Walk into a fabric shop or browse online at sewing kit and you can be forgiven for thinking you can’t take up this hobby without spending a fortune. But, honestly you do not need to.
Everything you need to try sewing is included in our Beginners Complete Sewing Course and you will never need to bring your own kit to our classes, but when you feel ready to buy your own kit to use at home, there are some essentials you will need.
Pattern weights shaped like macarons are pretty, but really you don’t need them! There are a few things you will need and some are worth buying the best you can afford.
Beginners Sewing Kit
- Fabric Shears: You can’t cut fabric with the kitchen scissors & your fabric shears are for fabric ONLY! Good results come from neat accurate cutting and good shears are key to this. Fiskars shears (sold in our shop) are a great starting price point. A quality shear, not too expensive they are good value and give perfect results.
- Pins. You will need pins to secure pattern pieces in place and to pin your fabric in place before you sew. It is possible to pick up pins for £1, but I’d say in all honestly this is a false economy and most of these will end up in the bin or causing you problems. Cheap pins are often blunt, (blunt pins, did you know that’s was a thing?!) which will cause damage to your fabric. Be prepared to pay around £5 for good quality, sharp pin, they will last much longer that 5 boxes of £1 pins, I promise.
- Unpicker. e trusty unpicker! Seam picker, stitch ripper, what ever you want to call it you will need this because remember, expect to make mistakes, we all do it! Personally I like this Prym one. It’s chunky so I find it is comfortable and I don’t get sore hands unpicking, but the cheap skinny ones do the job too. If you have your own sewing machine you will probably have one included with your machine.
- Tape Measure. You will need to measure things, simple as that. You need to measure where to stitch on your fabric, your body to check fit, the size of your pattern pieces, and so on. There are lots of helpful things you can use for measuring, many of you will know I love a seam gauge, but for getting started all you need is a measuring tape.
- Chalk or Fabric Pens. You will need to have something you can use to make marks on your fabric and you do not want these marks to be permanent. Chalk is the traditional option, its usually inexpensive and it does the job just fine. I also love these heat erasable pens. You can make your marks on your fabric and when you no longer need them they will disappear with the heat of the iron! Genius! They are also just like a standard pen in every other way so they make smaller more accurate marks than traditional tailors chalk.
Which Sewing Machine to Buy?
You will of course need a sewing machine. Again, you don’t want to be spending a fortune when you are starting something new, but I do think it is worth investing in the best machine you can afford. Brother have an entry level sewing machine for around £80 that is perfectly fine, but in most cases you will want to upgrade this fairly quickly. I think it is worth having a look on buying and selling pages too, there are usually lots of fantastic sewing machines for sale on there. If you do feel like treating yourself, you can buy the amazing Janome M100QDC - the sewing machine we use in the studio. We offer these with £50 off RRP for our studnets, so if you are tempted, do get in touch.
My Top Picks for your Sewing Kit
Fiskars Fabric Shears
Prym Ergonomic Unpicker
Prym Retractable Tape Measure
Excellent quality, value for money shears. These are the shears we use in classes. They also come in a smaller 8 inch version and left handed.
If you have ever unpicked a long lne of stitches with one of those skinny little unpickers you will know why this is a top pick. Chunky unpick, sits comfortably in your hand.
Never, ever rolling up a tape measure again! Pretty, durable and retracts at the touch of a button! Yes! Love the easy option.
Subscribe for Newsletter
The latest news, events and stories delivered right to your inbox