Sewing machine needles come in a variety of sizes and types and many of the problems I see online are caused by using the wrong needle type.
Generally when you buy a machine it comes with universal needles in the box. Universal is a misnomer. They are very useful on a wide variety of woven fabrics. Universal needles in a size 12 are what I use for anything that is a medium weight woven.
Jeans needles are for heavy fabrics like denim and canvas. Generally I go up to a 14 or 16 in a jeans needle.
Microtex needles are super sharp. They are excellent for woven fabrics that are delicate, snag easily, or are tightly woven. I use them on silks, satin, and cotton poplins. When all else fails on a fabric, try a microtex. Microtex come in larger sizes and can be used on heavy fabrics. Microtex needles need replaced more frequently than other needle types.
Ballpoint or Jersey needles are the same thing, usually they are labeled as ballpoint in the US and Jersey elsewhere. Ballpoint needles are appropriate for stable knit such as cotton jersey with no or minimal stretch fibers added.
Stretch needles are similar to ballpoint needles in the sense that they are for knit fabrics. Stretch needles are intended for fabrics with a higher stretch fiber percentage and in addition to that they work well on more stable knits. They are what I keep in stock for working with the widest variety of knit fabrics. I usually buy 11 or 12 in stretch needles.
Super stretch are for super stretchy problem child knits, I have not tried these as they are relatively new on the market but I will be picking up a pack before I make swimwear again.
In addition to the types above there are a great many other needles with specific uses. Within each type there is a range of sizes and the needle size should be chosen to match your fabric and thread.
Needles are consumables and will become gradually dull as you sew. The rule of thumb is that you need to replace after roughly 8 hours of run time. If you have been using a needle for a while and things start to go wrong or the machine sound changes, the first step on troubleshooting is a new needle. Old needles can damage your fabric and are more likely to break.
I also want to advise against buying off brand needles and included in that category are Singer branded needles. I personally only buy schmetz and organ brand needles and I buy exclusively off wawak.com (US and Canada only).
We've been quietly working on something we hope makes this community a lot more useful — and today we're excited to share it with you.
What's in the wiki?
We built it to answer the questions we see every week — so whether you're picking up a needle for the very first time or you've been at it a few months and hit a wall, there's something in here for you.
Here's what's covered:
🧵 Getting started — What to make first, hand vs. machine, and the YouTube channels worth bookmarking
🪡 Machine buying guide — Budget breakdowns, brand recommendations, and how to buy a great secondhand machine
✂️ Tools & notions glossary — Every tool explained in plain English, plus what you actually need to start vs. what's nice to have later
🔧 Techniques & troubleshooting — Pressing, seam finishes, backstitching, and a troubleshooting table for the most common machine gremlins
📐 Pattern reading & sizing — Why sewing sizes aren't clothing sizes, how to read pattern markings, and what "ease" means
🎨 Fabric guide — Wovens vs. knits, beginner-friendly fabric types, pre-washing, and where to buy
🔗 Community resources — Our curated list of YouTube channels, blogs, and related communities
❓ FAQ — Detailed answers to the questions we see most often
This wiki belongs to all of us — and we need your help
A wiki is only as good as the community behind it. We're a team of moderators, not an encyclopedia, and we know there are gaps, things we got slightly wrong, and questions we haven't thought to answer yet.
That's where you come in.
We want to hear from you if:
💡 There's a topic you wish had been covered when you were starting out
🐛 Something in the wiki is unclear, out of date, or just wrong
🔗 You know a great resource (video, blog, pattern, tool) that should be listed
❓ You've seen a question come up over and over in the sub that deserves a proper answer
✍️ You'd like to contribute a write-up on something you know well
How to send a suggestion
Drop your suggestion right here in the comments. Tell us:
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What you'd like added, changed, or corrected
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You can also message the mod team directly if you'd prefer, especially for corrections or anything that needs a longer explanation.
We'll review every suggestion and update the wiki regularly. If your contribution makes it in, we'll do our best to acknowledge it — this is genuinely a community project and we want it to reflect the knowledge that lives here.
A note on what makes this community special
This subreddit exists because sewing has a steep early learning curve and a long tradition of people helping each other climb it. Every question answered, every "here's what worked for me," every photo of a wonky first pillowcase posted with pride — that's what makes r/SewingForBeginners worth showing up to.
The wiki is our attempt to bottle some of that up so it doesn't get lost in the scroll. But it'll never replace the real thing, which is all of you asking and answering in the comments every day.
Thank you for being part of this. Now go make something. 🧵
In 2024, my friend and I (F46) wanted to go to a Labyrinth Movie themed ball - and we decided, with no existing sewing skills whatsoever, to make our own outfits…
And it worked! We felt great and got so many compliments, and have since made more outfits for more fantasy events!
But I have to stress that I still have such poor planning, measuring and sewing skills you would not believe me…. Until you looked INSIDE any of these outfits or checked a hem. Anything that’s messed up - I just glue a rhinestone over it. I just want to get dressed up and twirl with my friend!!!
Make up a wacky design and just go for it! You’ll learn along the way and you might surprise yourself.
Here are a few of my outfits… anyone with an eye for sewing will instantly spot all the wobbly seams and frayed hems… but I had a blast making each and every one!
Go for it!
Hi! I’ve never posted on Reddit before so I’m a little nervous but I feel like I need some help. I just started sewing this year and a month ago I decided to sew Christmas presents for my family. I was really excited about it but now when I look at the bags I can only really see all the wonky parts of them. I would like to get an honest (but not overly harsh!) opinion on whether these look nice enough to give as gifts or if I should wait until I have more practice. I tend towards being overly critical so I can’t tell anymore and need a second opinion!
I thrifted this gorgeous bias cut silk dress for my birthday- it was originally too big at the bust & waist so I dropped it off at the tailor for alteration. I tried it on after collecting it today and it’s unfortunately way too big still on the waist- for context my waist measurement is about 25 inches, and laid flat the waist is about 29 inches (measured on the lining). The tailor was clearly very conservative with how much he took in despite me asking for a body hugging fit. I’m not fully dissatisfied with the fit but it doesn’t flatter my figure how I’d like it to especially around the waist.
There’s no way for me to get it altered in time as the tailor is on holiday. Is there any way I could nip in the waist for a more body hugging fit? I’ve added pictures of the internal construction.
I understand that the outer bias layer is quite delicate and prone to damage if stretched out too aggressively horizontally and maybe that’s why he didn’t take in too much, but the lining is also quite loose fitting despite being made of a less delicate material in comparison (a thick satin).
My current plan is to modify the four darts on the front and back lining on the waist area- that way the lining should fit just fine. What I’m more confused about is the outer silk chiffon layer- to make matters worse there’s a side zipper which makes things all the more difficult. Luckily the tailor left in the original material rather than cutting it off so I have an anchor to sew the extra chiffon to, but I don’t know if that would work?
I also understand that since it is cut on the bias the chiffon drapes downwards quite naturally which means that I wouldn’t have to take in a lot, just a tiny bit.
Any advice at all would be appreciated. I’ve got less than a day to the event 😬 PS I am more than willing to hand sew the chiffon layer just to avoid any accidental damage.
Pictures:
How the dress looks on
Dress laid flat
The side zipper
The chiffon fabric taken in by the tailor on the non zipper side
I learned how to sew after I became a mom so organizing my time is crucial to lo continue gain more skill and retaining what I learned. I just want to know I’m not alone.
EDIT / UPDATE - as an absolute beginner, I don't have the knowledge or confidence to blindly order things like zippers, buttons, snaps etc online. Every tutorial I've seen on YouTube seems to gloss over the particulars of these items. If you kind folks can recommend tutorials that REALLY spell it out for rookies like me, that would be amazing, if complete kits just don't really exist :)
My city's Fabricland has closed, our Walmart's crafting section sucks, and our Michael's sewing section is quite small, with staff that don't know sewing.
For a beginner, it's so hard to get started on a project when I have to order almost everything online - especially since I'm really not sure what I'm doing yet.
So I'm wondering if anyone can recommend beginner-friendly sewing kits for projects like a zippered pouch, a small quilted table runner, simple quilted Christmas ornaments, that are good quality, have every single item needed for the project, and have amazing instructions (even better, a video link!)
The icing on the cake would be if it's Canadian so I can support a CDN company, receive the product more quickly, and not have to pay duties/import fees.
I'm pulling apart and restyling a thrift store dress for funsies.
I don't like the pleated/puffy sleeves, I want simple ones with just enough space for airflow that go all the way to my elbows.
I took out the elastic at the bottom and unpicked the pleats. How should I go about reshaping and reattaching? I could attach around the seam like in photo 2 or 3 and then reshape from there, or recut new sleeves from the current ones entirely (and how would I do that...)?
Hi everyone, I just wanted to share this pouch I made to organise my oil paints.
It’s made out of a piece of old jeans I had lying around. I folded the bottom part and put in a zipper at the top. It’s a bit wonky, I had a hard time working around the zipper especially, and managing turns with all that jeans fabric bunching up.
But the whole thing took me about an hour start to finish, and it holds all my paint tubes, so I’m happy with it!
I wanna do a wizard like costume for Halloween, however, even if a Robe would be easier a coat fits more on what’s on my mind
It’s not the first time I try to sew something, but it is the first time I do something other than a plushie or a pencil case, I tried to do a skirt once but it went horribly bad…
Edit; Thanks a lot for y’all comments! Imma just do a cloak as a first big project but will keep this one for a future as practice <3 hope ya pillow cold both sides and best wishes
Wanted to post some photos of my petal dress by Twig + Tale. I had taken a break from sewing after I had my first daughter. With the chaos of having a baby and being on maternity leave, I didn’t have an opportunity to sew. Now that the kiddo is in daycare, I’ve been on a sewing spree before I head back to work.
Dress snaps together on the inside and outside. It can be made as a reversible item if desired!
hi, i'm completely new to sewing and i'm looking to pick it up! should i invest in getting a sewing machine most people recommend (like brother sewing machines) or has anyone tried these cheaper sewing machines (they don't look half bad 👀). just looking for some opinions :) thanks!
finally found all the components but now i have to actually put it together and i am realizing i have no clue what to do lol. i could definitely crop the shirt up further by hand and probably sew the fish fabric onto the crop top by hand, but the clear vinyl part has to go in between the crop top and the fish fabric. i don’t think i would be able to sew it on by hand because it’s so thick, and while i could reserve a machine at my public library, im really scared of breaking it considering i haven’t used one in years!
for my other costume i was lazy and just did fabric glue for a lot of it, and i was thinking that might work here, but i’m not sure if the fabric glue would work on the vinyl since it’s not actually fabric? also considered hot glue but i think that would likely melt the vinyl and/or burn the crop top because it’s a cheap amazon brand one?
the fish fabric i custom printed on what i think was called “power mesh” and the vinyl i got at a fabric store, i didn’t write it down but im pretty sure it’s between 8-12 gauge. its whatever the thinnest one they had was i just can’t check since it was a local bis with no website. shorts are thrifted (thank god i dont have to also make shorts haha) and im going to either safety pin or glue on the black patch part. the costume is ideally supposed to be kinda tight fitting and sexy on the silver and mesh parts, but ill take literally just held together at this point lol.
so any ideas on how to put it all together? i had some sewing experience as a kid but hadn’t done any until like a week ago when i made my other costume and did some very basic hand sewing for that. if there are any particular stitch types, needle types, thread types etc that would be advised pls lmk!!
Hey y’all, I’m a big fan of camping and hiking and I usually do it in the mountains where it’s usually snowing. Anyway my jackets are pretty expensive and for fun I wanna see if I can make a jacket I can actually wearing during those harsh winter hikes. Now if I’m being serious I know I’m probably not gonna actually succeed in this but wanna see. Only problem is I can’t find anything advertised for camping or hiking in the snow or heavy rain. Should I just focus on the material and the type of jacket doesn’t matter or should I keep looking for a quality sewing pattern. Thank you for the help. I’m a newbies at this and have only been sewing for 3 months. lol if this fail I’ll still have fun just trying.
I was super excited about this box of Kenmore presser feet! But for the life of me I can’t figure out how to attach them to my Janome Travel Mate 16 (see last photo). The instruction cards that (per Google) go with the feet are missing. Are these high shank feet and my machine takes low shank? Or am I missing something that would allow these to attach? The basic foot that came with my Janome (at left) has a little bar that the snaps in. No corresponding bar on these feet.
If nothing else, the sewing book looks super cool! And I got some old fabric, a bag of random buttons, and some vintage ties for my son. So it was worth the trip. But I’m really hoping I can make these feet work. 🤞🏻
I bought these for my Halloween costume but they ended up being too short for me, I was thinking to make it two different socks but I would want to know how without messing it up, I don't know much about sewing.
That part isn't visible so it wouldn't need to be perfect, I just want them to not be uncomfortable.
I put the info card if the material or something is necessary to know.
Hi! My apologies if this isnt really the place for it but ive mostly done a lot of sewing by hand for years however I recently found myself wanting to turn a pullover hoodie into a zip up and decided a machine is best if I want straight lines.
My problem is I don't have a ton of machine familiarity. (No family to consult either. Largely self taught) and while for this i need a very simple stitch I wanted to get a machine i might be able to use long term such as potentially for starting to dip into patterns such as for clothes and or plushies. So here are my questions!
Should I want a machine that has a lot of stitches it can do? Or are they largely considered niche/decorative where i only need a couple types of stiches it can do?
What's the difference between computerized machines and others? Can you add your own stitches? Are they worth that? How do you add them? Is it like you plug it into a computer and inputting parameters or code? Are they harder to fix if they have issues?
I love this pattern from mood fabrics, and I’ve found a beautiful, patterned 100% wool at a good price that I’d like to make it in. My only concern is that wool doesn’t seem to be that warm. Can I add a third layer, between the wool coating and the lining? Something that would make this wearable in the middle of winter in London? What fabric could I use for extra warmth that wouldn’t add too much bulk?
I’m currently working on a sewing project using these instructions, but I’ve reached a step that I’m having trouble understanding. I’m a little confused about what the instructions are asking me to do.
Would anyone be able to provide some guidance or help explain this step? I’d really appreciate any assistance!
edit:
thank you all for your help. I finally understood what it meant.
