it sews. It's quite a good idea to make a note of when you change the needle to give you an idea of when it should next be replaced.
Threading the Needle
Threading the needle can be frustrating. I have a small square of white fabric that I hold behind the needle. This helps the hole of the needle show up. I try to cut the thread slightly on the diagonal as this gives a bit of a point to allow the thread to guide into the needle. Even though this may sound obvious, make sure you are holding the thread square to the hole of the needle - I have sometimes found that without realising it I am trying to thread the needle from a slight angle. It doesn't work!
Handsewing
Most quilting and sewing can be achieved using just 2 basic stitches: slipstitching and basting. Slipstitching is a diagonal small stitch used for sewing a seam when you don't want the stitching to show on the other side (otherwise you could just machine sew it). See the photo on the right. In general try to pick up only a few threads of the fabric with your needle and keep your stitches small.
Basting is a much larger, temporary stitch. It is used to hold 2 layers of fabric together until you have machine sewn and if it shows is taken out when you have finished the machine sewing. Sometimes it doesn't show and can just be left in.
Thread
I always use the same thread in the top of the machine (the spool) and the bottom (the bobbin). This isn't strictly necessary as you can use different threads provided you adjust the tension. However then you must change the tension again when you change threads. It's easier to stick to using the same thread until you are more experienced.
There is a bewildering variety of threads available in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colours. I'll be discussing these later in a full article.
Get Used to Your Machine
If you haven't sewn before or haven't sewn for quite a while, take some time to get to know your machine. Put 2 scraps of fabric together and sew a few lines to remind yourself of how the controls work and how much pressure you need to put on the foot pedal to sew at a gentle, steady rate.
And Look After It
Your machine will give you years of service if you treat it well. Although my machine's a Bernina (a very old one) I always get great advice from the guys at Brother Machines:
www.brothermachines.com
(They also have loads of photos of sewing machine feet so that you can identify which feet you already have!)
Starting Sewing
To begin a seam, the ends of the thread need to be anchored to prevent the seam coming loose. The neatest way is to tie a small knot in the thread at the beginning and end of each seam. Sometimes I backstitch 1 or 2 stitches at the beginning and end of a seam. It performs the same function and is quicker.
Always put one finger on the threads to secure them when you begin sewing. Just for the 1st stitch or 2. Otherwise they tend to get tangled up with the sewing.
See chain stitching below for an amazing time saving system.
What To Do With Your Hands
Guiding the fabric while you are sewing: the most common problem I have noticed when I am showing anyone how to sew is that they want to pull the fabric through from behind the needle. The grid under the needle does that for you. It keeps the fabric moving at a regular rate. Your job is to guide the fabric from the front, making sure that the fabric is flat and your seam is straight and the correct width. A seam in a quilt is always 6mm from the edge of the fabric to the stitching.
Tension - Of the Machine, Not You!
Check the tension on your machine on a small patch of fabric with the same number of layers as you are intending to sew. If the tension is correct the 2 threads, bobbin and spool, should meet in the middle of the layers of fabric. If the bobbin thread shows right through to the front or the spool thread shows right through to the back then your tension needs adjusting.
Basting or Pinning
When you have 2 or more layers of fabric to sew together, they can slip against each other while you are sewing. At worst this can mean you don't catch all the layers in the stitching, or it might mean that you are not getting the correct seam allowance on one of the layers. Securing the layers together before you sew makes a lot of sense.
Pinning is quicker to do but you do have to keep stopping to take the pins out as you sew. Basting takes a little more time but you can have a straight run at sewing once you begin. I would always recommend basting if there are 3 or more layers in your seam.
When you are sewing together 2 strips of patchwork, for example in a quilt top, it is always worth placing pins at each place that the seams meet. Placing the pins at right angles to the direction you are sewing gives a little more stability.
Ironing/Pressing
I know it's a pain, but pressing at various stages of the project really does give you a better end result. The pieces of fabric lie more flat and fit together better if the seams have been pressed flat. In quilting the seams are always pressed to one side rather than opened up. It makes the seam stronger. Usually they are pressed towards the dark fabric.
It is not necessary to press at every single stage. Finger pressing - running your thumb along the line of the seam to press it flat works between some stages.
Chain sewing
Whoever thought of this system deserves a medal. This applies more to quilting than general sewing. If you have to sew together a number of squares to make pairs as you build a quilt block, put a separate pile of each colour of square next to your machine.
Taking one square from each pile, sew them together. At the end of the seam have the next pair of squares ready. Without lifting the machine foot, sew continuously on to the next pair, leaving a small gap from the first pair to the second pair. Do the same again with the third pair and so on.
When you have finished you will have a chain of pairs of squares joined together by a strand of sewing. No backstitching or knot tying. Just snip the thread between the pairs of squares. Miraculous!
Enjoy!
That's the most important point of all. I find sewing and quilting really therapeutic and it is so satisfying to finish an item that you have made yourself.
The above are just a brief few points that might be helpful. Let me know if there are any points you would like clarified or any other points that you would like me to cover.
rose@ludlowquiltandsew.co.uk
Rose Smith, 6 Bitterley Close, Ludlow SY8 1XP.
