DIY Design: Online Sewing Instruction for Everyone!

by Amber Eden (Subscribe to Amber Eden's posts)
Posted Dec 3rd 2009 at 5:54PM

We pity the spool! Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

With the web at your fingertips, information on how to execute a complicated garment is only a click away. Online classes offer everything from how to manage a catch stitch to pretty advanced pattern-making. Here are a few of my favorite sewing sites and resources:

Threads magazine is widely considered to be the best sewing resource around and their site is my go-to for quick answers to seamstress quandaries. They have posted past articles on every conundrum in their extensive archive and also have a new blog with all sorts of great tips. Plus get helpful advice from other readers in the gatherings forum.
Also worth noting is this week's arrival of the long-awaited 2009 Threads Magazine Archive DVD. If you don't want to spring for the entire 24-year set, check out the Best of Threads Volume 1 and Volume 2.
PatternReview.com is a favorite place for sewers to gather, gab and gripe about the latest patterns, but it also offers some excellent sewing instruction that combines real-time online chats with downloadable PDFs. You learn live from sewing greats like Susan Khalje and Kenneth D. King for a mere $35.
Every sewer I know out there raves about the excellent step-by-step Islander Sewing Systems DVDs, which include favorites like Easy Zippers and Industrial Shortcuts for Home Sewing.
If you really want to go pro, I've just discovered the fabulously rich eTelestia.com which offers a complete 10-week, DVD-based sewing instruction course. You'll pick up valuable industry-based techniques and can expand your repertoire to fashion design and pattern-making as well. It's practically like getting an online degree!
For some quick, fun projects and techniques that get you started sewing, check out the hip SewFastSewEasy.com for moderately priced online videos where you can learn how to put in a zipper or whip up a makeup bag in no time. And get your kids and their friends in on the sewing game with these easy beginner projects from MakingFriends.com.

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Next week's topic: There's a whole world of indie sewing patterns and we'll go off the beaten track to find them.

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