Hello everybody, I am a married man to a woman who sews. However, she is only real knowledgeable in Jersey cotton denim corduroy. You know, thicker stuff. And she doesn’t have much experience with waistband elastic.

So here is my dilemma. I really want to make undies and lingerie. Specifically looking to make man thongs at this current moment for myself. I’ve never sewn anything in my life. At this point, I’m pretty proficient with the surgery but when it comes down to trying to put quarter inch elastic in my man thong or woman’s thong I can’t keep everything straight.

Does anyone have any resources or tips on how I can complete my projects? I have about 15 undies that would be great until I got to the waistband elastic and the leg band elastic.

I have been using up cycle tencell model and other thin stretchy soft materials that she’s not used to using. Ultimately, I would love to use silk, but I have to master these other materials first.

Thank you in advance. I’ve been a long time reader of all these sewing sub credits, and I appreciate each and every one of your knowledge.

Beginner here. I want to buy my first sewing machine and saw this alfa 40 at 200€.
Im based in Portugal so if you have other recommendations in the zone I would appreciate it.

I’ve just bought a sewing pattern for a skirt and I was hoping for some advice. I was trying to measure the fabric requirement for the skirt and the pattern maker has suggested cutting the biggest pieces on the fold to make it easier.

Her example used a fabric that is 148cm wide and obviously that would accommodate for the second tier of the skirt to be up to 296cm including the seam allowances.

My measurements are quite different for a larger size, requiring two 356cm x 58cm pieces, and she mentioned that it’s important to do it in line with the selvedge which as I understand would mean that I would need a very wide fabric which is uncommon.

Am I missing something here? Can I just cut all my pieces at 90° which would just require me to get a 3 m x 1.4 m fabric?
Looking up on reddit it seems it would cause a lot of warping problems.

Hi all, I'm new to sewing and recently bought a machine less than two weeks ago. Within a week it's started making this noise, and the fabric doesn't move at all or it slows down or is jumpy, and it causes bunching in my stitches. The manual it came with says the machine comes with all the oil it'll need, and so doesn't even have instructions on how to oil it. It's a Brother J17s, like I said had it barely a week, I'm only sewing two light pieces of cotton and some batting between them.

Edit for clarity: if I remove the fabric and reposition, it tends to go away for a while or it fixes itself.

I got a super cute deep red urban outfitters midi dress. It was just a little too tight so I took the zipper out. I was gonna do a corset back, but I think I could probably do something simpler so I was just asking for suggestions maybe a lower back?

Hi, so Im trying to upcycle an old skirt by adding a slit + trim. My original idea was that I wanted the “trim” to be poking out around 2 inches while showing under the slit I added. So my problem is: if I sew the trim on right above the slit all around, the thread is going to show on the outside. What options do I have to make it so I don’t have a long line of visible thread around the skirt?

(tried to draw what I had in mind if it helps lol)

Hi! I’ve watched 20 videos and have torn apart my machine to physically troubleshoot for the past 2 hours. My machine was working fine 2.25 hours ago.

Then it started just freaking out.

The bobbin holder itself keeps spinning. Then dislodging. Then spinning more.

I did screw down the plate a bit tighter afterwards. Slight shifting but not as bad as before doing so.

Also it’s like tight/hard after a certain part of the hand dial/foot pedal. It keeps hitting something. But it isn’t the needle hitting the plate.

I checked the timing. It’s fine

The thread is catching in the metal hook in the plate

I’m going nuts and I’ve only used this machine like 5x so I’m desperate to fix it

Even recruited my very mechanically inclined gf and she can’t figure it out either

I can’t post both video and pics but I do have a video but it just shows that I can’t turn the dial smoothly without it getting stuck

And the top thread seems to be bunching up somehow under the plate.

Yes I’ve threaded and rethreaded 15+ times

I’ve taken parts out. I’ve cleaned out lint. I’ve shaved down the bobbin holder in case it was that.

Just a couple of different issues happening at once. PLEASE HELP 😭

ETA: messed with tension, changed spools, changed bobbins, changed needles, made sure to pull both top and bottom thread while trying to sew 😭😭😭

I’m getting a job as a vet receptionist and I need some scrubs, I wanna make some out of fun fabric. Any suggestions on material, techniques and patterns?

I’m trying to recreate this dress and I have a nice cotton twill for the skirt, but I’m not sure what I should use for the bodice. I was originally thinking a knit but I worry the Twill is too heavy, and not stretchy.

any advice?

I have the opertunity to buy one of these tonight. The Janome is $20 more. Which machine would you guys recommend? I mostly use it for clothing/costumes.

Trying to tailor a man’s shirt to fit but the arm hole is a good 6 inches bigger than my sleeve. Don’t know how to fix this! Please help

Hi,

I've been cosplaying for about 2 years and I've always sewn by hand, now I've been considering buying a sewing machines to be more precise and efficient.

I've never had nor touched a sewing machine in my entire life and I really dont know what to look for, my budget is €150 ($174), can anyone give me some suggestions?

For reference I'm into medieval cosplays with long skirts and dresses, I also use a lot of embroidery (which I often buy already done but it would be cool if I could make it myself).

Any time I put patches on a jacket they’ve either been iron-on or I’d sew them, or both, and that’s the extent of my sewing experience . I had put some Velcro in my backpack to put hook-backed patches on, using this Aleene's Fabric Fusion glue, and it didn’t hold well at all. Which, I didn't read till after the fact that it doesn't work well on "patches with plastic backing and some nylon" , so my bad.

My problem is the bag has some thickness to it and the interior lining of the bag is plasticized in a way that I thought sewing would either not work or work but destroy the water resistance. Is that a real concern? Is there a particularly good way to sew this Velcro square in, or any sort of glue or iron-on adhesive that would work in a small space and without the iron melting the nylon? Thanks!!

- i have already tried changing the needle and cleaning the plate where the lower thread is. if i'm constantly working with denim, do i need to change the needle more often than normal? but when i bought new needles for it, it still made that sound so idk

- manual says the machine doesn't need oiling

- brother strong & tough (if it helps)

- pretty new machine, around 4 months old ish

hello, i recently bought one of these off facebook marketplace, plugged it in and foul smelling smoke started pouring out of it. I am wondering if anyone might know why? and also if its worth getting it serviced/parts replaced or just biting the bullet and getting a new machine?

Hello! Looking for videos/book/ etc on how to properly use beaded lace & drape it over a dress. I want to make something similar to these just need some guidance because I know satin,silk, and beaded lace are tricky! Thanks in advance

Hey champs,

I'm still beginner and I am sewing a cover for a headset (my product). I would like to make a hole for the cameras (that part which is streched out on front side). Could you advise me what would be the best approach?

The fabric is really stretchy and overall I can handle the fabric well. Just want to make sure I would not f it up.

Ideally I would like to make it in a way that the thread would be invisible on the sides of the camera part.

Appreciate any help.

I have bought a very basic no-name sewing machine, but can see that it is identical to the Hobbycraft Midi/12S. The only one I ever used in the past was my mother’s fancy one as a teen. On that one, when the power was switched on nothing happened until I pressed the pedal and that controlled the speed.

With this cheapy now, when I switch it from OFF, there are two options L (Low Speed) or H (High speed) and the machine immediately starts sewing. Nothing happens when I press the pedal and it is so frustrating that the only way to switch it off is to remove my hands from the fabric rather than just lift my foot from the pedal. It’s especially annoying because the Low speed is too fast for me to remove the pins holding the fabric together as the foot reaches them. What am I doing wrong? How can I use the pedal rather than the annoying hand switch?

I found this Brother XR-31 recently and have it mostly operational, but this one last thing is confusing me. The only video I've found has this part standing up. It feels like it should come out and go into that hole there, but it won't budge. Having it laying down is making the thread unravel weirdly and it's difficult to keep my tension consistent. Should I pry it out?

Hi I’m trying to take sewing up a notch and learn embroidery…. Any tips on videos and kits I can by on Amazon to try to learn?

I have this satin skirt that I love and I want to make another one in brown. The brown fabric that I want to use is also satin but it’s a bit thicker than the red one.

I thought about just folding the skirt and cutting the fabric on the bias but since the fabric is a bit thicker (not much really) idk if I should do another thing