How to Sew in Bed
Many years ago, when I was a fashion student, I tried sewing in bed. It was winter, my bedroom was cold, and I had some handsewing to do to finish off an assignment for class. So I sat up in bed and sewed. All was fine and I got it finished. But you can probably guess what happened. That night as I was lying in bed, I rolled over onto some pins which had slipped out without me noticing. I never sewed in bed again.
Until now. With long covid, I spend a lot of time lying in bed, and I also try to conserve energy wherever possible – either sitting or lying down to do things. Lying down is preferable, so with this in mind I’ve given sewing in bed another try, but this time I’m a lot wiser.
Here’s my four best tips.
1. Don’t use pins
The stakes are much higher now, as I share a bed with a man who’s a veritable pin magnet and I don’t want to upset him.
If you do use pins, limit it to only two pins so you can keep track of them. Just move them along as you sew each section.
Other alternatives (depending on the situation) are basting and pressing, if you have the energy to do them beforehand.
2. Remember to stretch!
It’s easy to get so involved in the project that you forget to move, but you still need to take breaks and stretch just like any time you sew. Also, your lying down-posture uses muscles you don’t normally use for sewing, so they get tireder quicker.
3. Adjust the lighting, if you need to
Is the light coming through the window good enough to sew by? It sometimes depends on where the bed is positioned and which hand you sew with. If not, I tend to use the bedside light rather than the room’s main light, as it’s closer and a softer light.
If the fabric is dark it’s harder. Once I put an anglepoise lamp next to the bed to sew dark fabric, but for short sections sometimes a headtorch is OK.
4. Take a small sewing kit
Just take what you need to sew with. I use a pocket cut off the back of some jeans with a needle, thread, snips and thimble. The more items you have to keep track of, the easier it is to loose them in the covers.
Cheers!
Hi Liz
I became a chronic pain patient nearly 2 years ago. Most of the past 2 years have been spent on my back on the sofa. I can manage some knitting, but sewing has been harder. I may be able to utilize some of your ideas.
I’d been improving enough to go for short walks & stand long enough to wash dishes. Last weekend I tweaked my injured nerve & have really backtracked.
Thanks for your ideas. And for your patterns. Best wishes to you & your family.
Deb
Oh Deb, I feel for you. Invisible illnesses are tough, but chronic pain is very tough indeed, and not fully comprehended by anyone who hasn’t lived with it.
I now do all hand sewing lying down, and sometimes even sew things by hand that I’d do by machine, simply because I can lie down at the same time. Louisa Owen Sonstroem‘s book Hand Sewing Clothing was really helpful for getting myself organised to hand sew things, and also to validate it (I know that sounds odd, like I needed permission or something, but it was just good to read about someone else doing it).
Sending you very best wishes.
Hello Liz!
Thank you for your useful text. I have never tried sewing in bed and now I know what to look out for if I try! About keeping track of pins: I use them sparingly because one of my cats Dusty likes chewing on them (her sister is thankfully completely uninterested). So I use 12 quilters pins because they are big and have a coloured plastic „head“ which is easy to see (and easy to handle). I keep 4 different coloured sets of three on a pin cushion on my wrist: This helps me to know where everybody is. Inadvertently one goes missing but it‘s easier to find when I know what to look for: sometimes Dusty helps me to look for it too…I baste if I need more pins or if I need to press, since they melt in the heat. Here‘s to handsewing! cheers!
You’re welcome, and I hope you never need to do it in life. Thank you for sharing your pin system – very logical to colour code so you know what to look for. Cats and pins would be a very bad combination.
I like the idea of using the jeans pocket for a sewing kit. It looks like you have safety pinned it to your leg. That’s a good idea!
I like making sewing kits out of shallow jars or old ointment containers. The ones I have are the perfect size for a pin cushion. I can also put a thimble and my pair of mini folding scissors in the container. The lid keeps everything safe from the cats too. I use a second container for my thread.
Thanks Liz!
The jeans pockets (I have two) have been great and used lots. I originally made them when my children did swimming lessons and I took mending to do while I waited (“Yes darling, I AM watching”!). The safety pin was just randomly there, but now you mention it it would be a good idea to pin it to something – thank you for the thought. Your jar sewing kits sound way better around the cats.
I thought you were going to say that you had sewed your new clothing to your duvet cover or your nightdress! I’ve often sewn a hem onto my frock or trousers. ‘Count the pins’ reminds me of operations – surgeons have to count the scissors, clamps etc in – and out.
Haha! I have yet to do that!
Yes, ‘count the pins’ is exactly like you describe – what goes on the bed has to come off the bed, and there’s a big panic if something can’t be found.
hi yes i was going to say the same thing, that having an amount of pins you can count reminds me of the operating room — which is a language i understand 🙂 i think sewing and, well sewing bodies have a lot in common and those of us who can think in one of these situations can learn to apply those strategies to the other.
i think having exactly two pins is something i could PROBABLY keep track of enough to not accidentally stab my bedmate. let’s see if they’re willing to take the risk of trying this out…
i also love this denim pocket! i’m always wondering what clever thing to do with the pockets of jeans when i’m cutting them up for scrap (the ones that are too worn in critical places to mend, of course). this is a good idea! also pinning it to your clothes reminds me of the way bernadette banner showed of pinning your hand-stitching to a tailor’s ham, and then bracing the ham with your feet (the feet part might be my addition) or louisa owen sonstrom’s way of pinning your work to your pants/trousers if you’re sewing outside (and i see you referenced her book in a comment above).
isn’t it fun that there’s SEW MUCH TO LEARN ALL THE TIME?
i also like to have a magnet so if i do lose track of a pin, i can find it; i have a long metal stick that i put a magnet on the end of, to sweep the floor without having to bend down.
and like someone said below– the clips are helpful and less stabby, but also harder to find with a magnet if you lose them (and still not comfortable to roll over) so, pick your poison. i pick both 🙂
also absolutely important to have handwork in order to not bite people, as someone below said as well..
Like Janie, I was waiting for the cover sewn to your project, as just like her, I’m an expert in sewing odd things to my projects (even with me sewing machine, my sewing table being also my desk and the place-where-all-the-mess-from-the-livingroom-accumulates) 😀
I luckily don’t need to sew in bed but I sew a lot on the go and at big work meetings (it prevents me to bite people when they’re saying too much nonsense). My latest founding is that beading on the go isn’t recommended. And that measuring tape with a snap at the end to secure it closed is a great invention.
And thanks for the stretching reminder, I’m going to follow it right away!
I’m sure at some point the covers will be sewn to the project – it’s inevitable, isn’t it?
Thank you for the beading tip:)
I think clips, I believe they work like small plastic clothespins, would be safer to use in bed than pins. Of course, the needle & thread can still sew the sheets/ pajamas.
Brilliant, Deb. I didn’t think about clips. I don’t have any but lots of people use them. Hmmm…
I have some if I could find them . . . When you’ve been lying on your back for 2 years, chaos reigns at home.
Would be a good request for a birthday or Christmas.
Yes, good idea “the perfect stocking stuffer”.
My home is in similar disarray to yours.