This blog has been on a bit of a hiatus the last month, and for that I can only apologise. I've had a hectic month which includes family members going into hospital, feeling poorly myself and sadly, a death. I needed to take a bit of time to myself as I really didn't feel like sitting down and typing up a post knowing that my heart wasn't going to be in it. However, now all of that is over and things are slowly getting back to normal, I thought I'd start my blog back up again with a craft post, as I don't think I've ever actually done one on here!
I've always been quite a crafty person. My Nan showed me how to knit when I was little, my Mum taught me how to crochet when I was a teenager and I've taught myself how to sew. I also studied Art Textiles all throughout school, where I actually managed to get A* results! Over the years, I've gotten significantly better at crochet, however I've only just started out sewing, so my skills are still building there. Sadly, I've forgotten most of the skills I built when I was shown how to knit, but to be honest, I like the look of crochet more!
As I've just mentioned, I've recently started out sewing. I bought myself a sewing machine for my 20th or 21st birthday (I actually cannot remember without checking the receipt!) and sadly, I've just not had the time to sit down and actually use it properly. I've dabbled here and there previously but never really gotten into it until recently. I also bought a sewing tin from Aldi about a year ago, but again, it hasn't been used properly until recently. After watching numerous videos on Youtube and reading several Sewing books, I thought it'd be nice to actually make my own basic Sewing kit and my own setup, so that's what I'm going to show you here!
First things first, here's my setup. I actually bought this table about 2 days ago from a local Charity shop for £15.00, what an absolute bargain for something that's made from solid wood and not a laminated wood! This is actually a really useful table to have found as it's on wheels meaning I can place my setup anywhere that I fancy. It's big enough to hold all my fabric, sewing tins and also any books that I have.
The sewing machine that I have is the Brother LS-14, which I purchased from Hobbycraft for around £70.00, but as I had vouchers for there for my birthday, this actually only cost me around £40.00. I think it still retails for around the £70.00 mark and to be honest, I couldn't be happier with this machine. It's a good starter machine and isn't too difficult to set up, it practically holds your hand with everything. It has diagrams showing you how to thread both the upper thread and how to wind the bobbin, it also shows you how to thread the bobbin too. It has around 14 stitches (if I remember correctly...) which range from various straight stitch positions, zigzag stitches and a buttonhole function. It also has a reverse stitch feature which is something that's come in handy whilst making my own clothes recently as it makes sure everything is just that little more secure when finishing off an item.
You get a few items included in the box, such as a warranty card, instruction leaflet and a DVD. Also included is a buttonhole foot, a zipper foot, a set of spare needles, bobbin spools, a screwdriver and also the standard zigzag foot and foot pedal.
So here are my two sewing tins. The small rectangle tin is the one I purchased from Aldi when they had a sewing "specials" week last year around the same time as the Sewing Bee on BBC. I think this was only around £3.00 and it's jam packed with essential items such as various threads, snappers, scissors and hand sewing needles. It's a good little tin to have as I always find myself delving in it to repair something. The heart shaped button tin is from B&M and I think this was about £1.50 a couple of years ago before I purchased my sewing machine. You know when you buy something just because you like the look of it...but you actually have no idea what to do with it? That was one of those moments. At the minute it's filled with little items I'm slowly collecting such as better quality threads, a bias tape tool and also buttons. There's more items in there, which are shown below.
Okay! So here are the other items in the kit. These are what I'd class as essentials in my opinion, or different variations of these products should be classed as essentials.
1. Tailors chalk, or any sort of marking tool. I purchased this container of 3 tailors chalks for about £1.50 and so far they've been really handy to mark out on fabric as it just brushes off if needed. I'm sure these will last me ages as I've already used the white chalk a lot and it's barely made a dent on the corner!
2. A tub of tins. I bought the little container for 60p and thought it'd be really handy to keep pins in as it's got a secure lid, so if I drop it, they wont go everywhere! I've had various boxes of pins for a couple of years so I've just emptied them out into this, however I also bought a basic box of pins for £1.00 to bulk out my stash a bit.
3. Hand sewing needles. An absolute staple not only for finishing off any machine sewing mishaps, but also for hand sewing (as the name suggests!). This little tub was included in the tin from Aldi so they might not be the best quality but they surely do the job.
4. Scissors. I have two types of scissors I'd consider essential, embroidery scissors to snip off any long threads and dressmaking scissors to cut your fabric out with. I bought both of these from Hobbycraft, the embroidery scissors were about £1.50 out of a reduction basket and the dressmaking scissors were also £1.50 from their value range, although I might invest in a better pair, going forward.
5. Tape measures. This is pretty self explanatory, you need these to measure with believe it or not! I have two types, a retractable tape but also a long measuring tape, which I actually think was out of a Christmas cracker...! I'm not sure how much these would be new, possibly £1.00 each or so but as I say, both of these were actually given to me so don't quote me on that!
6. A seam guide. Now this might not be essential to some people as you might use the markings on your sewing needle plate, but this has actually been so useful for me since I started making my own clothes! It's a simple metal object with a flat edge and a magnet inside so it sticks to your needle plate and is also adjustable. It simply guides your fabric evenly alongside it when you're sewing to ensure your hems/seams remain an equal distance rather than having a wobbly line!
7. Stitch/thread ripper. Again, self explanatory. If you make a mistake and need it to be gone, these things are essential and make the job so much less tedious than sitting there with scissors trying to snip the thread away! This was also in the tin from Aldi but I know you can pick these up for as little at 50p if you shop around.
8. Pencils & pens. Obvious, but essential for marking out patterns.
I'm pretty sure that the items in my kits will grow inevitably as I get more confident in sewing, and I'll more than likely swap some stuff for better quality items. If you have any suggestions or any questions about my setup, please let me know as I'm always interested in hearing from you!
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