Sewing Projects for Beginners

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The free online sewing class Starting to Sew is just the beginning of your sewing journey.

Take a look at the following sewing projects for beginner sewists.

Each project was designed to help you get comfortable with your sewing machine and develop foundational sewing knowledge and skills.

In addition to discovering the joy of sewing, there is an extra bonus for completing these sewing projects … you create something for yourself, your home, or others to enjoy!

A Simple Pillowcase

Sewing a pillowcase is a great project for beginners. It provides the opportunity to get more comfortable with your sewing machine.

In addition, you get to practice foundational sewing skills like squaring up fabric, measuring with a sewing gauge, pinning, and using the 8 basics of sewing.

Fabric Drink Coasters

Constructing fabric drink coasters are a great project for beginner sewists. You get to sew with different seam allowances and have multiple opportunities to use most of the 8 basic sewing skills. If you’re new to working with rotary cutting tools, you’ll have the opportunity to practice this skill, too.

In addition, fabric drink coasters don’t take long to make. When you’re done, you have something that’s functional. You’ll look at them with pride knowing you made them with your own two hands.

Bag for Fabric Drink Coasters

Bean Bags

Bean bags are a wonderfully simple invention. A small bag filled with beans can actually be used in a lot of different ways and they don’t take long to make.

That’s one reason bean bags are a great project for beginner sewists. In addition to being pretty quick to construct, you get to practice rotary cutting, sewing both straight and zig-zag stitches, and pivoting corners.

Once you work through the steps to make a bean bag, it doesn’t take too long to make a bunch of them. The process of making a bunch of bean bags is even more efficient if you do one step for all the bean bags before moving on to the next step.

What in the world do you do with a bunch of bean bags? Well, you can play Tic-Tac-Toe!

Tic-Tac-Toe Board

There are a lot of different ways to construct a Tic-Tac-Toe board.

The construction method I decided on to sew a Tic-Tac-Toe board continues to build basic sewing skills in addition to introducing some knowledge and skills used by quilters.

These quilting skills include sewing a nine patch block, squaring a nine patch, stitching in the ditch, attach a binding, and sewing a blind stitch by hand.

As a result, after sewing the Tic-Tac-Toe board you’ll have an idea if quilting is something you want to learn more about.

Pattern Weights

Drawstring Bag

Scrunchies

Pennant Banners (aka Bunting)

Do you want to personalize or customize your bunting?

Check out Sew Many Letters and discover how you can get the perfect size letters for any of your sewing projects.

Lanyards

Square Pillow with Fun Trim

Next Steps

Once you’ve completed a few projects, chances are you’ve discovered the joy sewing can bring to your life and you’re ready to sew more!

You don’t want to lose the learning you’ve accomplished so try to make time each week to sew.

It would be even BETTER if you can sew EVERY DAY, even if it is just a for a few minutes. You want to continue to apply what you’ve learned and build on the foundational knowledge and skills.

Make sure to sign up for my email list so I can share with you education and inspiration for fun and functional sewing projects you can create for yourself, your home and others.

While you may already have a bunch of ideas floating around in your head for the things you want to sew, inspiration is everywhere. Keep your eyes open for things that tickle your fancy and get your creative juices flowing.

If you feel overwhelmed with too many ideas and aren’t sure where to start, find out what I did that helped me turn thinking about what I wanted to sew into actual sewing.