Home-Sewer to Professional Seamster: 8 Tricks You Should Learn

When I was a little my grandmother, who I lovingly called Maw-maw, gave me my first few sewing lessons, and my very first project was a baby blanket. I diligently sewed rows of printed squares that I quilted together on a 1960's Singer sewing machine. After that I was hooked and my hunger to sew was insatiable.

Those early sewing skills served me well for many years and it wasn’t until I started my own women's clothing line, Lily & Migs, did my skills move from home-sewer to professional seamster. Some tools of the trade are only available with a special machine in a factory but there are SO MANY short cuts and tricks that professional seamsters implement for better efficiency and quality that you can and should be doing in your own sewing.

I’m sharing my top 8 sewing tricks that will take you from being a home-sewer to living as a professional seamster. Are you ready?

Don't be intimidated by it's edge... this will be your new BFF.

1. Rotary Blades and Mat:
Do yourself a favor and get a rotary cutter and a self-healing mat, your hands will thank you! This will cut down on your cutting time significantly. Especially those that are cutting for small production runs, this is much more efficient to  cut multiple layers of fabric all at once. In production factories use long tables (think really long, some times they can be 50ft+) to lay multiple layers of fabric to be cut. You can easily mimic this in your home studio by layering your fabrics and using a rotary cutter and mat(s). Another tip, buy a larger diameter rotary blade if you are cutting multiple layers, the bigger diameter of the blade the thicker the layers can be.

See that black thing to the left?! That's a proper fabric weight.

2. Fabric Weights:
Stop pinning your patterns to the fabric. It's such a waste of time plus it’s preventing you from getting a precise cut. Instead use fabric weights. There are things called Fabric Weights you can buy, but you don’t have to. Anything gravity challenged could be used as a fabric weight. Soup cans, tape dispenser, books or a stapler can all be used. Get creative and leave pinning your pattern behind you.







3. Combine Fusible Interfacing with Fabric:
Why cut the same thing twice? Instead, cut a piece of fabric and fusible that will fit all of your pattern pieces that require interfacing. Fuse the interfacing and fabric together first, then lay your pieces out and cut. Not only is this a time saver but now your pieces are perfectly matched and more precise.

Pins: Time waster and precision destroyer.

4. No Pins:
This is probably my favorite tip… stop using pins to sew! I promise, you don’t need them and you won’t miss them.  Instead place the pieces you need together, put them under the machine and sew. You can adjust and move the fabric as your sewing the seam. No more breaking a needle because you caught the pin and no more puckers when your fabric pushes over your pin. It does take a little practice but trust me and take the leap. You will never look back.

See that? Just beautiful serging.

5. Just Serge:
Serging threads have two straight stitches and an additional two threads that wrap around the seam finishing the edge. As long as you have your tension correct on your machine you shouldn't need to use a straight stitch on your sewing machine too. Unless you prefer to sew each seam twice, save yourself the time. Another pro tip, I always serge with the front of my garment facing up to the sky, which means the top serged seams are always facing the front, it's a really easy way to determine front from back but it's also much more professional looking.
***Loose gage knits or loosely woven materials are probably the only exception to "Just Serge" rule, when having an additional stitch helps support the fabric in creating another boundary for unraveling.


6. Combine Your Sewing Steps:
It’s much easier to group your sewing steps together based on task. What do I mean by that? Basically, I'm asking you to complete similar steps before moving on to another, such as sewing all the side and long seams together. Many people prefer to sew all the tedious steps first such as collars, bindings or plackets. Whatever you prefer the act of grouping similar sewing steps together helps speed up the process. This is especially handy if you are sewing for production, sewing the same seams or steps on all the items before moving onto the next step is how they do it in the factories.

7. Pressing:
I save all my garment pressing until the end. There is no reason you need to press your seam after every step. If you’re top stitching it’s simple; pull open the seam, push the seam allowance to the side that's getting top-stitched, place under your machine and go. Unless you like the exercise, don’t slow yourself down with trips to the iron.







8. Never Stop Learning:
Don’t hold yourself to one technique. Be open to trying new ones. Always explore what others are doing. I am constantly looking for new techniques or ways to make sewing more efficient or have a higher quality. Some techniques you’ll love and others won’t work for you, but never stop exploring this glorious world of sewing!

Hopefully you can implement some of these professional techniques into your sewing and that your projects can reflect it! Comment and let me know your thoughts or if you have any questions, I’m always here to answer them.


-Jenn