Essential sewing tools | The 6 best sewing gadgets | must buy list

hello and welcome to my channel my name's Joe this is Joey Zoe and this is a little video all about things that are really important so in this video I'm gonna talk about the things that I think you should spend money on recently I did a video about my five best FREE sewing tools that you might already have around the house this video is about tools that you probably don't already have or maybe don't have the right kind of when you start to sew or perhaps when you've been sewing for a while and it's my opinion on where you should invest your money when you begin to sew so I'm hoping that those of you who are experienced with sewing you're probably going to recognize all of them but it might give you some ideas of where you can invest any extra money that you have for a gift for yourself and those of you who might not have been sewing for very long it should give you a guide of where it's wise to put your money and help you exclude all those other shiny temptations of which there are many when you start looking around the sewing store about what to buy so the very first thing I have is scissors super predictable I'm sure but it's also super important so I recommend that you might want to peasant scissors you could definitely make do with one but a teeny tiny pair of scissors which mine are like this I actually have a couple and these ones have an upturned end which I find really helpful the point of that they caught actually sold as embroidery scissors but the curved tip helps you get close to the fabric when you are cutting it like thread ends or little trails of things and you have a much less risk of cutting the fabric which you don't want to do and then the big pair of scissors would be what you would cut use for cutting out and any larger jobs sharp scissors are so important because they help you to be accurate now these scissors with their shape are specific dressmaking scissors because they allow you to go along a table that's why they have this shape handles away from the table like that that's ideal but not essential and what is a hundred percent essential is that you protect your sewing scissors with your life so don't let anyone even you use your sewing scissors for anything other than fabric because it will dull the blades and although you can sharpen scissor blades number one that's boring number two it's not easy to do very well so it's best that they don't get dull in the first place and so you don't have to spend a lot of money on sewing scissors you can but the most important thing is that you reserved them just for sewing and just for fabric so don't cut your paper pattern with your sewing scissors even though they are sewing scissors they're actually fabric scissors okay so fabric only with these guys and when I run a sewing club at school I actually bought loads of scissors for the kids so they would also have dedicated fabric scissors but I didn't spend a lot of money on them I only spent five pounds of hair or something like that which is more than a domestic pair of scissors maybe but not much more but they were sharp and they stayed sharp even with children using them so if you reserved them it does make a difference so buy some good sharp scissors and keep them under lock and key we're staying super simple with the second item and it spins now way back when I started sewing I would use pins like this and it's possible that if you haven't sown for long these are the kind of pins you've got classic metal head little head at the top ignore the yellow ones there rogue in this box about an inch and a half about an inch and a quarter just over an inch nowadays I both use a pin cushion which is not what this videos about but I use pins like this these pins are longer and they have glass heads and I can't praise them highly enough they make life so much easier the length means that you can pin more together they're often sold as quilting pins but you want to make sure that they're long these are about an inch and a half getting on for an inch and 3/4 long and the glass head means that if you iron them it doesn't melt onto the fabric because a lot of pin pins come as standard with plastic heads and ask me how I know that that is annoying yeah because I've done it and sew glass head pins you also see those flower head pins so pins with a little flower on the head Neph flat so they are also good because these are a ball shape their heads of these pins and that can be annoying because it can be a little bit lumpy so the flower head pins I haven't actually ever used them but they are also good so you could get one or the other or if you're feeling very flushed then you could get both and it's probably going to cost you about five pounds a box but it really does make a difference to have some nice pins to work with also if you drop them they are way easier to find or if you've got fabric that is tricky to find pins in it's harder to miss these as you're sewing through the machine it's easier to see so it makes a lot of things just that makes bit more smooth so I'd recommend investing in a box of pins now I'll be honest I'm assuming that you have a sewing machine and a sewing machine isn't actually on my list although I'm assuming you've got one because I don't think it's where you need to spend your money a secondhand one an old one I hand-me-down anything that goes forwards backwards and zigzag will do to start sewing and you can make almost any garment with that kind of sewing machine but what will really help is if you put new and appropriate needles into your sewing machine so I don't have any particular brand to recommend I've used all sorts of brands and all those mitts here's the leaflet from Schmidt's although they are one of the leading brands so if you want to shop by brand I would certainly recommend Schmidt's I've never noticed a real difference it's the newness of the needle that's important now this leaflet I picked up at a sewing store once and this leaflet it's double-sided it's very long as you can see and it's got millions of different types of needle on it and I would you know there's just so many different ones you can get initially I would just say get some new needles because one of the things that you're if your machine skip stitches it's probably down to needing a new needle into it a lot of people do so with the same needle for a long time and I have in the past but changing your needle does make a difference so I'd recommend get a just a replacement pack of sewing machine needles it'll cost you two or three pounds and next time that your sewing machine starts to play up change them or next time that you're sewing some slightly out of the ordinary so if you're sewing jeans getting more robust sharp jeans needle ideally but certainly put one of the thicker needles in and if you're sewing something fine like cotton lawn or organza put a micro Tex or something made for fine fabric because it will make a difference in how well the sewing machine handles the fabric how well the thread so the fabric all of that will be made better by using an appropriate needle just as a side note the numbers on a sewing machine needle packet that 116 they don't relate to each other it's two different measuring systems so generally in that hundred system you want to get a mixed pack of 70s 80s and 90s I would say I've got these hundreds four really thick stuff like upholstery or jeans but if you get a mixed pack of 70s 80s and 90s that will see you with most project 70 would be the thinnest 100 would be the thickest I will put a link down below to a really great video that explains all about sewing machine needles if you're interested in knowing about them in a bit more detail so my fourth thing that I recommend that you invest in is patterns that have good instructions these days I find myself choosing patterns less on the style although clearly that is kind of where I go to first but just as important is choosing a company that has good instructions even though I've been sewing for a long time and I know how to do a lot of it I really appreciate the time and care that is put into explaining the project so that I can have the best chance of getting a result as the designer intended so there are lots of different people who do good instructions I'm just going to mention three it's not exhaustive and I've picked them up because these are ones that I know but I would love to know down in the comments who you think do good instructions and we can have a conversation there and hopefully I'll discover something I don't already know so the three that I would recommend are closet closet case patterns I'm always talking about Heather and her instructions she is the queen of clear explanation lots of support and also more complicated projects so you can be have your hand held through making jeans making a jumpsuit making a shirt all the things that might feel a bit too intimidating otherwise or you can learn new techniques as well so she often does more than one potential technique on the blog for achieving something so that's really useful to learn and you can see what you like to do best Tilly and the buttons who I've never actually sewn anything from them but I know that they are really strongly recommended and I have seen the instructions for the patterns so Tilly in the button and that she's really great historically more down the beginner and she has now got a really broad spectrum of patterns but she's very good at holding your hand right from the beginning also through some things that might feel difficult to try the first time like sewing with knits and that kind of thing very clear often photographed instructions so you see a picture of the garment step by step highly recommend Tilly and then the third one is Helens closet so she's the co-presenter of the love to sew podcast and she is really great at instructions she's I know she has the same set of value as me that she really appreciates having things explained not because necessarily they if you know it's for different reasons I don't necessarily need someone to explain something for me to be able to do it but I love to see their point of view and I will probably learn something from a really good instructions even on a fairly simple garment I'll probably learn something that I hadn't thought of or it will remind me it's something that I should have known already or I did know and had forgotten so a lot of people aren't of that opinion it's just quite a personal one that's really the whole video is some people like to completely do their own thing that's absolutely fine it's just that I think for me and what I would recommend to anyone who asked me is yeah look out for patents that have great instructions and make that top of your priority list so let me know down below other people you would recommend on that basis so my second to last is quite simple again these are all simple and it's thread this is how I keep my thread which is not what I'm showing you how to sort of show you my thread box I keep it in a plastic box by part bin supplies um and I would recommend getting branded thread simple as that coats all Gutterman are the two brands that I know the best the reason is it's more bust and it went breaking your machine as readily it's generally not going to be as old so you know if you have a reliable sewing shop and it's not good to moaning it's not Coates but they will stand by it and you trust them then yeah definitely go for that I'm not saying just use those two brands but do be aware of what thread you're using because old thread that you might have inherited from your grandma I've got something like that in here which I use for basting and hand sewing and really it's just in here for the memory reasons it wouldn't be great in my sewing machine and I wouldn't necessarily trust it not to break off snag up or not last as long as the garment so for the cost of a spool of thread if you can afford it then use a good quality thread and finally my sixth one is maybe the most important it's definitely the one I need to pay attention to most and that is buy the right fabric for the right pattern it's a mistake if I make any mistakes I do and I make them most often maybe is that I try to buy magical thinking make a fabric that's not really quite right work with a pattern that I really want to make because maybe it's the the fabrics the right color but it's the wrong type of fabric so it's more about the type of fabric and the characteristics of it of course it needs to be the right color for your project but to make the project work you need to get the right materials to perform to make the thing you want to make so for example this shirt which is a so a holic Granville shirt if you're interested so a Holocaust I do good pattern instructions it's made with shoten cotton a little bit heavier weight so it's kind of I'm a bit hot today but it's slightly heavier weight but it's shirting cotton if I try to make this in a chiffon or in a canvas you're gonna get a totally different result I'm quite possibly an unwearable result those are two ends of a spectrum but that's what I mean choose the fabric that's going to drape the way you want it to drape if you're making for example a shirt that has a lot of detail has a lot of top stitching a lot of detail structure there needs to hold but it used to drape in the right way you need to think about how the fabric is going to do that now if you are new to choosing fabrics and even if you're not a really great tip is the person who's selling you the fabric or ask someone on Instagram and do a little Instagram story of your fabric moving around and say I'm thinking about doing this project do you think it'd work everybody if you don't have access to Instagram ask someone in real life go to your own wardrobe and look at something that is similar to what you want to make that works and ask yourself is the fabric like that if you don't have something like that go to the high street and have a look for a garment that's similar to what you want and look at the fabric and say okay does this drape how heavy does it feel how thick does it feel is it see-through is it not see-through what does the stitching look like on it but it's really important and I fall into this trap so often I try and use what I've got which is I think a great thing but I often do that at the expense of choosing not quite the right fabric for the project that I wanted to do and then maybe it doesn't fall in the way I want or is too bulky so take time and invest if you need to in buying some new fabric for a project if you really want to make that project then get the right fabric for it if you really want to use that fabric and it's not right for the project you don't have to step away and just realize that it's not going to work and maybe choose a different project but make sure those two are a good marriage and that will again really help you succeed in your sewing so six fairly simple tips but I think they're probably the tip-top most important places that you should put your money that we spend on our craft none of them were super expensive I hope but I think they're probably the wisest things I know about sewing that's a big statement anyway on that bombshell remember to let me know what you think down in the comments about whether you agree with me if you've got anything else to add who your favorite pattern instruction instruction writers and I will see you again really soon with another video thanks for watching bye [Music]

Channel: Joanne Cook

Views: 15,573

Rating: 4.9232879 out of 5

Keywords: Joey Sewy, sewing, fabric, dressmaking, what have I been sewing, sewing podcast, sewing patterns, indie sewing patterns, how to sew, sew pants, sew blouse, English, cumbria, Yorkshire, northern, north, learn to sew, alter, alteration, sweater, jumper, shirt, must buy, top 5, top 6, sewing tools

Id: KKkPnlypK8E

Length: 15min 34sec (934 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 16 2020