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OS home sewing
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lady_lucan
Posts: 120 Forumite
I'm thinking of buying a sewing machine for making basic soft furnishings, as I find the price and choice objectionable, and to have a stab at some simple clothes (more a fit concern here, as I'm tall). Could an experienced home sewer tell me what a beginner (a few terms home ec sewing at school) could hope to achieve, and whether its a false economy to buy a machine? Some of the patterns for women's clothes I've seen look a bit naff - where can I find classic or more up-to-date ones?
Thanks, L.
Thanks, L.
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Comments
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Take a look in the Craftwork section of the MEGA Index sticky at the top of the Old Style forum listing. There are at least two threads on sewing with links and book recommendations that I'm sure you'll find helpful.
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and if you don't fancy the expense of buying a new one, try ebay, carboots and even freecycle.org0
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I bought one second hand for £95 it was serviced.
All I have used it for so far is sewing seams. But have mended/altered 4 pairs of trousers. So say £8 a pair that is £32 saved. And unstitched and re-seamed a polo-shirt that was way to big.
And as I loose more weight will use it to make the clothes I have fit better.
So at the moment I have not tackled anything to hard.
The reason for re-sizing is clothes is that I don't have the money to keep buying new ones as try and loose weight.
Yours
CalleyHope for everything and expect nothing!!!
Good enough is almost always good enough -Prof Barry Schwartz
If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try -Seth Godin0 -
Cartainly a good idea to have a sewing machine as things like curtains and cushion covers are dead easy to do. Also handy for repairs and alterations.
As for the clothes thing, I used to design and make all my own clothes but these days I find there are so few good sources of inexpensive fabrics and habadashery that I get most of my clothes from charity shops now and then either re-make or customise them. For the price of a set of decent buttons you can have a whole new wardrobe that way...(well, praps not quite!!!)....
♥♥♥ Genius - 1% inspiration and 99% doing what your mother told you. ♥♥♥0 -
Tchibo have a very good one on offer this week. £89 or thereabouts. They also have a free delivery offer at the mo. My niece ordered one. I bought one from there about a year ago and it is very simple to operate. I was very nervous about sewing machines after a bad experience at school! Many years ago now, and I really had a fear about doing the bobbin thing! But with this one I managed it.
It has quite a few different kinds of stitches. Also Tchibo carry a three year guarantee on their electrical goods, so that cant be bad.Grocery Challenge £139/240 until 31/01
Taking part in Sealed Pot No.819/2011
Only essentials on Ebay/Amazon0 -
larmy16 wrote:a bad experience at school!
Me too! We had 2 sewing teachers, both of them made all their own clothes and they were VERY good but they made the sewing classes so tedious and laborious that it was years before I attempted any sewing at all. When I did start again I more or less ignored everything they had taught and did it my way (hang on I feel a song coming on). So give it a go, I'm sure you'll be fine.
:beer:0 -
I bought mine when I was 17(26 years ago) and its still working as good as new .
Mine is fairly simple with straight stitch,top stitch (like you see on jeans),zig zag,double zig zag,reverse , a button hole thingy and a zipper foot. Reverse is very useful as you can sew back over the end of a row and just break off without having to hand finish all the ends.
It sews much more neatly than I can by hand and much more strongly too.
I made winter coats for my 2 when they were little and nobody knew they were homemade (they certainly would have if I had hand sewn LOL).0 -
MY OH (male!) bought a sewing machine when he saw one at 1/2 price last year (£199 down to £99). At the time i thought it was a terrible waste of money and thought it'd never get used. Neither of use can sew or use a sewing machine when we bought it. During the last year we have decorated our whole house - this first time since we moved in. OH has made all our curtains and tie-backs. They look really good and he says they aren't too difficult to make. We found some material that was just the right match but down to a ridiculously cheap price. We worked out each pair of curtains cost us about £3 a pair. Since then OH has mended a few clothes and just last weekend he made both kids a beanbag each. We'd seen them on sale for £45 each and OH was convinced he could make them for practically only the cost of the stuffing as he still had enough material from the cheap curtains left over. The beanbags are great and a hit with the kids. Am trying to convince OH to make me a couple of outfits now. We've not tried making clothes before so we're going into untried waters...
OH would be mortified if he knew i was announcing his sewing skills on the internet - after all it's not very ''manly'' is it?0 -
Tell that to the one lad who was in my GCSE Textiles class at school - he figured doing Textiles with all the girls would help him 'get in there' :rotfl:Zziggi wrote:OH would be mortified if he knew i was announcing his sewing skills on the internet - after all it's not very ''manly'' is it?
I'm on the look-out for a cheapy but decent sewing machine as well. Both my mum and MIL(2B) got sewing machines for their 21st birthdays and both still work excellently now - they seem to be built for life! (I want an Interrail ticket instead though
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Lady Lucan - it's not hard to adapt most of the sewing patterns although they're often a bit dated, many are for quite simple tops and bottoms, so adding an individual twist is easy. One good idea is if you see a nice top in charity shop, but hate the colour, buy it, dismantle it and use it as a pattern with your choice of fabric (prob cheaper than buying proper patterns as well!)0 -
Cheers everyone - very reassuring and helpful info in here. I shall certainly give it a go.0
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