Beginners Sewing Course - Day 3 - Sewing Basics Video Lecture | Sewing: A Tutorial for Beginners - Fashion Designing

hello and welcome to day three of the
beginners crash course in sewing
hopefully you enjoyed day one and two
and have lent it a bit by now so four
days for you we're going to go back to
the machine and I want to go through
stitching garments and products that you
might be making on the machine I'm
having a little look about changing the
length of the stitch and also sorting
out any tension problems that you might
be having
okay so join me back here in a minute
and we get started so before we move on
to the sewing machine we're going to
start by pinning and preparing the
fabric now if you're sewing two bits
together we need our right sides to be
together so we're sewing with the wrong
side facing up now one tip I do have and
this is when I'm making garments is that
I sew from the bottom or the hem of a
garment up now this goes for the hem of
the skirt or trousers or hem of a sleeve
up okay now the reason behind this is
that if you're sewing up this way and
you get a tiny bit of slippage on the
machine and at the top here they don't
quite match up like that then this is
going into another seam in second so it
actually doesn't matter whereas if you
have that little bit of slippage at the
bottom edge or the hem edge of the
garment it's very difficult when you're
at home alone trying to work out where
your hem is straight and what's wrong
with it so I'd always recommend sewing
from the hem of a garment up I also
think about the way that my sewing is
going to all my garments going to go
through the machine so the bulk of the
fabric needs to be on the left because
you've got a little nook in the machine
on the right so obviously the majority
of fabric can't go through that area to
keep it nice and flat so we're going to
be sewing from the hem up with the bulk
of the fabric on the left and therefore
when it comes to pinning we're going to
pin from the bottom with our pin heads
facing towards us that will mean that
they're easy to remove as we're sewing
up this seam so it's all about you know
what's the easiest method of doing
something if you were to place your pins
with the head away from you you'd find
it very difficult to actually have to
get around the machine to take those out
it also means as you get better and your
sewing things more accurate
me you can actually remove the pin as
you're sewing if you need to to make
sure that you've really got the stitches
in the right place now for a straight
seam you don't need that many pins just
enough to hold the two layers flat
together for a curved seam however you
will need more and just make sure as
you're pinning in the seam allowance
that everything sits nice and flush and
flat as it will do when it's sewn in the
machine my one tip for pins really is
that as a beginner I would recommend
getting a pin with a head on it these
are glass headed pins which are better
than them plastic because obviously they
don't melt with the iron if you find
that you do have trouble making the hole
pinning motion then maybe I would
recommend that you go for some longer
pins these are the shorter glass headed
pins but you can purchase them in
different lengths and you will find that
the whole of the pinning motion does
become easier with a longer pin
underneath okay so if what you pin and
prepare your fabric ready for sewing
then I'll join you back here at the
sewing machine as you can see here my
fabric is pinned and ready to go I'm
going to be sewing from the hem of my
garment up my pins are in my seam
allowance and the head of the pin is
facing me so that it's easy for me to
remove that as I'm sewing on the machine
now we're going to be sewing a snore
--ml basic straight stitch which is what
you will be using most of the time when
you're sewing so I just wanted to go
through with you the setup that you will
need on this particular machine
obviously compare this to your manual to
see the stitch length and width that you
may need on your machine now we're going
to be going with stitch number 1 that is
our straight stitch that length now in
terms of the lenss
I would aim for 2 or 2.5 millimeters
that will be perfect for a standard
straight stitch now the width which is
the green dollop here on this machine
doesn't really come into play when
you're working with a straight stitch
because there is no width involved in
the stitch the best way to think about
this is when you're using a zigzag in a
zigzag you need the width as well as the
length but with a straight stitch you're
only moving forward so you only need the
length so in terms of what does the
width do the width for a straight stitch
positions where the needle is sitting in
the foot here we wanted to sit in the
center of the foot on this machine and
that is number five so in the center of
the foot the needle will be in line with
our guidelines on the edge here and be
sewing 5/8 1.5 centimeters if we line
the edge of the fabric up with the guide
your machine may be slightly different
so please do check your manual so join
me back here and we will do a close-up
of us sewing before we start selling you
want to make sure that your threads are
underneath the foot and out of the way
so either to the side or to the back of
the machine
you also want to make sure that there
are reasonable lengths are not too short
now we're going to be working with this
little magnetic seam guide here which I
have found to be very useful for in
beginners classes now hopefully you can
see on the machine there are lots of
lines here with different numbers on
them and these are different seam
allowance lines to help you as a guide
we're going to be working with the
standard seam allowance on most patterns
which is 1.5 centimeters five-eighths of
an inch so you would either use these as
a guide to run the fabric along so if we
position the fabric there the edge of
the fabric would be along the line that
you've got here on the plate of the
machine however if you want to use one
of these magnets all you need to do is
pop the magnet edge onto the line there
and you should find that you can run the
fabric along the edge of the magnets and
as long as the fabric doesn't curl up
that so you don't want it ever curling
up like this you want to make it sit
flat and flush with the magnet for
accuracy okay so I think we're ready to
get started now in terms of starting
stitching most people ask where do you
start stitching you do want to stitch as
close to the edge as possible however
you will find with most machines that
they find it they're very difficult to
feed a fabric through the machine if you
start right at this edge here because
the little feed dogs can't grab enough
of the fabric to pull it through so I
would say aim to start about a quarter
of an inch of five millimeters away so
if we position it in
there will be perfect and then we're
going to put foot down okay so always
start sewing with the foot down the
other thing I like to do when I start
sewing is to put my needle down and to
do that I'm going to turn the handwheel
on their side of the machine towards me
and I want you while you do this to hold
tightly onto the threads here and
there's a couple of reasons why you want
to put the needle down to start and one
of them is so that the threads here
don't pop out of the needle and you'll
find you have to rethread the needle
again which can happen if you start
sewing very quickly the other thing is
that it makes sure that the machine is
happy that it's working okay your
needles okay you haven't got any bulk
underneath the fabric there and the
needles got into the fabric okay so when
you start sewing you want to start
sewing with a forwards and then
backwards stitch now with this you want
to aim to have about two or three
stitches forwards and then two or three
stitches backwards and the reason why
you don't want more is that it can add
too much bulk to the seam especially
when you move on to making more
professional and great quality items so
we've gone backwards and forwards and
now we're just going to stitch forward
along the whole length of this theme
obviously lining it up here in line with
our seam allowance guide and if you've
got a machine that has got an ability to
allow it to go slower you're more than
welcome to do that
I'm obviously taking the pins out here
as I go you never want to sew over those
that can damage the Machine the needle
and your fabric and so yes if you do
have a machine with an ability to slow
down then you're more than welcome to do
that and just go a pace that feels
comfortable for you and we would sew all
the way down the seam here the length of
the seam removing the pins as we go
I'm making sure that we're sewing the
5/8 1.5 centimeters accurately now when
you get to the bottom we're going to go
backwards and forwards again and this
will seal off the stitch very nicely so
almost as close to the bottom as you can
a couple of stitches forwards a couple
of stitches if your needle doesn't
finish up you will need to turn the
handwheel on the side of the machine to
lift it okay and then to finish we will
lift our foot and pull the fabric out
now if you find that your fabric gets a
little bit quartz here and you can't
pull it all you will need to do is turn
the handwheel and twist it on the side
of the machine and that will just
release the threads all it means is that
the threads are trying to stitch another
stitch so you need to just release them
in order to remove the fabrics smoothly
from the machine now my fabric is on my
machine sorry has got a cutter on the
side so I can cut off my threads nice
and neatly there if you haven't got one
of those then please do keep on top of
them and trim them with a little pair of
scissors so we have now sewn our
standard theme next we're going to have
a little look at tension problems
looking at tension on the sewing machine
I firstly wanted to start by showing you
a good example of stitching on the
machine now we're going to be working
here with a blue needle thread and this
is the side that you would see as you
are sewing and a pink bobbin thread so
this is the underside as you are sewing
okay now as you can see here this stitch
sits perfectly in the fabric and that's
what you want from a good stitch you
want the stitch to sit evenly between
the layer or layers of fabric and you
don't want to see the needle thread on
the bobbin side or the bobbin thread on
the needle side so this is a good
example of tension now what I would
recommend is that whenever you're
starting a new project that you do
double check your tension settings so
test a little bit of your new fabric on
the machine to test what stitch you want
to use what length and width of the
stitch do you want to use how does the
tension perform and do you need to
change the needle or the machine foot so
double check all of those things before
you start your project so we're going to
move on now to look at bad tension now
this is an example of bad tension as you
can see here the blue thread that is the
needle thread is too tight so the needle
thread tension is too tight allowing the
bobbin thread the pink bobbin thread to
come from the wrong side to the right
side as I mentioned before this is the
side you would see as you were sewing
the needle thread side facing up so how
do you correct this well you need to
loosen the needle thread tension okay
because the needle thread tension is too
tight pulling up the bobbin thread and
to loosen the thread tension you need to
lower the number on the machine now I'm
working with a Husqvarna Viking emerald
series machine so I need to lower the
number on my tension dial which I will
show you when we get back to the machine
in a second
but I would recommend that you check
your own manual for your machine and
check how it recommends that you change
the tension dial so what about if things
were to happen in the office
that way so here is an example of the
needles thread tension being too loose
now from the top side this is the side
you would see as you were sewing it
doesn't look too bad really looks maybe
a little bit loose but it doesn't look
too bad if you were to turn this over
then the problem you would see because
you can see here that because the needle
thread tension is too loose it appears
on the wrong side so it appears on the
bobbin side so all the little blue bits
are coming through there so you can see
it from the wrong side of the fabric so
how do you amend this to amend this you
need to tighten the needle thread
tension and to do that you need to move
the tension dial to a higher number okay
so to tighten the needle thread we're
going to a higher number so hopefully
these two different things of tension
have hopefully answered a few questions
that you may have when it comes to
tension on your machine as I mentioned
before it's always best to test your
fabric your thread and what you're going
to be working on before you start and
have any of these problems on the real
item join me back here and we will look
at the machine and how to actually amend
the tension dial on the sewing machine
so I wants to point out where on the
machine you would actually amend the
tension settings that we discussed in
the last part of the tutorial on this
machine here is the dial for dealing
with the tension now I tend to leave the
machine on for and to be honest I very
rarely have a problem with the tension
on this machine I would check your
manual on your machine to see where the
tension dial is and whether you need to
increase or decrease the number to
resolve your issue now as we mentioned
in the last part of the tutorial if we
need to loosen the needle thread tension
we'll be going to a lower number so we
could be trying to three or even one if
we need to go back to four now
and loosening the needle thread tension
is and if you remember this is the side
that you will see as the needle thread
tension so when the bobbin thread was
coming
onto this side that you could see you
would need to loosen the needle thread
tension by going to a lower number
now when the needle thread was going to
the underside so when the stitch looked
fine from the top side but the needle
threader is going to the underside it
meant that you need to tighten the
needle tension and therefore you need to
go to a higher number so hopefully that
part of the territorial has made sense
and I just wanted to really go through
with you how I actually put my fabrics
through the machine and how I hold my
fabric and a little bit about pinning
before we move on to a couple of extra
stitches now as you saw before I tends
to pin my fabric down in the stitching
line or the seam allowance should I say
down this edge here with my pins in the
perfect direction to be taken out easily
so the glass head of the pin facing
towards me should be slightly clearer
with the Calico here so I tend to always
work pinning in this direction now
there's nothing wrong with pinning in
the other direction I know a lot of
people that put the place the pins in
horizontally and there's nothing wrong
with that but just to explain to you why
I position them in like this I find if
you pin in horizontally you'll be able
to actually absorb more ease so two
layers of fabric would fit together
easier but as you're putting it through
the Machine you might find that they
don't sew together quite so easily
whereas if you're pinning here you want
to be pinning as the machine will be
stitching the fabric it will be in the
same way that the Machine would stitch
the fabric and therefore if you can pin
it together like this it should sew
together as I mentioned before obviously
it means the pins are easy to take out
heads towards you when they're in
sideways like this it can be very easy
to sew over them which I would never
recommend obviously it's bad for the
Machine it's bad for your needle and it
can also ruin at the fabric and project
that you're working on the other thing I
wanted to point out is obviously that I
do pin in what would be my seam
allowance so as to not damage my fabric
if you are working with a delicate
fabric now if your pins are going and
horizontally like this the little sharp
ends are exposed and often we pin a
project then we put it
one side for a few days and you could
easily fold your project up without
realizing it and all of a sudden these
little pointed ends have scabbed some of
the beautiful fabric and project that
you're working on so as I said there's
no wrong or right way I just wanted to
be clear to you as to why I do the
things that I went the way that I do and
obviously you can give it a go try and
see if you like it if you don't then not
to worry so I've got another piece of
garment here hem up as before and my
pins I in the right position now I'm
going to place this in I'm going to be
using the 5/8 or one point 5 centimeter
line here I haven't got my magnetic
scene guide now and I'm going to be
starting with the fabric as we mentioned
before about a quarter of an inch five
millimeters passed the needle and I'm
going to be putting my foot down
now as we mentioned before and I just
wanted you to see this as a big picture
because we were slightly closed up
before and is that with the first thing
we want to do is obviously put the
needle down and I think I explained
before why that is holding the threads
to be sure that they don't wimp out of
the needle as we start sewing and then
as before we're going to go a couple of
stitches forward a couple of stitches
backwards and I'm going to remove my
first pin so we'll improvise two or
three stitches forwards two or three
sections backwards perfect and then
we're going to start sewing along now
this is the bit I really want to show
you because I wanted to show you how I
hold my fabric and how I put it through
the machine the key here you never want
to push it and you never want to pull it
okay the machine will take your fabric
happily okay so you should never have to
do either of those things and obviously
really when you're doing this you should
be watching the guys the most important
thing when you're sewing is watching the
guide where are you sewing because if
you don't sew the 1.5 centimeters all
the five-eighths that the pattern has
predicted you should so you may find
that your garment doesn't fit or that
your product is smaller or larger than
you thought it should be so this is the
most important thing you do not need to
worry about watching the needle
okay so I'm not looking at the needle at
all I'm just looking at my guide the
needle will do its own thing it's not
going to come and get me you just need
to watch the guides and watch where you
the fabric is lining up on the plate
here now I tend to have my hands pretty
much flat flat on the fabric and just
feed it through the machine just allow
the machine to take it I put my foot on
the pedal and very soft and smoothly
does it I pretty much always have my
left hand flat like this and that will
be as I said to let it go through the
machine smoothly it's also to feel I may
use my fingers now and again to check
that what I'm feeding up here and
doesn't have any gathers in it it's
smooth I haven't accidentally caught
another bit of fabric and that would
definitely become prominent when you're
working with maybe more difficult
projects I often use either use my right
hand really flat like this or I may hold
my fabric I often do this when I'm Sam
inserting a sleeve or something that
maybe has had been gathered or eased to
fit and I'll be using my fingers
underneath the fabric here and my thumb
to really make sure that I'm not feeding
in any lumps and bumps so I'll be
checking that everything that I'm
feeding in as smooth taking pins out as
we go and so that's really how I sell
how I find the best way to place my
collaborative machine but you may find
even prefer a different way and that
doesn't matter is whatever you feel
comfortable doing at the end of the day
and how you get a good result as we come
to the end here again we're going right
near the edge of the fabric and we're
going to go backwards two or three
stitches forwards tiller three stitches
my needle has now finished down so I
need to raise my needle hand wheel on
side I'm going to raise that up perfect
and then I'm going to lift up the foot
pull the fabric as I said before if this
gets caught you all you need to do is
wiggle the wheel on the side to release
it and then I've got a little cutting
blade on the edge of my machine that
will allow me to cut off my fabric now I
have been left with a few tails so I
will grab a little Pro scissors and trim
knees if you haven't got a cutter I
would cut your threads and really try
and keep on top of this because they can
get caught at other seams and they can
make the finished project look messy
so now we've gone over the tension and
how to put the fabrics through the
machine we're going to look at a couple
of different variations on the straight
stitch we're going to be looking at
amending the length of the straight
stitch and working with a larger length
and a shorter length of the straight
stitch so join me back here so we can do
that so when I want you to have a play
with the stitch length and this is the
stitch length dial here and we're going
to start by turning this to number four
which is going to give us a longer
stitch length we're still going to be
working with a straight stitch we're
just going to be having a play with the
length of the stitch and as I mentioned
before obviously the width of the stitch
doesn't count with a straight stitch
that's just where the needle is
positioned in the foot of the machine so
now we've changed our stitch length to
four millimeters and we're going to see
what that looks like we're going to
start by putting the foot down and
putting our needle in holding on to our
threads now this is a good time to
really practice these stitches and also
practice with your guide here I'm going
to be using the one point five
centimeter five-eighths but you could
work with a different one and really get
a feel for watching this and not the
needle now with this stitch length four
we will not be going backwards and
forwards because when you're using this
stitch you will rarely need to do that
so we're just going to start sewing
following obviously the guide here now
this is a much larger stitch and this is
the stitch that will predominately be
used when in a pattern it talks about
gathering or easing so easing is when
maybe you've got two bits of fabric one
that is slightly bigger than the other
that needs to shrink in gathering is
when maybe you need to do much more of
that so it need to be shrunk in a lot
more to create the sort of gathered
effect so as we get to the end here our
needle is up we're going to lift the
foot pull on our fabric and cut that off
there now with a stitch length four you
don't want to trim the ends because we
want to be left with the
tails because what we're going to
actually do is pull on the tail and you
can put on either side there we go
and as you can see that it's going to be
gathering the fabric up okay when you're
doing this stitch in a pattern you will
always want to do more than one row so
the pattern will always suggest probably
two or three rows very close to each
other because that's what will give you
what is called an even gather whereas
this is very sort of in and out of the
stitching and doesn't look very neat if
you've got more than one row the tension
will be bathroom because of the
different stitches next to each other
you'll find that this will look much
neater and will be very even so that is
the stitch length for have a place see
how you get on now we're going to move
on to doing what would happen if we
decrease the stitch length then we're
going to be changing our stitch length
dial to 1.5 millimeters so please join
me in doing so now we're going to be
again I would use this as a good time to
practice lining up your fabric with one
of the guides here we're going to be
putting the foot down and again holding
the threads as we drop our needle now
this is going to be a much smaller
stitch length okay and with this stitch
length you would normally go backwards
and forwards so we're going to go
forwards a couple of stitches and that
was a couple of stitches now if your
machine has got a button that actually
locks for this then that would be
absolutely fine you can use that and
actually lock off the stitch rather than
using the reverse and we're going to sew
down the length of this piece of fabric
obviously this is a smaller stitch so it
will take longer to get to the end of
the fabric
and this is a stitch that's
predominately used for reinforcing so if
you've got a corner or a weak area
potentially a garment or a product I
would use this stitch because it's
smaller it will be stronger and will
take more wear and tear now I want to
get to the end we're going to go
backwards a couple of stitches and
forwards a couple now if you find that
your needle does and in the fabric
obviously you would raise that either by
using the hand wheel or you may find on
your machine that you have got actually
a raised pop and down button you're more
than welcome to use that too we're going
to lift the foot we're going to pull our
fabric and cut that off and obviously we
would then trim our tails on this stitch
so as you can see here this is a much
smaller stitch and mothers it's
predominately used for reinforcement now
really what I would do now is go and
have a play have a play with the
straight stitch increase the length
decrease the length and really get to
know your machine practice sewing and
practice using the guides because that's
where the accuracy comes in there I hope
you've enjoyed this tutorial and I look
forward to seeing you in lesson 4