Sewing

Before you begin sewing you could do with a sewing machine. All DIYcouture clothing can be made using only straight and zig-zag stitch, the most basic settings on a machine, so you don't need a fancy machine with a lot of stitches. Zigzaggers reviews second hand sewing machines and will help you get an idea of what to look for in a machine. Its sister site, New Zigzaggers reviews new machines.

If you are new to sewing and need advice on how to set up and use your machine, StartSewing is a brilliant website with video tutorials and helpful visual advice, including a clip that demonstrates how to thread your machine. Threadbanger also has a thorough video showing you how to thread your machine and wind your bobbin. There is a mesmerising animation at Crafty Daisies demonstrating how your thread and bobbin thread loop together to make stitches.

There are sewing centres popping up all over Britain, offering classes and support to the beginner. We are almost spoiled for choice in London. In the South we have the elegant Papered Parlourin Clapham and the creative, welcoming all round super Oh Sew Brixton! in.... Brixton. In Hackney we have the brilliant Fabrications on Broadway market and The Thrifty Stitcher in Stoke Newington. In Islington we have The Make Lounge who run workshops on all sorts of crafty things as well as sewing.

Looking outside London there is The Makery in central Bath, with its finger on the DIY pulse, running workshops and making parties. In Brighton, Just Sew are not only good at punning but at helping humans of any age take to their sewing machines like seagulls to the sky.

Forums

There are a few forums that provide support for the 21st century seamster. At The Sewing Forum there are hundreds of kind and reliable sewers on hand to virtually assist you with any problems you might have. Threadbanger is an American mega project that makes regular videos on how to rip-up, re-do, adjust and make clothing. They are a super bunch - knowledgeable, practical and funny - and their forums are full of DIY sewers offering encouragement and support.

DIYscene is another crafty American forum with people posting help, advice and pictures of their projects. It has a sewing section.

Not actually a forum, but a place for sharing and finding out nevertheless, UK DIY is based in north west England but is busy keeping in touch with all things makey across the UK. East London Craft Guerilla also has its finger stuck right in the home-made neo-craft pie, bringing free form craft to the novice and hosting all sorts of crafty events.

Fabric

Buying fabric online is a bit tricky as there is nothing quite like feeling it with your fingers, and it's also nice to get to know your local fabric merchant. However, there are a few sites worth mentioning. If you do like shopping the lazy way, The Fabric List is a site that lists - it seems - all shops on the internet from whom you can buy fabric. At Spoonflower you can design your own fabric. Send them your designs, and they will print them up using eco-friendly print processes.

The Spinsters Emporium, Quail By Mail, and Gossypium all sell Fairtrade fabric, which is also fairly hard to find in most fabric shops. Mathias Versand sells an interesting selection of Fairtrade fabric. The website is in German but you can email them and they will assist you through the ordering process in English : )

Fashion

When you're making clothes, looking at clothes can help you have ideas. LOOKBOOK.nu is a site where people from all round the world post pictures of themselves, wearing clothes. It sounds boring, but it's not.

There are a lot of bloggers out there writing about clothes and feeding, like stylish vultures, on the sparkling carcass of fashion. Susie Bubble is into clothes and has the fashion world at her fingertips. She posts pictures of stuff she likes from catwalks, films and her own back yard at Style Bubble.

If you're sick of it all and just want a giggle, get involved in some couture calculations at Fashematics.com

Fairtrade and ethics

Let's Clean Up Fashion reviews high street fashion outlets in the UK re workers rights, grading each company's position on paying workers a living wages. Know More is something similar - a huge database of information on all sorts of companies, aiming to help people become aware of the processes and practice behind what they are buying.

Labour Behind The Label is a campaigning organisation that raises awareness of working conditions in the global garment industry.

The Environmental Justice Foundation aims to empower people who suffer from environmental destruction to find peaceful solutions. They have a team based in London making films, including an informative film about cotton pickers in Uzbekistan who are often children forced to work in the fields by their teachers.

Small press and publishing

There are a number of groups and events in London and the UK that support small press, self-publishers and zine makers. The London Zine Symposium happens once a year and is a mega-fest of DIY publications. It will be held in the Rag Factory of Brick Lane on Sunday May 3rd in 2010. There will also be workshops. Brighton Zinefest is another big fair for all those books handmade with loving fingers. It will be held over four days in February 2010. There's a Manchester Zinefest too but the website is not kept up to date. Publish And Be Damned is a book fair that happens once a year in London in a really big building somewhere, because there are so many good self-made books : )

The London Anarchist Bookfair sells books about non-hierarchical organisation and other such radical stuff. If you can't wait to get your idle hands on some seditious literature drop in to the Freedom Bookshop any time of the year.

The Alternative Press has sprung up in 2009 and has been involved in a few fun and full zine fairs and DIY publishing events in London throughout the year. Its blog is a good source of news on all things zine-ish in the UK. For something similar in the US look up Zine World, a source of info on American DIY publishing.

If you want to learn how to make a book, you could have a look at No Media Kings, which gives you a bit of information on printing methods and how to hand stitch books.