Ever wonder how the experts sew nearly-perfect seams? Well, they are all experienced sewers who have been sewing for a very long time. Do you want to wait untill you've acquired all those experiences before sewing those beautiful seams? Of course not! You want to improve now, and the only way to do that is to practice!

Sewing involves lines and shapes. Straight lines, right angles for rectangles and squares, curves, ovals and circles are the basic lines and shapes that are encountered during sewing. We'll be brining you an article for tackling each of them over the next few weeks. These articles aim to share with you how you can improve your sewing through practicing.

Each article includes instructions and practice sheets that can be downloaded, saved and printed on demand. The equipment you'll need will be your sewing machine and a printed practice sheet. 

Today's lesson is in sewing the staight line. First, dowload the practice sheet, called Practice Straight Lines.  Right-click and select ‘save as target’. Save to your preferred location and open the file to print out a copy on recycled papers. Anytime that you need to practice, you can always print more. 

  

** Green tip: Collect unwanted papers that are clean, neat, good for the printer and empty on 1 side, in a separate box and mark them “For Recycling”. These papers come in handy when you are testing your printer or just printing or scribbling something that will be thrown away later. **

Bring the practice sheet to your sewing machine. Put on an old sewing needle and turn on the machine. No threads are needed for this exercise. Set the machine to straight stitch setting. Lower the needle onto the practice sheet, on 1 line, placing the needle 1 cm away from the corner of the line so that you can practice your back stitching as well. Lower the sewing footer onto the paper.

Set the reverse stitching mechanism and sew backwards until you reach the corner. Stop, release the reverse mechanism and start stitching normally. Sew onto the lines. Use your fingers to guide the paper along.

Once you reach the end of the line, reverse stitch for 1 cm to mimic back stitching.

Continue practicing for as long as you want. The end results is that you will be able to better understand how your sewing machine works and how your seams will look, resulting in improved sewing skills.

Posted by Diana from DjStoreRoom

About the author: Diana is the owner and pattern designer of djstoreroom. She is a work-from-home-mommy who design, sew, pen and self-publish her own pdf sewing patterns and tutorials from her home studio in sunny Singapore. She has 2 online stores at etsy which stocks only pdf products and artfire which stocks pdf products, handmade products and vintage supplies. She love to write in her blog about herself, her business and more...

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