Sarah's Simple Sewing Secrets.

OK, I know it's taken me a couple weeks to get this up, sorry about that. This week we're going to sew our pillow.

Start by choosing a needle that is large enough to hold comfortably with a sharp point (as opposed to blunt). Cut off an arm's length of thread (the sewer's arm). Thread your needle *how to video here* (written instructions here)

Next you're going to pull the thread through the needle till you can hold both ends of the thread together side by side.

Tie a knot. I show in the video how to tie what I know as the quilter's knot. I will add that it's hard to see in the video, but hold your thread with the ends pointing to your wrist and your needle with it's eye pointing to your wrist. There are many ways to tie a knot in thread and this is the easiest by far that I've ever tried. If you pull the needle through and end up wihtout a knot then you didn't hold the thread, otherwise, no matter what you'll have a knot. Remember that it doesn't have to be pretty, just big enough it won't pull through the fabric easily.

Holding both ends of the thread and wrapping both strands around your needle at the same time will ultimately mean that your needle is looped on your thread and can not come off without cutting the thread. I did this for two reasons. A) if you accidentally drop your needle it won't get lost on the floor as it will stay attached to your project. B) having 2 strands of thread instead of one will make the stitches stronger and your thread less likely to break later and spew stuffing out of your pillow. (remember, I always make things to be used).

When you sew try to keep your stitches as even as possible and on the smaller side. Don't expect to be able to make tiny stitches. A lot depends on the size of the needle, I think you can see in the video that I'm using a rather huge needle and my stitches are consequently large (not too even either..I need to work on that) Just do the best you can. Remember this is to be fun, not perfect. If you're really afraid of stuffing sticking out between stitches that are a tad over-large then leave those stitches in and sew a second line right next to the first, trying to come up and down in the middle of the stitches from the first pass. This will make the holes between stitches smaller and give you "practice" at sewing.

Remember it will all become easy over time and everyone was once a beginner!