★ Beginner's Sewing Lessons | Learn How to Sew with Easy Projects & Online Tutorials ★

Sewing can be done by hand or by machine. Hand-sewing is much slower and is generally used for mending rips and tears, or carrying out small sewing jobs like sewing on a button. Before you take the plunge and buy a sewing machine, you can learn the basics in hand sewing first to see if you like it enough to buy a machine.

There is a massive range of sewing machines available from very cheap mini ones to industrial heavy-duty ones. Most people start out with a relatively cheap machine which can carry out all of the basic stitches you will need.

Sergers (also called overlockers) are different to sewing machines and are used to trim the edge of fabric pieces whilst (at the same time) sewing (overcasting) the edges to produce a neat, professional finish. People buy these after they have used a sewing machine for a while and would like to take their hobby further - or perhaps sell their sewn items. Sergers/overlockers are for keen sewers since they are pretty expensive.

- When 2 pieces of fabric are sewn together along their sides (for example), the 'seam allowance' is the distance between the stitched line and the cut edge of the fabric.. This is normally between 1/4" and 5/8".

- Interfacing is hidden within sewn fabric outer layers and it's used to stiffen or add body to fabric, add extra strength where needed, or prevent stretchy fabrics from stretching out of shape. Interfacing is used in a lot of items from shirt collars to tote bags, and is available in different weights and stiffnesses.

- Batting is a sheet of fiber typically used as a centre layer between two pieces of fabric to create a quilt, and is used to add thickness and warmth. Because there are 3 layers, these need to be sewn together by 'quilting' where lines are sewn over the whole piece - usually in parallel lines.

Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography.