Tools of the Trade
Picking up a new hobby can be daunting. There are so many tools on the market which can cause a hyper-fixator as myself to become overwhelmed. I’m here to guide you through my process of trial and error through the stitching world.
It must be said that all of these thoughts are my own and I am not sponsored by any of the mentioned brands and products (Obligatory #Not Sponsored). The products I will mention in this post are tools I use every day and have proved invaluable to working efficiently and keeping me (mostly) sane. Because I split my time between cross stitching and quilting I want to keep myself organized by breaking up the tools.
First up let's start with sharp stuff. The three ride or die sharp tools every chaotic crafter should have are fabric scissors, a rotary cutting blade, and thread snips. It's also smart to have a pair of scissors that are used for cutting miscellaneous stuff that is not fabric. I call those my trash scissors. Under no circumstance do your fabric scissors cut anything except for fabric. There are many different price points for sharp things and you can find some thing that works for you at every budget. For fabric scissors I started with your basic Fiskars fabric scissors you could get at your local craft store. These were OK but dulled down very fast and I found myself needing to replace them after a few months. Eventually my husband surprised me with a pair of Gingher fabric scissors that I will be buried with at this point. They are fabulous and very much worth the $50 price tag. For rotary cutters as my last item on the list mentioned, I started with the Fiskar's rotary cutter because it came bundled with my Fiskar scissors. Let me tell you right now that those are trash. I'm so sorry Fiskars- it's gross. I think that you have some wonderful cutting utensils but these just aren't it. The plastic guard for safety kept rolling down and getting in my way and would mess up my straight long cuts. The rotary cutter I prefer is the 45mm Olfa blade that can also be purchased at your local craft store. It cuts really nicely and I felt like the blade lasted a really long time before I started noticing it dulling out on me. When it did, I found a 10 pack of third-party replacement blades that probably aren't the same quality, but I believe it was around nine dollars for 10 of them which is a steal - or should I say, steel (seriously, who gave me internet access?). The third sharp thing I want to bring up is thread snips. This is where Fiskars is has redeemed itself because I am still 100% happy with the Fiskars thread snips that came in my beginners sewing pack. It's been three years and they are still amazing. You could definitely use some small embroidery scissors instead, but the extra millisecond of time and effort saved is worth it to me.
My holy trinity
Our next category is for my sewing machine peeps. This category includes all the accessories that make using a domestic sewing machine easier on your soul. I work on a Singer Patchwork machine and after three years I can say it's good not great. It's incredibly reliable. I've had hardly any snags or bird’s nests that hinder the sewing process, but the throat size is very small for a machine that is marketed for quilting. If you're just doing small projects this machine, its amazing for the price point.
The next thing I want to talk about is thread. This was definitely a trial and error journey for me and if I could go back in time and hug the lady from Joanne that warned me not to cheap out on thread I would. I am a thread snob- I exclusively use Gütermann thread and I have found that the 100% polyester is the strongest and most wonderful thread to use for my quilting projects. I am all for natural textiles and fibers, but when it comes to putting your blood sweat and tears into a quilt that took you months or even years to complete, you want to make sure that your threads are not going to be what causes its downfall. Spend the extra couple dollars get some good thread. Along with a good thread you want to make sure that you are using the correct foot on your sewing machine for your sewing project. I do all of my piecing with your basic standard sewing foot and whenever I'm doing any sort of layering or sandwiching multiple layers together, are use a walking foot. Since I am sewing on a quilting machine, mine came in the box, but you can pick one up online that fits your machine. The walking foot helps the feed dogs out by feeding the top fabric with the bottom fabric simultaneously so you don't get any of that annoying pulling or separating in your layers.
That was the only spool I had to photograph…
Now let's talk about rulers. I don't care about your sticker shock- buy the damn quilting ruler. I can't live without it. I bought a Fiskars one when I first got started and she is still going strong! There are reasons that these exist and you cannot use a normal straight edge or ruler. You will be thanking me later – if you're getting into serious patchwork quilting, especially T-shirt quilting, I can't recommend the Omnigrid line of squares enough. I use the 12 1/2 x 12 1/2 square religiously for my T-shirt commissions. Nobody has time to hand measure those cuts. While we're talking about rulers let's talk about cutting mats. You do not have to buy the fancy self healing cutting mat I am still rocking my Sullivans cutting mat I got on sale that covers half of my table. I even bought a back up just in case and it still rolled up in my closet after three years.
Now onto the hot things. You can't have a good sewing room without an iron. This is one of those things where you have to get normal ironing out of your head and get a good iron. I am rocking the Rowenta Focus iron that does a fabulous job of pressing. I bought a mid priced model and it's still doing great. There are definitely higher and lower price points but on the lower end I you're going to get really frustrated. Just buy the better iron. Or don't-I'm not your boss. With all these wonderful things you'd probably think damn girl, you're good what else would you need. I got tired of getting up and down to press seams open when working on projects so I bought a mini heat press online. I have used that more than my big iron lately. I keep it right by my sewing machine and it comes with a little stand do it can stay on while I sew. I bought it along with the pressing mat so I can safely press on my table. However, make sure you keep it on the pressing mat even in its stand because the heat will warp your cutting mat.
You could use all these things or even just some of them depending on what you're planning on accomplishing in your sewing space. I still consider myself to be a fairly new quilter since I only got serious about it in 2019. I'm sure in the coming years I will find more products to replace the ones I'm using but for right now I couldn't ask for more. I hope this post has done more to inspire than overwhelm. Take a deep breath and get sewing!
