#sewing essentials

In this post , you will learn on sewing essentials to create own DIY projects. Do you love fashion and want to create your own unique and personalized garments and accessories? Do you want to save money, reduce waste, and express your creativity with sewing? If so, you might be interested in learning how to sew and start your own DIY fashion projects. Sewing is a fun and rewarding hobby that…

A lot of my sewing is done by hand, and often wonderfully portable! When I'm on campus, I have a small pouch with some materials and tools on hand for long breaks, let's have a look.

These are the very basics I always carry

-my threads, and a cake of beeswax if I'm bringing cotton, silk or linen threads. I enjoy using cotton threads if only because polyester thread, being completely synthetic is not my jam. These are from Gütermann, the orange border denotes cotton thread, the pale yellow is polyester (which I'm using only because the store is all out of white cotton threads), and not pictured is bright yellow for linen and light blue for silk. I believe green is for top stitch, gray for upholstery; but I may be wrong.

-some thimbles, an absolute necessity. Depending on the types of stitching, you may need more than one. The black one you see is actually a leather sashiko thimble which is worn like this:

-needles! I have them in little polypropylene tubes, sorted by type and function. One holds my wee tiny no. 10 sharps, one holds my sashiko needles and the last holds some thicker needles to repair my father's workwear. You can use small glass tubes with cork caps, but I use what I have for now.

-a seam ripper. Little guy often goes missing, so I also own a ring cutter, which is a ring you wear on your index finger on your non-dominant hand to cut threads with.

-small scissors. These came out of a first aid kit I used to carry, but their small and wonderfully portable size makes it easy to carry, and is quite sharp - it's meant cut the gauze dressing for your wound quite cleanly after all.

Bonus mentions to my two cards of sashiko threads, and the little needle threader that I have but never use.

In the sewing room, like in any other workshop, it is essential to have tools that make all this creative process easier.

There are basic things like the sewing machine, pins and needles, and scissors, that everyone has; and others depending on the branch of your choice, you would consider to purchase or not. For instance, If you are passionate about patchwork, a rotator cutter and mat, perfect for straight and precise cuts. On the other hand, if fashion design is your cup of tea, you should consider investing on a mannequin and mirror.

I am really lucky, I always say it, to have a proper sewing room, where I have an amazing cutting table. It is an IKEA hack and we made it, I say we because my husband helped me, with two Malm cupboards and two huge boards on top, the measure 120*2 metres. We added Capita legs, also from IKEA, so it was higher and easy on your back. Now that I have been working with it for six months, I can’t think of life without it. Here’s the link to the video of how we did it, https://youtu.be/4NtjzFjiobs

And there are extras that also help, like a notebook to take notes while you work, or tins and boxes to keep all your haberdashery bits under control.

I hope you enjoy it!

Here are other videos related to this one that you might like,

- good sewing habits, https://youtu.be/aTwb6rIMydY

- sewing machine clean, https://youtu.be/3eQgSRXmP2o

- fabric haul, https://youtu.be/Pqn162xWZE4

- sewing room transformation, https://youtu.be/4NtjzFjiobs

This week's blog post is all about the basic, essential sewing kit. It doesn't matter whether you keep your sewing notions in an old sweet tin, in a pretty sewing basket or even in a plastic container. We all need to have the essentials close to hand for when we our sewing our latest projects.   Lucky for you we at Sewing-Online sell all those sewing items, be it the basic needle and thread or the more specialised french curve. This blog post was suggested by one of my best friends who loves to stitch. She is great at cross-stitching plus she has now caught the sewing bug! She thought that the topic of 'Essential Sewing Items' would make a good blog post....and she was quite right!  So this week on Twitter and Facebook I have been asking you all what are the essential items in your sewing baskets? and I have had some great responses. My friend has two sewing baskets, one for upstairs when she is doing her machine sewing and one for downstairs when she does her cross-stitch. The pretty sewing box downstairs was handmade by her grandad and it is one of her most treasured possessions. She keeps her aida and embroidery threads in that one so that they are close by when she does her cross-stitching. Over the years she has stitched me some beautiful cards and you really can't beat knowing someone has spent all that time stitching you a special card.   I'm the same as my friend as I don't just have one sewing basket. But it is not because of convenience ..... It's just because I have too much stuff! :o) Instead I have my sewing things stored wherever I can find space to store them. I know exactly what I've got and where it is though, doesn't matter if it's in the shed or in a container in the wardrobe. I know where to find most things when I need them. I have stashes of fabrics wherever I can stash them but I always make sure all dangerous things like buttons and needles are kept well out of the way of my daughter's little hands. My top 5 sewing essentials are gorgeous floral fabrics, sharp scissors for cutting fabric, seam ripper for when you make those inevitable mistakes, white thread (I use it for nearly all projects and my favorite 'wonder' product which is the paper-backed fusible web. I just love it and use it all the time for personalising projects and adding applique.  There are many more things that could and should be on that list though but if I had to pick 5 essentials they are it....oh, and obviously a good sewing machine. :o) My friend has told me what she has in her sewing basket and most of the things are the same as what can be found in mine and probably a lot of your sewing baskets as well.  She has thread scissors and good quality fabric scissors. The next things she wants to buy is pinking shears and I don't blame her as they are so useful! Especially for when you are making bunting, which is something I do a lot of in my own little cottage business, Polkadotii Designs. If you take a look at that page you'll see all the photos of the sewing projects I have made over the years. I'd love to chat with you about your favourite crafts over on the Sewing-Online Facebook or Twitter page. My friend also has a selection of needles, threads and spare buttons in her basket plus as she uses a thimble, needle threader and stitch unpicker they are in there too.  If she ever needs to do an emergency mend she has some hemming web and there is the obligatory sewing pins and pin cushion that every sewist needs. Her pin cushion has elastic which goes around your wrist and she says it's very handy. If you want something similar, we sell one here. Do you know, I don't have a pincushion yet! I just have all my pins in a little tin - I must be organised and make myself one. If you don't fancy making one you could always take a look at the Sewing-Online range of novelty pin cushions - there are so many to choose from. My friend is a big fan of owls so she'd love this owl pin cushion. The last bits and bobs that my friend says she has in her sewing basket are a laundry pen, a hand cream and a little lavender bag - just because she likes it! :-)  I had lots of you answer my question 'What are your sewing essentials?' on our social media accounts and here are the responses that I received:-

Scissors of all kinds

Rotary Cutter

Seam Ripper

Sewing Gauge

Pin Cushion

Pins

Selection of Needles

Threads

Embroidery Thread

Lots Of Variety Of Ribbons

Fabric

Large Magnet for when you spill your pins... I loved this response!

Tape Measure ( This response was accompanied with the tip that we all must remember to replace our fabric ones if they become stretched. I'd not really thought about that before but I'll have to check mine to see if they need replacing)

Aida

Graph Paper

Good Quality Yarn

Pencil

and my favourite response of all was from someone who said that EVERYTHING was essential.   I quite agree with this as there is not one thing that I could do without when I am sewing and there is still so many more things that I want to buy to add to my sewing kit.

I'd like to say thanks to my friend for her input and thanks to everyone who responded to my question. It's been great to find out what we all consider as our essential sewing notions.

I hope this blog post has provided some important insight into what should be in your sewing basket. As my friend said to me everyone's sewing basket is very personal and there is going to be a huge difference between the contents depending on the crafts that you enjoy.

Sewing-Online sell literally all of those essential sewing items that you all mentioned and lots more besides. They even sell ready-made sewing kits which you can buy and then top up with your favourite notions as and when required. 

Here are the links to the two photos provided:- Owl Pin Cushion and Rose Victorian Sewing Kit.

Best wishes,

Being longtime seamstresses, the team here at SEW Moni has had plenty of chances to thoroughly test some products and have compiled a list of tried and true tools that every seamstress should have in her possession.

                                     Scissors

A good, sharp pair of Fiskars are a must!  The brand has been around for ages, since 1694 to be exact.  Their products are readily available and have great longevity.  Not in the mood to buy another pair, make your well-used scissors like new and have them sharpened for a fraction of the cost.  No wonder they are the world's #1 scissor brand.Available at Joann Fabrics, Target, Walmart, and just about any sewing supply store.  

Magnetic Pin Cushion

My mother introduced me to this wonderful invention, and I haven't used my tomato cushion since.  Not only helpful for keeping your pins organized and at your finger tips, it's perfect for post project clean-ups.  Just a slow sweep across your table, and it picks up any loose pins scattered about.Grabbit is our brand of choice.Pick one up at Joann Fabrics.  Sil Thread in the NYC garment district is a great source too.

Seam Ripper

I lovingly call this the "sewing eraser" and it's is a must for pulling out those little mistakes that seem to show up as we are sewing.  They are quite useful for creating machine stitched button holes too!  Seam rippers come in a variety of sizes and shapes.  I find that the one's with the longer handles are easier to control.Available at Joann Fabrics, Sil Thread and Panda Thread of NYC.

Iron

Voted best iron by the SEW Moni team and prized by our current students, the Rowenta Focus Stainless Steel Iron gets rid of those pesky wrinkles and presses seams flat with beautiful smoothness and ease.Pick one up at Target or Joann Fabrics.  

Measuring Tape