May Martin’s Sewing Bible: 40 years of tips and tricks. May Martin
table, kitchen table, even an ironing board – for cutting out your fabric.
Clear plastic boxes – to store fabrics, threads and haberdashery. I find it invaluable to see instantly where everything is.
Essential Tools
For your basic sewing kit, you’ll need the following items:
Hand-sewing needles – sharps (all-purpose) for hand-sewing, curved needles for craft, crewel (with a long eye) for embroidery. A needle threader is also invaluable.
Pins – dressmaker’s and glass-headed.
Thimble – metal, plastic or leather – for protecting the tips of your fingers when you’re hand-sewing.
Measures – A standard tape measure is 152cm (60in); an extra-long tape measure (30-cm/120in) is really useful when making curtains. A ruler comes in very handy, too, especially a gridded ruler with angles marked.
Pin cushion – to keep pins handy.
Cutting tools – scissors in different sizes, including dressmaker’s shears (25cm/10in), medium embroidery/needlework scissors (13cm/5in), small embroidery scissors (10cm/4in), paper-cutting scissors; and, perhaps not essential but extremely useful, pinking shears, sewing snips, stitch ripper.
Markers – chalk pencils, chalk wheels, air- and water-soluble marker pens (see here), dressmaker’s chalk, tracing wheel and carbon paper (see here).
Tracing or dressmaker’s carbon paper and tracing wheel – to copy designs and pattern markings (see here).
Coloured tape – to make a sewing guide on the throat plate of the sewing machine, and masking tape.
Essential Tools 1
1. Dressmaker’s shears – good for cutting fabric
2. Medium sewing scissors – good for trimming seams and cutting threads.
3. Small scissors – these are useful for clipping corners and cutting details
4. Paper scissors
5. Stitch ripper – really useful for cutting and pulling out threads
6. Tape measure – 150cm (6oin)
7. Double-length (soocm/120in) tape measures are now available and are really useful when cutting out curtains and blinds
8. Universal ruler with inch scale
9. Sewing gauge with sliding adjustergood for measuring seam allowances and hems
10. Small measuring gauge – this has lots of different measurements on the sides
11. Tailor’s chalk
12. Tracing wheel
13. Tracing or dressmaker’s carbon paper, used with a tracing wheel
14. Retractable pencils – they give a fine line that can be rubbed out with a fabric eraser.
15. Quilter’s 6mm (¼ in) tape – helps to guide rows of stitching
16. Coloured tape – useful for putting on the arm of the sewing machine to guide you
17. Pins – dressmaker’s
18. Pins – glass-headed
19. Metal thimble
20. Leather thimble
21. Selection of hand sewing needles
22. Needle threader
23. Corner and edge shaper
24. Chopstick – used for turning out tricky corners
25. Safety pins – used for threading elastic or tape into channels.
26. Wrist pin cushion
Essential Tools 1
1. Seam roll
2. Tailor’s ham
3. Sleeve board
4. Pressing muslin
5. Squared pattern paper
6. Curved needles
7. Pinking sheers
8. Awl – good for making holes in card
9. Universal ruler with centimetre scale
10. Flexible ruler – for measuring and marking curves
11. Parcel strapping
12. Chalk cartridge pencil
13. Coloured refills for chalk cartridge pencil
14. Brass rings attached to paper fasteners
15. Chalk-filled tracing wheel
16. Soluble marking pen
17. Bodkin