 This month, we are kicking off a brand new series for anyone who's just getting into garment sewing. So each week this month, we will have a topic that will be geared towards you guys that have just gotten into garment sewing. Our first one we'll be starting with is kind of an essential kit to really get you started sewing your first garment. So we are sharing some things that we just cannot live without when it comes to sewing. The first thing is probably what all beginners-seller's need and experience-seller's too. I feel like I use this still on every single garment I wear. It's funny. I get to the end of a project. I feel like, did I get out my seam ripper? I still think about that. So of course a seam ripper. You just have to have a seam ripper. You're gonna make mistakes. You gotta have one. Can't live without it. Yeah, we really like this one because it has a rubber end on the bottom. So after you rip the seam, you can rub this rubber thing across the seam and it pulls out all the threads. So that makes it nice and simple. So we prefer this one over just like your plastic. Yeah, the one that has a nice big handle. And it's also like ergonomically or whatever designed for your hand. Because you might be doing a lot of it in the beginning. So you want to try and be as comfortable as possible. And it's easy to see too. Like some of the really small ones that come with your machine, like you can lose those things. Next up, we have just some marking tools. I think we have three of them. First up is a chalk. This is a chalk stick almost. I don't really know how to explain it, but it's roll it. So you roll it along your fabric like this. This is the best one I found for chalk. There's there's different ones where you can change the colors, which sometimes you do need different color chalks. I need a white one mainly because of dark fabrics. Yeah. And it's a very thin line so that you can get really precise marking. The other ones with the interchangeable chalk. The line is so thick sometimes. It's like regular. It's like a regular piece of chalk almost. It's just really small. So as you use it, it wears down on one side and becomes, you know, a wider line. Yeah. So this Clover one is really cool. And then we have we talked about these bricks on pins before. I think in our favorite notions video, but these are just really good for, you know, marking really precisely on lighter fabrics. It looks like we have a regular pen and then a highlighter. Yes. And I find that I use both for different reasons. Sometimes the highlighter will glide smoother on a fabric. And of course, I love my ballpoint because you really need that precise line, especially for a dart. I always use the ballpoint for a dart. But sometimes the ballpoint won't glide over a fabric. Okay. Highlighter. And that's when I use the highlighter. So that's what you'll need. Many different marking tools. And marking you'll find is just really critical in order to get your garment to have that really professional finish. Ow. Really professional finish. And also, you know, just have the results that you're looking for. A lot of times like it's going to be really hard for you to get around not making a dart, for example. Darts are in almost every single garment that you make, because that's what makes a two dimensional piece of fabric, three dimensional and give it shape. And if you can't make that point at the very tip of the dart, exactly where it needs to be and draw those legs out to the raw edges of the side seam, then you're going to have a wonky looking dart. So, I mean, marking tools are just really critical to have it successful project in the end. Yes. Something you're still really proud of. Yes. So definitely when you forget to mark, going back to putting that pattern piece on to get those marks, it's just never as accurate. Right. So, yeah. Getting as much as you're getting. What else? So, a couple of different things for measuring. Of course, you've got to have seam gauge. This one goes up to six inches and it's got the sliding bar, so it's nice if you're doing as a hem. You can put it where you want the hem and that helps you keep that consistent marking with that. And then I find I also really use a clear ruler, especially for drawing those darts. So, use my clear ruler so I can see if you're just marking pleats along the fabric, I find I really need both of these. Yeah, exactly. And I'll use this too. You'll see on your pattern pieces, the grain line. And the grain line always needs to be absolutely parallel to the finished selvage edge of the fabric. So, the clear ruler is really great to do that because you can set one end on the selvage into the fabric and then you can see that grain line through here so you know if you need to twist it or turn it to get it to be exactly straight. That's when I think I use this the most in addition to darts. I also like this one because it's a little bit heavier. I don't know, I feel like it kind of presses the fabric out a little bit. But one measuring tool that is missing that is really critical is a measuring tape. Obviously, you'll need that to measure your body to know which size to make. So that's just almost like a given that you need one of those for sure. I measure every time, do you? No. Well, there you go. You can decide what works best for you. You measure your body every time? My body, I don't know. My body hasn't changed since high school, probably. I think maybe because I second guess. I think I second guess. Oh, do you remember the numbers? Yeah, I got mine down. That's good. Write it down. Yeah, well, my body does change. It doesn't hurt anything. Okay, so here's another good one. So really good scissors are going to be important. I don't think that you can just go into your craft drawer or your kid's craft supply and pull out any old pair of scissors. I think you'll find it to be really cumbersome, also maybe really annoying and worst of all, not having precise results. So having a dedicated pair of sewing scissors, scissors that are meant to cut fabric is really critical. There are a couple of brands out there. I've only ever used Fiskars that come with the orange handle and it probably had three different pairs in the four and a half years that I've been sewing. So I try and replace them pretty regularly. But, you know, scissors, there are other ways to cut your fabric before a beginner. Do you agree? I kind of think scissors are probably the best way to go in the beginning. Yeah, I had scissors for a while first before I went up to a rotary before you really know you're committed in this. I wouldn't invest in a mat and the rotary blades. And to, you know, if you're investing in pair of scissors, they have Joanne's, I mean, $15, $20, but wait until you have 50% off coupon or their own sale to begin with and you can get them reasonably priced. Yeah, and I mean it is an investment, but it is one of those that's really, really worth it. You can skimp on a seamer for example and just get the cheap one, but scissors really are pretty important. And then you want to hoard them and not let any of your family members, you know, hold them for any reason. Don't cut Velcro with them. Right, exactly. You want to be really protective. So, but it lasts longer. Yeah, and I do want to share. I took a crafty class and you know how they always said, don't cut your, with your fabric scissors, you shouldn't cut, put your paper patterns with them. Well, the woman on there said that that's not true. It's an old wives tale that she thinks maybe people started because they didn't want their family using their good selling scissors. So they said, you can't use my scissors. But yeah, she was, I mean, she's a professionalist, what she does for a living. And she said that's not true. But there are probably some people out there who still would say, I don't care. I don't care. I've heard it because you've heard it. It's like, you know, a commandment in sewing that you can't put with paper. I probably do. I do. Yeah. I do have a pair dedicated to paper in my sewing room. But if it's, you know, from the other side of the room, sometimes I'll just write. I'll do it the same way. So a couple more things in here. This is something that I don't use anymore. I still use it. You do? I do. But I got it when I, I mean, almost immediately after I got my machine. This was one of the very first things that I bought. It is basically a magnetic seam allowance measure or guide for your sewing machine. So it's magnetic on the bottom so that it attaches to that metal plate that's on the bottom of your sewing machine. And you can set it at like five eighths seams, for example, which are mostly what you use in garment sewing, a five eighths inch seam allowance. You can set it there. And then whenever you feed your fabric and you have just like a wider plate that you can just rest your fabric again gently and, you know, move it along so that if you're not so good at keeping the seam allowances straight, you'll have kind of a guide there to help you through it. I mean, the machine has lines on it, but sometimes those, in the beginning those lines are hard. Yeah, to follow. When I taught sewing classes, I mean, everybody loved that. That was their one thing. They felt like they couldn't, they couldn't live without what really helped. And I still use it sometimes if I'm hemming something and I'll call for like a one inch hem or a two inch hem, like a really wide hem. I'll, you know, take my seam guide and hinge and measure on my fabric two inches and then make a mark and then put it under my needle and just move this guy wherever that is because my, I don't have enough bars on my plate to go up to two inches. So I'll just put that there. That's a good reason to still use it. I think I would just mark the fabric all the way around at this point. Really? That would take way more time? Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. I've lost this thing a long time ago. I haven't had it anymore. Yeah. So maybe that's why. And I mean, it's a little price, five or six bucks or something. So, I mean, you need to add up. So once again, wait for another Joanne to be purchased. Couldn't you just buy any old square magnet? Do you need this metal thing? Well, the bar does help. I mean, it's a, it extends out. But I'm sure, I mean, if you're handy, you could come up with some contraption on your own. Yeah. And next is something very cheap and simple. And you might even already have in your kitchen drawer. You can use this to turn out the points. Say you're sewing a skirt with a zipper and it's got the waistband that you need to flip and poke out the little edges to make a really clean little corner there. You can just use a bamboo stick. Yeah. For that, there's also ones that you can purchase, which I also do have that are meant for getting those really nice corners. But I still find myself using this for certain things, even though I have those ones that they sell for getting a nice neat corner. Yeah. I have the, I don't have just a regular chopstick. I have one that I purchased. Yeah. Yeah. There really is nothing better. You can't get your fingers in that far. Even if you try and like, none of it works. You really need a tool to help you use those corners. And even in a beginner garment, even in the most basic garments, you're going to, like she mentioned, a skirt with a zipper in the back. Like you're going to have to finish your waistband and usually that is done by sewing the waistband right sides together and flipping it out. So you have that corner where they come together in the back usually or wherever your zipper is. And you'll just want that to be at a nice right angle. And there's no other way really to do that than with a tool. So this might seem a little bit like, what am I talking about? Turning corners, waistbands. I don't even know. But once you do a pattern that has this, then you'll, then you'll know what we're talking about. And you'll be glad that you went out and got this. We're pulling it out of your kitchen drawer. Exactly. Exactly. So that is it for it. Oh, no. Sorry. Not it. I got ahead of myself. I got something else cheap here for you. So long as you have a printer or somewhere to print and a piece of car stock. This is free off of the Scientific Centrist website. It's just got, it's got from a quarter inch all the way up to five inches. And I use this a lot for hands. You can just fold it over your fabric over to where you want it. I especially used it when I was sewing little girl's skirts. You know, it's just square fabric. It's a very straight line. You're using clothing cotton. So easy to press and turn, not a silky tricky fabric. And I just would flip it over to 0.5, press, move, press. It's so easy. You can actually make this yourself too. If you don't have a printer at your house, you can just take a ruler and a piece of cardboard and make your own lines where you need it. But hers is ready to go. So I use this a lot. It's cute. I replace it every so often because you know, sometimes it gets a little wrinkly from the steam of your iron. True. This one is a little bit of a luxury. I guess you could say. But I have to have it. It took me a while to jump on to this. I could never live without it now. I could not live without it. No, true. It's a magnetic pin holder. Before I got it, I just kept them in their little plastic box that came in. But I have to have it. And then you spill pins. You can just take it over and pick up your pins. Well, I think that's what did it for me, is I kept knocking over that little plastic thing. And then pins would be everywhere. And as much as I would tell myself, the pins are right there. Don't hit them. You just pull your fabric in a certain way and just drag them right off the counter and they fall everywhere. I think I had picked up all of my pins just one to many times. And I said, you know what? I think I had a Joanne's coupon. They sell them there. Or maybe even got it off Amazon for Amazon Prime with the free shipping and stuff, whatever. I just said it's time. And A, never knock that thing off the counter because it's heavier. And even if I did, the pins aren't going anywhere. And actually, I love it so much. I've got two. First of my sewing machine and then over one of the ironing board. I can't live without it. Well, yes. But I do like, one has a lid and one doesn't. I do prefer the lid because it's nice to pop it on and put it away. So I like that. Now, I know you don't have a lot of places to store all your sewing stuff. I've got a room, it's a guest room, but I use it as my sewing room. So all my stuff kind of stays out in there little cups and cutesy things that I put on my sewing table. But all my stuff has to get put away at some point because my sewing room is also my kitchen, which is also my dining room, which is also open to my living room. It's all kind of one big area. Actually, it's a small area, but one open area with multiple uses. So I can't just have like little... So I can't just have everything in these little containers that would be way too obnoxious. So what I did is I invested in a caboodle. You might remember this from... Why is this not glittery? I need a lot more stickers, basically. All I have is one little fortune that I stuck on there. I don't even know why. So basically it's just like a sewing toolbox, if you want to think of it that way. It opens up like this and it has the multiple layers and you can put bigger things in the bottom, like scissors. It's where I store my pen case. And then it has all these little compartments for everything else that you need. Your needles, all my pens are in here. I have my measuring tape, all my other sewing feet. Literally every tool that I use for sewing other than the big rulers and the mat, all of it goes in here. And so it's really great to be able to have everything in one place and then whenever I'm done for the day, then I just close it all up and then lock it up and then it goes underneath my island and it just stays there all in one place. So this is what I use, my little sewing toolbox. I have a real toolbox, but this is my sewing toolbox. So yeah, so if you're just getting into this and you don't want to dedicate a whole space to it, this is a great way for you. Plus too, if you're taking sewing classes, you need to travel. It's really great to have all of this with a little handle that you can carry to the sewing classes or a friend's house or I mean we used to travel a lot more with our stuff than we do now, but so that's really, really great. Is that it? That is it. Okay, good. So yeah, so these are our must-have tools for any beginner sewer. I think next week we're going to talk about the patterns that are perfect for beginners. We've actually gotten a couple requests for that in the comments, so I am happy to be able to chat to those folks. So stay tuned, subscribe to our channel so that when our other videos go live, you'll get a notification. Like I said, we're doing patterns next week, fabric the week after that, and then just some good online resources for the following week. So hopefully this will be a really great month for all of you, and even if you've been sewing before, you'll still enjoy hearing what our ideas are. For those experienced sewers out there, if you have any other suggestions for the beginners out there regarding tools that they must have, leave those in the comments below, and we can kind of start a conversation bringing all the minds together to help out the beginner sewists so that they will stick with it and be a part of our little club forever and ever. So yeah, so that's it for today, and we will see you next time. Bye.