1. Skip pinning: I "finger pin" (hold pieces in place with my hands) for almost everything I sew, especially for straight edges or short seams, like the side seams on kids' pants or hems. Really unless a seam is long or curved (like a sleeve/armhole seam) or I'm attaching a gathered skirt to a dress, I don't use pins. For cutting out patterns I use a rotary cutter (see #5) so I don't pin when I cut my fabric either.
2. Pump up the stitch length: Did you ever think about the fact that your machine goes slower the smaller the stitches are? So unless I need a really strong seam, I often turn my stitch length on my machine from a 2.5 up to a 3 or 3.5 so that my machine gallops across that project lickety quick. I don't go much higher than that though because a 4 on my machine is getting near to basting stitch length and doesn't hold as well, even when backstitched at the beginning and end. If you try this and notice the seam is gathering a little bit, your stitch length is probably too long though, so don't overdo it.
3. Ten stitches forward, three stitches back: I use this technique for sewing seams on children's garments that really need to be strong, like the inseams on children's pants. What I do is sew ten stitches forward, then push in the reverse button for a few stitches, and then continue ten stitches forward, three back, ten forward, etc, until the seam is finished. How is this a time saver, you ask? The seams on my kids' pants seem to be the seams I repair more often than any others because they get strained by even normal wear. If I use this technique when I make them I can bet I won't have to put that garment under the sewing machine ever again. And there's pretty much nothing I hate more than mending; it just seems like such a waste of good sewing time.
4. Sew buttons on with embroidery floss: Instead of threading a needle with regular cotton thread, I use at least three strands (usually more) of embroidery floss for attaching my buttons. The extra-thick strand allows me to make just one or two passes through each hole in the button, instead of multiple times when I use regular thread. As long as the knot you tie is nice and strong (anyone remember the "square knot" from summer camp?), the thick thread will hold nicely even if you only threaded it through the button twice.
5. Rotary Cutter and Mat: This may seem obvious to some but I've been amazed by how many people think the rotary cutter/ruler/mat combination is just for quilters. I was taught to cut out garments by meticulously pinning tissue patterns to fabric and then cutting with scissors. Needless to say this takes a long time. Now not only have I dispensed with the pinning, I have now also dispensed with the scissors (I use my extra scissors and rulers as "pattern weights," placing them along the edges of the pattern). I use a rotary cutter to cut out almost everything. Not only is it handy for producing nice long straight edges, it makes cutting out curved edges on clothing nice and quick too!
6. Single-line gathering: It's traditionally taught that when an edge needs to be gathered, the best way to go about it is to sew two or more lines of basting (long) stitches next to eachother and pull the two threads on one side together to gather the edge up. While I do recommend this for gathering large things like the ruffle on a curtain or an adult skirt, I've found that for shorter edges or garments such as a gathered puff sleeve or a a baby's skirt that a single line of stitching works just fine. It's helpful to set the tension on your machine either very high or very low; that will produce a thread on one side of the fabric that is quite loose (pull on the tighter thread for an easy gather).
7. Skip the special feet: I find that for sewing zippers and piping, my regular presser foot works just fine. In fact, I find that a zipper foot gives me less control and therefore I usually end up with a crooked seam when I use it, so why use it when it takes extra time to dig it out and use it? For zippers, I put the needle in the left-most position (see picture above) and for piping I just center the needle over the stitching line on the piping (see picture below).
1. Pressing: Even the best-looking seam that spends a couple seconds under the iron looks 100% better afterward. I know it can be a pain to set up the ironing board or get up from your sewing table to walk over to the iron, but it makes such a huge difference!
2. Changing the needle: It's really important to do this often, probably more often than most of us think. A couple years ago I took a sewing class that came with the purchase of my sewing machine and the instructor said that her rule of thumb is to change your needle every 8 hours of sewing. I guess if I sewed all day every day that would be once a day, but for me in reality that's probably more like once every couple of weeks. And when I don't do it, my machine tells me it needs some attention in the form of thread loopiness and jams. Ick! It's worth it for me to avoid this headache, so I do!
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