When you’ve been sewing for as long as I have (30 years!), it can be hard to discover the gaps in your own knowledge. You have your own routes to the places you need to go, and time doesn’t always (or even usually) permit the kind of aimless wandering that leads you to new discoveries.
So when I was offered a review copy of Super Stitches Sewing
I wasn’t really wrong … I was just thinking too small. Super Stitches Sewing
When I first started sewing, I used a machine that had a straight stitch and a zig-zag, and a buttonhole stitch that could charitably be described as “cantankerous”. My second machine was at about the same level of sophistication (albeit with a buttonhole stitch that could be described as “temperamental”). My third machine was a 1950s throwback (with cams that, while cool, I never really bothered to learn to use). So when I moved up to a brand-new machine that added a blind hem stitch to my repertoire, I patted myself on the back for joining the modern age. “Whoo-hoo, now we’re cooking with gas!” I believe I said.
As it turns, out there is SO much more I could be doing with the stitches on my machine (even leaving aside the alphabet-embroidery stuff that I’ve used exactly once). Machine darning! Sewing on buttons by machine! Shell stitching for scalloped piping! And pages and pages of stitches that might just be the key to me finally starting to sew with knits.
And I haven’t even mentioned the hand-sewing section yet … which even includes pad-stitching instructions for those of you interested in classic tailoring techniques.
So: in short, Super Stitches Sewing
A Dress A Day 
You’ve convinced me to put this book into my Amazon Wish List. I’ve been sewing for several decades (longer than the author) & agree that I’ve been behind on using other stitches or features of my machines that I should have been using all along. I think I pick up this book just to be sure that I can tell others I run into about all the cool stuff that even basic machines can do but we forget that those features are there. (because we don’t use them all the time)
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I loved this book too, found it very helpful, particularly regarding good stitches for knits, and learned so much I did not know before. Comprehensive and excellent!
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