Rule 1
- THOU SHALT NOT TORMENT ONESELF WITH BAD FLOSS
The cheap floss will tempt you, even if it doesn’t sew poorly, it will fade in the sun, the dye lots are non-existent and it is asking for a knotted, miserable, bleeds when you wash it, bad time. Save the crap floss for friendship bracelets if you can. Check your online marketplaces for people getting rid of floss in estate sales.
Rule 2
- THOU SHALT NOT USE CRAP NEEDLES
The cheap needles will tempt you, do not use them. The eyes are not standardized and can eat, or even cut your floss, they are also made of cheap metal that reacts to your hand oils and tarnish, this tarnish will transfer to your fabric and will NOT BE REMOVEABLE. Get yourself a decent set of needles and stick them on a fridge magnet so you don’t lose them.
Rule 3
- THOU SHALT WASH YOUR DAMN HANDS
Humans are gross, we make greasy oils and sweat from our palms and leave little fingerprints all over, these fingerprints will also accumulate on your fabric as you sew. You can use a hoop clamp so that your hands touch it less, or a cover for the edge you are grabbing. I have insanely sweaty hands so I hold my hoop with a small piece of clean cotton fabric and also sew with fans blowing on my hands to keep the sweat to a minimum. Some oils and dirt can be nearly impossible to remove so its good to have clean practices to start with.
Rule 4
- THOU SHALT NOT QUIT BECAUSE OF METALLIC THREAD
Anything other than pretty much normal DMC or other brand flosses are the devil and there is nothing you can do about it but cry. I do not recommend you getting frisky and using metallic/glow/sparkly/filamenty/plastic-y/satin/rayon/glossy/weird flosses in your early projects. You will be mad and throw away a lot of floss. This stuff takes practice and even the best of us HATE it. If you do wish to do metallics, SKIP the DMC and go straight to the fancy machine embroidery floss in the tool list. That thread is FAR more flexible than anything else you will find, wont instantly melt if you lightly iron it and can be found in about a million variations that DMC doesn’t have.
Rule 5
- THOU SHALT NOT TRUST “WASHABLE” or “DISAPPEARING” PENS
I do not recommend using washable pens to transfer patterns, they can be unpredictable as to how they wash out, and sometimes can dye the surrounding stitches in other colors when you wash them due to some unknown chemical reaction. I also do not recommend the temperature based disappearing pens, they are notorious for having their marks reappear when the temperature gets cold in your house. Chalk is typically safe, and I have personally used the pens in the wishlist. I typically recommend my transfer sheets in the tool kit list, it is hard to put your finished piece into the Retayne dye setting additive in super hot water that may set the pen marks permanently, as well as being hard to wash your piece off first in cold water to remove the pen marks that might then put your piece at risk of bleeding and staining the fabric. If you KNOW you will be working full coverage you can use Frixion pens which come in very very small tip sizes to draw on your fabric. This will be permanent, you will have to cover it with stitches for it to disappear.
Rule 6
- THOU SHALT USE DENSE WEAVE FABRIC FOR YOUR OWN SANITY
Get good fabric, don’t try to learn how to embroider (already hard) onto aida cloth, or gauze, or weird satins, loose weave linens, even weave, etc. You are better off stitching onto an old pillow case that is simple cotton. As you get more advanced, you can use stuff like quilting cotton and learn to work with other fabrics. But to start, stick with the heavy weave muslins and canvas duck cloth.
Rule 7
- THOU SHALT ACCEPT THAT NO MATTER HOW MANY HORRIBLE KNOTS AND BROKEN THREADS IT GETS BETTER
I promise, it really does, it sucks super hard in the beginning as you work out how to use your fingers for this new weird magic trick, but you’ll get there, and you’ll get better and better and better with every little daily stitch. We are all here to learn and grow together. You’ve got this!