Sewing supplies shopping!

When you plans your meals, it's often not just about the evening diner or a few days ahead, but you also need the basics. Butter, eggs, sugar, toilet paper and garbage bags....  These are the 'things' you don't want to miss at home. The necessary basics of the kitchen or a house holding. It is quite similarly with sewing; you need the 'basics' as well, as the beautiful fabrics.

Cheap or expensive?
You are working on a sewing project and suddenly you notice that you do not have interfacing in stock. Now you cannot reinforce the front pieces or the collar and you can not go on with your sewing project. Running to the stores (if these are nearby...) or even ordering online quickly often costs more money (and time).  If you already bought this interfacing with your previous order, you would not have to stop the sewing project...

Alternatives are not always the solution
Then reinforce the collar with a scrap of fabric? Sometimes it works, but not always. Or use a different color thread that does not match the fabric but seems acceptable? Fine, but you might regret it later and think: "Oh damn, I should have had a thread that is matching the fabric..."

Tips & Tricks
The tip for every seamstress: make sure you always have the basics at home, or better said: in your studio or sewing studio. Check your stock regularly and supplement it if necessary. Or add it when you spot a great offer somewhere. After all, there are enough basic necessities that you almost always need. It is better not to pass an advantageous offer, because we said it already: if you need it, a quick purchase is often twice as expensive.

But what are those basic necessities?
We have made a list for you. Bring it with you when you go to a fabric store, the market or a fabric fair. The same goes of course for online fabric stores, sewing machine stores and haberdashery stores. Also keep an eye on the offers there.

Threads (make sure you always have black, white and beige in stock)

Vlieseline and interfacing (in anthracite and white)

Pattern paper (normal paper doesn't work, neither does toilet paper ...)

Buttons, snaps, eyelets and hooks (really you can't have enough of those!)

Sewing machine needles (the latter always breaks off on a Sunday if you've just planned a 'sewing day'). Also make sure you have a stock of jeans needles, stretch needles and assortment.

Sewing machine lights (always handy to have one in stock!)

Tape measures and scissors! (You can't have enough of that either, because there are often roommates who borrow them 'temporarily' or they disappear without a trace in another dimension ... Clothes hangers (order in the chaos!)

Lining fabrics (elastic and non-elastic. Have a few yards of each in stock in easy basic colors like beige, off-white or a dark color)

Last but not least: buy sewing machine accessories: extra sewing machine feet, bobbins, a sewing machine bag, etc. These always come in handy and you need more often than you think!

Also read:

Tips & Tricks: start your own haberdashery collection!