Top Sewing Tools

There are a plethora of sewing tools available for any application you need. These are a few of my favorites and how to use them. First is this little stiletto. And this little guy is just a really, really sharp, fine point. And I am using this a lot when I need to get things under the presser foot. So if you have a couple of layers of some kind of finicky, kind of slinky fabric, like a knit, and you wanna get it under the presser foot, but you can't have a pin directly under the presser foot, take your stiletto and that can get as close to the needle as you need it to. So you're not getting your fingers real close to the needle. And that can kind of help things go under the presser foot, especially at the beginning of seams and at the end of seams, that stiletto can hold everything right in place as it's going under the presser foot. Since you can't have the head of your pin go right under the presser foot, that stiletto is gonna hold everything right in place as it goes under the foot. So I'm always taking that out of my sewing basket. Next is this stay tape. So I just started using this recently and I love it. So this is a knit stay tape. This is SewKeysE brand. This is her more than extremely fine. She calls it her SSI Knit Stay Tape. It's just like air. It is so fine and flexible, and the knit, it has stretch to it. So I use this around necklines and armscyes of knit garments, anywhere you've got a curve. This is really great for stabilizing those curves. If you ever get ripply seams, especially if you're using a zigzag stitch or a double-needle stitch, around the neck line or around a hemline to finish a garment off. If you get waves or ripples in your seam, this will help prevent that because it just provides enough stabilization under the seam so that the fabric doesn't stretch out of place. And it's great for stabilizing neck lines, as I mentioned, because those curves get kind of more on the bias. So as you are handling the fabric and stitching it, that bias won't stretch out of shape because this stay tape has enough snap back to pull it back into its original position. So it comes in a lotta different widths. And she has woven stay tapes as well for like shoulder seams, seams that you don't want to have any stretch at all. And this is fusible so it fuses in place and it helps keep your seams stable and eliminate those ripples in the seam, which can be a problem when you're stitching knits. I always used to use tissue paper for this. So tissue paper that you get in your gift bags at Christmas or you can use a leftover tissue paper from your patterns, the commercial patterns come on that really fine tissue paper, is also good for this. So putting a layer of this tissue paper under your fabric as you're stitching zigzag stitch around your knit neckline can also help prevent those wavy, wobbly seams. And then you just tear it away after you're done stitching. And if some of this is trapped in your zigzag stitch, you can pull it off with tweezers or it'll dissolve in the wash as well. So if you don't have any of this stay tape on hand, you can use some tissue paper under your seam to prevent those wobbly seams, adding a little bit of stabilization. But this fusible stay tape stays under the seam forever, which is nice because it will prevent that seam from getting stretched out and prevent it from gaping as you're wearing it and washing your garment. Now, next, to say that my rotary cutter is a favorite sewing tool seems a little redundant, because a rotary cutter is a staple, right? But a lotta people like to use their scissors to cut out their pattern pieces, which is fine. But I do prefer my rotary cutter, because I can get around curves really precisely. And it just helps me get a really nice clean, precise cut. Because if you're cutting out with your scissors, as you take your scissors under your fabric, the fabric kind of lifts up to get the bottom blade of your scissors under your fabric and any amount of shifting, it's always possible that you're going to get your cut a little bit off. So the rotary cutter just glides right along those curves and allows you to get a really nice, precise cut. Now, if you get a nick in your rotary cutter blade, that's kind of the end of the life of the blade. You have to throw it away and get a new one. But if your blade just gets a little bit dull and you want a quick fix, take some tinfoil from your kitchen, fold it in half, three, four times, and then take your rotary cutter blade and make sure you get all the way around the blade. It's a quick way to sharpen up that blade, just enough for a quick fix. Again, I don't recommend it every time, but if you're in a pinch, that can sharpen up your blade and it's the same thing for scissors. That tin foil, if you just cut a few times with your scissors, can sharpen up your scissor blades as well. If you don't have time to go get them sharpened professionally, or if you don't have a actual scissor sharpening tool. Again, that's a quick fix. And lastly are my pattern weights. I love these little pattern weights for holding my patterns down onto my fabric, because to pin a pattern piece down onto your fabric, especially if you're using a heavier weight fabric, you inevitably get a little bit of rippling where that pin is holding down your fabric. Unless you get just those pins that don't have a head at all, which can be kind of tough to use. So just to keep all of my layers nice and flat, as flat as I can get, these pattern weights are really nice. They just hold everything down. And then, in conjunction with my rotary cutter, I can just slide that around the edge of my pattern. And these are nice. These are Weight Mates. I don't know if they make these anymore. These are really old. But these have the pins on the back, which really help grab onto your fabric and really hold that pattern down onto your fabric. The pattern weights that are covered in fabric also help hold the weight down onto the pattern or the fabric as well. If you just have a pattern weight that's just a naked metal, sometimes it can slide around. So the pattern weights that are covered in fabric are nice as well. If you don't have pattern weights, or if you just wanna try out the pattern weight method of holding your pattern down before buying pattern weights, you can use other things that you have around your house. This is a baking ramekin. Anything that's pretty heavy and has a low-profile. I've definitely used cans of tuna before as pattern weight to hold my pattern down. Short glasses can also work. Anything that is short enough to allow you to get your hand around the pattern, without knocking it over. So that's a good way to test it out before you buy your pattern weights, but I'm definitely always taking these out of my sewing basket every time I have to cut out a pattern. It's my favorite way of doing it. So those are some of my favorite sewing tools and how to use them. Hopefully they will help make your sewing easier as well.