7 Beginner Sewing Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them!)

Hi everyone, I'm Heather. And I'm Cassie. And we thought it'd be fun to kind of talk about some of the most common mistakes people make when they're sewing for the first time. Just like talking about those mistakes that we see people making and then how we could encourage you or help you to not make them. Yeah, exactly. I mean, Heather's been sewing a lot longer than I have, but so a lot of these are pretty fresh in my mind. May still do like one or two of them. Okay, Cassie, what is the number one mistake that beginners make when they're sewing? The number one mistake I think is not choosing the right fabric for your project. And that makes a lot of sense because when you're first learning how to sew, you don't necessarily know what like a stable woven is or a cotton block. Or what crepe to shin means. Exactly. And so it can be really easy to pick the wrong fabric. Yeah, I think there's a lot of like, fabric is a really technical thing and there's a million different ways that fabric can be woven. And so it's just one of those things where if you just don't have it at this point, you know, I consider myself a fabric expert. But I do remember when I was sewing, especially with like vintage patterns, when they're giving like weird fabrics that don't even exist anymore. I had no idea what this means. So what would be a way to avoid choosing the wrong fabric? I would say for the first little while, like try to stick to what the pattern is saying. Like if they're telling you to go with like a mid-weight linen, like go into a local fabric store or online and look for a mid-weight linen and just stick within those criteria as closely as possible. You can get to a point where you can experiment and you're like, oh, I understand what this category of fabric means. And they didn't say this specific one. You know, they're saying linen and denim and they didn't say cotton sateen, but I know cotton sateen would work. Everything that I just said sounds like gibberish. Don't use the cotton sateen, right? Like just use what they said. I think that's really important. And I think in terms of getting to know fabrics better and having a better understanding, I think if you have a brick and mortar fabric store, it's always a great way to kind of just go in and look at the sections. You don't even have to talk to anybody. Like look at the sections. This is linen, this is cotton. And you can just kind of get a sense of the hand feel of things. There's also a really good book. I think it's called The Swatch Book. Yeah. Where they actually have, we'll link it in the comments, but it actually, it's like just a sample book of fabrics and then you could literally touch the fabric and it explains what it is. We actually use it a lot when we're writing fabric captions for the fabric store. So I think that's a really great way. And I think just like trial and error, you kind of figure things out, but I would say a good beginner friendly fabric, like you are new to sewing is cotton, poplin, a broadcloth, linen, any kind of simple woven linen, I think those are the easiest fabrics to work with. And then as you get a little bit more experience, you can explore something like, I would say like a double gauze is a little bit more challenging to sew with. And you can start making, maybe working with more drapey fabrics. Yeah, viscose linen could be like the next sort of step. Yeah, a viscose linen blend. Actually, this is what I'm wearing right now. It's really nice. We have this in Core Fabrics. This is a really cool fabric because it's a blend of linen and viscose. So it has that kind of viscosey drape, but it has a little bit of the stability of linen. So you're not, it's not as shifty as like a silk or like a true viscose. And then as you get your see feet, then you can like rock the silk and rock the viscose. But like stick with those kind of simpler, more stable fabrics. And that just means that like, when you put it on the table, it's not sliding all over the place and it's not distorting. Yeah. Okay. I say, would say that the second biggest mistake, actually, I would even maybe argue this is the most. This might be the most important one. This is the biggest one and it's certainly the one that I like, get the most kind of questions about is not using your body measurements to choose a pattern size. And that could mean that you're like, well, I'm a size 16 in ready to wear. So I'm gonna make a size 16 in a sewing pattern. Every sewing pattern company has their own kind of nomenclature and their own system for designing their size ranges. And they are not necessarily at all connected to ready to wear fashion. So I think that's really important. I think a lot of people are scared to take their measurements and they have a lot of judgment. We all have a lot of anxiety and fear and hangups about our bodies because we live in a patriarchal system and that's what it teaches us to do. And so taking body measurements and kind of even being intimate with your body in that way can be really intimidating. I think one of the superpowers of sewing is that you get so comfortable taking these measurements and working with your body that you become a little bit more detached from it. And because you're not in a changing room putting on a garment that looks terrible, makes you feel like crap, you're not having that same kind of judgmental interaction with your body. So my advice is to always, always take your measurements almost every time you sew. Unless you made something last week and you know what your measurements are, I find our bodies are shifting all the time. And sometimes I'll kind of forget to take my waist measurement and then I'll go to make a pair of pants and they're too tight because I was like, oh, my waist grew a size and geez, I wish I had actually gone up a size. So I think that's really important. Yeah, and being honest with your measurements as well. We have a really great video. I'm in it. That's not why it's great. But there is a video on how to take your measurements and we go through all of that. It's accompanied with a blog post and it's really helpful for just teaching you how to properly take your measurements, how tight to hold it, where, you know, we talk about waist, bust, hip, where on the body does that sit? That's really helpful when you're first learning how to take your measurements. And measurements are the basis for the clothes that you make. So being as honest as possible, not like pulling it too tight because you want to be a certain size and really like lining up the measurements with the chart in the most accurate way possible is going to give you the best result. And as a follow-up to that, I would also say that if you are in between sizes, so let's say like your bust is one size and your waist is one and your hips are the other. If it's a fitted garment, you definitely want to grade between sizes. So that means that you want to, if you're a size 10 in the bust and then you're a 12 in the hip, you want to use, you're going to want to kind of connect those lines. I think we have some content about that. And most pattern companies will provide some kind of direction. If you Google grading patterns, you can kind of see how to do that. You want to connect those sizes because you might find that the garment fits you in one body part and then it's too tight or too loose in another. One way to kind of get around this, if you're like, ooh, grading, Google it in order. Especially as a beginner. It's to find like a gently fitted garment that doesn't, that either has a lot of ease, which means that it's got a lot of room in the body. Like something like I think our Cali Cielo. I think Cielo. Cielo is like a really great, especially the top is a really great pattern to work with if you're a beginner. Because even if you're like a size or two bigger in the hips, there's enough ease here that you're probably not going to notice it. And it's easy to grade if you need to. You literally just need to like draw a line connecting one size to the other. That's one way to do it. A lot of patterns will include finished garment measurements. And I find a lot of beginners get really like up in their feelings and very confused by the finished garment measurement chart. Cause they're like, well, my body, I figured out my body measurements. Now you're giving me this whole set of other measurements and I need to do math to like figure out what the difference is. I feel like that's like a slightly more intermediate, like start looking at those when you're more intermediate. Because the more advanced of a sewer you are and the better you kind of understand a bust measurement, what the bust measurement means in a fitted dress, you can kind of start making more critical decisions. But I would kind of ignore that for now for beginners and just really kind of go with the size that your measurements are telling you to make. And now we take a puppy break so I can let the dog out of here. Go, go, Harry. He's like, please. Second biggest mistake. Oh, this is one of my bet noirs. Not pressing your seams. Oh yeah. Yeah. Press your damn seams. You're going to be tempted to skip this. You are going to be tempted cause you're going to have some ironing trauma. I don't know. Maybe you had a grandmother who like made you iron. I don't know what it is. A lot of people are like ironing. It's a symbol of the patriarchy or whatever. Sewing is 90% pressing. It really is. And just ask Alma because sometimes Alma will come in and be like, I made this. And I'm like, it's so cute. You need to press it. Press your seams. I think I said that to you before too. Yeah. Even our sample maker will come in and be like, I finished it. And I was like, it needs another press. And they're all like, oh God, why did we work here? But it makes such a difference. Every time. It makes a huge difference. I think it is crazy what an iron, and it's particularly steam. Because I think when you're first starting to, like your seams, it's kind of hard. One of the things you're working on is like sewing in a straight line. And so sometimes, especially if you're going around curves, it can get a little bit wonky. And you just press that in a beautiful way and hit it with lots of steam and nobody needs to know. No one knows. You could have a seam that's misaligned. It's just like, it's magic what you can do with that steam. So I would say this is like the number one thing. And if a sewing pattern, and the instructions will often tell you, like, press the seam to the right side or the left side, or press. When it says to press, press. And that, I promise you, is the difference between somebody being like, you made that? To, you made that. Yeah, and press at the very end, too. At the very end, yeah. I think it's really important, especially when you're doing hems. Because you might like, press the hem up before you sew it. And then you sew it and go and press it again. Because you almost kind of want to lock those seams in place and it just gives it that really beautiful finished edge. And then when you go to wash it, you've basically like programmed the fabric to hold that shape. And so when you wash it, it's more likely to hold its shape and have the crisp line and all that sort of stuff. Okay, what's the third one? I would say, so this is something that took me a little while to understand. And it's, for one, changing out your needle, but also using the right needle. So a lot of beginners will use the wrong needle completely for their project. And to be fair, there is a needle called the universal needle. Yeah, and that can be confusing. So you're like, oh great, it should be good to go, but it's not for everything. So for denim, you're going to need a denim needle. For knit fabrics, you're likely going to need like a jersey needle. If it's a swim fabric, you need a stretch needle. Yeah. If you have a really fine fabric, you might want a microtex needle that makes really sharp points in the fabric. Yeah, exactly. And then also remembering to change out your needle every project. I don't change it every project. I would say like every two to three projects, I'd change out my needle. If it was like a massive project where I sewed a bazillion seams, then maybe I would change it for the next project. But I would say like every two to three. Needles are cheap. These are not expensive things. Make sure when you throw them out, you have like, we keep little like baby food jars and things on the counter. So you're putting, and we write sharps on it and we put them in there so that, you know, the garbage man doesn't accidentally get jabbed with your needle when he's throwing the garbage out. But I think that is a huge, huge thing. And I think you're right. Especially if you're sewing knits and you're like, yeah, like why is this knit? Why does this keep skipping on me? Yeah, it's really frustrating. Sometimes just changing like a jersey to a stretch needle can often solve that problem. Yeah, or like the machine is eating it and you're like, what's happening? And it's just the wrong needle. Or it's really dull and it isn't catching. It's not looping properly anymore. So yes, definitely. That's a good way to needle. That's a key. Okay. What's next, Cassie? What is the next mistake that noobs are making? So definitely not pre-washing your fabric. Yeah. And you might think that, you know, it's not important or it doesn't seem like a big deal until, and we say this from experience, you make a beautiful garment and it fits you perfectly and then you wash it for the first time and it has shrunk considerably. It's not, you don't want to do that. It's not a good time. It's very easily avoidable by just washing your fabric. And I would add from a technical point of view that ready to wear, they aren't pre-washing their fabric when they're making a thousand pairs of pants, right? Like if they get the roll of fabric, they layer it in this, you know, I've seen them do it. It's wild. They need like a huge layer cake, right? And the fabric back and forth. And then they take these rotary cutters and they'll cut out like 50 front pant legs all at the same time. But what they're accounting for, if it's a good company and they have good drafting, they care about this, is they know exactly what fabric that they're going to be using. And then they account, they do their research and they account for the degree of shrinkage so that they know, okay, this particular cotton that we're using is going to shrink 3% vertically and 5% horizontally. So when we go to draft the pattern, we're going to account for that shrinkage so that when the garment is made and then washed by the customer, it's actually going to shrink to basically its true size. And I think Elizabeth Susanna a few years ago did some really interesting writing about how they kind of figured out shrinkage. And it gave me some interesting insight into how it worked with ready to wear. So you can go see if that information's on the blog. I'm sure it's still there. The second or third reason I would say is that new fabric can be gross. Yeah. Depending on where it comes from and depending on what fiber it's made from and where the factory was, they use all sorts of chemicals and solvents and dyes when they're making fabric. And you don't want that touch. You're using it on your hands, you're wearing it on your body. For the same reason if you buy any clothes ever brand new, you wash them before you wear them. You don't want to put that on your body. Who the heck knows what it was like. I just get like the ick a little bit when I think about it. That's just a public service announcement. But it's the same thing with fabric. And I think also a lot of the time on the roll it feels really crisp. Yes. And it has like a different texture and then you wash it and you're like, this is totally different. This is not what I was expecting at all. And so I feel like that is a really easy thing to... Do you have any tips for washing fabric? Yeah. I mean, a lot of fabric stores will give you, especially like Corfabrics tells you like the ideal way to wash the fabric. And a lot of fabric stores will do that. My biggest tip is to wash the fabric how you're going to wash the garment. So if you know you're like throw everything in the wash, throw everything in the dryer. You're a dryer girl. Then just do that. And that's what I do because I'm really, I'm not a great launderer. I just throw every... I'm trying to get a bit better at it. But I do just throw everything in the wash and then everything in the dryer. Occasionally things will hang up but everything is going in the wash. Like I'm not doing a hand wash. You don't hand wash anything. I might hand wash. No, you know what? I hand wash my knits. I don't even hand wash my knits. I do it on the gentle cycle. I put, I don't even, I won't hand wash a sweater. I don't have time for that. For that reason, it's like coming back to like using good beginner friendly fabrics with like cotton and linen. Maybe the cotton's gonna shrink a little bit which is why you're washing it. But cotton goes in the dryer. And I actually love the way that linen looks when it's been washed and dried a million times. It gets all soft and rumply and delicious. But I think that's a really good tip. If you just know that you're not like a dry cleaner then don't treat it preciously. And I, this is might be controversial but I will put silk. I do too. I put everything. Like if I make like I've had, I have a couple like silk like tanks and tops. I'm not gonna like blast it on high heat and then put it in high. But I'll like tumble dry low and I'll cool. Like I'll do a gentle wash with cool water. And like, if you've sewn it well and back stitched, you know, and like properly finished your seams it's gonna hold up. Yeah, exactly. Totally. I would say the one last thing with that is with like washing is I tend to wash just for the first wash or so, my cotton and linen especially on like a higher temperature, like hot water for example, to like get rid of the shrink as much as possible in the beginning. Cause then I usually wash most things on cold but occasionally something sneaks in there that's hot. And so you wanna get like the blast of shrinkage out from the fabric in like the first wash of your like pre-washing your fabric. That's an awesome tip. And also if it's a really intense color, like indigo or red, wash it alone. Alone, yeah. Don't put it in with your clothes. Don't do that. I've done that. You're just like, oh, it'll be fine. And then like everything has weird watches on it. So yeah, wash alone. Yeah. Okay, I know that this is the second last thing is something that you struggled with. So speak to our, speak to the choir. What did I struggle with? Being too ambitious. Yeah. I think my like third garment was a lined coat. The third garment I ever sewed. Can I like push back on this a little bit? I feel like that's fine for your third garment. I don't know if it's fine for your first. Not for your first. No. I always think about this. I remember I was teaching at a knitting store and the woman who owned the store, she's like, you know, it's really interesting. I don't wanna get all gendered about this, but there's, you know, we're programmed. She's like, it's really interesting cause when men come in, like a cis man comes into the knitting store, he's like, I like, I'm gonna learn how to knit. She's like, great. Like about to point him towards like, you know, some bulky yarn. I wanna make like a cable knit sweater. And they're like, okay. Like, and there's this added, and it was like happened enough that she's like, this is a real thing where men just, not all men, but like some, you know, are kind of just taught that you can do anything. You're a man, go out there and conquer the world. And so he's just like, yeah, whatever. How hard could this be? Women do it. How hard could it be? I'm gonna make a cable knit sweater. And then she was saying, what she noticed is that women, if they were wanting to learn how to knit, they'd come and be like, I wanna start with like a pot holder, but maybe that's too hard. Maybe that's too hard. And there was just this real difference. And so I wanna encourage you to not quite be like cable knit sweater guy, but also to not be so scared. Maybe it would be better to say that you can get to a cable knit sweater a little bit faster than you think. Yes. But I think it's really important for your like, I would say like your first two to three projects, what would be our tips for like something that's not too ambitious? I would say not a ton of pattern pieces. No. Cause it can be complicated and confusing to like manage a lot. So I would say like, try to find a pattern that has like five or six pattern pieces. Yeah. I would say also like, look at the techniques. A lot of sewing patterns will tell you like what techniques are involved. And you maybe like want to be learning like two, maybe three extra techniques than you already know. But like, if you're getting into like four, five, six techniques that you have to learn on top of sewing this garment, that might be like, well, wait, like build up to it. Yeah. And I would say at the beginning, avoid buttons and buttonholes. Yeah. Because buttonholes can be frustrating. I think so important. I think those first few projects, even if they're not beautiful and like I'm telling you right now, they're probably not. And two years from now, you're gonna not even wear them anymore. That's kind of not the point. You still want to be like proud of them and like wear them. And so, if you have like a really gnarly buttonhole because you're trying to figure out how to sew a straight seam and a buttonhole at the same time, it just, it's too much overwhelm. So I would say no buttonholes, no zippers. No zippers. You don't need the zippers. I feel like those are the two things I would say stay away from. But you want to look for. No knits. Muncie, good calling. So no knits. You can move like, I think you can get to knits sooner than you think. Yeah. But I wouldn't make a knit your first project because it's like, it's not a straight stitch. It's a needle. There's all sorts of stuff. So I would stick with like an easy top, a pull on top that doesn't have a ton of openings. What about gathers? How do we feel about gathers for an early project? I taught a friend how to sew and like her first garment was a gathered dress and we did it together. So like I was there to support her, but I thought it was great. Like it was just a really simple, like boxy gather dress and she did great. I feel like a gather you could handle. Yeah. But having said all that, I also encourage you to not be too ambitious for your first few makes, but to try and get ambitious really quickly. Yeah, I agree. Cause I think that's how you grow. And I remember the first, and we're saying all this and the first project I ever sewed was a knit dress. I'm actually remembering. I did it. I did it at Tereska's house. I cut it out at her house, but I remember pretty quickly I was sewing like lined dresses, like lined fitted dresses with like darts and invisible zippers. And I'm sure if there was some rule book about what the timeline of my making journey was going to be, they would have not suggested I move so quickly. But I think once you kind of get over, okay, I know how to thread my machine. I know how to get thread tension. Okay, I'm like, I'm figuring out how to cut out patterns. Like I'm understanding some of this like lingo. I think, yeah, if you wanna make a line dress, I think it's a really great learning opportunity. Again, in five years, are you gonna be wearing that dress every day? Probably not. But I think that those are really important learning experiences. And I will tell you like, as like a sewing educator, my like most proudest moments is when I'll have like an in-person class and somebody will come in and they're like, yeah, I've made like two things and I'm gonna make jeans today. And I'm like, yeah, you are. You're gonna do it. And then they leave feeling like gods. Like they could, and I think having that experience and having success with a more complicated project a little bit earlier on in your journey gives you the confidence to like really feel like you can tackle anything. Yeah. So I guess, I don't know if we're contradicting ourselves or like start realistic at the very, very beginning, but then don't hold yourself back. Yeah. I would say like be bold, but you also want to, I think the key thing with like your first few projects is to set yourself up for success, to like have those wins because sewing can get really discouraging really quickly if you make something and you're like, this is the ugliest thing I've ever seen. I'm not gonna wear this or things aren't working out. So starting like soft and simple and like racking up those wins. And then when you're like feeling confident, it's like, yeah, like I've made like three tops. I can like go onto a pair of jeans and like feel good about that. This is gonna lead into our last point. And I think this is very important. And I would say for me, like one of the most important things when you're learning to sew is to really limit the amount of negative self-talk that you are engaging with. And if something doesn't work out, you are not a personal failure. No, there is nothing wrong with you. You are a smart and capable person. You are learning a new skill. And part of that journey is having things that fail and that don't work. And I personally, in my life, the things that I have learned the most from are experiences where I fail. And that's where you're like, I learned something there. So you gotta pick yourself back up. Okay, what can I apply to the next thing moving forward and leave it in the past and move forward and not have this conversation with yourself that is discouraging and telling yourself you can't do it because that's bullshit. Yeah, negative self-talk and comparison, I think as well, especially like we're very, you know, I'm a very online person. I go on sewing Instagram and YouTube and you just see all these people making really beautiful things. You notice they're a beginner as well. And so you start to follow them. And then you see that they're maybe like advancing or doing more things than you. And you start to compare and you're like, I'm not as good as them or I'm not a good sewist or whatever. We don't need any of that. It's your own journey. It's meant to be fun. It's meant to be insightful and cool. Making your own clothes is really cool. It's like a really awesome skill. And yeah. I mean, I always think about that's a new thing I'm teaching myself right now is like woodworking and building and I'm renovating my house. And what I always say whenever I do something for the first time is if I had a superpower, it would be to go back in time. Learning what I learned during the process of doing it and starting over and doing it again. Like I just did tiled a floor and I was like, I would, I learned so much in the process of tiling the floor that by the time I got to the end, I would do anything to just go rewind and then know, like be able to start from the beginning. The beautiful thing is it's, you know how extensive tile is to remove? Like you can't really do that. But with sewing you can, you can just make the thing again. Right? You can just do the pattern again. You would just make it again. It's not, this isn't rocket science. This isn't tiling. It's not tiling. Thank you. And it's not, like this doesn't have to be a dramatic, stressful thing. I think you just have to like unclench, put on a good podcast. Yeah. Don't drink wine. Drink a tea. Have a tea. Drink a tea. Because wine can get, things can go off the rails really quickly. But just really as much as possible try to enjoy the process. Yeah. Do we have anything more to add? I don't think so. Okay. I hope that this was helpful. Hopefully you have like learned from some of our experiences. And we hope that you go forth and sew with confidence. Be bold. Have fun. And stop being yourself. You can do it. Bye.