There are three stages to learning to sew. They are: 1) learning the basics, 2) garment construction and repair skills, and 3) sewing for fun and profit. Your goal is to reach the third stage, where you will enjoy sewing and discover that even if you are not a professional seamstress, you are competent to achieve most of your sewing goals.
This article will discuss what it takes to master the intermediate stage of learning to sew. Some skills go a long way. As with the beginner stage of learning to sew, it often takes time and patience, but not a lot of science. Today you can access information on the Internet that will help you master these skills.
- Practice ripping the seams.
- Practice finishing the seams and press them open.
- Learn how to machine the base.
- Learn to collect.
- Learn how to use tape to join seams.
- Learn to read sewing patterns.
Get comfortable with these 6 skills and you’ll be on your way to the advanced stage of learning to sew. Let’s break down each skill and how you can most easily achieve it so you can go on to become an advanced sewing student.
ripping seams:
It’s unavoidable, and if you’re good at ripping a seam without tearing the fabric, it will make your life easier and your garments more professional. You can use the scraps from which you sewed straight lines to practice. Make sure you buy a good sea ripper.
If you’ve established a good habit of sewing backwards at the beginning and end of your seam, you’ll find that it’s sometimes difficult to start ripping the seam at the ends. If this is the case, carefully use the seam ripper on one side of the fabric to cut the seam thread on that side. This will give you a hole in the seam where you can now begin to remove the seam more easily.
The easiest way to rip the seam is to keep the two pieces of fabric separate and find the seam thread that holds them together. Carefully insert the tip of the seam ripper into that thread, not the threads of the fabric, and slide it until the thread is cut. Gently separate the fabric pieces until they no longer separate. Repeats the action of the sea ripper. Keep doing this until you’ve ripped the entire section.
Practice finishing seams and press them open.:
Pressing seams as you go makes a big difference in how well your garment fits and looks. Make this a habit.
There are numerous ways to finish seams, including overlocking (not a beginner’s skill), French seam finishing, and zigzag finishing. Zig zag finishing is particularly quick and easy and looks almost as good as overcasting.
To finish a zigzag seam, first press open the seam. Place the edge of the seam under your machine’s needle and set your stitch width to the widest zigzag. Sew with the edge under the needle so that the machine stitch closes over the edge of the fabric on one side. There is a video tutorial on this method.
Learn to machine the base:
See “How-To-Sew-1—Basic-Machine-Basting” for a complete article on machine basting.
First, locate the stitch length control for your sewing machine. Set the stitch length to the longest length available. Place the seam you want to baste under the needle of your sewing machine, raise the needle to its highest point, and lower the presser foot. Do not backstitch at the beginning or end of the seam to be basted, as the basting is often removed later. Sew the seam with the long stitch length, then remove the piece from your machine as usual by raising the needle to the highest point, raising the presser foot, and cutting the threads. This is your basting seam, a temporary seam, or preparation for shirring.
There is a video tutorial available on the internet for this important skill.
Learn to collect machines:
See “How to Sew 2: Machine Gathering” for a full article on machine gathering.
For machine basting, set your sewing machine to the longest available stitch length. Sew this basting stitch along where the seam line will be, in most commercial patterns, 5/8 inch from the edge of the fabric. Sew again 1/4 inch inside the seam allowance. Two lines of stitching will keep your smocking more even and will hold your smocking in case a thread breaks. This is especially important in gathered lengths, such as the waist areas. Gently pull up on a thread to gather the material. Evenly distribute the shirring and finish sewing the seam according to the instructions. Again, there’s a video tutorial for this valuable sewing skill.
Learn how to use tape to join seams:
See “How to Sew Seam Binding: A Quick Way to Finish Edges” for a full article on this skill.
Most patterns tell you to cut a piece of seam tape about 1/2 inch longer than your edge length. Then sew the wrong side of the seam to the wrong side of the edge, press the tape onto the right side, and sew down the middle on the right side.
Another method is to slip the fabric into the seam seam fold like a sandwich and sew close to the edge. This is especially fast since the tape is only sewn once, instead of twice as in the previous method.
Learn to read sewing patterns.:
As with any skill, there is a whole vocabulary that you need to know. You already know about basting (not like a turkey!) and collecting. If you search for a sewing dictionary on the Internet, you will find numerous sites with the terms defined for you.
Searching for “read a sewing pattern” will give you results including videos and e-books for a wide range of help.
Don’t worry, there will always be a new pattern whose instructions will stump you at first. Your abilities to understand pattern instructions will grow with time and experience. Don’t worry if it still takes a long time to understand what’s in the pattern right now.
If you’re comfortable with all the other steps in this article, you’re ready to become an advanced sewing student.