In the year and a half that I’ve been sewing, I’ve made dozens of clothes, including colorful shirt-and-short sets, high-waisted pleated pants, and patchwork hoodies.
And while everything with sewing takes longer than you think it should, the speed at which I’ve been able to churn out garments accelerated once I discovered a little yet mighty tool called a magnetic seam guide. It acts like a metal bumper for your fabric as you’re running it through the sewing machine, keeping your stitches straight and at an even distance from the edge of your fabric.
I’m not Cinderella, and I don’t have a bunch of very talented mice friends to help me out, but this tiny $4 doodad is the next best thing.
Staff pick
This seam guide magnetizes to the throat plate of your sewing machine to create even seam widths while you’re sewing.
I first stumbled upon this handy gadget via one of the many sewing accounts I follow on Instagram, and I was curious to see how well it actually worked. While some sewing machines come with a seam guide (including our upgrade pick, the Singer Quantum Stylist 9960), mine didn’t. So I decided to try three different inexpensive seam guides (one was about $2).
There are many more on the market that I didn’t comparatively test, but of the ones I tried, the Madam Sew version had the strongest magnet. Also, compared with other models I tested, this one is less bulky, which makes sewing curves easier. I’ve thanked the sewing gods ever since.
I wish I’d known about it sooner—it’s done more to level up my skills than any other tool I’ve tried. Gone are the days of wonky stitches, the kind that looked like I’d had a few drinks before sitting down to sew.
I’m a perfectionist, and I loathe reaching for my seam ripper to tear out said stitches. And I feel confident that the magnetic seam guide has saved me from hours of tedious work (and cursing under my breath).
Since I began sewing, I’ve been using a basic hand-me-down Singer sewing machine. It gets the job done, but the seam guide makes my mediocre machine easier to use (I’m currently saving up for an upgrade).
