So you want to learn to sew?

 Most of what I do on this blog is advanced sewing. But I get a lot of readers here who just love costumes... and would like to learn to sew but aren't ready to tackle the steps I'm talking about. Today I came across a blogger who has written a photo-heavy series illustrating every step of setting up your machine and learning to sew. It's not exactly the same as taking a class, but from the posts I've read so far, it's pretty good!

There's no reason not to learn to sew and many reasons why being able to repair, alter or create your own clothes is a fantastic way to go. My one caution before picking up any "how to sew" book is this...

Don't learn how to sew on a cheap machine.

Seriously. I strongly believe that one major reason that most women hate sewing is that they attempted to learn on cheap machines that kept having problems. I'm not saying that you have to go out and buy a $1000 machine (or even my $400 Husquvarna which has served me beautifully for 12 years with one servicing), but please please please do NOT pick up a $99 singer and learn to sew on that. If you're not ready to invest, find someone who owns a good machine and borrow it/offer babysitting to go use it/rent it from them. You can also talk to sewing machine repair shops to see if they have a good model they'd be willing to rent out to you. Then you can see if sewing is for you - using a machine that does what a sewing machine is supposed to do: work properly.

That said, hop on over to Tilly's sewing lessons and check it out!