I couldn't think of how to properly title this, so this is just yoinked from some book I had favorited in the Internet Archive.
I won't lie, my first taste of sewing probably came from watching cosplay videos and tutorials back when youtube was a baby. And most of them were homestuck and sailor moon cosplays. I was a Very Normal middle school student. But I also ended up falling in love with sewing due to a specific youtube channel: Prior Attire I watched her when her channel was basically nothing like as it is now: She never spoke, and her videos were way shorter, and the majority of them were small clips that I think she just uploaded to clear out camera space really. But I LOVED them all. Specifically, her video of "Busting Corset Myths" included a clip of her riding, in a corset, on a horse, side-saddle. That clip is the reason I decided to pick up riding again, and it got me a job, and anyways all of this is to say that her videos, and I guess by extension her, hold a very special place in my heart, and so it feels wrong to start off this page with anything other than an ode to her.
Anyways with that cringe out of the way, I prefer hand-sewing. I will sew by machine, particularly if I'm doing a muslin/mockup/anything similarly cheap, but it isn't exactly my preference. It's probably because my sewing machine is garbage, and I don't really know what kinds of thread you can put in a sewing machine? But that is beside the point!!!!
I also like to sew old shit. I only have patterns that I picked up for a quarter a piece at flea markets, garage sales, and antique stores. I have only drafted patterns for historical costuming pieces. So if you're looking for me to talk about t-shirts or something..... oh my god i would never
If you try to learn how to sew by hand via the internet, you will probably be blown away by all the different names of stitches you'll see, and perhaps wind up thinking that to be good at hand-sewing is to have just a library of different stitches muscle-memorised, and magically knowing exactly when to or not to use each one.
You will probably end up like that because learning how to sew by hand via the internet is stupid.
Or at least, that was my experience. In my mind, there are really only three or four kinds of hand stitches, and it's really difficult to explain in nothing but text (which is why you should just play around with some thread and try!) but I'll try. The main stitches, to me, are a Running Stitch, Back Stitch, Ladder Stitch, and Blanket Stitch.
Running Stitch
The Running Stitch is basically a basting stitch, ladder stitch, and gathering stitch. You have one thread and you weave part of it over one piece of cloth, pierce through the other, weave part of the thread over the other piece of cloth, pierce through, repeat. If you're using a running stitch as anything truly functional, don't, but also try to make the "weave" parts (where your thread is just laying over the fabric) as short as possible, because they provide basically no strength. A Basting Stitch is a really weak running stitch (i.e. The "weave" parts are really, really, really long, and you only pierce through as often as you need to at the bare minimum.) and it is only used really as an alternative to pinning. A Ladder Stitch is a running stitch on its side - your thread and needle are basically moving in the exact same way as a Running Stitch, but visually you only see the pierce-throughs. Since those are usually hidden, as you move along your ladder stitch and pull the thread taut, the stitches that you can see (the pierce-throughs) will "magically" disappear. This is typically used for finishing up seams that will be visible from the outside, like the part of a pillow that you sew shut after stuffing it full. A Gathering Stitch is just a basting stitch but you pull the thread taut so the fabric gathers. Rocket science up in here.
Back Stitch
The Back Stitch is a bit tricky to describe, but basically, pretend you are looking at the pretty side of your finished garment or whatever you're sewing. With a back stitch, you will pierce through your fabric, "weave" underneath it, pierce through to the top of the pretty side, and "weave" BACK to where you just pierced-through on the pretty side. It's like a running stitch but you keep going back to cover up the holes. A Back Stitch looks different on both sides unlike the Running Stitch. What I just described to you is called the Back Stitch - the underside, or uglier side, is called the Reverse Back Stitch. There is also a "stitch" called a Running-Back Stitch which shouldn't even count because it's literally just a running stitch interspersed with back stitches as needed, it isn't A stitch it's a haphazard amalgamation of two in one seam.
Blanket Stitch
Whereas the Back Stitch and Running Stitch both involve the "middles" of one or more pieces of fabric, the Blanket Stitch involves the raw edge of a piece of fabric. The Blanket Stitch was difficult for me to wrap my head around from videos, drawings, and visuals alone - I feel like you really have to just try it out to get the hang of it. Basically, you pierce through a few centimeters from the raw edge of your fabric, and weave your thread straight towards the raw edge. You go over to the other side of the fabric, and pierce through again, basically repeating exactly what you just did, but before you pull your thread taut to finish your last stitch, you take the "loop" formed past the fabric's raw edge, and slip the point of your needle through it. Then, when you pull, instead of having an ugly side-ways stitch going over the fabric's edge, you will have 2 lines of thread on either side of the fabric laying flat across it, perpendicular to the edge, and a single line of thread (the "loop") laying flat agains the raw edge, holding both of the other lines perpendicular. It sounds confusing but it is really quite simple! This is the same exact process as for a Buttonhole Stitch - Blanket Stitches are more often widely-spaced, while Buttonhole Stitches are typically packed together like sardines (or like a Satin Stitch in Embroidery - SEE IT IS ALL CONNECTED) because they undergo more wear.
Ladder Stitch
bUt YoU jUsT sAiD a LaDdEr sTiTcH iS a RuNnIng sTiTcH YES WELL IT IS ALSO ONE OF THOSE STITCHES WHEREIN YOU JUST KINDA WEAVE YOUR NEEDLE AROUND AS NEEDED SO I'M USING IT AS A CATCH-ALL TERM HERE
There are lots of other stitches I have yet to name: A Felling Stitch, an Overcast Stitch, a Hemming Stitch, a Padding Stitch, and a Slip Stitch, among many other names that are ones I've already discussed. A Slip Stitch is basically a Ladder Stitch. You may look up tutorials and see that slip stitches are more spread apart, or shorter, or usually for hems instead of pillowcases, but ultimately their only difference is really just semantics. With a Slip/Ladder Stitch, you aim to hide your thread as much as possible, so you pierce through often and make tiny "weaves" - at least on the visible part of the fabric. A Felling Stitch is basically the same thing, in the same way, but you pierce through and weave as you need to in order to create all slanted stitches on one side of the fabric, and all parallel straight stitches on the other side. Some people don't even do this slant/straight thing, which is totally fine because functionally you're still just doing the same Slip/Ladder/Running Stitch. An Overcast Stitch is another Running Stitch but instead of piercing through on the front side of your fabric, then the back, then the front - you always pierce through on the front, and you weave your thread over the side of whatever you're sewing, casting over it. A Hemming Stitch is basically no different from an Overcast Stitch, you just aim to make your thread more invisible by sewing closer to the edge you're casting over, and hiding your thread as much as possible. Alternatively, I've seen the thing I described as a Slip Stitch and Ladder Stitch called a Hemming Stitch. Everything is the same. A Padding Stitch is a Running Stitch done at kind of that straight/slant angle like with the Felling Stitch - its only purpose really is to baste together thicker pieces of fabric, usually like in a suit for tailoring, so have at it.
Extant garments can be best found through estate sales, antique stores, and museum collections. So don't forget to peruse The Museum!
You can also find relevant reading material in The Library.
Lots of sites also host a great deal of patterns, which is why I put them into their own separate page.
