Our Top Sewing Tips

We know how much you love to buy handmade items whenever the shopping opportunity arises – there’s nothing like supporting homegrown artisan designer-makers in their endeavours and buying something truly one of a kind, and seeing what they can make often proves to be the inspiration we need to start our own crafty projects.

When it comes to sewing, people are often quite daunted by the idea of starting something up, as they think it’s awfully complicated and they wouldn’t know where to begin. But there are a few tools you can buy that will help, and we’re not just talking needles and a pin cushion here (although they’re also useful).

If you’d like to try your hand at a quilt, for example, you should go out and get yourself a rotary cutter straight away as this will save you so much cutting out time. And when it gets a bit blunt, simply fold some tin foil a couple of times and slice away on it with your blunt cutter, which should sharpen it up again.

Always keep a pair of sewing scissors to hand as well and do your best not to use them to cut anything else. They need to be super sharp in order to cut through fabric easily and if you use them to cut something like paper for example they’ll go blunt really quickly.

Don’t forget about seam allowances when making items as well, no matter what they are. This is the distance between your seam line where you stitch your pieces of fabric together and the cut edge of the material. If you don’t include a seam allowance, when you turn the fabric out the right way around, your end piece will be a whole lot smaller than you intended!

For more suggestions to help you get to grips with sewing, have a look at these expert ideas from pattern producer Simplicity. And if you like sewing, check out the handmade scarves we’ve got in stock in our online shop right now.