For awhile now, I’ve been asking you to tell me your biggest sewing pet peeves, and boy have you all responded.  Today, I do my best to explain how to fix or address the most common sewing pet peeves.

I hate unpicking seams and undoing my mistakes!

I totally sympathize, I hate unpicking my work too – it’s so annoying to have to undo all the work that you put into the garment.  My two cents?  Learn to unpick efficiently (you check out my post here which shows you how to quickly unpick your mistakes), then put the project down and walk away for a bit so you can cool off.  Otherwise, I find that my frustration just causes me to make more mistakes that I then have to spend more time unpicking!

I can’t get my garments to fit properly!

I hear you – fitting is one of the most difficult skills to master when you first start sewing.  It’s not a skill that you will master overnight, but there are a few steps I would suggest to help you move towards making perfectly fitted garments for yourself:

1.       First, start with a good pattern that is close to your body type.  To achieve this, do some research on pattern companies and pick one that uses a sloper (or basic fitting pattern) that is similar to your body type.  For example, I have a boyish build with a small chest, and Vogue/McCall’s/Butterick/Simplicity patterns are drafted based on a sloper that is not too far off mine.  By contrast, if you have a pear-shaped figure or a larger bust, there are several pattern companies that draft with those body types in mind, so use their patterns instead. 

Once you have chosen a pattern company, stick with it.  Why?  Because pattern companies always start with a basic sloper from which they create all of their patterns.  That means that if you start to work with one pattern companies’ patterns regularly, you’ll start to develop a set of standard fitting adjustments that you can then use with all of their patterns.  That will save you a lot of time and hassle.  For me, I sew mostly from Vogue/McCall’s/Butterick patterns, and I’ve worked so frequently with their patterns that I have a standard set of fitting adjustments that I always make.  Unless the garment is a really unusual design, I’ll generally forego making a muslin, as I find it’s not really necessary anymore.

2.       Next, choose which size to cut based on the finished garment measurements, not based on the size chart.  I say this mostly because Vogue/McCall’s/Butterick patterns are well-known for incorporating far too much ease into their patterns, so if you cut the size indicated by the size chart, you will end up with garments that are extremely oversized and unflattering.  However, all of their patterns have the finished garment measurements printed on the pattern pieces in key places (such as the waistline, the bustline and the hip).  Choose the size with the finished garment measurements that are about an inch than your actual measurements.

Also, don’t be afraid to cut one size in one part of your body and another size in other parts of your body (this is also known as ‘grading’ between sizes).  For example, I have a thick waist in proportion to the rest of my body, so I cut a size 10 at the bust and at the hip, but I taper out to a size 12 at the waist.

3.       Finally, buy a good book on fitting, like Fit for Real People.  The book has lots of photos showing common fitting problems, which will help you diagnose your problem.  It then walks you through a variety of fitting adjustments.  To be candid, I am not a fan of tissue fitting, which the authors of this book recommend, but I think the rest of the content in the book is worthwhile so I still recommend it.

My finished garment doesn’t look good!

I know – there’s nothing worse than investing 10+ hours into a project only to have the finished garment be a bust.  It’s also hard to fix, because there are lots of potential causes.  First and foremost, the fabric has to be a good fit for the pattern, so don’t use a stiff fabric when the pattern calls for a drapey fabric (and vice-versa).  The garment also, of course, has to be fitted well to the body (see above for discussion of how to fix this).

Assuming that those two things are not the cause of the problem, then the issue probably lies with the construction of the garment.  In my experience, there are a few basic things that can make a huge difference to the quality of the finished garment:

• Use a magnetic seam guide (like this one) to help ensure that your stitching lines are the same distance from the edge of the fabric at all times.  This simple little tool will work wonders in helping you achieve a nice straight stitching line.

• Clip your seams along any curved seamlines.  One common example is the curve in the chest area of a princess-seamed bodice, or the curve around the neckline.  To get a nice finish along those curves, you will need to clip into your seam allowance all along the curve, to release the seam allowance and allow the fabric press smoothly along the curve.

• Trim and grade your seams.  This is a step that I skipped far too often when I was a beginner, and then I would wonder why my garment didn’t look crisp and neat when I turned it right-side out and pressed it.  Trimming and grading your seams is especially important when you’re working with a bulky fabric, because the two layers of the seam allowance enclosed within your seam can create a bulky ridge that shows through your fabric.  Trimming the seam allowances so that one is narrower than the other reduces this bulk.  Trimming the seams is also very important when sewing corners – if you don’t trim away enough of the seam allowances, the corner will not be crisp when you turn the corner right-side out.

• Press, press, press.  Press seam allowances open as you sew each seam; don’t wait until you’ve finished sewing everything before you start pressing.  When you are finished with your garment, take it to a dry cleaner and get them to give it a professional press.  This last step has literally made a world of difference to some of my garments, taking them from sloppy-looking homemade items to crisp garments that look like ready-to-wear.  I realize that it does cost some money to take the garment to the dry cleaner, but the pros have super-hot irons that can produce crisp folds that we could never achieve with our humble home irons.  It’s worth the investment; trust me.

My thread/bobbin runs out right before the end of my project!

I know, it’s so aggravating!  And I am the spaced-out sewist who always seems to sew several inches of stitching before I realize that the bobbin thread has run out.  D’oh!  Anyway, the easiest way to solve this problem is, of course, to wind several bobbins of thread right at the beginning of your project, so you always have a bobbin of thread ready to go.  However, if you really wanted to take the nuclear option, you can try buying a sewing machine with an “endless bobbin” (such as the Singer XL5000).  In these machines, when the thread in the bobbin runs low, the machine rewinds the bobbin using thread from a special dedicated spool of thread.  Alternatively, you could try to track down a vintage dual-spool (or two-spool) sewing machine, which uses a spool of thread instead of a bobbin.  Some manufacturers like Eldridge and Natinal used to make them, but they are no longer being made so it can be difficult to track one down.

I don’t have enough time to sew!

I live in a household with two adult careers, two young kids and two manic dogs, so I very much agree that there never seems to be enough time to sew.  Personally, I think tackling this ‘problem’ takes a two-fold approach.  You can try to learn some tips and tricks to help you speed up your sewing, and here I think the best thing to do is invest in a rotary cutter and cutting mat, as that will drastically reduce the amount of time you spend cutting out your pieces.  Another time-saving (but risky) measure is to skip the muslin, if you’re sewing with a pattern from a pattern company that you’re very familiar with (see above discussion on fitting).  Other than that though, I don’t like to cut too many corners or skip too many steps, because I think that part of the joy of sewing is taking the time to ensure that your craftsmanship is perfect, even if that means doing a lot of time-consuming steps (like hand-sewing!).

Which brings me the other part of the solution to this ‘problem’: having the courage to be selfish enough to say that you need time to sew.  At the height of the pandemic, I was juggling a demanding corporate job, homeschooling two young kids and managing an endless list of household chores, and I literally never had any time to sew.  After three months of this, I was grumpy and weary, and I felt like a soulless, worn-out husk of a person without my creative outlet.  I eventually made the decision to say that for a few hours each weekend, come hell or high water, I was going to ignore the dirty dishes, unfolded laundry, and crazy kids, and retreat into my little lair to sew.  Somehow the house never burned down while I was sewing, and in the long run I was a much happier person as a result.

Do you have other sewing pet peeves? Let me know in the comments!