Learning to Sew

Over the last few months I have had quite a few of my friends want to learn to sew. I love to teach sewing and I find it so exciting when they finish their first item and see how proud they are of it! I often have people ask "Where do I start?" or "What should I sew first?" so I thought I would put together a list of tutorials and patterns that I love and that I think would be great to learn to sew with. If you are going to pin any of these patterns please go to the original blog/page and don't pin them from my blog to be fair to the original pattern/tutorial designer.

If you very new to sewing you may at times need a little more help than what is in some of the tutorials. I can recommend that you head over to YouTube in these situations and search for a video as I am sure you will find someone who has made a video of what you are wanting to do. This is especially helpful if you are a visual learner and don't have anyone in real life who can sit down and help you.

The first blog I want to recommend is MADE. I LOVE this blog and all this things that Dana makes. She has a TON of free tutorials and some pretty awesome patterns to purchase too. I own the shorts pattern and it is a favourite in this house! My girls love their MADE shorts and it is an awesome pattern to sew too.

These are just a few of the awesome tutorials/patterns on this blog. It is well worth a visit if you are wanting to learn to sew!

Another favourite blog of mine is Made by RAE. Over here you will find some gorgeous women's patterns along with the kids stuff. It is such a great feeling wearing something you have made yourself so check out her women's patterns as well as the kids ones. I will mention below some easy women's patterns too as it is probably best to start by sewing something that isn't too fitted so you don't have to worry about it not fitting very well. Once you have the hang of sewing some simple things though I can totally recommend Rae's patterns!

On to blog number 3! Another fave...acutally I am only sharing patterns and blogs with you that I LOVE so I guess that 'fave' thing goes without saying!

Craftiness is not optional is full of gorgeous tutorials for lots of girly things! 

Ok lets move on to our Aussie Designers! I really should have started with them as they really to have some of the best patterns out there and I am not the only one saying it!

First up is Pattern Emporium. I adore these patterns and the flat front skirt is a perfect first item for yourself!

Fresh Designs Patterns are used by me ALL the time and are super easy to follow!

Make it Perfect has only recently started selling patterns as PDFs and I am so glad she did! I have a lot of hers as paper patterns but being able to buy and sew on the same day is awesome and so are her patterns!

Another easy womens pattern I can recommend as a first project is the Versatile Wrap skirt. I LOVE mine!

Last but certainly not least is BOO! Designs! These patterns are great to start experimenting with adding your own designs features and changes to a pattern. Before these patterns I was a 'follow a pattern to the letter' type of sewer. Now I still like to follow the pattern as that is jut how I am but I also love to add things and change things to make it mine!

Phew! That was a lot of link and photos! There are so many more I could mention but these are probably the ones I use most. If you are wanting to learn to sew I hope you are now feeling inspired! Remember you have to start somewhere so just start and don't be afraid of making mistakes...practice, practice, practice!