CraftsSelection Craft and Sewing Product Buying Guides

[CarlAllen]

CraftsSelection Guides: Essential Sewing Tools For Sewing Novice

Any sewing novice who jumped on a sewing machine without proper knowledge of sewing tools will likely fail to improve their sewing skills. There are many sewing tools available today, so sewing beginners should learn about the most basic and most used ones first. 

Cutting tools are part of the essential sewing tools every novice must learn about, and these comprise machine and hand-sewing tools. You will find the CraftsSelection.com Craft and Sewing Product Guides very useful for a beginner sewer. Now let us help you get familiar with the essential sewing tools for a sewing novice.

Sewing Needles

A novice probably doesn’t know that a hand-sewing needle differs from a sewing machine needle. Hand sewing needles are only suitable for sewing by hand, while machine sewing needles only work on sewing machines. 

Thimble

A thimble is a simple sewing tool that is mainly used for hand-sewing. It is a metal object made of plastic or leather and shaped like a bucket. It protects your fingers, especially when you pull a threaded needle through fabrics. You can opt for a simple thimble or a fancy one that works the same way. 

A Basic Sewing Machine

Every novice sewer must learn and have a primary sewing machine to learn the simple rules and techniques of sewing. From the primary sewing machines, beginners can move into more advanced and computerized options to complete different sewing projects.

Fabric Scissors

There are lots of different scissors for different purposes, and a novice will do just fine with the basic options at the beginning. Fabric scissors are designed to cut through layers of fabric, and they must be sharp enough to handle the thickest fabrics because cutting with dull scissors can damage any fabric. 

Embroidery Scissors

Embroidery scissors look similar to basic fabric scissors except that they can be used for some particular duties, such as clipping fabric curves. Embroidery scissors are more efficient in cutting threads, primarily if you work with different threads of varying thicknesses. 

Quilter Ruler

A quilter ruler is interchangeably used with the 18” ruler, but in actual sense, it is more efficient in handling sewing measurements than the 18” ruler. One of the main advantages of the quilter ruler is that it comes with a transparent design where you can see what you are measuring. You can use it to draw lines on patterned papers and to cut your fabric more accurately. 

Deciding on the type of ruler will depend on how often you sew and whether you indulge in quilting. Quilters will typically require more inches of measurement to measure fabrics, whereas the beginner or primary sewer may only need the 2 x 18” ruler. 

Seam Ripper

Your seam ripper may be the next most important tool after your sewing machine. Experts recommend that you go for bigger seam rippers that can be easily found. A seam ripper is a sewing tool used to cut and remove stitches from fabric. 

Learn more about seam rippers as well as other sewing tools for sewers onCraftsSelection Top Product Reviews.

Tape Measure

Just like your regular rulers, tape measures are also essential measuring tools for the sewing novice. The tape measure you choose doesn’t have to be fancy but ensures it is long enough to cover fabrics and other sewing items for complete measurement. Today, you can find tape measures designed in your favorite color or fun prints. 

Seam Gauge

Most sewing novices wouldn’t find these essential sewing tools useful until they find it difficult to measure the lengths of seams and hems. The seam gauge will help you determine your hem and seam allowances. 

Threads

Good threads make sewing a lot easier. They come in different strengths or thicknesses for different fabrics and sewing styles. Every novice sewer must invest in good quality threads if they want their fabric to hold together for a very long time. Poor quality threads are known to break and cause many sewing problems on the sewing machines, hence the need to buy the best quality options. 

Magnetic Pin Cushion

You can’t escape the need to use pins in sewing, and that is one reason why you should have this tool. The magnetic pin cushion will help your pins stay in one place. If you accidentally spin the pins, you can use your magnetic cushion to drag them back to one place. 

Magnetic cushions come in varying sizes, so you must choose one that is large enough to contain all your pins. You can use it to organize some other small metallic sewing objects. 

Fabric Pen or Tailor’s Chalk

You can use either a fabric pen or a tailor’s chalk to mark your fabric before cutting or sewing. Marks created with a tailor’s chalk and fabric pen can easily wash off your fabric. If you go for tailor’s chalk, make sure you avoid the one that comes with a wax, it doesn’t wash off easily on fabrics.

Rotary Cutter

Though the rotary cutter may not be an immediate need for novice sewers, it will surely make sense to have one. Rotary cutters can be used to cut out some patterns on fabric, especially where scissors can’t handle such cut-outs. Rotary cutters can handle square, and rectangular pattern cuts better than scissors. 

Other Essential Sewing Tools a Sewing Novice Should Consider

There are other sewing tools that can be useful to the sewing novice, even if they are not the most important things to buy. The self-healing mat, for instance, will be a great addition to your sewing tools. They can help remove cut marks on your sewing table or any other surface. 

If you use the rotary cutter, for instance, you should get a self-healing mat to protect the cutting surface. The French curve is another tool you can use in sewing patterns on fabric. It works like a ruler and you can adjust it to sew different designs on your fabric. This tool is also known for smoothening outlines on fabric. It would be best if you also got an ironing board to straighten out fabrics with a heat-press iron. 

Moreover, our List of Top Products CraftsSelection.com is the best place to find all necessary sewing tools a sewing novice will require for successful sewing.

[kongondo]

Hi @CarlAllen,

First, congratulations on your upcoming marriage. Wishing you every success in that and your move to the Netherlands.

The board you have posted in is meant for job postings, i.e. people looking to hire posting about available jobs and their requirements. As such, I will have to move your post to a different forum for general talk. In addition, I would suggest you post your interest and/or resume in dedicated job portals as it seems your requirements are not necessarily specific to ProcessWire. In any case, I wish you the very best of luck for the future.