5 Quick & Easy Hacks to Speed Up Your Sewing Process
Admit it, we all love a quick sewing project - but often that rush to snip the last thread and get it off the sewing machine and onto our bodies can result in errors, small mistakes and that deflating feeling that after a weekend (or two) working on a project… we just don’t like the final result.
Now, it must be said that I am an advocate of slowing down your process to speed things up (see point 1), but today, I’m going to indulge you and share some industry short-cuts so you really can fast-track your fashion projects. Plus, who doesn’t love a nifty little hack?
Let’s jump into it…
Sample
Adding an extra step of sampling your project might seem counter-intuitive, but hear me out…
Sampling doesn’t mean toiling an entire garment, it can be the process of testing techniques and applications on smaller pieces of fabric to practise skills and success rates. You can sample inserting a concealed zip into a bias-cut seam, or fabric manipulation techniques you’d like to apply to your design.
You may not have worked with a particular textile before and so testing your machine settings on the material is also a form of sampling.
Whilst this may feel like adding more work to your work in progress, you can approach sampling with a simple mindset shift. Take the pressure off your shoulders of constantly needing to create a finished garment in your spare time and fall back in love with why you pursued sewing in the first place. Perhaps you schedule one of every four weekends purely to sample new ideas or skills?
You’ll not only reduce the risk of making mistakes when you do come to apply your learnings to a finished article, but alleviate any internal (hello perfectionism) or external (hello social media) pressure to constantly produce new pieces to add to your wardrobe. By slowing down and sampling, you will speed up your overall output without adding yet another piece to the fitting amendment pile, or, the “that didn’t quite work/doesn’t quite suit me” pile.
Don’t forget, your best-friend for sampling, is a Fashion File.
I encourage you to document all the skills, techniques and methods that you’re learning on your journey, taking photos, making notes, quick-sketches and annotations all in your own words to process the information and store it for future reference.
Take this pleating sample I made for this video. I played around with a variety of shapes, widths and stitch lengths and stored it in my own fashion file for a point of reference.
Having kept the habit of a fashion file since university, I now have four stuffed to the brim full of industry hacks - the type of wisdom nuggets Creative Directors would share, tips and tricks no University could teach me, I store it all in my Fashion File! (and I share it all inside The DPL Atelier)
2. Learn to Label
Labelling your patterns is a crucial part of pattern making. Of course, we should be familiar with the traditional grainlines, cutting instructions, fabric selection and sizing (and if this has you stumped then perhaps our free Pattern Cutting Basics course is for you!) - bonus points if you also transfer your horizontal balance lines [HBLs] such as your bust line, waistline and hip line; but I’m talking about labelling beyond these basics.
I’m referring to building the habit of annotating the measurements of each seam line.
Take this corset pattern, for example. Having recently shared a corset draping workshop inside The DPL Atelier, I was left with a selection of pattern pieces for a very fitted garment. Obviously, the waistline [WL] carries across each panel, which I can divide up into separate measurements that, when added together, should give half my waist measurement plus a small amount of ease.
N.B. When working with a Centre Front and Centre Back sewing pattern that is cut on the fold, this equates to only half the bodice, hence why we double the measurements.
However, if I label every single seam line from the shoulder to the armhole and the side seam to the neckline - my process for fitting and amendments is suddenly made considerably quicker.
At a glance, I can cross-reference a sleeve head to an armhole, understanding how much ease may be incorporated, or I can draft a length of bias to finish a neckline, or I can determine with haste whether to take in or let out any volume at the hip - the possibilities are endless… and easy!
Labelling correctly and with attention to detail doesn’t stop there. You can also number your pattern pieces for fast tallying to ensure you have all required components to avoid being caught out when cutting fabric to dating them for archival reference - for instance, if I dig out a blouse pattern from 2002, I can make an educated guess it probably doesn’t fit me like a glove any more!
The more information you add to your patterns, the quicker your creative process will become.
3. Try This Measuring Tape Hack
You may or may not know, I have a rather inconvenient condition called “Essential Tremors” leaving my hands in an eternal state of shakiness. Before I get the small violins out 🎻 - don’t worry, I have acclimatised well as a fashion designer and can still thread a needle like a pro; but fiddly tasks catch me out from time to time, as I’m sure can apply to most people.
One of these tasks is taking circumference measurements on myself. Trying to whip the tape around your body and catch the end with one hand whilst pulling it for an accurate reading has *athlete level of precision* written all over it. Spoiler alert: I am no athlete.
So equip yourself with a safety pin and a bit of masking tape before securing the pin to the end of the tape. Once attached, you can thread the other end of your tape measure through creating a loop for you to slip your desired body part through (careful, I’m talking arms and legs here). Essentially this is a makeshift retractable body tape - but we love a cost-effective solution that saves time!
This technique is best used in working on your wrist, forearm, bicep, ankle as well as your thigh. If you are finding this hack useful in whatever circumference measurement you are trying to get, then you may find this previous video useful too.
4. Be Lazy With Your Bobbins
Lazy-girl confession: I never change the bobbin thread on my sewing machines between projects if I’m going to toile or sample (which, from point one of this list, happens quite a lot!) - but it’s not just me being sluggish, I promise.
Reason #1:
If you keep a contrast colour in your bobbin case, this can become a great way of checking the tension of your sewing machine.
As long as the two threads are contrasting, you'll be able to see if one is pulling through to the other or not. So, if your bobbin thread is being pulled to the top that is a sign that your top thread is actually tight on tension, or vice versa - if your top thread is being pulled through to the bottom that is a sign that your bobbin thread is too tight in its tension setting and is pulling your top thread underneath.
Remember that you shouldn't be able to see your bobbin thread from the top and you shouldn't be able to see your top thread from the bottom!
Reason #2:
If that wasn’t enough to convince you to swap to the lazy-side, my second reason for keeping old bobbin threads in is a sustainable one. When I’m toiling or sampling my projects, the colour of my thread is not my priority, I am going through the process to test the fit, design proportions, techniques or textiles. And whilst you may wish to swap to a colour-matched thread for a wearable toile, to be honest - in this context I really don’t mind!
It could be weeks, months or years until I reach for that particular colour again, and as we know, thread can turn bad. Old thread can snap leading to broken stitch lines and poor construction, so I choose to keep my bobbin thread colour my little secret and, quite frankly, you should too.
5. Find Your Fashion Family
My final fast-hack is to find yourself a community of like-minded creatives to discover the power of accountability, shared learning and support can have on your sewing process.
Inside The DPL Atelier, my members and I benefit from weekly live calls, monthly creative co-working sessions and a safe online space to express ourselves through home-sewn clothing without judgement. Tips, tricks and a-ha moments are flying around left, right and centre with shared experiences from everyone’s unique creative journey, and friends have been made for life. I set weekly creative quick-wins for when life gets in the way and we still want to move the creative needle forward without that sense of guilt. We constantly rally around each other to stay accountable, for some it’s as simple as quietly staying in the background and observing everyone’s posts, for other’s it’s a case of sharing regular updates with the group and benefitting from inspiring conversation.
Some dip in and out, looping back every few months to check in and nurture their practice, other’s carve out no more than 20-minutes for a daily top-up. Either way, we’re respectful that everyone’s sewing practice looks different to accommodate the various lifestyles, backgrounds and schedules - but beyond the exclusive tutorials, sewing patterns, learning resources and Create, Cut, Construct framework, it’s the community that really enhances our dream wardrobe journey.
So why not see for yourself? Come and join The DPL Atelier to be welcomed into the fashion family and continue to speed up your sewing process, whatever that looks like for you.
Stay safe, keep creative and I’ll catch you on the flip side x
