The archive
Latest from Stitch & Selvage
Everything we have published, newest first. 40 pages, each carrying its own sources and its own updated date.
Compare · Kit vs separates
A pre-built starter kit, or buying the pieces separately?
Buy the bundle for consumables and the machine-specific parts separately — the deciding factor is your carton contents.
Guides & Fixes · The honest answer
Are cheap sewing machines worth it?
Where the line falls between a bargain and a machine you will fight — three specifications, not a price.
Best Picks · Best beginner kit
Beginner sewing kits: what a bundle gets right, and what it always misses
What a pre-built bundle genuinely saves you, what it always leaves out, and the bundle we tell you to avoid.
Guides & Fixes · The bunching fix
Bobbin thread bunching up underneath
The nest of loops underneath is a top-thread fault. Four checks, in order, and the fix is free.
Machine Reviews · Our top first machine
Brother CS7000X review: you are buying the presser feet, not the stitches
Ten presser feet, an automatic threader and a drop-in bobbin — the machine we point most first-time buyers at.
Compare · CS7000X vs XR9550
Brother CS7000X vs XR9550
The walking foot decides it for quilters; the eight buttonhole styles decide it for garment sewers.
Machine Reviews · Best for mending only
Brother LX3817 review: a good mending machine, and no more than that
Seventeen stitches, four feet and manual needle threading — genuinely the right machine for hems and repairs, and the wrong one for garments.
Compare · Brother vs Singer
Brother or Singer for a first sewing machine?
Bobbin type and needle threading settle it at the entry level — and Singer's own Heavy Duty machine is the exception.
Machine Reviews · Best value mechanical
Brother XM2701 review: the cheapest machine that still threads its own needle
27 stitches, an automatic needle threader and a jam-resistant drop-in bobbin — the value pick of the mechanical machines.
Machine Reviews · Best for garment sewing
Brother XR9550 review: eight buttonhole styles and no walking foot
165 stitches, eight one-step buttonhole styles and an upper thread sensor — the machine to buy if you want to make clothes.
Compare · Cheap vs mid-range
Cheap or mid-range: what does the extra money actually buy?
Four things the extra money buys, ranked, plus the one that is worth the whole difference on its own.
Guides & Fixes · First projects
Four first sewing projects worth making
Four rectangle projects in order, each teaching one skill — and none of them needs a pattern.
Guides & Fixes · Hemming
How to hem pants
The ordinary trouser hem, the jeans version, and the needle that stops you snapping one at the side seam.
Guides & Fixes · Threading
How to thread a sewing machine
The threading order, and the two steps beginners skip that cause almost every tension problem.
Guides & Fixes · Your first seam
How to use a sewing machine for the first time
Setup to finished seam in about an hour, plus the four stitches that cover a first year of sewing.
Guides & Fixes · Garment sewing
Learning to sew your own clothes
The order to learn in, the four forgiving first garments, and the machine features garment sewing actually needs.
Compare · Machine type
Mechanical or computerized for a first sewing machine?
What a computerized machine really buys you, and why the answer is mostly presser feet rather than electronics.
Guides & Fixes · Presser feet
Presser feet explained
What every foot in the box actually does, and the two worth buying when yours did not include them.
Compare · Quilting vs regular
Quilting machine or regular sewing machine?
Four features make a machine a quilting machine, and three of them can be bought as accessories.
Guides & Fixes · Quilting supplies
Quilting supplies for beginners
The cutting kit, the two machine accessories and the notions a first quilt needs — and what can wait.
Guides & Fixes · Sewing knits
Sewing knit fabrics without a serger
Ball point needle, a stitch with give, and a walking foot — the three fixes for knits on an ordinary machine.
Guides & Fixes · Maintenance
Sewing machine maintenance
The lint routine, the needle rule, and the two popular habits that do more harm than good.
Guides & Fixes · Needles
Sewing machine needles explained
What the two numbers mean, which needle each fabric wants, and the eight-hour rule for changing them.
Guides & Fixes · Troubleshooting
Sewing machine problems and how to fix them
Five faults, their real causes, and the sequence to check in — starting with the two that fix most of them.
Compare · Machine vs serger
Sewing machine vs serger: which do you actually need?
What each machine physically does, and why an overcasting foot on a sewing machine does most of a serger's useful work.
Machine Reviews · Best for thick fabric
SINGER Heavy Duty 4423 review: a denim machine that happens to sew everything else
Metal frame, 1,100 stitches a minute and adjustable presser foot pressure — the machine for denim, canvas and layers.
Machine Reviews · Lightest machine here
SINGER M1500 review: six stitches, not fifty-seven
10 lb, pre-threaded out of the box, and six built-in stitches behind a headline that says fifty-seven.
Best Picks · Best needles
The best sewing machine needles for a beginner
Six needle types with SCHMETZ's published sizes and uses, and a straight answer about which two you need first.
Best Picks · Best overall
The best sewing machines for beginners
Six machines ranked on threading, bobbin, buttonhole and included feet — with the one we say not to buy first.
Best Picks · Best for clothes
The best sewing machines for making clothes
Buttonhole styles, an overcasting foot and a blind hem foot — the three published specs that decide garment sewing.
Best Picks · Best for quilting
The best sewing machines for quilting beginners
The three specifications that decide quilting, and the two machines plus three accessories that satisfy them.
Best Picks · Best entry tier
The best sewing machines under $200
The entry tier, ranked on what the band structurally buys — and the one machine to think twice about.
Best Picks · Best under $500
The best sewing machines under $500
Every machine we cover fits this budget, so the ranking is about what you want to make rather than what you can afford.
Best Picks · Best starter kit
The sewing machine starter kit, built from what your machine did not include
Built backwards from the carton contents the manufacturers publish, so you buy the gaps rather than duplicates.
Guides & Fixes · Thread
Thread for beginners
Buy all-purpose polyester in three colors, understand why cheap thread shreds, and match thread weight to needle groove.
Guides & Fixes · Walking foot
What a walking foot actually does
The one-sentence explanation, the four jobs it fixes, and which machines include one in the box.
Guides & Fixes · The cost guide
What it actually costs to start sewing
The signature guide: machine plus kit equals total, at three budgets, with your carton contents subtracted first.
Guides & Fixes · The decision guide
What sewing machine should I buy?
Four questions in the order that narrows the field, and the three specifications to check before you order.
Guides & Fixes · The checklist
What you actually need to start sewing
Must-have, can-wait and skip — with the items your machine already includes removed from the list.
Guides & Fixes · First quilt
Your first quilt project
A baby or lap quilt in squares — the size a domestic machine can actually handle, and the seam that decides it.