Ultimate Beginners Guide to Sewing

1. Intro for the Ultimate Beginners Sewing Class: Hey everyone, I'm Emily from MEP designs and this class is for the beginner solar. This course is perfect for you if you've never touched a sewing machine before, but you really would like to start. Maybe it's been a long time since you started. Again, this class is perfect for you. We're going to start by showing you the basics of a sewing machine, what each button means, and how to really get to grips with it. We're then going to be practicing our stitching on the machine. And then we're going to start making some easy beginner style projects. In this course, you'll learn how to make three projects. The first project that you'll make as a cushion cover, an envelope back cushion cover. We'll then move on to making a makeup bag so you can learn all about zips. And then finally it will be making aligned tool back. Each of these three projects will kind of progress you're on at a rate where you'll be able to stop the video and maybe have a go a few times if each project, I'll just follow along with the costs naturally, it is completely up to you. This is the beauty of an online course that you have for life. You can pause, rewind, and keep going back to the bits that you're not sure on. This class is designed for a beginner. No jargon used here. Let's get started. 2. Threading your machine: Okay, So this is the machine that we're gonna be working on throughout this course. Although my own personal machine has a lot more stitches on it, I wanted to show you that you don't have to have a machine that does a 100 different stitches to start your journey. This particular machine here as around six or seven stitches on it. And it is a perfectly functioning machine for what we need it to do. This particular model is a genomic E17 S. I'm not sure whether this model is still in circulation, but what I will do is find the closest one and leave it linked for you if you would like to buy yourself a similar machine. So our first job here is to get the machine ready and set up for stitching. So that's what we're gonna do first. In every single machine that you find, no matter what make our model, you will always need two types of thread. So you'll need your thread that lives on the top and then you spread that lives in the bottom, also known as your bobbin. First job that we need to do is transfer some thread off of this cone here onto our bobbin. So that's what I'm gonna do now. So most machines work in a very similar manner. There will alter from time to time. But generally, this is how you're going to fill up your bobbing. Someone to put my thread on the little thread holder here. And most machines than half a tension desk like the one here. We're going to wrap the thread around the tension disk. And what you need to make sure is that that thread is caught in properly on your tension disk. If it's not in the tension disk properly, like for example, if he's literally just rams like that. And obviously you can see when I pull it, it wasn't caught in. That will cause is your thread to wind onto your bobbin. Far too little sleep, then obviously you're not going to have much luck when it comes to sewing. Make sure that this is sort of pulled on poplar. You'll be able to lift this tension disk up and the thread sixths in-between there. And then take your Babu on your bobbin. Show you close up. You have some little holes on the top of your bobbing. So this one here, I'm going to put the thread through that hole. Like so. Then I'm going to place the carbon onto this little holder here. My machine on the bobbin to the right. And what this does is initiate the bobbin winding procedure. Now on some machines, what will happen is when I start winding this on this down here might still work. And I'm going to show you a little trick how to stop that from happening. So if I just stop, the machine operates with the foot pedal which is plugged into the machine and he's on the floor for me. And I'm going to press that obesogenic lift. And as you can see, this is moving. I'm machines where this happens. What you need to do is pull your wheel side outwards until it clicks like that. That stops that from happening. If your machine automatically doesn't do that, then you don't need to do anything with the wheel. Once it's bound a little bit of thread on, I'm going to trim this off. I'm going to wind this until this is full. So you will know this is for when the machine, basically it will slow down. Some machines will completely stop that. I'm going to keep my foot on the foot pedal on the floor so you'll be able to see on my machine. So as you can see mine still making a noise, but this is no longer moving because this is full. So now I'm going to push that back to the left, lift this off and trimmed to separate. And that is your bobbing, nice and full. Now we're going to thread the rest of the machine. So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to keep my thread on here, but I've taken it off the tension desk. Again. Machines are different to one another, but most will thread in the very same way. Most machines have numbers and arrows as well so that you can follow those in order to make threading your machine up a lot easier. Okay, so I'm gonna keep the thread wherever it is for the moment, but I've taken it off the tension desk. I'm also going to switch the machine off at this point as well. Just saw no accidents happen. So as I was saying, most machines have numbers, are arrows are both in order to help you, but they will follow the very, very similar path. So the thread is going to go around this first hook here and down this first channel. Then the thread is going to go underneath the channel to the left. You then should have a hook roundabout at the top here. If for whatever reason you can't see a hook, that's probably caution needle is inside your machine. So what you need to do in that case is get your wheel up the side, turn it towards you until you find that you hope appears. And then you're going to go to the right-hand side of your hook around the back and then to the left a bit. And then what that should do is catch on that hawk. You're going to come back down that same channel. The most machines have a big hook right at the bottom of these channels. So I'm going to put the thread behind the big hawk. And then the normally happen as well, a little hawk just above the needle. So I always remind them that is B Corp bend little hook. And then we're gonna go through the needle, which always seems to be the trickiest part. So most machines will thread front to back. You will only find that industrial or semi industrial machines will thread left to right. And that is the top portion of your machine threaded up. Now to thread it, the bobbing. My machine here is a bottom loading bobbing. What that means is to first look at this machine. I can't see where this is going to go. You might have a top loading machine, which the machine behind that is a top loading machine cost right there. I'm able to see my bobbin at all times behind a clear case. That would be a top load in bobbing. This is a Button Mode in Bobby to get into here, I'm going to push this to the left. Then this should flap down. So this is normally a bottom loading Bobby, and we'll have a metal spore care. So after the red is going to sit inside here, this should be like little latch on your metal case that you should be able to lift up and pull this out. I already had some thread in here, but obviously I'm going to take that out. I'm going to drop my thread inside there. Now on your spool case, you should have like little slit here. And sort of like another piece that kind of brings you out too wide called like a little window. So I'm going to get the end of the thread and I'm going to work it round to that little slipped there. And then I'm going to bring it around to lease space in that little window. And then I'm gonna put this back inside the machine. And I will show you exactly how it should look inside your machine. Okay, so I've zoomed into the bobbin case that you can see properly what you should be able to notice that in your bobbing your bobbing case, that is like a little notch just there. And that is exactly where this will say it. So you want to push that end line up and then give you two good push back until you hear it click, and then that is in there properly. If that didn't click, Take it back out and try again. The click is what ensures that it is in all nice and popular. Okay, so once we've done that, then we need to bring the bottom thread so your bobbin thread up to the top, so that instead of the one strand of thread at the top, you're going to get the tool as opposed to one bean on the top, one being on the bottom. To achieve this with your left hand, I want you to grab the thread that you thread it through the needle and hold on to that. Don't hold it too tight. But make sure obviously that you've got a grip of it with your right hand and the wheel at the side of the machine. You're going to turn that wheel towards me this up-close. So with my right hand, I'm turning the wheel towards me. You should be able to see that top thread go down into the bottom. I'm doing it quite slowly and it's going to retrieve that bottom thread, the loop that you can just sort of see here. Once that disappeared and moved up here, you can just see the threads coming back through there. If you talk on this top thread to pull the loop further up. And then you can grab that then with your fingers. So now instead of one thread at the top, one at the bottom, you've got both at the top. Then what I always do is push the threads between the gap on your presser foot and put it off to the back of the machine, off to the side. You can pop that case back on. And then you'll be ready to sew. 3. How to use your machine and practice : Okay, so now you've threaded everything up and you're ready to go. Now just to point out a few things on the machine that you need to know before you get started. If already use the foot pedal, which is on the floor, which is obviously how the machine is controlled. Then you want to locate your reverse stitch button. I'll leave it on your machine. So on this particular model, this here is the reverse stitch lever. You might have a button which you have to press and hold, which I can show you on another machine here. So on this particular machine here, this would be my reverse stitch button. So if you look for a symbol like this, That's how you'll know that that shot reverse stitch button. So now I know where that is. I'm ready to start. I just need to make sure that I'm on the right stage for what I'm gonna be using. For this course will be mainly using a straight stitch, but we will be using as exact stitch here and there. But obviously I will show you that when we need it. But to start off with, we're just going to get to grips with the machine with a straight stitch on my machine here, I can see all the different stitches I have available. And I can see that stitch air is a straight stitch. I am on the stitch selector here on mine again is a dial and I'm on a. And then this is where we control the length of our structures. So some machines have the ability to control the length and the width of a stitch. These particular machine, with it being a basic model on the controls, the length of the stage, which is perfectly fine for this, I'm wondering would be between a 23. So if you need to change the settings on your machine, then you can if you're having any trouble with located in any of the settings on your machine, please reach out on the contact me page of the website and there will always be happy to help. The reason I am between 23. So I read a 2.5. This is normally a standard stitch length. If your machine is a computerized machine, this will always be the setting that you're straight stitches on when you first turn on your machine. It's not too big, not too small. It's just the right stitch for general sewing. On the course page, you will be able to access in this section where this video is the practice sheets that I've created to help you with getting to grips with your machine. If you want to print these out, you can print them off as many times as you like, as much practice as you feel you need. Obviously, I'm just going to show you on both sheets of paper because we're gonna be using a couple of different techniques in this course. And these bits of paper just going to help you get to grips with those techniques before we move onto fabric. Might seem a little bit silly. So in on paper, but the reason that I deal with this is more than anything, it just gives you confidence that you're using your machine in the right way. Don't worry if your paper starts ripping, that's completely normal. The machine obviously isn't built for stitching on paper, but it won't, it won't break your machine or anything like that. People do sometimes on paper as well to make cards. So it's something you can do if you do end up liking this, we're going to start off with the practicing on the straight lines. So what I want you to remember for this is not to get too hung up on sewing right on the black lines perfectly. I'll tell you why later, but I want us to just get used to using the reverse stitch leave at more than anything. And so aligning stitch up to start. So I'm going to start on this black line here. I'm going to turn my machine on. I can see that my sewing needle is in line with the gap in the presser foot. So obviously this here is the presser foot, these normal interchangeable, but that is something that we can worry about another day. So my needle is in line with the gap in the presser foot. So if I lower my presser foot onto the black line, with that gap on the black line, I know that my sewing will be on that line. So to lower the presser foot, normally there is a lever the back of your machine, sometimes it's a bit off to the side, so minds off to the side here. And it is a lever that lowest this up and down. This has got to be down in order for the machine to work. So I imagine it as a sandwich. Bread wasn't on your sandwich poplar than the filling would probably spill out. A little bit similar in terms of if that wasn't up, your stitches aren't going to be nice and accurate. They're going to be very loopy because the tension isn't there. So I'm going to lower my, my lever, do that very gently onto that black line. Now if you want as well, you can use the wheel at the right-hand side of your machine, turn it towards you or to lower the needle down to your machine. That way then you can see where the needle is going to hit. When you start and end a scene where the norm the no matter what you're working on, unless otherwise stated in a pattern, you will always reverse stitch. And at the start and at the end of a scene. Just a bit like when you're hand sewing and you're not the end of the thread. This is exactly the same process, but this lever here are the button on your machine. It's gonna do that for you. You can reverse stitch a little bit too much as well. I always try and say it's people, remember the rule of three. So this is what I mean by that. I'm going to lightly press the foot pedal on the floor and count to about three like that. So roughly three seconds, three stitches, something along those lines. Once I've come forward roughly those three stitches, I'm going to press and hold this lever down and put my foot back on the foot pedal again to go back three stitches. So pressing this down basically makes our stitches go backwards. And I'm gonna go back the same amount. Once you've gone back the same mount, you can let go of this and continue coming forward. So again, be nice and steady when you first start talking. A bit like, obviously, if you have learnt to drive before, you wouldn't put your foot on the accelerator flat to the floor when you first saw it, I get a new car. You're just going to ever-so-slightly until you get to grips. And I'm going to sort all the way to the end of this line. So when I get to the end of the line, I'm going to press and hold my lever down and go back for the three stitches. And then let go and then come forward again. Those three stitches. So always remember the rule of three. So when I've finished like here, obviously my needles finished In this down position. It could finish up. It just depends on how you stop. But obviously if your needle is in the down position, then use the wheel at the side to bring that back up. Lift up the lever that controls your presser foot and pull this out. If this is causing you a bit of problems pulling out, we're going to get for the side just to close enough attention and cook it all threads to separate. The best thing is, like I said, I'm not quite on the black line there, but if you look from the back of the sheet of paper, you will be able to see is that that one looks perfectly straight. Normally you wouldn't be following black lines like this. You would always be falling mainly the edge of your fabric. And you can sort of see where the threads darker is where I've reverse stitched. And like I said, if you were to reverse stitch tool much you would probably get too much bulk there. But we will go through that one more time. And then obviously you can continue practicing on all the lines and even print more sheets out if you would like. So placing my presser foot on the black line, lowering my needle, three stitches. Leave a down three stitches. And then forward all the way to the end. In terms of hands and where you need to get your hands. Always, usually hands in this position here. So you're not press down completely on the fabric so that if you look that's not now able to move, but just ever so slightly controlling the paper, which would be the same then with the fabric. Just saw that then if you weren't holding it, for example, you could go a little bit off, off the track there. So I'm just ever so slightly with the Hammond's whitespace. This three with three, needle up, lever up. If he's getting a bit wary of your mat, pull out. There we go. You want to continue practicing on your other black lines as I've mentioned, or even print off if you feel you need to. Okay. So I'm moving on to this next sheet of paper. The reason we're going to practice on here is because this is going to get us to grips with turning corners. So when we come to, so in our Cushing, particularly the other projects in this class, we will be turning corners. Now, lots of people seem to think when the very new to say when is that you would just like you would turn a corner in a car again, for example. So just using your hands like assured you're sort of hold the paper and sort of steel yourself around a corner. And I'll show you what I mean on this. To begin with that, then I will show you the correct way to do it. So we're going to start at the bottom here, exactly how we started on the other sheet of paper. Lowering my presser foot onto the black line, pop in my needle in. To start. We're going to do forward three pictures and back three stitches. And then come to kneel to go forward. So a lot of people would sort of automatically think, as I've just mentioned, sort of putting your hands on your hands. Turn the corner and I'm going to show you now why that wouldn't be the correct way of doing it. If I show you up close there, we've got a curve on the corner, whereas what we want is a 90-degree angle. So sometimes you might be around curves and that is exactly how you would go about that. But again, that's something for another day. But when we're sewing as cushion, for example, we're going to be so in a big square, we want nice corners on our cushion. And just like mosque questions that you will have on yourself or at home will have nice pointy corners. And then I'm going to show you exactly how we do that. If I just get myself back on here as I was, and start again, what I'm gonna do is I'm going to try and stop or as near to the corner as possible. So I know if I saw a carry on a bit more, I'm probably going to go up past the corner. So I've just stopped myself just before the corner. I'm going to use my wheel at the right hand side of the machine. And we want to turn it towards myself one full turn. And that's got me on the corner them. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna make sure the needle is down inside the machine in the paper. That way, when I pull the lever for the presser foot, what I'm able to do is twist myself around and the needle is unclean the paper that it's only going to sort of go around as opposed to be going every which way possible. I'm going to turn myself 90 degrees and then lower my presser foot and come to some. I'll show you that again at the next problem. Stopping on a forest near to the corner as possible. So I'm banging on the corner there. I'm making sure that my needle is in the down position, anchor in the paper in, onto the machine. Lifting the lever, twisting around, lower in the lever. And you want to follow this process all the way around your piece of paper. I'll show you this again. If you're not quite near the corner, use your wheel at the side, turn it towards you or to get yourself there. Leaving your needle lowered into the machine, lifts the lever, turn 90 degrees, lower the lever and continue. I also want to show you is what will happen if you do forget to lower the presser foot? Not just in this situation, but any. So some machines don't have a safety mechanism on them. So my normal machine that I normally use day-to-day won't let me saw on less, this is down. So it basically triggers a bit of a beep. And the machine just want go on. On computerized machines like this one, you won't have that. So this is what will happen. As you can see, it's got nothing to grip on. I am able to move it forward. You will see what things look like when I get to the end. So just to finish this we did before. I'm going to sort all the way to the end of the line. I'm going to call my reverse lever, go back three stitches. And then come forward again. Making sure the needles up, lift up the lever. So there we have it. I've done on some as well. Well, I've not been exactly on the line. So first off, this was the line where I didn't lower the presser foot. And as you can see, it's a lot less straight. These stitches here will be a lot more likely to come on stage from threaded just because there's no tension there within the thread. But as you can see again, this line here, I'm not exactly on the black line, but when I flip it over, it's still looks perfectly straight. So always look at your work from the, from the back. Because when you're not comparing it to a black line, it always looks a lot straighter. Again. If you need more practice with this, then please do print it off again. But you do have a little step-by-step guide here that I've written to go through all the steps for turning the corner. 4. How to cut your cushion: Hi everyone. Now it's time to start cutting out those projects. So the very first project we're going to work on is the cushion cover. It's gonna be an envelope back cushion cover. This segment of the video is gonna be all about cutting it out. I'm going to let you know what size do you need to cut out and give you some tips and tricks along the way. So what you're going to need some fabric, I recommend at least three-quarters of a meter of fabric. So he saw go to the shops and maybe by a meter of fabric, then that would be perfect. But roughly three-quarters of a meter will be enough. You also need a cutting mat. So I've got a cutting mat here on my table that I'm using. And then I'm also going to be using to cut out a ruler and a rotary cutter. This is going to make sure and ensure that I'm gonna get some accurate cuts. Want to be put in three different pieces out. And by using these, I'm gonna get some nice straight edges. So I'm gonna give you some tips and tricks along the way of how to use these. So let's get started. Okay, So in terms of cutting out the cushion, as mentioned, we need three different pieces. One piece is going to be the back, which will be one big square. And then the two pieces we've got leftover will be to back pieces. And those pieces are going to basically overlap one another to create the envelope style of the cushion. So first thing you want to do is get your material already and laid out. What I would do is give you material a good Press so that it makes cutting out a lot easier. That's everything pressed and ready to go. In terms of types of fabric that you want to use for this project. You need to make sure you're using fabric, but it hasn't really got any stretch in it. So for example, the best thing to use is some kind of cotton by hand. You could use a 100% cotton, poly cottons. This that I'm using here is a brushed cotton, which basically means it's just a softer touch cotton. Normally, this can be used on things like bedding and quilts. But I thought this would make a lovely Cushing that you could have as in a child's bedroom. With the form printing I've got here, it's completely up to you. So instead of obviously giving you a pattern to download and then pick pin on and cut out. I want you to be able to give you measurements as we go along. Just so that you can then see that you can scale things up and down should you wish to, or depending on what you're sewing. For example, today, we're going to look at making a standard cushion cover for a standard 42 centimeter square caution. So I'm going to be working in inches as opposed to centimeters. So 42 centimeters equates to roughly around 16.5 inches. 16.5 inch square Cushing is what I would like to do. Now. Top tip for sewing cushions. So normally when you're sewing things, you have your seam allowances added on. And obviously you would make the cushy normally bigger so that when it's finished, the finished size is 16.5 inches. Now, have you ever had a Cushing where you've put the Cushing pad inside the cushion cover. And it just doesn't look quite full enough. Top tip to get rid of that is to actually caught you Cushing to the exact size that you would like it to be finished it that once you've sown, you didn't see my answers, you end up with a cushion that's ever so slightly smaller than the cushioning pad. But then the cushion pads fills the cushion out perfectly. So that's exactly what we're going to do. For the front piece, I'm going to cut myself a 16.5 inch square. At this bottom edge here. I can see that this is not quite straight. So my first job is to make sure we're working off a straight edge. The edge along the right-hand side here. My right hand side is the salvage of the fabric. And I know that this is always going to be straight. The salvage is always going to be straight, whereas this was the cut edge in the shop. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to put the edge of my ruler along the edge of the salvage. Line that up straight and then cooked down the side of the ruler to get this edge nice and straight. So the trick to working with a rotary cutter, and I'm going to move this on now. A lie, not now I know this part is nice and straight. I can. Line my ruler up with it. You can use the grid on your board as well. Make sure you are using method two maps so that your tables protected. So the thing with a rotary cutter is you want to make sure you're adding enough pressure that you are getting the cut straight away, but don't worry if not, so for example, I didn't add a lot of pressure there and that's not, that's not caught it all is caught some cosmetic threads, nice and sharp, but not all of it. The thing most common that people want to do once that doesn't happen, It's just come back on the south. And so I do this until it is caught. That's going to blunt your blade very easily. So instead, I know that that's not cooked properly. So instead of coming back, always cut away from yourself. So if you lift the rock, record shut up and just do the same crops again, but with more pressure. Then you get a lot more accurate results. Using it like it does look like a pizza cutter, but don't use it like you would a pizza cutter. That's going to blunt this blade a lot quicker. So now what I'm going to do as well, the salvage of this fabric, I'm going to trim off because obviously it's got writing on it and I don't want that to be within my Cushing. I'm just going to align the edge of the ruler up with the edge of the salvage. And again, enough pressure. You want to be stood up ideally when you're doing this, if you're able to just be cost of weight behind you, then is what's going to help you get nice pressure onto the rotary cutter. And if you are sat down, if you need to be sat down to eat, that's completely fine. Again, just make sure that maybe you've got one hand that you can have on the ruler, which you want to have as well. Just so that then you've got that weight behind you to get you going. So keep moving your material if you need to, depending on how big your cutting mat is. I'm just going to cut all this salvage off just to make life easier. Like I said, I know that that's a straight a straight edge. I'm going to move the material back to the bottom. So in terms of cutting now a 16.5 inch square, there's lots of different ways you could do this. And what you could do is you will get a heat erasable pen, awesome Taylor's shock. And you could use the mat or your ruler to draw out 16.5 inch square. That is perfectly fine. You can use if you've got a long ruler and you can use the rule that account and then do it that way. I'm going to use the board and count the squares on my board. I'm going to count from the corners. I've lined everything up in the corner and I'm going to count 6.5 inches across. And then once I'm there, I'm going to line my ruler up on the 16.5 inch line with the ruler on the bottom of my mat. So I know that it's nice and square. Again. I'm going to put the ruler and then lift you up and then try not to move your fabric too much. You can move this piece out of the way. But then align this ruler back up with that 16.5 inch mark and with the lines on the mat so that you know that your square again and again. So that little, sort of like a little thread that, that's not quite caught. You can just use some little scissors to trim away. So before I cooked up anymore, because I know that I've probably exceeded the 16th and a half inches there. I'm going to count 16.5 inches. This way. Depended not mine. Where this is still the way around, which is why I'm having to count if you match the right way with your one to however many that way I'm one to however many inches that way. Then obviously just pop your fabric in the corner. And obviously you'll be able to see your 16.5 inch mark. So I can see my 16.5 inch mark there. So again, I'm going to align the edge of the ruler up. Like so. Once I've caught as far as I can with my ruler, match it with the same. On the other side. Always making sure everything is square and cutting it down if anything's not caught and it's on a little bit, you can use some scissors. Whenever you're not using your blade and make sure you pop the safety cap. Now, I've got the front of the cushion, which is a 16.5 inch square. And I'm going to pop back to one side. Okay, so all that's left to cut out now is the back pieces. And I'm going to show you exactly how I work out what size to cut the back pieces. With R-square, it's 16.5 inches square. So no matter what, the width of the caution must measure 16.5 inches for the back pieces in order for the other pieces to fit together when we saw in them, it has to be 16.5 inches. We know that for a fact. Now obviously, as I mentioned, the two pieces for the back will start to overlap each other. We'll hand the raw edges so that there's a gap for the cushion in it to go in. But the need to overlap enough that there's no gate once the cushions in. What I tend to do is do at least two thirds of the width of the cushion. So like I said, we're definitely 16.5 inch. This way. 16.5 divided by three is around 5.5 if we double that. So we're looking at 11 inches. If I caught 11 inches in depth, that way I know I'm going to cover a round two thirds of the caution. If I do that for both pieces at 11 inches, we're going to get a nice overlap in the middle. So I'll follow that same sort of guide for any signs of caution. If you are doing, for example, if it was a twit 20 in your square Cushing, you would definitely do 20 inches. And then I will go for about 15 inch in depth so that you've got more than halfway more around two-thirds of the way. So that's why I'm gonna do now. I'm going to put out a piece that measures 16.5. And I've already got this. I'll go in here. I'm going to continue on the 16.5 inch line that I've got going here. Just get baseline dope. I want to put all the way just to make it easier. Okay, so now this measurement here, I want to have 11 inches. So I'm going to do it this way to make life easier. I'm going to measure the 11 inches, which I can do on my ruler this time. I need to just literally cut an inch, inch off here. So again, I'm using the rule of making sure that this edge is on a straight line. Popping the ruler at the edge of my board up, not moving the fabric. Matching it up to the measurement at the other side. So that is my first back piece, which is measuring 16.5 by 11 inches. So again, I'm going to pop back to one side and I'm going to repeat that same process for the second back piece. That's everything cut out. Now, I've got the front piece. And just to show you with the back pieces and how they're going to overlap. They overlap very nicely on the back there. So the next stage now is to get this on together. 5. Sewing your Cushion: Hi everyone. So now we're ready to solve the question together. You're going to need the back pieces to start off with. I'm just gonna give them a press so that we're ready to go. So your tool back pieces are what we're going to start off with. For this, you want to use a ruler or a tape measure to help you measure your hands. So doing the two thirds method for the back pieces. So it's two-thirds at the size of the front. I'm gonna do a half inch and an inch all together but in half inch increments. So by that, what I mean is I'm going to press half an inch to the wrong side of the fabric. And I'm going to use my ruler to make sure that I measuring correctly. Then one of them press the wrong side. Then I'm going to press the exact same amount. Again. You have something that looks like that. We're going to do the exact same thing on the other piece. But remember, I've hemmed the bottom of this piece, so I need to make sure I'm doing the top of the next piece. So now I've got the sewing machine all set up and ready to go. I've set it up in exactly the same way as I did in the first video. And nothing has changed in terms of Stitch, set him on a straight stitch to stitch length of 2.5. Everything to fit threaded up correctly and I'm ready to go. So the first thing I'm actually going to stitch is we're going to stitch these hands down. So obviously we've pressed half an inch and half an inch again. We're going to be doing a stitch all the way along this long edge, close to this edge here. To stitch this in place. We're going to reverse stitch at the start here. And then we'll reverse stitch when we get to the other end. The only difference here from when we were doing the pieces of paper is obviously we're not following an exact line. My needle is lined up with the gap in the presser foot. So I'm going to put the gap juice next, do this folded edge here on the left-hand side. So I know then I'm as close as I can get. Obviously, I'm using a bright called thread here just so that you aren't gonna be able to see my stitches properly. But that's completely up to you. What core thread that you use. We're going to use the rule of three for the stitching. Forward three. And then you reverse stitch. And then you're going to keep coming forward until you get to the end of this same principle, keeping the hand on the material and guide and it nicely. So when you get to the end here, you're going to have Cook, reverse three. And then four with three again. The needle up. Lift your presser foot up. Again. If it comes a bit. We call this a little bit to release some tension. You've also got most machines as well, a thread cutter that you can use to trim your thread off. Mine is not the most perfect stitching, but I am sewing at a bit of an angle for the camera here. So I'm gonna do the exact same thing on the other cushion, on the other back piece. So now I've got the exact same on both pieces. Now, you could leave this stage here, but what I always like to do here is another row of top stitching. So I like to do another row of stitching. But close to this top edge here. What that does is it helps flatten this a lot more. From the front, the tool rows of stitching. It looks a lot nicer than just the one there. So I'm going to follow the exact same steps. Forward three, reverse, continue going forward. Then when you get to the end, reverse Three, Three. So as you can see, two rows of stitches just adds another added feature. And it's made it a lot flatter and nicer. Like I said, you're probably would use a cotton thread that matches a bit better. This is just so you can see. You know exactly what I'm doing. I'm gonna do the exact same thing now. The second realistic gene on here. So now we've got the hems and I'm ready to go. We can now start to look at putting the cushion together. To do this, we're gonna get the front of the cushion and lay that in front of us with the right sides facing upwards like this. Then I'm going to take one of your back pieces that you've hemmed and place that right side facing down at the top of the cushion. Like so. Then I'm going to place the second back piece also right side facing down. But this time I'm going to match that up with the bottom edge. And then you want to pin all the way around the edge. Or my case, I like to use solar eclipse because I find them a lot better than pins. Just make sure you put in some pins where it overlaps to keep that nice and secure. A coupon along each edge. So we'll be ready to sell. Now, this is where the practice on turning the corners comes into effect. So it doesn't matter which corner that we're starting. But essentially what we're gonna do is we're going to soar in a big square all the way around more. So from one edge, from one corner to the other, we'll do the turning technique it each corner until we get back to where we start. That's what we're gonna do now. So in terms of seam allowance, I'm going to sell with a quarter inch seam allowance. So in most cases this age, the edge of the foot here running along the edge of the fabric, which I will show you in a second. Edge of the foot. Right along the edge of the fabric there. We're going to start off, has, as we have done with the previous strictures, forward three, back three, and continue until you get to the first one. Make sure you take your pins. Are you clipped out as you go? He's also checking that your materials matched up perfectly. So this time we want to stop roughly around a quarter inch away from the edge so that when we do turn within so in water and you seemed down the other side. How I can gauge that is I'll so roughly in a lot of sense, You have got to eyeball this. But this can be rectified when we turn our making sure the needle is in the down position, lifting up the lever, turning myself 90 degrees. You can see them a little bit out, but we can bring ourselves back to the quarter-inch quite easily. So I'll show you this again when we get to the other corner. So when you saw in over the overlapped bits, you might find that your machine does sound a bit different. It starts just purely because E is going over more layers of fabric and it's nothing to worry about. Just take it steady at these paths. Again, stop roughly around quarter of an inch away. Make sure all the needles in. Lift up the lever and turn. And again, if you if you quite a way off, you can turn yourself back around and come forward a little bit more. So we're going to repeat this on the next corner and that we've got coming up here. So I'll put a needle in, lever up 90 degrees lower back down. And now we're on the last side. And what we need to do is obviously finished exactly where we started. When every man and we're going to try and finish exactly where we started. Then we're going to reverse 34 with three. Again. Need a lot for me. That's off. So at this stage, essentially, you could finish here as you would have a fully working pushing. But what we're gonna do is we're going to need an off the raw edges on the inside. These are going to make sure that it looks a lot nicer on the inside at the moment than it does. And it's just going to stop. As you can see here, this is phrased a little bit. It's just going to eliminate that frame on the inside as well. So to do that, I want a zigzag stitch. So I can see on my machine here that stitch see is my zigzag stitch. That's what I'm gonna do now is I'm going to turn this to stitch, see, and we're good to go. I'm not changing anything on here. I'm just going to stick to the stitch. See the exact stitch. Now what I'm gonna do now is I'm going to sort all the way around to the cushion. Again. Exactly the same manner for turning, as opposed to being a quarter of an inch away. I'm going to aim to get my zigzag stitch between the straight stitch and the edge of the fabric. I'm also going to reverse stitch when I start and when I get to the end as normal. The same method on the corner. And then as you can see, this is what we're looking like and I'm gonna do this all the way around the cushion. I'm going to finish off in the same way. So all that's left to do now is trim any loose threads off and turn it out. Turn it the right side out so I can see what we've made. So what I'm gonna do first is turn this the right side out. Use your finger to get right into your corners. Pluck them out. I've got my costume ready here. And as you can see, the cushion is ever so slightly bigger than the cushioning pad. You do have to squeeze these in a little bit, but the end result, Cushing a good fluff. But there you have it. One finished envelope back cushion cover. And that is the pathway for you. If you want it overlapping more, then obviously make these pieces deeper. And you can also move on to looking at different fastenings for this as well. If you wanted, you could put buttons on their choice. Is yours really? Once you're ready, you can progress on to the next stage of this course and start making the next thing. 6. Cutting out your Tote Bag: Hi everyone, welcome back. In this segment of the course, we're going to have a look at cutting out your tote bag pattern. On this section, you should be able to print off your took back pattern. You should have the main pattern piece that looks something like this. Then your handle pattern. I've actually laminated mind. So here I've got a laminator at home. It just makes the pattern a lot more durable. And so you can keep using it over and over again. But obviously, if not, printing it out on paper is also fine. For this. You're going to need to lots of fabric, half a meter of each will be plenty to be able to make aligned tool bag. I'm also going to be using a rotary cutter roller, as well as some pattern weights. So the pattern weights that I use are just metal washes that you can get from DIY shops. But you can also buy specific fabric pattern weights as well. Alternatively, you can use pins and pin your pattern onto the fabric. So to start off with, I'm gonna take my material that I'm gonna be using for my lining. So I've chosen a plain fabric, then the outer of the bag is going to be at patterned fabric. But obviously you could use tool patents or Bricks tool plain fabrics. This is where you can get really creative with your choices. So I'm going to fold the fabric in half. And you want to fold it realistically, salvage, to salvage now mine because it's a small cut of fabric, scrap a hat. It's not actually folded salvage to salvage, but because this is a tote bag and it doesn't specifically matter which way you fold it as long as when you add fold in it, you're taking note of if you are using the pattern and the pieces are gonna be the right way. So for example, the writing on the pattern here indicates the way that you should look at it. It's obviously the writings facing this way. So this is the way that it will face. So this long edge here does surplus on the fall. So we're going to place this side of the pattern on the folds of the fabric and we'll be cutting round than the outer edge. What this then creates is a piece that's twice the size of this pattern. And it will create like a mirror image effect, meaning that there'll be another cutout corner in that side. So make sure that you are putting the right edge on the folds of the fabric. I'm going to pop my lights on. Like so. If I could anything out because we need two of these, always make sure that you've got enough material in order to be able to cook to out. So what I'm gonna do is just fold it over like that just to make sure that I'll be able to cut a second one out. And I can just squeeze that on there. Obviously, if you can't see if there's another way that you can fold your materials. So for example, can you fold each long edge into the middle? And can you pop it on that way or have you got enough room to do it that way? Just have a play around with the best possible way to use your material. So you're not wasting any. I'm going to fold my Buckingham. Again. We're caught in this situation as well. Just fold it as much as we need it again. So we're not wasting we're not wasting any fabric, them smooth out any lumps or bumps in your fabric. I'm not going to place these back on. I'm then going to take my rotary cutter just like we used in the first part of this course. And the rule that up against the edge of the pattern. To help me quickly out. Again, you can use pins and scissors. If you're not comfortable with using a rotary cutter. I'm moving my pattern weights around when I need to. Again, anything that doesn't look proper like little bits and pieces. Just get your little scissors in there just to help trim away. And that is what you should be left with. So I'm going to repeat this. Again, placing that long edge on the fold of the fabric. You can also use a rotary cutter and go around it freehand. If you feel confident. But with these being lots of straight edges, I'm using the ruler to my advantage. But like this, for example, I've just run that along the edge of the piece. That is the second one. So now I've got both lining pieces on it to do. Now is do the same again in the altarpiece and also think about quitting out my handle. So I want to see if I can get my handle pieces out of this PCR. Again, you need two of these, and you need this sharp edge here on the fold, just so we get a piece that's twice the size. I'm going to fold my fabric in half. And I'm going to have a see if I can fit these on here. So I'm just about a fraction shot on this, but I'm still going to use this anyway. Just to show you that you can do smaller handles should you want to. And like I said, because this is only about a centimeter, I'm quite happy to use this just so I'm using up this fabric. When I unfold this, I've got a nice long piece that will be one of the handles. Do the same again. Not all that's left to do is cut this out twice out of here. I've got quite a lot of this material here. There's a meter. So just like we did before, it runs folded in half. But when I fold this in half, if I were to put this pattern right on the edge here, I'm going to be wasting quite a lot of material. So what I'm gonna do instead is I'm just going to fold it just as much as I need. Again, smooth out any lumps or bumps. Again, if we eat you, if you are using this freehand, you would just do it like so. Then just using the small Susan's lab on the top. Then one more time. Note taking advantage. They already have straight edges. Again, it's up to you whether you use or not. Of course again, you can use your scissors. That's the one. That's everything cut out. We've got two pieces to lining pieces and two handles. Watch the next video to find out how we're going to solve it together. 7. Sewing your Tote Bag Part 1: Once everything's cut out with the tote bag, we're ready to start sewing. I've read threaded the machine with a color that's a bit more suitable for the projects I'm working on. Obviously I'm using quite a bright contrasting color. So again, you can see the stitches clearly on the video, but obviously you can do the same. You could do something nice, bright and contrasting. I can do something that blends in more as well, which is always a good option as well. If you're a bit worried about your stitches still being a bit wobbly. But honestly it don't worry. Even sometimes my stitching still wobbly. It happens but yeah, nice, bright phone call or does look really nice. If you're struggling with your machine, then refer back to the introduction video. And you can always go back through that again. The first thing we're going to work on is the straps to the back. So this requires some pressing to start off with which I have done off-camera, but I'm going to talk you through the steps on how to do it on your long strip of fabric. The first thing you want to do is press the fabric strip in half lengthwise. Like so. We're doing that so that we then, when we open it back up, we've got ourselves a nice center crease down the middle here. You then want to press each outer edge to that center crease like so. So all your Rogers and running down the middle of the strip. Finally, you want to press it in half together like that. And then all raw edges of concealed. And you're going to do this all along the strip. So if I just show you that again, pressing 1.5th, open backup, press each outer edge to the middle, and finally in half again. So the first thing we need to do is so this opening clause. So to do that, we're going to start all the way down this long edge of the fabric to closet together. Imagine this being that part of the cushion that we did where it was pressing the hem down and we start close to the long edge. That's what I'm gonna do. First. Don't forget to reverse stitch when you start and at the end as well just as before. Remember that rule of three. Once you've finished, lift the needle and the precedent for trim off any loose threads that you may have. Just should have something that looks like. Now, just like the cushion again, we're going to go along down the other lung edge. Again. At this stage it's clause, you could just do it like that. But by doing another row of stitching at the opposite edge, it's going to flatten this down. And again, the two rows of stitches looks a lot nicer than just the one. My needles common thread there. If you do get anything like that which does happen. Just read thread, you've talked thread and I can see I've still got my bottom thread. So there's no need to do anything there with them. This is what you should be left with. Once you've trimmed all the excess thread away. Repeat this step with the second of your handles, press it in the same way and stitch it in the same way. So that's the straps all done with. So I've just popped them to one side for the moment and I've also just place my machine out of the way so I just can probably show you the construction of the main part of the bag. So I've got the two pieces here that is going to be the front and back of the bag. And I'm working on what it's going to be the outer sections. This bag can be reversible, but just for the purpose of making things a lot easier to explain. Make sure you label one is Altair Angela. And just so you know which I'm referring to when I'm sewing. So I've got both of these here. I'm going to take one of them and I'm going to place it right side facing up. So in terms of a which is the correct way, I'm going to show you that close up now. Okay, So on your pattern, you've got to cutout corners. This is gonna be the bottom of your bag. Just so you can sort of imagine this in your head because I feel like this makes it a lot easier when coming to construct. These are your side seams here and here. This is the top edge of your bag. This is the bottom of your bag. And these cutouts here we're going to form the base. So hopefully that kind of makes things a lot easier. Because I always think it's a lot better to know how things are going to be constructed before you jump into constructing them. So I've got that one piece there lid right side facing up. Then what I'm gonna do is I'm going to take the second piece and I want to place it right side facing down. What that then does is puts right sides together. And if you remember from the cushy when we put in the front and back together, we worked right sides together so that when everything was stitched seems we're on the inside and obviously all nice and neat. So I'm gonna use my Eclipse here to help me clip everything together. Or alternatively, you can use pins. So first off, I'm going to pin my side seams together. I'm going to do the same on this side. Make sure everything's matched up nicely. Pot myself some clips in. And now I'm going to clip this bottom edge here. Again, making sure that everything is matched up nice. Like so. I've clipped, opened this together, is where we're going. So we're going to solve from the top edge here down to here, reverse stitching at the top and the bottom. We're going to repeat this on this side, reverse stitch to here and reverse stitch again. And then we're gonna do the same along the bottom. So we're going to start here. And the so along to here. Again, it doesn't matter which way around you do it. Um, but we're gonna source side, same, side seam, bottom, same. The only thing we're not showing at this stage is the top edge. And we're not so in these cutout corners here. So that's what we're gonna do next. Just like we did with the cushion. We're going to start a quarter inch seam allowance, which are most machines, is the edge of your foot running alongside the edge of your fabric. Don't forget to take pins and clips out as you do. So again reversed it can. As you can see, the edge of my port is running against the edge of my fabric. If you feel like that's too much like I said in most machines. I've never come across a machine where the edge of the foot run along the edge of the fabric is too big or too little of a seam allowance is normally roughly around the clot. Or alternatively, what you could do is on your machine, on these parts here, you normally have lots of different measurements. There should be a measurement that is three-eighths. So three slash eight. If you have the edge of your fabric moving on that line, then that would be, again, perfect amount to seam allowance to you. That's one side seam down. I'm now going to move on to the other side scene. Finally, I'm going to show that bottom edge. In the same way, quarter inch seam allowance. You should have something that looks like this so that both sides seams and the bottom edge, for the time being, we're going to pop this to one side. I'm not going to work on outlining. So I've now got the line in pieces and we're gonna work on that. Again. I've got grabbed one of my line in place pieces and I've placed it right side facing up. So again, just for reference, you've got your side seems the top of the bag. The bottom of the bag. What's going to make the base? So exactly the same. We're also going to do exactly the same thing as before. Placing the second line in peace, right side facing down the right sides together. And I'm going to clip my side seams in the same way. I'm not going to solve these in exactly the same way. The only difference with the lining is going to be the base of the bug. When we come to put both the outer and the lining together, will be sewing it right sides together. But again, we need a way in order to turn the bag from the wrong side to the right side. So we'll be turning it right side out. Everything will look inside out when we, when we start sewing it together. So I need to leave a gap. In order to deal with that, I'm going to leave the gap on the bottom of the bag, specifically the lining. Again, I say aligning. You can actually make this reversible. So just choose one side. I always refer to the lining as the side that I'm gonna do the cap in. For this, I am going to use pins. The reason I'm using pins for this bit and I haven't used them just yet is because I find that when you go into your soul, your side seams as normal if you put clips and it's quite hard to get carried away. And so all the way across, even though you told yourself you needed to leave a gap. So what I do is I take two pins. I placed them horizontally and then place them about three inches apart from one another. Like so that wear them when I'm sewing the base, I'm gonna saw this side of the pin. This side of the pin. But I'm not going to solve between the pins. This is the gap that I need to leave. So you'll reverse stitch here and here, treat that as one seam. And you'll reverse stitch here and here and again treat that as another scene. So that's what we're gonna do. Now. Cmc mile runs portrait of an inch edge of your thoughts along the edge of your fabric. Okay, So again, the only difference now is instead of showing all the way across the base, we're going to solve this part here and this part here, and avoid sowing in-between the pins. So a reverse direction as normal. Then when I get to this cluster, to this pin here, I'm just going to start to move it out of the way. Reversed it when I get to it. Same, same rule of three that I taught you. Trim the excess thread away. Then for this next one, I'm going to jump to the next peak. So on then move that out of the way. And then reverse at the end again. This is what you should be left with. Now we're going to work on the base of the bag, which is the cut-out corners on the bottom. This is going to be the same for both the outer and the lining. So whatever I do on one corner is gonna be the same for all four corners. So we'll start with the outer first. So this is the easiest way to do this and for me to explain. But in order to create the base, we need to match the side seam up with the bottom. Seem. To do that. I'm going to put my hand in the top of the bag, which will be the bugs Altman. And I'm going to gently lift the top away from the back of the bag. What you can see is what that's done is brought the side seam and the bottom seam together. I'm going to grab that. We've got side seam, bottom seam. Then I'm going to open up the seams so that the net lay nice and flat. Alternatively, placed them to one side. I personally like them open. Make sure that they're matched together. I'm going to clip it in place. Like so. So to attach these together, I'm simply going to soar along here, reverse stitching at each edge. And obviously it will be placing it onto the machine this way. So that will be so in down here. Once I've done that, obviously I will show you again how to match them together. So here we are. You selling through two layers of fabric here? That's why it looks like from that side. Any for sure. Yeah. Holding the bag at the top. That's the side we haven't done. That's the side we have done. I'm going to show you again how to do it. Again, the easiest way to do it is pop your hand inside the bag and you're going to start to lift this top layer away from the bottom layer. What that does is bring those together, grab both layers of material, open out the seams, make sure they match together. Then I'm going to clip it in place. And I'm going to show right across there. So not in the exact same way. I put my hands inside the bag so you can see a little bit better. So it's created a little bit more of a depth to the bag. So that was the side there that you can see moving round to the base of the bag. And then decide, you want to repeat that step with your lining fabric. 8. Sewing your Tote Bag Part 2: So we're almost there, It's time to start putting the back together. You want to get back the out of the bag and the two handles that you made earlier. I'm going to turn the bag. So he's now facing the right side out. And I'm going to place it down like so again, so that I've got the opening of the bag along the top. Now, taking one of the straps, you want to loop it around, like so, so that nothing's twisted. And the both ends are facing the same way. And we're going to place that on top of the bag. So realistically, it's up to you whereabouts you want your straps, you might want them further apart, for example, you might want them closer together. I tend to do three inches in from each side. So because I've got a board here with inch markings on, all I've simply done is countered 123 inches and then put the strap, they're the same at the other side, 123 inches and put the shrub They're going to take one of the clips. I'm going to click this just to one side of the back. Like so. So only clipped to the one side. I'm then going to flip it over. And I'm going to do with the exact same thing with the other strap, bringing it around like so. So nothing's twisted. And I'm going to place the straps in the exact same place as the front ones. Using the front ones to help me line up. And I'm going to click this to this side of the bag. So make sure you are putting them downwards. A lot of people tend to want to click them upwards like that because obviously that is what you're going to see in terms of that's how you're going to hold them. But by doing it this way, obviously when everything is sewn together, again, Rogers will be on the inside of the bag. So all I'm gonna do now is I'm gonna go over to the machine. Simply just going to stitch across the handles fairly close to the top edge just to hold in place. It doesn't matter whether you reverse stitch or not. It's completely up to you. I tend to reverse stitch just to make them extra step you are. But May 1 come to a place aligning in onto this that will obviously secure it. Again. Here we are. Again, making sure you're only signed through one side of the bag. Don't want to accidentally close close the bag. Then again, like I said, it's up to you to be fair. You could do it as just attacking stitch because like I said, this isn't going to be the final stitch that stitches the hamming ball is just the cost obviously depending on what to put it in your bag, just doing this extra bit of stitching. It's just going to make them a lot stronger. Which is why I do the reverse stitch because if we didn't do the reverse stitch, then obviously it would unravel one and do a less than your quarter inch seam allowance, which is why I've done it close to the edge. Because then when you do come to stitch the line into the ultra of the bag, this stitch won't be visible. Time to put the line in together with the outer of the bag. I've got the outer of the bag with the handles now attached right side facing out. I'm going to grab my lining and I'm going to leave that with the wrong side spacing out. Now this next part sometimes feels a little bit wrong, but just trust the process. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take the outer bag and I'm going to pop it inside the lining. Like so. I'm going to match my side seams up. Why I tend to do is grab both sides seams. Did this a little bit of a shake. So everything falls into place. Obviously, what's happened then is now right sides are facing on both sides. Now I'm going to clip all the way around the top edge of the bag, going with the side seams first. With that being the most important. And again, it's up to you whether you open the side seams up or whether you place them to one side, I'm going to open mine up again. So we're only going to be clipping again two layers of fabric together here. We're not clipping all for literally doing two lessons. I want to put a clip probably where the straps are. Then probably one in the center of that. You should have something that looks like this. We're now going to sort all the way around the top edge of the bag using a quarter inch seam allowance, again, only so in the two layers together at a time, essentially you're going to be going in a circle. So wherever you, wherever you start, That's where we're going to finish soluble reverse stitch. When we start, we'll come all the way about round. When we get to a stitches where we started, we'll reverse stitch again. So a little tip to make things a lot easier for you in this part is if you take off the little sort of detachable part away from your machine. If your machine can't do that, then don't worry. I will show you how you can do it without that. But what this allows us to do is completely hide away the part that we're not so selling because we don't want it again, accidentally stitch all four layers together. What would come do is pop this on the machine. Then it doesn't matter where you start. But as you can see, we've got the two layers here and then we've got the two layers below. And as we start stitching, this will maneuver around as you'll see. Don't forget to take your pins out. As you can see, everything's now maneuver and if you haven't got a detachable your machine, you can sell it in the exact same way. It just make sure the bottom portion of the bag is out of the way of the machine. Will feed round the exact same. So again, quarter inch seam allowance, edge of the foot along the edge of your fabric. Obviously your handles are in-between the two layers as well. And you don't want the handles to be sticking up or else the handles will actually end up on the inside of the back incident. The outside. We're almost back to where the scar. Once we get there, we're going to reverse stitch. Remember the gap that we left earlier, which is in a line inside? Well now I'm going to turn everything through to the right side, through that gap. Just persevere with this bit. If you feel like you haven't left a big enough gap, you can always unpick some stitches. Just persevere with this stage. Everything that good shake. So as you can see, our handles are on the outside. Now. We've got a gap here that we need to close up. Now if you did want to make it properly reversible, what you can do is you can handle this gap, which I'm going to show you how to do now. Alternatively, you can just do a top stitch on your machine. But I will show you how to do the hand sewing. I've got my needle and some thread, and I'm going to thread my needle tends to be the trickiest bit. And I'm going to double my thread over. So I've got that double thread and I'm gonna not the bottom. I've zoomed in here so that you can see a bit better. So to start off, I'm simply just going to put my needle through one of the layers, took the ends of the threading. And then I'm also going to do that a second time of the fabric is sorry, I just realized you couldn't see that. Well then we'll put the thread days. I'm going to pop my needle through that loop to tie it off. So now we're gonna do something called a bladder stitch. So essentially what that means is each time will be grabbing piece of fabric from either side and we'll alternate going up like a ladder. What this will do is close the gap as we go. We'll also make it an invisible stitch. Because instead of putting our thread through the layer like this, the lip of the fabric that's created, that's kind of going onto the inside of the material is what we're going to grab. So I'm going to grab a piece of thread from that side, pull the thread through. And then I'm going to pull a piece of thread, the thread through the other side. If you watch closely, that will start to bring it together. And we're going to alternate. So back to this side. And each time we go up, we'll move a little bit further up. Going a bit too far up on this bit. But they'll get the general idea. So back to that side. Then obviously, from the outside as you can see, you can't see, obviously you can see some little ends of the thread at the moment. Even if you did this on the machine, there's nothing to say that you couldn't do this. 9. Cutting out your Makeup Bag : Welcome back. So on the final project, which is really exciting, and we're gonna be showing you how to make a makeup bag. This project is going to use some of the skills that you've already previously learned in the past tool projects and the introduction part of this course. And it's going to put it altogether. And we're gonna make a makeup bag, which is obviously also tackling the zips as well. So this is what you need for this project. Print out your makeup bag pattern, which is on the downloadable section and this section of the course. Again, I've laminated mine just to make it more durable, but you don't have to do what? You also want to lots of fabric. A fat quarter of each would be plenty. Obviously, if you've got more fabric than that, that's fine. But you will need at least two fat quarters. If not three, depending on how you want to go about this, which you'll soon see why I say line a second. This particular design of a makeup bag has got a different band of fabric around the bottom. The reason I've chosen to do all this, it's just that again, She's going to keep building on skills or add a different element to the makeup bag. So let's put it out. I've got these two different types of fabric here that were from the same range. And it's a lovely sort of like 15 for lack of makeup bag. Basically. This gray one here has got like little illustrations of lipsticks, hand creams, that sort of thing on it. And this one's got a shop windows I'm like coffee shop window party series, flower shop. And it was from the same range. So I'm going to use one of them for the lining, and then I'm also then going to use both of them for the ultra of the bag and the bag pattern itself. What you'll see is again, this, this will look very similar to your torque, which is why I say uses some of the same elements that you've already learned. It's just a smaller size obviously with it being a medical bag. But we've also got this extra line here, which is basically gonna be the line that separates two different types of fabric. Basically there'll be a seam there. I'm going to use basically one, the top, one for the bottom. We've got to cut this out in a different way. Basically. You first need to decide which is going to be the top, which is going to be the bottom. I think what I'm gonna do is I'm going to use this as the top. This is the bottom, but also the line as well. So we'll use this 1 first. So very much like the top bag, I'm going to fold my fabric as much as I need it. But at this point, I don't need to fully cut this out. So obviously this edge here goes on the folds of the fabric. I still love to fold my fabric, so I'm quitting out a piece that's the right size. But what I'm doing is cutting out a rectangle fabric that is deeper than this measurement here, so deeper than from that to that line. So I'm going to basically place the placement pattern on there. And then I'm literally gonna get my ruler and Moreau to recruiter and caught myself. A piece. Wouldn't be plenty big enough. So obviously I've caught it on the fold. So I know that that's plenty big enough for that piece. And I need two of those. So again, just basically cut this out here is the top portion of it. And we don't need this fabric now. Then I'm gonna get this portion of the material. And I want to do the same again. But obviously this time, I only need enough for the bottom portion. So same again, making sure I'm folding it enough so it wasn't quite good enough. They're going to make sure you want it to be at least an inch bigger, I'd say, than what it needs to be because obviously we need to create the scene. We need to make sure all the seam allowance on math. Show you about an inch bigger there. I'm going to do all the same again. Now we need to put the lines. The lining is caught in the exact same way as the tote bag. We're going to just ignore this line, but going to pop this on the fold and cut around the outer edge. And we want two of those. I want to quote round this. You can even use your ruler. O freehand. Again, use your little scissors. Why you need so that hopefully it will just be enough. Don't know about you, but I always get a little bit sad when I'm using the last bit of a fabric, especially when it's one that I really, really want climb this one. Suppose it's a good enough excuse to buy marble. So where almost all cutout but when it's due a bit more so in first before we can fully caught the front pieces out, I want to give all these pieces of press and I'm gonna go hop on the sewing machine. Okay, so I've changed my thread again to something that matches a bit better. But again, I've gone for quite a contrast so that you can see the stitches. So what we need to do is stitched together the strips of fabric that we've cooked for the outer of the bag. I'm gonna get one of each fabric. And obviously pay no attention to which you want it to be the top, on which you want it to be the button. So for example, I knew I wanted the shop front to be the top, this to be the bottom. And obviously take note too, if you've got a print that's going a certain way, make sure that obviously for me all the shops are in the right way. I've placed them how I want them to look one, everything's sewn together. And then I'm basically going to flip one over so that they're right sides together. Doesn't matter that one's longer than the other at this stage. And I'm simply just going to sort this together from one side to the other quadrant to see my hands. And I'm going to reverse the chip side. It's not like so much just going to pop that to one side for the time being. And then I'm going to grab the other tool pieces and do the exact same thing, making sure I'm taking note to which is the top and which is the bottom quarter inch seam allowance all the way across. There we go. So I'm also going to do now is go over to the iron and I'm going to press both the seams open, ready for the final stage of coating. So I've pressed everything open just to make this next part a lot easier. And this seam looks a lot nicer and how it is being pressed. So I'm going to fold it in half. Cos don't forget when we're cutting out this pattern. The long edge needs to be on the fold. So I folded it in half, making sure that the seams, the axon and matching up underneath. And I'm going to place this pattern on top that I want to make sure that this line is placed on the scene. Like so. Again, I'm going to take my router equal to, I'm going to call this out. I'll show you what that looks like. So she can see by just kinda using both materials. He's added another look to the makeup bag for when it's done. It's kinda added lack that bordered print effect when you're using fabric as well from the same collection looks really lovely. Also, what you could do as well is use a patent and a plain fabric that works just as, as nice as well. So I'm gonna do the exact same thing with this piece. Fold it in half, making sure all the seams are matching up underneath place in this scene on that line. And cutting out just as we've done before. Everything put out, ready to move on to the sewing portion of the video, even though we have done some salt and already, you're probably wondering why haven't mentioned zips yet. And the reason why is because I always caught my Zips to size. Well, caught them after I've cooked my project out. I always uses it that is a lot longer than what I need. So looking at the front of the makeup bag and again, just like the tilt Bible, we've got the sides here, bottom of the bag. What creates the base? And then the top. So this here is where the zip is going to go, as opposed to using a zip that's exactly the same length. I always use one that took quite a bit longer, sort of at least an inch or so longer on each side. This way I can so there's it onto the makeup bag without getting the zip pulling the way. Most of the time I like to use what he calls zips on a roll. These can be found lots of different places. These particular ones come from crafters companion for their brand called thread has the dual come with ten zip pulls on the role, it's a five meter role. And you do get ten zip pulls on a five meter rule. As you can see, I've actually used all this, it pulls. But what you can do hobbies, again, various places as you can buy, spare sit pools. So that's what I've got in this box here. I've got a variety of different zip pulls. And I'm going to pop one of these, it pulls on to the zip tip. So what you need to do to help you get yours it pull on, is caught yourself about a centimeter down each side of the zipper tape and then cut diagonally away from that. So you're cutting out those pieces there. This helps the zip code get on better. So I'm going to take the zipper pull. And I'm going to feed one side him. But not all way through like so we don't want it all the way in. We want to take just enough that we've got something to grip onto the other side in as far as it will go. And then use that little tick there to try and feed both sides. And it does take a little bit of doing. But once you've got that grip tin, so you might get something that looks like this, but then all you do to rectify that, let's open it all up. Then raise it. Is it people get this at the end. Obviously, don't worry because like I've done is I've made it a lot longer than our console, the zip on, without the zip pub eating the way. Once you're at that stage, you want to watch the next part of the video to see how you're going to stop it altogether. 10. Sewing 101 end: Well guys, that's it. That's the end of this course. I hope you've enjoyed it and I really hope you've learned something new from this course. And most importantly, I hope it's helped you gain some confidence in order to move on to other things. So it is such a massive space. There's endless possibilities and hopefully this is just the beginning for you. I've had students that have done this exact costs and mainly in person as obviously this is the first time I've done this course online. And I've always shown these three specific projects. And from there, the Fanon to create absolutely wonderful things. They've gone on to dressmaking, making ties, and set it, even setting up their own businesses and selling the things they've made. Anything's possible. Should you need help with any of the projects that you've seen or there's any difficulties, please don't hesitate to contact me on the contact me page of the website and look out for future videos of costs is going to be lots more coming soon, including dressmaking videos and introductions on a plea care. Just, just so much to be able to sink your teeth into. Don't forget as well. We've got the summon stitches, membership head to the Jaya, they're called page if you want to be constantly inspired with new projects and ways of learning. Thank you very much again, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye guys. 11. Sewing your Makeup Bag : Okay, now we're ready to start putting the makeup back together. And this is how we're gonna do it. We've just top stitch everything together and we're going to keep everything like this for the time being. So with one outcome, one line on either side of the Z, it's now important at this stage to unzip your zip. So it's at least halfway on zipped. This is going to ensure that when it comes to turn everything in the right side out at the end, because obviously we're going to start sewing things right sides together. Although we're going to leave a gap in the lining by leaving a gap in the zip. Also, we can turn it through to the line and then through to the right side. So make sure you unzip this, like I said, at least halfway. And you can do it a little bit more. If you want minds a little bit more than halfway, I'd say. Then what you're gonna do is you're going to grab your top two pieces. If you lift these up and bring them right sides together, what that also does is bring the lines right sides together. So the difference here from the top bag is on the top bag we saw the outers separate to the line and then put the outer lining together around the top edge. Whereas we've already got the outer lining attached together by the zip. It's, it's kinda like doing things in reverse really. So as opposed to with y. So on the top edge, which is the zip. And now we've got to deal with the side seams and the bottom seems, the big difference is that for one, side seams of the outer inside Teams as aligning, joined together by the CYP. Which means we need to sort that as one big city. But obviously we've got the zipping the way. If you've used a plastic zip like me, and you shouldn't run into many problems. But obviously I'm going to show you a few tips and tricks to help you. So over the Zip, if you're using a metal Zip, then you do not want your needle to hit the teeth of your zip code, your needle will break. Obviously, you can change your needle, that's fine. But you have got to take a lot more care. So my advice to you would be that when you first saw him with zips, try and always use a plastic nylon teeth. Basically because you're just going to eliminate that issue. Not to say that you can't break your needle with plastic teeth. It's all in the speed, which is obviously something I'm going to speak to you about. Obviously one side of the hip is open and one side is closed. So we're going to start off with the side that's closest. So what I tend to do is look at my SIP and the I always saw fold the tip downwards that way then it's like facing into the lining. And that's going to take all of my clips. And I'm going to start clipping together the side seams. Again, making sure that the side seams matching up nicely and that the tip of the zip is facing downwards. Then I'm also going to make sure that those seams that we saw on the front and matched up. And I'm going to hold that together with the clip. Then what I'm gonna do is I'm going to go on my machine and I'm going to start from the top here all the way to the bottom. And I'll reverse stitch each side is normal and I'm gonna do a quarter inch seam allowance, which remember is the edge of the foot along the edge of the fabric. Again, take eclipse out as you go. Most important thing I would say is making sure that the dots when you get to it. Then when we get close to the zip, I'll talk you through my talk. Okay. So what I've got up to the teeth of the zip, what I'm gonna do is I'm actually going to use my wheel at the side. Just manually move myself over that initial teeth. Once you're over that, just go just slow until you know that you've got the ball of the foot over that point. So as you can see, she's still on the teeth of the zip without any issues. So the main takeaway really is that if you make sure you're going at a slower speed and you can use your wheel at the side to manually move yourself over. You just don't want to do all that for too much of it because it's not going to be as strong as if you were in it properly. So I literally did it for the centimeter. If that probably one. You'd be able to see literally just this little bit here. Over the teeth is where I went over manually. Now I'm going to repeat this process with the other side seem different CRB and obviously as it is open. I want to do the exact same thing, making sure that my teeth is facing up into the outer part of the makeup bag and the tip is facing down into the lion's den clip everything in place. Making sure that this is mugshot poplar. And I'm going to show in the exact same manner. So again, I'm going slow when I'm approaching it. When I get there using my wheel to get myself all over it and then slowly coming down. So we're going to the bottom of the outer in the exact same manner, like the tote bag. We're going to sort from here to here. So we're ignoring the cutout parts at this stage. And we're going to solve that with a quarter inch seam allowance. So hopefully you remember the process of sorry, not the top by pus. If you remember, on the lining of the tool bag, we left a gap along the bottom edge of about three or four inches or so in order to turn it the right way out, I'm gonna do the exact same thing here. So if you remember the little trick I showed you there was to get two pins placing them. This way. The I know not to sell between those pins and want to solve from here to here, reversed each unit, each side, the same on this side. Okay, so that's the side seams and bottom seems all done. The thing we need to tackle now is the box corners of the makeup bag. So all these are going to be sewn together again in the exact same way as our tote bag. The only difference being is if you remember the way I showed you how to do all the box corners, wants to put your hand inside the bag and leave the two with the top piece away from the bottom piece. And that brought the scenes together. Very, very similar. But this time obviously I can't get my hand in. The way to do it is to separate both pieces away from each other. And that gets the exact same outcome. And we're going to open the seams, are again, place them to one side, depending on your preference. Much the seams up. And then we're going to saw down here reverse stitch and at each end, exactly the same thing. Pull them apart, match the side seam and the bottom seam. Open out the same. Pin it in place. I'll clip it in place should you want to. Sometimes I find, Wow, I've got a grasp on them together. It's just as easy for me to put it just straight onto the machine. But we're gonna do the exact same thing with the other two corners. So we're almost there now. We need to trim the zip off. Any access it just trim away. Now everything is shown in yours if a pole want to come off. And now we're going to turn everything the right-side out through the SIP, well through the gap in our line in first. And this is the stage where a lot of people tend to think that I've put there z upon upside down, but that's exactly why we opened the zip. Because then we're going to turn it in that way. You can often then use it all the way. Get in there and poke all the corners out. Make sure everything is stitched correctly. Before we now close the gap. Just not the tote bag. Push the Rogers in words. And then on your machine, just do a top stitch close to the top edge there to conceal it all. Or alternatively, you could happen. So it we're left to do is pop back in, back inside. One last-minute touch up. Let's take a look at what we've made. There you go. One line makeup bag, complete with a zip. And even this lovely little design feature here. Just to give it a bit of extra something special. Star, forget, just like you could with the tote bag and the cushion. Make it bigger, make it smaller. You could even have a mess around with the base, making the base bigger. To make your base bigger. This square here needs to be bigger. So sort of thing that this here is half of the top edge. This here is half of this bottom edge. And how tall it is. Take your pattern and have a look at how it's constructed together with the pattern in order to have a mess around with adjusting sizes. Yeah, fascia, makeup bag, all complete. Don't forget that you can obviously watch it back if there's anything, you still don't hesitate to contact me.