Support group for novice sewists

I went through a whole cycle of working out whether or not I needed an overlocker, because I was having such trouble sewing knits on a regular machine... but I found several things that helped, which were mainly a) if the machine is skipping stitches, try one needle further up along the continuum of standard -> ballpoint -> stretch and b) if you're getting over-stretched / frilly seams, or mismatched top and bottom pieces because one's stretching more than the other, get a walking foot. And, c) your machine may have several stretch stitches (lightning stitch and three-step zig-zag as well as normal zig-zag) and it's worth experimenting to find out what they do...