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The Humble Sewing Machine - My Favourite Tool #DES100

  • Writer: Emma
    Emma
  • Apr 8, 2020
  • 3 min read

My FAVOURITE tool is my sewing machine, the Bernina 1000. A standard machine with various stitches, foots and accessories to make your sewing dreams come true. The ability to make your own clothes is also a small contribution to supporting sustainable fashion.


My Love

A sewing machine is great for prototyping and mockups. When making clothing, following a pattern or not, you have to consider that everyone’s bodies are different. Although a pattern may look great on paper, you never know how it will fit or look until you’ve actually put it together. A mockup is a way to visualise the end result and check the fit of a garment. Using a sewing machine means you can easily sew together a quick mockup in cheap fabric so alterations can be made before it’s too late. (Inspirationfeed. 2019) You can rapidly prototype different fits, decorative stitches and placements for zippers, buttons, etc. to help make a garment completely tailored for you or a client, “your best idea will probably be your 100th idea and not your first” (Ko) Prototyping is a way to test out many ideas without ruining your beautiful/ expensive fabric.


Originally a mockup I made out of fabric I thought I hated. It has some flaws but I ended up loving it and still wear it today!

A great example is from historical fashion designer Bernadette Banner where she recreates a 1890s corset for her asymmetrical spine. She creates many mockups through experimenting and failing a lot, eventually creating a piece perfect for her.


When I first started using a sewing machine, I learnt how to do the straight stitch and zigzag stitch. However the day I discovered the manual was a joyous day indeed. I never knew you could overlock without an overlocker (very handy)! There are zipper foots, buttonhole foots, hemming foots to help you with all the fiddly bits. One of my favourite features is the buttonhole guide. The machine has a knob which gives you all the preset stitch settings to create a sturdy buttonhole, how amazing is that!



I love looking at a piece of clothing and thinking, I could make that, because you really can! Making your own clothes is a great way to stop adding to fast fashion. Companies exploit workers to pump out non-durable garments at rapid rates for the sake of a profit. (Stanton, 2019.) Sustainable fashion is incredibly important for the environment, tons of material ends up in landfills every year, and the fashion system isn’t sustainable in itself. Workers die in factory collapses, they’re barely paid minimum wage and are struggling to live while the ignorant are oblivious and rejoice at the sight of a good bargain, “unless you change that model, you can’t change anything.” (Siegle, 2015) I recycle fabrics by using materials from old clothes and scraps found in my house or at thrift stores. I feel confident and proud wearing something I’ve made. If you have a sewing machine sitting around collecting dust, I encourage you to get it out and start using it!




A great article on fast fashion by Audrey Stanton

In conclusion, a sewing machine can help you grow as a designer. Knowing how things are stitched together and having the skills to do it yourself may help you understand how other things in the world are pieced together too while adding to your skillset, “each skill that a worker brings to the table adds value to an organization and the broader their total skill set, the more value they create,” (Soghaier, M. (2010) and contributing towards sustainable fashion.


Reference List

Banner, B. (2019). Drafting & Fitting Victorian Mockups on an Asymmetrical Figure

[Corsetmaking Part 1]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhc05WtISV4

Inspiration feed (2019). 4 reasons why mockups are essential for your design

Ko, A. Design Methods, How to be creative. Retrieved from

Siegle, L.(Quote). Ross, M. (Producer) & Morgan, A. (Director). (2015) The True

Soghaier, M. (2010). The Digital Marketing Blog. The Importance of Having a Broad Skill Set Within

Stanton, A. (2019). The Good Trade. What is Fast Fashion, Anyway? Retrieved from


 
 
 

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