How do I sew straight seams? How do I sew curved seams? These are the most common questions, and often a nightmare, of every sewing beginner. I was asking myself the same question. The most common advice is to practise, practise, and practise. All right, but how? Well, with just a few sheets of sewing practice sheets.
This page includes free printable sewing practice sheets . Use them to improve your sewing.
In this blog post, I will show you a very simple sewing machine practice for beginners. Doing this exercise to sew straight and curved seams will help you avoid wasting any fabric and thread. Or, worst of all, losing your enthusiasm when your stitches meander across the fabric.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to prepare sewing practice sheets?
- How to practice sewing straight seams?
- How to practice sewing curved seams?
1. How to prepare sewing practice sheets?
Pick a piece of paper. Draw straight lines using a straight ruler. With a French ruler or some other rounded object (like a plate), draw curved lines. Alternatively, you can download the following sewing practice sheets that I have prepared for you and print them out (see the sewing machine practice sheets below). They are all an A4 paper format, suitable for any home printer.
2. Unthread your sewing machine
This is a great advantage that you won’t need any thread during this practice. Remove the upper thread first. You can keep the bobbin with the lower thread in the sewing machine, but you do not have to. I didn’t (see the image below).
3. Practise sewing
Follow the two simple exercises described below.
Exercise 1: Sew through pre-printed lines
Print out the documents with multiple lines (both straight and curved) or take the sheets of paper with drawn lines you have prepared yourself and start sewing directly through the lines (see images below). You can sew along each line twice.
Exercise 2: Sew along the edge of a paper sheet
For straight lines: Pick a piece of paper and align the edge of the paper with the 1 cm (0 3/8 inch) seam allowance marking on your sewing machine. Sew a straight line and see how you are doing. Tear or cut away the 1 cm (0 3/8 inch) stripe and sew again. Tear away the new stripe and continue sewing and tearing off stripes until you run out of paper (see images below).
For curved lines: For sewing curves and curved lines download and print out the printable practice sheet with one line. Cut the paper along the dotted line. You will be working with both pieces of paper.
Align the curved edge (both inner and outer) of the paper with the 1 cm (0 3/8 inch) seam allowance marking on your sewing machine. Sew a curved line and see how you are doing.
You should end up with something like this (see the image below).
Cut along the sewn lines you have made. Then cut away the 1 (0 3/8 inch) stripe and sew new inner and outer curves.
Continue sewing the curved lines and cutting away stripes of paper until you run out of paper.
Conclusion: How To Practise Sewing Straight Seams?
This is it. I hope you find this tutorial useful and a good start to your sewing projects. Learning how to sew straight or curved lines pays out. As you can see, you do not even need a cheap fabric to practice sewing. Will you share your experience with me? I will be happy to hear from you.
