Sewing machine needles come in a variety of sizes and types and many of the problems I see online are caused by using the wrong needle type.
Generally when you buy a machine it comes with universal needles in the box. Universal is a misnomer. They are very useful on a wide variety of woven fabrics. Universal needles in a size 12 are what I use for anything that is a medium weight woven.
Jeans needles are for heavy fabrics like denim and canvas. Generally I go up to a 14 or 16 in a jeans needle.
Microtex needles are super sharp. They are excellent for woven fabrics that are delicate, snag easily, or are tightly woven. I use them on silks, satin, and cotton poplins. When all else fails on a fabric, try a microtex. Microtex come in larger sizes and can be used on heavy fabrics. Microtex needles need replaced more frequently than other needle types.
Ballpoint or Jersey needles are the same thing, usually they are labeled as ballpoint in the US and Jersey elsewhere. Ballpoint needles are appropriate for stable knit such as cotton jersey with no or minimal stretch fibers added.
Stretch needles are similar to ballpoint needles in the sense that they are for knit fabrics. Stretch needles are intended for fabrics with a higher stretch fiber percentage and in addition to that they work well on more stable knits. They are what I keep in stock for working with the widest variety of knit fabrics. I usually buy 11 or 12 in stretch needles.
Super stretch are for super stretchy problem child knits, I have not tried these as they are relatively new on the market but I will be picking up a pack before I make swimwear again.
In addition to the types above there are a great many other needles with specific uses. Within each type there is a range of sizes and the needle size should be chosen to match your fabric and thread.
Needles are consumables and will become gradually dull as you sew. The rule of thumb is that you need to replace after roughly 8 hours of run time. If you have been using a needle for a while and things start to go wrong or the machine sound changes, the first step on troubleshooting is a new needle. Old needles can damage your fabric and are more likely to break.
I also want to advise against buying off brand needles and included in that category are Singer branded needles. I personally only buy schmetz and organ brand needles and I buy exclusively off wawak.com (US and Canada only).
We've been quietly working on something we hope makes this community a lot more useful — and today we're excited to share it with you.
What's in the wiki?
We built it to answer the questions we see every week — so whether you're picking up a needle for the very first time or you've been at it a few months and hit a wall, there's something in here for you.
Here's what's covered:
🧵 Getting started — What to make first, hand vs. machine, and the YouTube channels worth bookmarking
🪡 Machine buying guide — Budget breakdowns, brand recommendations, and how to buy a great secondhand machine
✂️ Tools & notions glossary — Every tool explained in plain English, plus what you actually need to start vs. what's nice to have later
🔧 Techniques & troubleshooting — Pressing, seam finishes, backstitching, and a troubleshooting table for the most common machine gremlins
📐 Pattern reading & sizing — Why sewing sizes aren't clothing sizes, how to read pattern markings, and what "ease" means
🎨 Fabric guide — Wovens vs. knits, beginner-friendly fabric types, pre-washing, and where to buy
🔗 Community resources — Our curated list of YouTube channels, blogs, and related communities
❓ FAQ — Detailed answers to the questions we see most often
This wiki belongs to all of us — and we need your help
A wiki is only as good as the community behind it. We're a team of moderators, not an encyclopedia, and we know there are gaps, things we got slightly wrong, and questions we haven't thought to answer yet.
That's where you come in.
We want to hear from you if:
💡 There's a topic you wish had been covered when you were starting out
🐛 Something in the wiki is unclear, out of date, or just wrong
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❓ You've seen a question come up over and over in the sub that deserves a proper answer
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How to send a suggestion
Drop your suggestion right here in the comments. Tell us:
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You can also message the mod team directly if you'd prefer, especially for corrections or anything that needs a longer explanation.
We'll review every suggestion and update the wiki regularly. If your contribution makes it in, we'll do our best to acknowledge it — this is genuinely a community project and we want it to reflect the knowledge that lives here.
A note on what makes this community special
This subreddit exists because sewing has a steep early learning curve and a long tradition of people helping each other climb it. Every question answered, every "here's what worked for me," every photo of a wonky first pillowcase posted with pride — that's what makes r/SewingForBeginners worth showing up to.
The wiki is our attempt to bottle some of that up so it doesn't get lost in the scroll. But it'll never replace the real thing, which is all of you asking and answering in the comments every day.
Thank you for being part of this. Now go make something. 🧵
I gifted myself a sewing machine last week and I wanted to test myself. I found the first picture on Pinterest but couldn't find a pattern, so I said... Why not? And followed my heart 😂 It's far from the reference, but I find it very cute!
Also first time sewing a zipper with the machine.
The inside also has a linen and I tried for the first time as well the zig zag option for the endings. Sorry for the vague vocabulary, not sure of the terms in English😅 but I'm sure you know what I mean.
This was my very first go at making a bag. I took a couple of creative liberties since I didn’t have some of the materials but overall I’m really happy with the finished product! Constructive criticism welcome 🤗
I like the fit overall and my sewing teacher didn’t think I should pull the sides in and make it tight and I agree. But the sleeve holes are sliiiiiightly big. I want to make the same pattern for a dress for Christmas so I’m wondering what everyone else thinks. Should I hem the side seams a little bit or does the fit look fine how it is?
I just want my clothes to lay flat against my body😢 I feel like it has something to do with my height. I am 5’1. It’s really uncomfortable and looks terrible. Thank you
Photos showing my progress of tote bag making! Labeled one photo with which bag was made first
I recently started sewing using my husband's old gear. Since everything had been sitting untouched for a long time, he kindly offered to refresh some of the supplies for me when I got started a few weeks ago, including replacing the old, rusted blade on the rotary cutter with a fresh one.
Well, turns out neither of us realized it, but he put the new blade on incorrectly.
For a couple weeks, I have been absolutely suffering trying to cut fabric. It would technically spin if I messed with it by hand, so I assumed it was working fine and that I was just terrible at cutting fabric. The blade would only drag in one direction, the fabric kept bunching up and shifting, and every straight line was a total workout. Because I am totally new to this, I just figured I had terrible technique and zero arm strength!
I finally mentioned the struggle to him, and he investigated it more. I was literally just pushing a completely stagnant, still blade against the fabric most of the time!
He fixed the hardware, and the difference on my next tote bag was mind blowing!! I had no idea how seamless and easy it was actually supposed to be, not even two inches into my first cut, it felt like absolute butter.
Feel free to laugh, my arms had a good workout, and now I can see such a difference in the 3rd bag!
Wanted to share this here as well. The patch work took about 17 hours, and putting the skirt together was the rest of it. It was definitely a time intensive project, but the patching/gathering is a very forgive process in regard to messing up sems.
If you zoom in you can probably see some mistakes! But from a distance it looks pretty clean!
I would definitely recommend this if you want to learn how to gather, you could even do just two tiers for a little less work.
Just wanted to share my first finished project. I bought my Singer sewing machine 6 months ago and had some breaks in between due to being frustrated at not getting a lot of basics.
I pushed through and finished my first singlet today including neckline and armhole binding. Bit wobbly still but wearable for the summer! 😇
I just read a helpful response by an experienced sewist to a poster having trouble backstitching, which included the sage advice that backstitching is not needed when the seam will be covered by an intersecting seam. I'm primarily a quilter and most of us don't backstitch for just that reason. But the response got me thinking: I don't think I have a single piece of clothing where the ends of the seams are not either folded into a hem or crossed with an intersecting seam. I dislike backstitching because it is almost impossible to reverse direction and get the stitches to run over the existing ones perfectly and that means the pressed seam will have a little jog. And I'm so slow on the uptake that I remind myself the jog isn't a big deal because it will end up tucked into the waistband or covered by facing or sewed into a hem. My brain never asked the follow up question-- so why am I backstitching at all? When I learned to sew (from a ranking officer in the sewing police) we were taught that failing to backstitch would cause the piece of clothing to fall apart immediately. The only thing I can think of is that when you press seams open (quilters mostly press to the side and nest the seams) you don't want the ends to open up as you are sewing the intersecting seam. But that seems pretty manageable. I must be missing something.
I've been having trouble sewing this rib knit modal fabric, so I bought a walking foot. I got it from sewingpartsonline and confirmed that it's compatible with my machine. I've got it screwed in tightly, the arm is over the needle screw.
In the video, you can see that the fabric stops being able to escape from the back of the foot. Honestly, this was the furthest I've gotten on any of my scrap tests, usually it gets stuck sooner.
It's also somewhat challenging to get even the two layers of fabric under the foot. Somehow it feels like everything is just a bit too low and too tight?
I also tried lowering the tension to 1 (on a scale of 0 to 9). Not sure if it changed anything.
The foot doesn't look like it's "walking" like in videos I've seen, but I'm not sure how to fix it.
A friends daughter is interested in sewing. I found a "Pfaff" Hobby 303 on FB Marketplace for $25 US. It has everything but the original manual. I put quotes around the name Pfaff because these machines were made by Dorina a partnership between Pfaff & Janome. Pfaff supplied the cases and Janome the internals.
Bag 1 is a Dishmat tote bag from She Sews Seams. The dish mats are from Grocery Outlet. The lining fabric is from Dollar tree, the webbing is from Wawak and the pocket fabric is fat quarter I found on clearance.
How did an entry level machine from between the mid 1980's-1990's do?
A machine with a plastic hook gear, that was made after the golden age of sewing machines.
Just fine.
Once I replaced the dried playdough in the hook assembly for grease and put oil on the moving parts and felt pads it ran like a champ. I've sewn with Gutterman Mara 100 (tex 30) and Mara 70 (Tex 45) using 12.14 & 16 needles. If the manual is to be believed this machine can use an 120/19 needle which is kind of crazy.
The only issues I had were self inflicted. I should have been using a denim needle from the beginning with the PB& J pouch. My top stitching went squiffy because of having the wrong needle. I also should have used a 3mm stitch length on the exterior seams because of the bulk.I tried an inexpensive Singer walking foot and that made things easier though I think the fresh size 16 denim needle did just as much. Otherwise the projects sewed just fine. The machine has a lot of life left in it.
Hi everyone, I'm very very new to sewing (or will be once my machine arrives) and I wanted to make this post in hopes you have some tips/recommendations/advices for me! I've never used a sewing machine, so my hope is to start with smaller items and then once comfortable maybe try some clothing, but mainly I'm interested in tote bags, cosmetics bags, aprons etc as I think that is going to be the easiest to learn on. Do you have any pattern website that you would recommed? any advice on patterns? Any creator/videos you'd recommend I follow? I know nothing, so please assume I'm a dummy 🫣
Hello first time buying used sewing machine. Just picked up from offerup with lady saying she never used it. I did not check needle drop, my fault. I have it on setting 1 straight but its going left and right. It jams. I had a cheaper machine and it did not do this. Fixable? Lady ghosted me. Please help
I've been putting off sewing clothes for a long time now because I'm worried I'll fuck it up and waste fabric, but obviously I'm not learning how to do it by sitting around wishing that I could 😅
I've never used a pattern that has needed to be taped together and I'm a bit nervous about trying that.
I've sewn a small teddy, a shitty attempt at a skirt for my dog with fabric scraps and no pattern, some scrunchies, heat/cold packs + eye mask shaped packs for migraines, an ironing board cover, a giant bolster pillow/body pillow thing and I recently did my first successful attempt at hemming a t shirt :D
It's not much experience and I'm not very confident, but I'm really interested in learning how to sew clothes. I don't wear skirts and I don't have anyone close to me that wears them either, so I'd prefer to make something else if it's not too complicated for me haha
Any recommendations or tips? I'm a guy so if its something that I'd be able to wear it'd be a big plus.
I've got a standard sewing machine I think, its a janome sewist 721 :)
I bought a couple of Hallowe'en tablecloths from the dollar store with hopes to turn them into very basic caftans.
I saw a pattern ages ago for a basic caftan but can't find it in my mass of bookmarks. I've recreated it above but I need a little guidance.
As I recall it was just two rectangles of fabric sewn along the top leaving a neck hole. Then you sewed along the blue dotted lines as indicated. On the front rectangle you created a V-neck by cutting a vertical line and then folding the flaps inside the garment then sewing to create a neckline (where the dotted red lines are.)
My questions are these:
Does this pattern seem like it would work
Generally how wide should the neck hole be and how deep should the V be
Do you think 12" be enough for the "arm" holes or should I make them bigger?
Would just the two vertical lines of stitching enough? It is possible I'm misremembering the pattern and the horizontal lines of stitching weren't actually there.
Obviously, the sizes of our heads will make a difference, but any general guidance would be helpful particularly with the V neck.
Hello! I just bought this purple skirt and I want to add ruffles to it to match my original character 's design & to give more length because it's too short 🥹 but I'm very new to sewing and I don't know how to go about it. I should also mention that I don't have a sewing machine and stitch everything by hand, by I'll try to get one in the future. If you have any tips on how to do the hearts as well hit me up!
Hello everyone! My girlfriend wishes for a sewing machine for her birthday. She never sew before, only assisted her aunt and always wanted to try it on her own. So a begginer machine would be best. My budget is also not huge, around 100-150 euros.
I have the chance to get a Singer Tradition second hand for 80 euros, which I feel pretty confident about it being legit, or a new Brother Little Angel ke14s for around 110 euros.
She plans to do casual projects, like maybe sewing 2 layers of slim material like cotton to make bigger pieces, embroidered patterns on fabric purses/clothing, mayne some denim here and there. I dont think she would do thick stuff like rugs. Maybe some thin leather?
What should I get her? What other recommendations do you have? We're in Romania so I may not have acces to a lot of devices haha
Anyone know what type of singer machine this is? Found it online but there isn’t a serial number and I would like to know what machine is it to see if it would be suitable for my needs before I commit to buying it. Any help would be appreciated!
