Do you want a fast and easy way to turn hems up evenly? Or casings for skirts or pants? Templates! Using a gridded ruler, old (or new) manila file folders, draw straight lines to create tagboard templates in dimensions you use frequently. Time to iron your hem turnback? Turn the fabric over your uh-mazing template, and…
Tips
Quick Tip Tuesday: How to Align Coverstitching
It drives you nuts when you hem a garment “in the round” on your coverstitch machine, and the last few stitches stitches don’t line up perfectly with the beginning stitches, huh? Me too! I was hemming a bunch of items the other day, and decided to try marking one of the stitching lines so I…
Quick Tip Tuesday: Save your Settings
One of my students was working on a pair of jeans last week—a new-to-her type of sewing project. After running a few topstitching samples to determine the stitch length she liked best, she used her phone to snap a quick pix of the stitch length and tension setting. Brilliant! This is my machine with just…
Quick Tip Tuesday: Refashioning Garments
Sometimes modifying a garment that is already in your closet can move it from the almost-never-worn status to a frequent-favorite. This was my first dress of 2014. I LOVE the fabric (purchased at District Fabric in Seattle), but I originally made View C/D with the wrap ties. I should have known better. Fussy hoo-haws on clothing is…
Quick Tip Tuesday: Reverse back stitch
Sometimes trying to get a smooth backstitch on soft fabric, or in a place where you have a bulky seam join can be a little tricky. Have you ever tried a “reverse” backstitch? Start by stitching toward the beginning of your seam; this means the fabric is behind the presser foot and the raw edge of…
Quick Tip Tuesday: Mark Pattern Notches FAST
I do not have to sew and do EVERYTHING in my life at top speed, but I am really not into wasting time performing necessary tasks in an inefficient manner. Take pattern notches, for example. Why in the name of Sam Hill would anyone spend time actually completely cutting the triangular shaped notch in their fabric? Can you…