What I wish I could have known when I started sewing, Pt 1

Recently, I was trying to explain what would be involved in self-drafting and sewing a particular type of garment to someone, and it made me think about how much I’ve learned in my first year of sewing garments. And then I thought, if I could write a letter now to go back in time and give to myself when I started sewing, what would it look like? What would I want to tell myself or any other novice garment sewist?

This is part one of a series, as this first point is quite a long one!

1. Start with a basic machine.

Everyone has to start with some kind of machine (eventually – you can get quite far with hand sewing, I’m not knocking that). My first ever sewing machine was bought secondhand from the free ads paper. I don’t remember what it cost, but it was likely about £20. It was a 1960s/1970s basic workhorse machine – it had a handful of stitches, so I could do straight or zigzag, and it was great. I didn’t really get into sewing beyond making some tote bags and an art project, so it got donated or sold on sometime after 2004.

My next machine was a Brother LS14, bought in 2014 primarily because it was within my budget (at the time, the LS14 was approx. £80) and pretty. I’m not going to lie, the decorated fascia was a big part of it. I’d done very little research, but I knew from my previous limited experience that I needed basic stitches and I wasn’t contemplating anything too advanced. I made some cushion covers as a gift for a friend, then boxed it away and never got round to taking it further, although I impulse bought an overlocker in 2015 (a Brother 1034d).

Then the pandemic hit in 2020, and I had both my machines shipped to me and started sewing with gusto. I sewed with my Brother LS14 until Feb 2021, when I upgraded to a Pfaff Quilt Ambition 630. But during the time I had my Brother LS14, I sewed: dresses, elastic waistbands, buttonholes, outerwear (including a wool coat), a bag, t-shirts. There was nothing I couldn’t do with it, because ultimately, all you really need to sew clothing is a straight stitch, a zigzag stitch, and a buttonhole stitch. An overlock/overcast stitch is nice to finish seams.

Sewing is an expensive and time-consuming hobby. As someone who is very invested in it now, I had a couple of false starts before I really got into it. I’m glad that I started with an entry-level machine and didn’t jump straight to buying a fancy one. If I didn’t take to sewing, then I hadn’t lost as much money. If I really took to it, then I could upgrade if I actually needed to at a later date.

This point about upgrading is key; I had a good enough machine that I could sew quite frequently on it for 9 months whilst I learned. I started to outgrow it after a few months and wanted additional features. By doing things this way, I was able to learn as I went with regard to what features I wanted to have, and what things frustrated me about my current machine. This meant that I was in a much more informed place to research what machines I wanted and why. I can honestly say that if I had gone in for a higher budget machine from the start, I would have probably bought an entry level computerised machine that had 500 decorative stitches but didn’t have all the features that my current machine has. Because when you’re starting out, you don’t know what’s important to you. And if I had spent that much money already, I would have found it hard to justify upgrading to the machine I have now.

Do you have any thoughts about which machines are best to start out with? I’d love to know what you think.