5 Common Mistakes that Sewing Beginners Make & the Easy Ways You Can Avoid Them

Sewing is such a fun and creative hobby to learn. The variety of projects you can make are practically endless and can be as small or as grandiose as you are willing to put your time, effort and imagination into.

Like any new skill, learning to sew will be full of small wins, proud smiles and a more than a few moans of frustration. Remember this though: Nobody nails anything the first time they try it. Learning to sew is no exception.

BUT how do you get better at anything if not through practice, experimentation and learning from mistakes?!? The best way to get better at sewing is to keep trying. Like that old saying “If you fall off the horse, get back on”. Don’t let the mistakes dishearten you and stop you from improving. If you’re still unsure whether it’s worth learning to sew, take a look HERE at why sewing is so good for you.

There are plenty of websites out there listing gazillions of mistakes that sewing newbies make. You may even have come across some of those sites already. You might recognise that you have made some of those mistakes too.

I have seen so many mistakes made be sewing beginners that don’t even make it onto these other lists. And I want to help you avoid the frustration of making those mistakes too.

How do I even know that these things are “mistakes”? Well, just between you and I, *wink wink* perhaps, just maybe, I might have made some of them too.

Most sewing mistakes- we won’t call them a “sewing fail”- can be all too easy to make. BUT they are also avoidable with a bit of know-how and paying careful attention (i.e., not being too tired when try to nail that outfit at the last minute!).

Are you ready to learn how to avoid making 5 big sewing mistakes, stop feeling so exasperated, and improve your sewing experience? I’m here to help you! Read on…

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning that I get a small commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you.

Beginner Sewing Mistake #1 – Cutting Original Sewing Patterns

You know when you get your hands on a sewing pattern, there are lines and squiggles and symbols everywhere? But more importantly, on the paper there are the individual pattern pieces in a range of sizes. From all of those different sizes, you get the freedom to choose the right one for you.

What you should NEVER do is cut out the paper pattern pieces from the original sewing pattern!

Why? There are a couple of reasons.

Firstly, sometimes the individual pattern pieces criss-cross over one another. That means if you start hacking away with your scissors to cut out the front piece of a shirt, you may accidentally chop off part of a sleeve piece. Ouch!

Secondly, by cutting out pattern pieces for a sewing project today, what will you do in the future if you need to make a different size? Think: clothing for growing kids. (Or perhaps growing adult waistlines 😉.) If you have chopped up the original pattern, there’s no way to save the rest for other sizes later.

How you can avoid making this mistake> Instead of cutting out the original pattern, use sheer paper to trace out the pieces you need and simply stow away the intact pattern. You could buy professional (i.e. expensive) pattern tracing paper. Or like I do, go for the affordable alternative: sandwich (wax) paper. Once you have traced out the pattern pieces you need onto this paper, cut them out and you’re ready to go!

If you want to discover other useful sewing tools that I rely on, I’ve written a guide here HERE.

Beginner Sewing Mistake #2 – Sewing with an Unsuitable Fabric

Going shopping for fabrics and sewing supplies can be a glorious experience. The colours! The textures! Your fantasy can run wild with creative project ideas!

You come home with a pile of fabrics and no real plan of what you will do with them. Yet.

Then you start looking through your patterns collection and realise your dream of making a dreamy sheer blouse isn’t going to happen with the costly pile of jersey knits you just brought home. Grrrr…

Not all fabrics are equal! Fabrics can have different weights, stretch (or don’t) differently and move differently. Certain sewing projects are designed with a particular type of fabric in mind. It would be a mistake to try and sew with the wrong type of fabric. (You can learn much more about fabrics HERE.)

How you can avoid making this mistake> Read the sewing pattern instructions before handing over your cold hard cash at the fabric store. That way you’ll know what fabrics to aim for and which ones you don’t need (even if they are sooo pretty and sparkly 😉). Spending just 5 minutes looking over the instructions will save you a lot of frustration, time and money!

If you want to avoid buying the wrong fabrics next time you are out shopping, you can grab my free Ultimate Sewing Supplies Shopping Planner HERE.

Beginner Sewing Mistake #3 – Not Paying Attention When Cutting the Fabric

So, you’ve got your paper pattern pieces cut out and ready to lay out on your gorgeous fabric. You’re raring to unleash your creativity. Wait! Don’t cut out your fabric yet!

Are you using a directional fabric? A directional fabric is a fabric with patterns which have a distinct top and bottom. Imagine a fabric covered with cats. You will want the end product to have the cats’ heads pointing towards the top, not upside-down performing headstands! BIG mistake!

Also keep an eye on how the fabric patterns on your pieces will look when they’re sewn together. (See the above photo 🙈). This is really important when sewing with striped fabrics too. Sometimes you just need to move a pattern piece a couple of centimetres left or right, up or down to be on the safe side.

Perhaps you’ve already tried sewing a piece of clothing (even got the pattern on the fabric the correct way around- yay!) but wondered why it didn’t fit quite the way it should have. You read over the instructions again and -whoops! – you realise you forgot to add on the seam allowance when cutting out your fabric pieces! Yes, those few millimetres of extra fabric around the edges can make a huge difference to comfort and fit! The seam allowance is there for a reason 😉. Don’t disregard it.

How you can avoid making this mistake> take your time! Re-read the instructions for any final details or special techniques to guide you cutting out the fabric pieces and check that the pieces are properly in place on your fabric. The term “Measure twice, cut once” cannot be overstated in sewing!

Beginner Sewing Mistake #4 – Pinning the Fabric Together Incorrectly

The fabric pieces are all cut out perfectly and now it’s time to start sewing them together. First up is figuring out how to pin 2 pieces of fabric together.

Sounds simple, right?!? Stick in a few pins to hold the pieces together and start up the sewing machine? Not necessarily!

Pinning the fabric pieces randomly together is a big mistake! This can not only cause troubles with fabric layers moving unexpectedly while sewing but also can damage the fabric and even your sewing machine!

Yes, it’s true. Placing too many pins in highly visible parts of the fabric can risk leaving a bunch of visible puncture marks in the fabric. Placing pins along your sewing direction rather that across it can lead to caught fabric, and also broken pins and/or sewing needles flying dangerously across the room. Eek!

How you can avoid making this mistake> Like for all the other steps of your sewing project, concentrate! Pin your fabrics together close to the raw edge you need to sew along, best within the seam allowance. Also concentrate on the direction of the pin. Place the pin across the direction you want to sew, pointed end towards the edge, NOT along the edge. Although some people will say this is a no-no, the sewing machine CAN actually continue stitching over pins when they are placed in the fabric correctly.

Beginner Sewing Mistake #5 – Threading the Sewing Machine Incorrectly

Another common mistake made (and not only by sewing newbies) is not threading the sewing machine correctly.

While all sewing machines have the function of stitching fabric pieces together to create something, not all of them have identical features and not all of them are threaded in exactly the same way. Copying a video you saw online once or remembering how your grandma showed you on her machine back when you were a kid is not a reliable way of threading the machine that is sitting in front of you now.

Sometimes a sewing machine needs a thread to go up and over, sometimes under; sometimes it needs to be fed clockwise, sometimes anti-clockwise. See? Not all the same!

If the machine is threaded incorrectly many (wrong) things can happen. The best-case scenario is that the thread snaps. Worse still is that you could end up with a tangled mess of thread instead of neat, even stitches in your fabric. Even worse is possibly breaking the sewing needle or even jamming up the sewing machine. All of them are frustrating, some of them a wild-hair-grabbing-and-screaming-at-the-machine level of frustration. *deep breaths*

How you can avoid making this mistake> Check the instruction manual for how to thread the sewing machine you want to use. Then you’ll know for sure you’ve threaded both the upper thread and the bobbin thread correctly. Another tip is to sew a few test stitches in a scrap of similar fabric to check that it works well before putting a needle to your new project.

Taking the time to read instructions and plan a little before embarking on your next sewing project is a sure-fire way of avoiding these 5 beginners’ mistakes and having a less stressful, more successful and more enjoyable time at the sewing machine.

Once again, remember that sewing is supposed to be fun. And EVERYBODY will make a mistake sometime.

Now, off to plan my own next project… 😉

What sort of mistakes have you made so far on your sewing journey? Comment below!