Step 1) Acquire sewing machine Step 2) ... Step 3) Cool shirt
May 31, 2024 9:32 AM Subscribe
I have acquired a Brother sewing machine that has 59 different stitches. I never learned to sew but I'd love to learn. Because of my work travel schedule it's been difficult to find an in-person class to learn how to get started.
I'd eventually like to be able to sew a collared shirt that actually fits me and does not have the dreaded boob gap.
I also love looking at neat little bags and backpacks that folks in the Make Your Own Gear (MYOG) community make.
I know there's a lot of steps between absolute beginner never used a sewing machine and neat custom backpack/shirt. If you couldn't do an in-person class what resources would you use to help you get from absolute beginner to making this type of item?
Looking for specific recommendations for YouTube videos/channels, books, online resources, or materials.
I'd eventually like to be able to sew a collared shirt that actually fits me and does not have the dreaded boob gap.
I also love looking at neat little bags and backpacks that folks in the Make Your Own Gear (MYOG) community make.
I know there's a lot of steps between absolute beginner never used a sewing machine and neat custom backpack/shirt. If you couldn't do an in-person class what resources would you use to help you get from absolute beginner to making this type of item?
Looking for specific recommendations for YouTube videos/channels, books, online resources, or materials.
Also came to say closet core. I haven't taken that course but took another one to make my first garment for myself and really appreciated well that I learned.
posted by icaicaer at 9:49 AM on May 31 [1 favorite]
posted by icaicaer at 9:49 AM on May 31 [1 favorite]
There are a lot of beginner sewing classes on YouTube.
For a good pattern, look at LoveNotions, whose patters come with a full bust adjustment, and also come in sizes xs to 3xL. They have excellent instructions and videos. You will probably be most interested in the Melody Dolman an the Balllad Blouse, as they are for woven fabrics.
posted by Enid Lareg at 10:28 AM on May 31
For a good pattern, look at LoveNotions, whose patters come with a full bust adjustment, and also come in sizes xs to 3xL. They have excellent instructions and videos. You will probably be most interested in the Melody Dolman an the Balllad Blouse, as they are for woven fabrics.
posted by Enid Lareg at 10:28 AM on May 31
Response by poster: Please include specific resources! Just saying there are good videos on YouTube is not very helpful.
posted by forkisbetter at 10:58 AM on May 31 [1 favorite]
posted by forkisbetter at 10:58 AM on May 31 [1 favorite]
I made a button-down shirt on my own after taking a class on sewing basics where I learned how to use a machine and how to read a pattern. I didn't learn at that point exactly how to do a full bust adjustment.
My public library system offers creativebug courses for free. If yours does too, you might consider their video called "sewing machine basics."
Another option would be craftsy's intro to machine class.
Creativebug has 3 backpack courses, including one by Bookhou, whose online tutorials I have used for many different types of bags. Cratsy has 3-4 bag and backpack courses.
One thing to know about making a backpack is that not every machine is up for sewing heavy fabric.
posted by vunder at 11:22 AM on May 31 [1 favorite]
My public library system offers creativebug courses for free. If yours does too, you might consider their video called "sewing machine basics."
Another option would be craftsy's intro to machine class.
Creativebug has 3 backpack courses, including one by Bookhou, whose online tutorials I have used for many different types of bags. Cratsy has 3-4 bag and backpack courses.
One thing to know about making a backpack is that not every machine is up for sewing heavy fabric.
posted by vunder at 11:22 AM on May 31 [1 favorite]
Can you add the Brother model (XL-2600? XL-2610? XL-2615? LS-590?)?
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:42 AM on May 31
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:42 AM on May 31
My local sewing store has a series of classes aimed to teach you to sew, which I mention not to suggest you try and find in person classes if that's not possible, but because I think looking at the projects stores recommend would be super useful. Most patterns will also give a rough idea of how experienced you should be to try them, though this can be unreliable, so I would generally go with a store's recommendations.
For example, my store has you start with a cushion cover, bunting, a tote bag or an apron - basically all flat items with straight seams, where sizing errors are unlikely to completely compromise the item.
The next project is a pinafore dress. Again, although you are sizing things, there's some flexibility and you aren't doing super complex seams like shoulder seams. I did this recently, and it was super fun! I have sewn before, but many years ago, and I produced a really very nice looking dress. They then do dungarees, which are a bit more complex again because of course they have a crotch which means a curved seam, and more fastenings.
They do a blouse but only at 'intermediate' level, and I see that the blouse actually doesn't have darts for bust shaping, so it's a simpler blouse.
I really do not recommend jumping right in at blouse/shirt level if you've never sewn: blouses mean sleeves to set in, bust darts (and if you are a bustier person, possibly altering those darts to fit you better) and lots of buttonholes. Sinilarly, bags can range from quite simple (beach bag, no fastening) to wildly complex (rucksack). I think you will have masses more fun if you work up to it, taking a step forwards in skill and difficulty with each project, rather than jumping straight in at the deep end.
posted by In Your Shell Like at 12:31 PM on May 31 [1 favorite]
For example, my store has you start with a cushion cover, bunting, a tote bag or an apron - basically all flat items with straight seams, where sizing errors are unlikely to completely compromise the item.
The next project is a pinafore dress. Again, although you are sizing things, there's some flexibility and you aren't doing super complex seams like shoulder seams. I did this recently, and it was super fun! I have sewn before, but many years ago, and I produced a really very nice looking dress. They then do dungarees, which are a bit more complex again because of course they have a crotch which means a curved seam, and more fastenings.
They do a blouse but only at 'intermediate' level, and I see that the blouse actually doesn't have darts for bust shaping, so it's a simpler blouse.
I really do not recommend jumping right in at blouse/shirt level if you've never sewn: blouses mean sleeves to set in, bust darts (and if you are a bustier person, possibly altering those darts to fit you better) and lots of buttonholes. Sinilarly, bags can range from quite simple (beach bag, no fastening) to wildly complex (rucksack). I think you will have masses more fun if you work up to it, taking a step forwards in skill and difficulty with each project, rather than jumping straight in at the deep end.
posted by In Your Shell Like at 12:31 PM on May 31 [1 favorite]
One way to think about it is that you can make some low-stress practice shirts before the "real" ones. So buy a bunch of cheap extra fabric, or get some old or secondhand sheets or other fabric similar to what you'll eventually want your shirts to be made of. Then you can pick a pattern and/or online class and go through it once, twice, or more until you (a) get comfortable with the steps, and (b) figure out how to adjust the pattern to get a fit that's good for you.
If you want, you don't even necessarily have to get a pattern. If you have a shirt that you like and don't mind sacrificing it, you can take it apart and sort of reverse engineer it. I mention this because most people prefer to use patterns, but some people really like the reverse engineering/create your own pattern approach. And neither is a bad way to learn.
For the really basic stuff, there are so many videos on YouTube that I can't think of a specific one to recommend but it won't take long to find some good guides. I'd first look for a video on your specific machine model to see how to thread it, how to select stitches, and also how to take apart and clean out the bobbin area. (Which you'll need to do (a) if your machine gets stuck, and (b) periodically to clean out the lint that accumulates there.)
Then you want general intro-to-sewing videos that demonstrate:
- sewing a straight stitch at different lengths. (You can draw some straight and curved lines on a sheet of paper and then practice sewing over them with a needle but no thread on the machine.)
- sewing a zigzag stitch at different lengths and widths
- sewing in reverse
- how to turn a corner
- how to set the thread tension, what it looks like when the tension is wrong, and how to fix it
- buttonholes (since that sounds relevant for the kinds of shirts you want). You'll probably want to watch a video specific to your model for this.
- overcasting edges (not critical if you finish seams another way, like with french seams, but it's useful to know how to just overcast an edge. If you don't know what I'm talking about: fabric unravels eventually if you leave the edges raw, so you usually need to either enclose the edges (usually with french seams or "bias binding"), or overcast them, which is when you sew a zigzag stitch or similar right along an edge to sort of lock the fabric's threads in place. None of these things is hard, but it's good to watch a video or two and practice.
Those should be the skills you need to make shirts. You generally won't need to touch the various fancy stitches your machine has - most are just for decoration, and a few are for stretchy fabrics.
Some other general tips:
- it's perfectly respectable to sew slowly. And in general, nobody sews long seams without stopping: you sew a short bit, make sure everything's still aligned the way you want it, sew another short stretch, repeat.
- never try to force your machine if the needle seems to get stuck. Instead stop, remove the fabric from under the needle, cutting it out if necessary. If there seems to be a big tangle or threads swallowed by the bobbin area, you might need to open up the bobbin area and make sure you've gotten all the threads out of there. It's not a big deal, and it's almost certainly going to happen at some point, so don't stress out over it.
- don't pull or push your fabric when it's going through the machine. The machine needs to feed the fabric through on its own, at its own pace. Generally, you only want your hands to sort of gently guide the direction of the fabric.
- never sew over pins, even if you see other people doing it. Breaking your needle isn't fun, and it's not unheard of for the broken part to fly into your face or eye.
- You're going to make a lot of mistakes and have to unpick a lot of seams. Some of the mistakes will be really annoying, like sewing something facing in instead of out. Do not feel bad about this; feel philosophical. It's almost inevitable.
- look up videos on how to unpick a seam. Turns out there are multiple ways, and some are much easier for most types of seams.
- if you have trouble sewing straight lines, then
(a) don't keep your eye on the needle - keep your eye on the edge of the sewing foot, or on one of the guide marks on the needle plate, or on a piece of sticky tape you tape to the right of the needle as a seam guide, or pretty much anything but the needle.
(b) you can often use feet with built-in guides for fun and profit, especially for topstitching.
Look up "how to sew straight seams" or "how to use edge guide feet" or "diy seam guides" on YouTube for examples.
- if you buy fabric, buy a little more than you think you need (or a lot more, to give yourself room to make mistakes). Before you sew or even cut any pieces out, wash and dry the fabric the way you would the finished item, because most fabric shrinks a little and you want that to happen before you get started.
- have an iron, for two reasons: (a) to iron your fabric before you cut it if it's wrinkly, and more importantly (b) to press folds and creases into the fabric, sort of like how you press folds and creases into origami paper. This makes some of the sewing easier (it's easy to sew fabric when it's already pressed into place), and it makes the finished result look sharper. Good pattern instructions will tell you when and where to press.
Some patterns will also expect you to have an iron in order to use fusable interfacing.
- if you're making shirts with regular non-stretch cotton or similar, then universal needles in medium sizes should be fine. If you're making bags with heavy fabrics, you'll probably want big jeans/denim needles. If you're using different kinds of fabric, look up the right kind of needle to use. Schmetz is a good needle brand. I've had bad luck with Singer needles for whatever reason.
- there's usually More Than One Way To Do It. So if you come across a teacher or video or set of instructions or pattern you just don't connect with, no worries - you'll probably be able to find a different one that's a better fit for you.
- don't buy patterns from anywhere that isn't a known pattern maker with lots of reviews of the results. Apparently these days there are a lot of pattern sellers just using AI-generated images and so on.
- don't be afraid to just look up whatever technique you're not sure about on YouTube. Or "how to sew a [random item]". You'll get a million hits, and most of them will do the job. (Also, enjoy the bizarre phenomenon of sewing videos with conspiratorial titles like "Seamstresses don't want you to learn this technique!" Those ones are usually not very helpful, but can be kind of fun to watch.)
- have fun!
posted by trig at 1:06 PM on May 31 [5 favorites]
If you want, you don't even necessarily have to get a pattern. If you have a shirt that you like and don't mind sacrificing it, you can take it apart and sort of reverse engineer it. I mention this because most people prefer to use patterns, but some people really like the reverse engineering/create your own pattern approach. And neither is a bad way to learn.
For the really basic stuff, there are so many videos on YouTube that I can't think of a specific one to recommend but it won't take long to find some good guides. I'd first look for a video on your specific machine model to see how to thread it, how to select stitches, and also how to take apart and clean out the bobbin area. (Which you'll need to do (a) if your machine gets stuck, and (b) periodically to clean out the lint that accumulates there.)
Then you want general intro-to-sewing videos that demonstrate:
- sewing a straight stitch at different lengths. (You can draw some straight and curved lines on a sheet of paper and then practice sewing over them with a needle but no thread on the machine.)
- sewing a zigzag stitch at different lengths and widths
- sewing in reverse
- how to turn a corner
- how to set the thread tension, what it looks like when the tension is wrong, and how to fix it
- buttonholes (since that sounds relevant for the kinds of shirts you want). You'll probably want to watch a video specific to your model for this.
- overcasting edges (not critical if you finish seams another way, like with french seams, but it's useful to know how to just overcast an edge. If you don't know what I'm talking about: fabric unravels eventually if you leave the edges raw, so you usually need to either enclose the edges (usually with french seams or "bias binding"), or overcast them, which is when you sew a zigzag stitch or similar right along an edge to sort of lock the fabric's threads in place. None of these things is hard, but it's good to watch a video or two and practice.
Those should be the skills you need to make shirts. You generally won't need to touch the various fancy stitches your machine has - most are just for decoration, and a few are for stretchy fabrics.
Some other general tips:
- it's perfectly respectable to sew slowly. And in general, nobody sews long seams without stopping: you sew a short bit, make sure everything's still aligned the way you want it, sew another short stretch, repeat.
- never try to force your machine if the needle seems to get stuck. Instead stop, remove the fabric from under the needle, cutting it out if necessary. If there seems to be a big tangle or threads swallowed by the bobbin area, you might need to open up the bobbin area and make sure you've gotten all the threads out of there. It's not a big deal, and it's almost certainly going to happen at some point, so don't stress out over it.
- don't pull or push your fabric when it's going through the machine. The machine needs to feed the fabric through on its own, at its own pace. Generally, you only want your hands to sort of gently guide the direction of the fabric.
- never sew over pins, even if you see other people doing it. Breaking your needle isn't fun, and it's not unheard of for the broken part to fly into your face or eye.
- You're going to make a lot of mistakes and have to unpick a lot of seams. Some of the mistakes will be really annoying, like sewing something facing in instead of out. Do not feel bad about this; feel philosophical. It's almost inevitable.
- look up videos on how to unpick a seam. Turns out there are multiple ways, and some are much easier for most types of seams.
- if you have trouble sewing straight lines, then
(a) don't keep your eye on the needle - keep your eye on the edge of the sewing foot, or on one of the guide marks on the needle plate, or on a piece of sticky tape you tape to the right of the needle as a seam guide, or pretty much anything but the needle.
(b) you can often use feet with built-in guides for fun and profit, especially for topstitching.
Look up "how to sew straight seams" or "how to use edge guide feet" or "diy seam guides" on YouTube for examples.
- if you buy fabric, buy a little more than you think you need (or a lot more, to give yourself room to make mistakes). Before you sew or even cut any pieces out, wash and dry the fabric the way you would the finished item, because most fabric shrinks a little and you want that to happen before you get started.
- have an iron, for two reasons: (a) to iron your fabric before you cut it if it's wrinkly, and more importantly (b) to press folds and creases into the fabric, sort of like how you press folds and creases into origami paper. This makes some of the sewing easier (it's easy to sew fabric when it's already pressed into place), and it makes the finished result look sharper. Good pattern instructions will tell you when and where to press.
Some patterns will also expect you to have an iron in order to use fusable interfacing.
- if you're making shirts with regular non-stretch cotton or similar, then universal needles in medium sizes should be fine. If you're making bags with heavy fabrics, you'll probably want big jeans/denim needles. If you're using different kinds of fabric, look up the right kind of needle to use. Schmetz is a good needle brand. I've had bad luck with Singer needles for whatever reason.
- there's usually More Than One Way To Do It. So if you come across a teacher or video or set of instructions or pattern you just don't connect with, no worries - you'll probably be able to find a different one that's a better fit for you.
- don't buy patterns from anywhere that isn't a known pattern maker with lots of reviews of the results. Apparently these days there are a lot of pattern sellers just using AI-generated images and so on.
- don't be afraid to just look up whatever technique you're not sure about on YouTube. Or "how to sew a [random item]". You'll get a million hits, and most of them will do the job. (Also, enjoy the bizarre phenomenon of sewing videos with conspiratorial titles like "Seamstresses don't want you to learn this technique!" Those ones are usually not very helpful, but can be kind of fun to watch.)
- have fun!
posted by trig at 1:06 PM on May 31 [5 favorites]
Fitting is really the hardest part of making a shirt without "gaposis!" I've taken the Palmer Pletsch shirt fitting and pants fitting classes in person (Portland, Oregon area) which were really great. Their books are not flashy but they information in them is solid. Highly recommended.
posted by vespabelle at 6:43 PM on May 31 [1 favorite]
posted by vespabelle at 6:43 PM on May 31 [1 favorite]
For online skills classes (e.g. for how to fit a shirt) you can also check out the links/reviews on patternreview.
posted by trig at 9:32 PM on May 31 [1 favorite]
posted by trig at 9:32 PM on May 31 [1 favorite]
I like Evelyn Wood’s videos and she is very friendly to beginners.
There’s probably a DVD/online vid by Brother for your machine, which will be amazingly uncool but useful for seeing your own machine.
Two more intermediate steps for your sensible plan — before bags you might take out of the house, try storage bags or slipcovers made of thrifted cotton-ish sheets. you can try various fastenings low-commitment.
Between fancier bags and a collared button down shirt I think a fitted shell — no collar, no sleeves, no seam down the front - is the least other hassle while you’re wrestling with fitting. Least amount of fabric too so you can experiment.
I also like PatternReview.
posted by clew at 2:50 PM on June 1
There’s probably a DVD/online vid by Brother for your machine, which will be amazingly uncool but useful for seeing your own machine.
Two more intermediate steps for your sensible plan — before bags you might take out of the house, try storage bags or slipcovers made of thrifted cotton-ish sheets. you can try various fastenings low-commitment.
Between fancier bags and a collared button down shirt I think a fitted shell — no collar, no sleeves, no seam down the front - is the least other hassle while you’re wrestling with fitting. Least amount of fabric too so you can experiment.
I also like PatternReview.
posted by clew at 2:50 PM on June 1
YouTube channels for learning techniques:
Professor Pincushion
Threads Magazine's Teach Yourself to Sew playlist (I also subscribe to the magazine and have access to more content on their website)
Howcast's How to Use a Sewing Machine playlist
posted by quoththeraven at 6:21 PM on June 9
Professor Pincushion
Threads Magazine's Teach Yourself to Sew playlist (I also subscribe to the magazine and have access to more content on their website)
Howcast's How to Use a Sewing Machine playlist
posted by quoththeraven at 6:21 PM on June 9
I just saw this pretty straightforward video on adjusting shirt patterns to get a good fit that might be helpful. (In case of linkrot, it's by Joi Mahon.)
posted by trig at 8:09 AM on June 13
posted by trig at 8:09 AM on June 13
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
posted by urbanlenny at 9:39 AM on May 31 [4 favorites]