Learn to Machine Sew Course

Welcome back to our Learn to Machine Sew series for beginner sewers! So far we’ve only worked on the straight stitch (and backstitch) and I think it’s way past time we start branching out into the other important stitch: the zig zag!

The zig zag stitch is wonderfully useful because, as the name implies, the stitch doesn’t just go in a straight line, but back and forth in a zig zag, covering more fabric and being more visible. Zig zags are useful for keeping fabric edges from fraying, joining cut fabric edges, general sewing when you need some stretch or decorative sewing, among many other uses. Today I’m going to focus on how to adjust this stitch and a couple of ways of sewing it. Want to learn more about how to zig zag stitch? Then read on!

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Welcome back to our Learn to Machine Sew series, a free online sewing course for beginners! If you haven’t been following the course from the start, take a look at the course syllabus so you can brush up on any techniques that you need help with. Last week we covered hemming and today we’ll talk about something that’s very useful when sewing bags or sacks: boxed corners!

I’d actually wanted to cover other techniques before this, but the practical tutorial for this sewing lesson is something useful for Christmas, so I’m bumping it up in the syllabus. I’m sure you don’t mind, right?!

What is a boxed corner? When you sew together two rectangles and stuff it in one way or another, the corners get quite pointy. You can see this in square pillows, for example (like when we sewed envelope pillow covers last week) or in little drawstring bags (like these ones that I modified for eco-gift wrapping). When you box the corners, they get squared off so that they are not pointy and the object becomes more three-dimensional, with a flat bottom that can stand up.

There are actually two different ways to do this technique, but the end result is exactly the same. I will cover both of them today, so read on if you want to learn how to sew boxed corners!

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Welcome back to our Learn to Machine Sew course for beginners! In our last lesson we talked about how to turn and topstitch, which is a technique in which we sew two pieces of fabric together with a clean finish on the edges. Today we’re going to talk about something somewhat similar: hemming.

When you hem, you fold over and sew the raw edge of a single piece of fabric so that it looks nicer and doesn’t fray. If you need to go over other sewing basics, take a look at the course syllabus to see what other techniques we’ve already covered. Let’s get started!

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Welcome back to the Learn to Machine Sew course for beginners, in which I teach the basics of machine sewing, with a technical lesson and a useful tutorial for each technique. It’s been a few months since our last lesson, so if you need to brush up on some basics, check out the course syllabus. Today we’re going to talk about one of the most important techniques in sewing that you will come across over and over again: turning and topstitching. In our last lesson we talked about seam allowance, which is essential to turn and topstitch properly, so I recommend you go over that lesson if necessary.

Up til now, we’ve been sewing on the right side of the fabric (see here for more information on the right/wrong sides of fabric). It is often necessary to sew on the right side, but this can be problematic if  we want to hide the stitching and/or fabric edges. Remember that most fabrics fray if you leave their edges exposed, so you need to take measures to avoid this, especially if you’re planning on washing the sewn item (unless, of course, you want the edges to fray for design reasons). (Read more here about the characteristics of different fabrics.) The most common way to deal with these issues is to turn and topstitch. Let me show you how it works and how to get around some difficulties in more complicated cases:

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