Сначала сметайте шов, потом застрочите его.

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Breakdown of Сначала сметайте шов, потом застрочите его.

• потом: after that
• сначала: first
• шов: the seam

Questions & Answers about Сначала сметайте шов, потом застрочите его.

Why do both verbs end in -йте?

Because they are imperative forms: commands or instructions.

The ending -йте is used for:

• plural you: speaking to more than one person
• polite singular you: speaking formally to one person

So сметайте and застрочите mean something like baste / machine-stitch as instructions.

The informal singular forms would be:

• сметай
• застрочи

What form exactly are сметайте and застрочите?

They are perfective imperative forms.

• сметайте = imperative of сметать in the sewing sense
• застрочите = imperative of застрочить

In Russian instructions, perfective imperatives are very common when the speaker means do this action once and complete it, then move on to the next step.

That fits this sentence well:

• first complete the basting
• then complete the machine stitching

Why are perfective verbs used here instead of imperfective ones?