New to sewing?? First step- get a machine!

What to look for when purchasing a sewing machine.

A friend asked for help when choosing a sewing machine. She has never owned a machine or sewn before- I thought I would turn it into a blog.

The first question is –what are you looking to make? Once you know that- you will know what features to look for.

If you are a first time sewing- you can honestly make a million things with the most basic of sewing machines. Ask yourself what is your budget. Because you will not only have the cost of the machine, but all the accessories you need/want to work with as well.

Singerco.com is a great resource to see what the different features on a machine are. Even if you don’t buy a singer machine it is nice to look at the different model features.

When looking at the features –here are what each “feature” means.  These are for basic models, none electronic sewing machines only.

-Stitches-

                -a strait stitch is all you need for most sewing needs for the first time sewer. The list of everything you can make with a strait stitch is endless. You will want to make sure the machine offers adjustable stich lengths.

                -zig zag stitch- even most basic models most likely have this- you can use this to reinforce different kinds of “edges” when you don’t have a serger. You can also use this to add appliques, patches, and different decorative additions- for me, that’s a necessity.

                -Back stitch- a must! Back stitching means when you start sewing a line, if you just go from point A to point B then you can easily rip out that stitch and your final project will not withstand wear and tear, the washing machine, it might not even last while you are finishing your project.

                -Decorative stitches- Honestly, My sewing machine has something like 170 decorative stitches, I can honestly say I do use these very often at all. Now, you could ask other people and they would say they couldn’t make a single project without a decorative stitch. For me- it’s just not a must. Most of the time, the more expensive the machine the more decorative stitches you get.

                -Double stitch- this stich is basically two forward, one back, two forward, one back, etc… This is a must if you are making things that need to withstand a lot of wear and tear, multiple times in the washing machine, something like a throw pillow that will be “stuffed” tight.

-Button holes-

                -for me, I need a button hole. I love adding buttons to purses, pillows, clothes, etc… Most of the time a basic machine has this also, but usually only 1 kind. The more expensive- the more options you will have.

-Bobbins-

                -The bobbin is the “under-side” stitch. This is a smaller spool of thread that goes on the bottom of the machine. It is nice to have a “drop in” bobbin- they save a lot of time. But it is not something I consider a necessity. What is a necessity is a built in bobbin winder. To be honest I don’t know if I have ever seen a machine that doesn’t have this, but I don’t personally know EVERY single model ever made, so just know it’s something to look for.

-Snap on pressure feet-

                - Most newer sewing machines offer this on all models. This is only something to care about if you are always doing different stitches. It possibly saves a couple seconds but not anything I think should be a deal breaker.

-Automatic needle threader-

                -A MUST in my eyes. This is usually not in the most basic of models. This saves so much time; I use this every time I thread my machine.

-Free arm-

                -this is where the bottom of the machine can come off to allow for easier stitching around things like leg holes for hemming.  For me, it’s a must.

-Extension table-

                -Again, for me this is a must. Even if I am not sewing a large project I still use this more than half of the time. It keeps more of the fabric flat and it is easier to keep your stitch where you want it to be.

Electronic machines-

-this is the sewing machine I have and LOVE!

     -The benefit to having an electronic machine is the “electronic” part of it. There really isn’t another way to say it. My husband got me my first electronic sewing machine about 2 years ago and I will never go back!

                -I know exactly which pressure foot I need for each stitch

                -The button hole feature is automatic. I place my button in the pressure foot and hit start- that’s it!

                -you can replicate an exact stitch. For example if you are sewing a strait stich, then add a button and want to go back to that same strait stich. If you are using a basic sewing machine you might have had the dial turned a fraction of a turn and it comes out looking different. With the electronic sewing machine you know for a fact- the length of your stitch is a “2.5” and not “2” or “3”.

                -just the fact that it is so user friendly. If you have everything ready and you start to press on the pedal and nothing goes- with a basic machine you don’t know what the problem is. Is it that the pressure foot came loose? Is the bobbin thread stuck? When using an electronic machine it tells you the error code. It is so much easier to tell what you are sewing, and if you have an electronic model you most likely have all of the above “features”

Embroidery machines-

                -they are exactly what they sound like. They embroider designs. Now, I don’t have an embroidery machine (although, I would like one) I work with a professional embroider at work and I hear all about it from her.

                -Depending on which machine you buy, there will be different designs that the machine comes with. If you have something other than those designs you will have to purchase a DST file –otherwise known as a digitized file.  I see them for sale on etsy all the time. But you can also work with an online company to digitize a custom piece of art for you. The price ranges from just a few bucks to hundreds of dollars depending on how detailed the design.

                -You will need to purchase the different colored threads. You can get them from any online site, but Madeira is one of the top online sites for embroidery thread that I have heard of.

                -The usually have a couple different alphabets built in- this is my personal favorite feature and what makes me want to get one.

Serger-

                -A serger is a sewing machine that cuts and sews an edge stitch at the same time. Chances are- If you go grab a T-shirt out of your closet and look at the inside arm holes- they have been finished with a serger. You CAN use a serger to sew things together and not need to sew with a machine for SOME of the stitching. Something I use my serger for is sewing a pillow case- I use my serger for 3 of the sides then I use my sewing machine to fold down the open pocket area.

                -You need to purchase special serger thread.

                -for me, its hard to learn to use a serger and get all of the dials figured out on how long and tight each piece of thread should be

                -they usually have 4-5 different spools needed. So when you purchase thread you cannot work with just 1 spool.

So now that you know what each machine does, you have to think to yourself what you need out of a machine. A basic machine can do a million projects, but if you are going to be doing a lot of things I personally would recommend spending a little more on an electronic one.  

Look out for my next posts-

                Sewing accessories

                How to sew for the first time

How to make a Boppy Cover

1- Start with your fabric. I picked a soft minky fabric for the front and a flannel for the back. I used 1.5 yards for the back, and 1 yard for the front.

2- Get a boppy :)

3- lay the boppy on top of the fabric you want the front of the cover to me- make sure to put the WRONG side of the fabric up

4-Take a pen and trace about 2" around the entire boppy

5- This picture is hard to see, but if you look closely you can see my pen markings around the boppy.

6- Start cutting out the cover- what I like to do is cut out exactly 1/2 of the pattern first.

7- Once you have that first half cut out, gently lay it over the other half and match it up as closely as you can to the other side- this will make sure your pattern is even on both sides and you will not have one side tighter then the other.

8- You now have the front!

9- Now you start on the back side- lay your front piece on top of the back piece. RIGHT SIDE UP for both. What you will want to do is leave 4-5 inches on overlap on the top. You can see in the picture how I layed mine out.

Cut out the bottom fabric.

10- Now you will want to lay out the top piece onto the bottom piece again, but do the top part this time. Lay it over about 9-10". I like to use that middle "U" shape as the spot I place the bottom fabric to.

Cut out that top shape too. It should look like a half of an oval.

11- This is the top half

12- The bottom half

13- Take the strait edges on both the top and bottom pieces of the back and iron them about 1/2" over. Then fold that over 1" and iron again.

14- Stitch a strait line on the inside edge to keep that folded edge clean

15- Once you have both the top and bottom half ironed and stitched for the back side of the cover you can now put the front and back together.

First- place the front side (brown) FACING UP

second- place the top half of the back side (white) FACING DOWN

third- place the bottom half of the back side (white) FACING DOWN

*note- the top half and the bottom half of the back side should overlap a few inches of eachother- you want this!

16- Pin around the whole edges

I also like to put a couple pins in the middle along the strait lines just to keep it from coming open.

17- Stitch 3/4" front the entire edges. I like to use a double stitch so that it holds longer- you will be washing and taking on and off the cover- you want your stitches to hold.

18- Cut notches around all of the edges

19- This is what your cover should look like if you open the middle pockets

20- Pull the cover right side out through the opened pocket. Make sure to go around all of the edges and poke out the curves.

Its hard to see in this picture- but there is a pillow like flap - thats how you will put the boppy in.

This is the front side.

What it looks like with a boppy in it. Again- its hard to see with the pattern in the fabric -but there is the pocket there.

If you needed to, you could add some velcro to keep the pocket closed.

YOUR FINISHED!

Photo Wall- How to

A few people have asked me to describe how I made my daughters photo wall from my post about redecorating her room. see it here.

So here goes.

Materials-

2x4 piece of wood cut to the length you want your wall covered. I believe the one I did was 8 feet long
Paint (I used black)
Eye hooks (I used 10)
wall mounting screws- 4-5 (for newbies to home repair- PLEASE have someone who has done this before do this- you don't want huge holes in your wall!)
power drill
Buttons that do not have holes in the middle you can see through- 4-5
Ribbon -about 20 yards- can be different kinds but it was best when i used at least 1/3" thick and a more sturdy ribbon
Hot glue gun- glue
frames- 60 (i got these ones from Ikea)
Pictures- 60 (4x6)

OK, so the beginning step is when you either need to be versed in the handyman trade- or have a lovely husband who is. Since I am not I had my husband help!

Paint your 2x4 (ok, maybe you don't need a husband for that one!) - LET DRY COMPLETELY!

Drill screws into your 2x4 at even lengths across. This will be HEAVY when its done- so please make sure to do enough because you don't want this falling down! Our wood was 8" long and we did 5 screws.

Drill 10 eye hooks (or however many you want) at even lengths across the 2" side of the 2x4. Please make sure to leave enough room between so the pictures do not touch. I believe we did every 10 inches.

Now you can screw the wall mounts into the wall and then your 2x4 into the wall mounts. (again- lining those up is not the easiest- you will need help even if you are good at doing it to have someone hold this up for you)

After that is in you can cover the screw holes with buttons- I just used my trusty glue gun to put them on.

Now comes the pictures - the frames from ikea are nice because they have the "clip" holders in them. Each picture normally has 4 clips (one one each side) I alternated landscape and portrait as I put the backs onto the ribbon.

First you cut your ribbon to the length of however many pictures your putting in each column. I did 6 pictures (any more then that was too heavy for the ribbon). Since I alternated landscape and portrait I needed to allow for 36" if pictures, 1" in between each picture and another 10" for the top to allow for connecting it to the eye hooks. So each piece of ribbon needs to be 51" long.

Start by taking a back piece of the frame (the cardboard piece) and popping out all of the holes the clips would sit in.

Next alternate portrait and landscape and weave the ribbon through the holes hot gluing the whole part that touches the cardboard. Repeat this until you have a ribbon strand with 6 cardboard pieces with 1" in between each.

After you have that you can put your pictures in (I put a little dot of glue to keep those in too).

Cover your pictures with the glass that came with them and place the clips on the 2 remaining holes the ribbon is not through.

Repeat this for all 10 ribbons (make sure to have 5 start with a landscape frame, and 5 with a portrait frame)

Once those are done carefully tie the top piece of the ribbon to the eye hooks and you are done!

Please make sure to put this high enough little hands cannot get to or in a room little kids will not be in- if this was to fall on a child it would hurt them very badly!

If you make something like this I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see how it turns out! Please share!

1st sewing tutorial- Laptop sleeve/bag!

I have never done this before, so hopefully I took enough pictures for you to understand what I am talking about. My 13 year old stepdaughter had been begging us for a laptop for the last couple of years, and last year for her birthday we finally got her a net book. I had made her a case for it then, but she came to me last week and said she wanted one that wasn't "kiddish". As I wiped a tear thinking she was no longer a kid, I took her to the fabric store and let her pick her own fabric.

What you will need-
Fabric- Depending on the size of your computer this will change, this computer is very small so I got 1 yard of each and had left overs
Batting- 1/2 yard will be more then enough- but again, depends on your computer
Sewing machine
Thread
Needle
Magnetic clip
Seam Ripper
Iron
Ruler/Cutting mat
Scissors

First, pick your fabric, with the design I am doing, I got 1 yard of each and had PLENTY left over.

Take your laptop and measure 2" around each side and cut 4 pieces, 2 for the exterior, 2 for the interior. For the pattern I'm doing I put the black and white inside, and one side mainly black and white, the other the zebra, so I cut 1 zebra print, 3 black and white.

Also cut 2 pieces of batting the same size.

After you have your panels, set those aside, you now cut the strap fabric. I find the best way to measure this is to take the height of the computer times 2, and add 8 inches for a smaller strap. My bags straps were 28 inches long.

cut 2 strips of 1 fabric 28"x3"

cut 2 strips of the other fabric 28"x4"

Iron the straps so that you bring the raw edges inward to the center on each side. Do this with all 4 strips, they will be 1.5" and 2" wide once you do this.

Once you have those ironed, place one of the smaller strips against the larger with the raw edges facing inward toward each other. 

Make sure the smaller strap is in the center of the larger, and pin.

Sew a strait stitch 1/8" inside the SMALLER strap, making sure you are going through both the small and large strap. Sew down both sides back stitching at the beginning and end of each.

When you are done, this is what your strap should look like on either side. You should have 2 straps now.

I am adding a strip of ruffled zebra print to the outside black and white side of the bag. Kylie didn't know if she wanted this or not until after I had cut the outside pieces already so I will have to go back a cut those a little later. I cut a strip that is the width of the outside pieces times 2. So if your outside pieces are 16" long, then cut a strip 32" x 3".

Make sure your machine is set to the longest stitch length (5 is the highest on my machine). Sew a strait line right down the middle of that strip, the long way. DO NOT BACK STITCH.

Very carefully hold one of the string ends and pull your fabric slowly to the middle so that it ruffles up. You will need to even it out as you go.

Put your ruffled fabric against a front piece to make sure it is long enough and even out the ruffles.

Iron the strap so the ruffles will stay.

Next I forgot to take a picture of it, but its not hard to explain. Take the front piece of fabric and decide where you want your ruffle, Ky liked hers closer to the top so I cut the front piece about 1/3 of the way down- just strait across it width way.

Then very carefully pin the smaller piece of black and white, to one of the edges of the ruffle strip right sides facing each other, make sure that the ruffles edges are pinned so no pieces are missed which can happen if you have larger ruffles and don't pay attention to lining up the edges.

Remember to put your stitch back to a normal setting (mine is 2.5). Back stitching at both ends make a strait stitch 1/4" in.

Do those same steps with the larger piece of black and white also. Once you have sewn both sides, iron the raw edges and then take the whole piece (which should have your ruffle in it) and cut it down to the same size as the other front pieces (remember this is because I didn't know Ky wanted the strap when we first cut out the panels).

 Here is what your front should look like. Don't worry about the fabric markings on the one side, those will not be seen when we sew the front to the back.

I like to have a "finished" look so I did a strait stitch 1/8" on either side of the ruffles inside edges and outside edges, it will look like this when you are done. (make sure to back stitch).

For the other side Kylie wanted a pocket, so I cut 2 pieces 5"x8". Put the two pieces right side together and sew one of the 5" sides together, back stitching the ends.

Again- forgot to take a picture, but once you have those sewn together, flip them so they are right sides out, only the one side should be sewn together. Iron it so the edge is flat and do a strait stitch 1/4" from the edge, back stitching at the ends.

OK, now you will start to see what your bag will look like! Place the front piece face up and place the black and white pieces you just did the top side with, making sure the open bottom is on the bottom edge. Make sure this is center! Once you have done that take one of the straps and pin it over the edges of the pocket. This is why you didn't need to sew the sides- they will be covered by the straps. Double check all of your measurements to make sure the straps are the same distance to the left and right edges of the front piece. This is very important because you don't want uneven straps.

Do the same with the strap on the other side, and just to make sure, place your two sides outside pieces together to make sure the straps are the exact same on both sides.

Once that is pinned, sew on the very edge of the strap (the zebra print) back stitching the ends. Sew up one side, across the strap amount 2" from the end, and back down the other side of the strap. Repeat this for all 4 sides of the straps (2 sides on each panel). Be sure to make sure there are no twisted parts of the strap.

You now see what your bag will look like! 

For the next steps I like to pin down the handles so they are out of the way. This is what it looks like on the ruffled side.

Now take your outside piece, one of the lining pieces, and one of the batting pieces and sew them together on the top 1/2" in. the lining and outside pieces face each other and I put the batting on the lining side because it helps keep the magnetic clip in place without needing stabilizer.

Do this for both side. You should now have 2 long pieces, both having one outside and one lining sewn together on the top side of the outside piece.

 Now you put your button, the button will go on the lining side, exactly half way in between the straps, and about 1/2" from the top. Use your seam ripper to EXTREMELY CAREFULLY slice 2 small holes through the lining fabric and the batting so put your clip in.

Once you have your clip in, flip the fabric over and this is what the other side should look like, place the inside piece of the clip and press down the two prongs inward of each other and make sure they are as flat as possible (sometimes I use a rubber hammer gently).

This is what it should look like when you flip it over.

Do this for both sides.

Ok, here is another part I forgot to take a picture of. I promise I will be better next time and try not to leave out so much. At this point you should have your 2 pieces both with straps and buttons and sewn to the lining. take one of these and place it face UP and the other face DOWN on top of it. A good way to match it up is to let the magnetic clip actually clip together while you pin it all around the edges.

Make sure the sides are exactly together, where the outside meets the lining. This part is very important and for not getting a picture I am sorry!

Now your ready to sew it together, on the lining side make sure to leave a 4-5" space- this is how you will flip it right side out. Make sure to back stitch at the start and end.

If you didn't understand that, you take the bottom edge of the lining and about 2-3" from one of the sides start sewing, go around the whole thing and when you get back around to the bottom side of the lining, only sew 2-3" in and stop. There should be a 4-5" gap (depending on your bag size).

Clip the corners and the part where the outside and lining meet- this is too think for most sewing machines to get through if you don't do this!

Flip everything right side out and sew the gap closed by hand and push the lining inside of the bag so you have your actual bag! YAY, you are almost done!

Change to a zipper foot - This is so we can get as close to the edge as possible.

Starting on one side, go all the way around the bag. This will help to keep the lining in place and give it a nice finished look.

You can now take the pins out of the handle and.... YOU'RE DONE!!!!!!!!

From start to finish it took me about 1 1/2 hours.

Here is the finished result!

Hope you enjoy, and send me pictures of your bags!