What are some easy sewing projects to do on a sewing machine?
swimrox asked:
I am looking for some websites that have easy sewing projects that you can do on a sewing machine. Do you know any websites with any easy quilt patterns too.
I am looking for some websites that have easy sewing projects that you can do on a sewing machine. Do you know any websites with any easy quilt patterns too.
Make a quilt, you can use any fabric at home and cut squares or triangles and just start sewing them together. Sorry I dont know any sites but I’ve had luck at thrift shops and used book stores or half.com buying these type of books. This is an easy first project that you can use!!
About.com has all kinds of great stuff – good tutorials, free projects and good links. They have a great beginner quilting section too (both links below). You can’t go wrong starting out with their site.
Kristin Roach of Craft Leftovers (http://www.craftleftovers.com) has some great small-scale sewing projects (http://www.craftleftovers.com/blog/?page_id=155) which use small amounts of fabric. I’ve tried some of her knitting and crochet projects, and I’ve heard the sewing projects are great, too. I like that it’s stuff regular people can actually use, and would want to make.
For garments, try Burda Style (http://www.burdastyle.com), an open source sewing site. Some of the patterns are pretty advanced, but here’s a trick: you can sort patterns by difficulty level within the categories! The default is “most recent”, but there’s a drop down menu, right there next to the menu for category! It’s a big help… Plus, you can usually see all sort of photos for different takes on the garment.
Quillows are pretty fun. They’re small quilts that fold into a pillow for storage.
Any of the clothes pattern companies have easy and beginner patterns that are good.
Pillow cases are very simple. You just have 3 seams, and the hem. It can be as simple or decorated as you like. I would first of all do the simple one. You can use a purchased one you like for the pattern. Be sure to cut ther selvage off as it is likely to pucker. Serging or using a zigzag will make sure you do not have any raw edges.
Another simple project that is very useful is to cut washclothes out of old towels. This is good economy as well as allowing unusual shapes. You can make a pocket type washcloth, basically, the same shape as above, only smaller. These are very handy for dusting,or washing anything.
I do things like this with kids as first sewing projects:
I do these bags with 10-11 YO’s.
This is my son’s first sewing project after he did the Christmas Stocking in school:
For a lot of the motif’s I use, I Google for free downloadable colouring pages. There are millions out there and they make fantastic applique shapes.
This site has loads of brilliant instructions for blocks and quilts and some additional projects: