Hello @grndkntrl and welcome.
If your budget is tight think carefully about the habby purchases. Needles and pins are consumables and you have to have them. Cutting quipment is also essential but you don't need shears and a rotary cutter to start with.
There are two schools of thought about rotary cutters - some people love them and use one for almost all cutting out, others much prefer the conventional shears (or scissors).
I am in the shearrs/scissors camp. For cutting out garment pieces I always use shears - and I flinch when I see contestants on GBSB using rotary cutters and fear for their fingers especially when they are cutting towards themselves! I also think that scissors are more accurate when cutting out small fiddly pieces. I do use a rotary cutter but only with an acrylic ruler when cutting strips and squares for patchwork. I am also one who pins pattern pieces to the fabric rather than hoping that weights and gravity will keep the pattern pieces where they need to be.
Luckily although my budget is tight-ish, I've not got much in the way of outgoings to worry about, no partner/kids, no pets currently (although I'm a cat person at heart), I don't smoke or drink, have no vehicle cost to worry about other than a bicycle, and I don't get out very much at all due to major social anxiety issues & long term depression for starters!
So... I have a lot of time on my hands to spread things out a fair bit. I'm also pretty shrewd about purchases & will hunt down the best prices on decent stuff so I don't end up buying thrice, crying twice! 🤣
I've used Olfa rotary cutters before, so I'm okay with using the smaller diameter (18 & 28mm) wheels to get into the tight corners & curves that the larger (45 & 60mm) ones can't. And I'll not be getting close enough to my fingers with them, touch wood! But I'll still get some decent scissors too.
I have a 3D printer so I can knock out some fancy pattern weight shells to fill with ball bearings, when the time comes to need those.
Old sheets & duvet covers give lots of fabric to practice on. Charity shops are a good hunting ground also. Some on here have dropped lucky on their purchases from them, me not so much.
Yep, I'll be hitting up the local charity shops in the next week to have a gander at what stuff they have in that regard. My part of North London can be a bit hit & miss in the sort of stuff in them though, but we'll see.
Welcome, we loves newbies, they taste like chicken
As others have said, don't rush into buying ALL THE THINGS! because often you can make do with bits and bobs, until your skills get to the point where the tool becomes necessary. I agree about rotary cutters. They are great with a straight edge for cutting straight lines, but I am not fond of them on curves, and its too easy to overextend, and cause your fabric to shift, or slice into the pattern, or your hand.
So, I have a few "must do" rules
1. Never put pins in your mouth
2. Pressing seams is far more effective than you would think
3. Only sew when tired, if you want to build up your unpicking skills.
Your local charity shop can be a cost effective source of fabric, patterns, and habby ..... give yourself time to uncover the gems. I am looking forward to seeing your future projects.
Haha, I'm not sure I would have a chicken flavour from what I usually eat!
1. I wouldn't trust myself with pins in my mouth, so that's not something I'd ever entertain anyway!
2. Yep, I've got a decent iron (a Bosch or Philips I think) from years back when I use to have to iron my work shirts.... and one of those mini ironing boards for the sleeves and what not.
3. Haha, well I probably do need the practice!
Even though I mainly intend to make household textiles & clothes for myself, I have thought about picking up some of the unwanted mens & womens middle- & outerwear from charity shops, just so I can pick them apart to look at their construction, and then reuse the fabric to either practice sewing on, or else repurpose into my own Franken-garments.
I've just today received the 2 assortment boxes of 48x Coats Moon spools that I ordered on Saturday so can start filling up some bobbins for the Brother FS40s!