Are you intimidated by the very thought of sitting at a sewing machine and sewing? You're not alone. Whether it's concern over making a mistake while sewing, or being unfamiliar with how sewing machines work: you can learn to sew!
I have ideas for five (5) sewing projects for beginners that will help you become familiar with some basic skills needed in sewing, and will also allow you to easily produce your first sewing projects... items you can actually use!
1. Cloth Napkins: everyone is going 'green' these days, and using cloth napkins eliminates paper waste in landfills. Cotton fabric or a cotton blend works best for napkins.
2. Quilted Placemat: another 'green' project is reversible quilted placemats. Making quilted reversible cloth placemats is an eco-friendly way to bring customized decor to your dinner table. Whether a cotton or cotton blend, there is a near endless variety of fabric patterns and colors to choose from to match any decor.
3. Apron: sticking with the food/kitchen theme, sewing aprons is an easy project that can be used for more than just cooking. Aprons with pockets are great when you're sewing, to hold tape measurers and other tools used while sewing - or can be worn while cleaning to protect your clothing. Aprons can also be made more like smocks and used during painting or other messy craft projects.
4. T-shirt Dress: a quick and easy dress using a purchased t-shirt and material to make the skirt. Great for girls of all ages. As t-shirts come in a huge variety of colors, best to start with the skirt fabric and select a coordinating t-shirt color. Your skirt can be very full and gathered, or can be more A-line and straight. So this simple project is good for any body type and the skirt can be made whatever length you desire.
5. Long Jean Skirt: convert a pair of blue jeans easily into a long jean skirt with minimal sewing and no fitting! Cut open the leg of the jeans at the inner leg seam, and sewing in another piece of fabric (or use legs from another pair of jeans as the fill fabric - great way to recycle those too-tight jeans;) to fill in the space and make it a skirt.
The key to learning to sew is to ease into projects, grasping and learning the basic sewing skills as you gradually increase the complexity in what you choose to sew.
