Sewing

I find myself doing increasing amounts of sewing these days. This is partly because all of my clothes are starting to fall apart and I hate clothes-shopping: I can only do it if I kid myself that I'm buying a souvenir (which explains all of the T-shirts) or hiking gear or something. Actually, I've noticed a lot of people wearing patched, tattered combat trousers recently, only I'm pretty certain that they were bought pre-patched. This suggests that the "style" I'd adopted anyway for reasons of my own is in some way fashionable, which is an uncomfortable thought.

Anyway, I learned to sew in Primary 4, which was rather a while ago now, and I haven't done very much in the meantime. Consequently, my stitching is rather wonky, it takes ages, and I'm not very clear on which stitches are available to me and how I'm meant to choose. Can any of you (*looks at stronglight in particular*) recommend me some good learning-to-sew type references? Books, for preference.

Also, I seem to spend an inordinate time tying stopper knots. Any suggestions for a good, quick one that won't just pull through?

Update: Oh dear. I appear to have bought a sewing machine on eBay. Ah well, it wasn't much money... and the sewing reference would still be very useful.