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Hi guys! Rather new to the DIY fashion scene. Before my last project, I mainly made stuffed animals. I still hand sew my creations, gotta learn how to use my grandma's sewing machine. This is my first foray into gear, a nerdy bag I'm making for a friend:  (It's about 13" wide and 11" long) The bag is all felt, sewn together with embroidery floss. The applique was felted on with a needle, and now all I have to do is sew on the strap and flap, which are pinned on right now. I'm a little concerned about its strength, though. I only doubled layered the bottom of the bag. I plan to double the strap, and my mom suggested that I reinforce the long sides with vertical pieces of felt. Did I make a mistake deciding to make the whole thing from felt, or is it still possible for me to make a comfortably sturdy bag?
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Aug 28, 2010 09:08
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Bump. I got a sewing machine yesterday and I've been messing with it. Sewing a straight line for 6" is still daunting. How do people sew an entire inseam? I guess it just takes practice. I'm going to try some patterns with some old sheets... I need to make a bunch of mistakes so I can find out what not to do.
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Sep 6, 2010 20:21
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very posted:Bump. I got a sewing machine yesterday and I've been messing with it. Sewing a straight line for 6" is still daunting. How do people sew an entire inseam? I guess it just takes practice. That's so exciting! What kind of sewing machine did you get?
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Sep 8, 2010 03:10
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very posted:Bump. I got a sewing machine yesterday and I've been messing with it. Sewing a straight line for 6" is still daunting. How do people sew an entire inseam? I guess it just takes practice. That's the best way to do it. When I started sewing, I nearly had a panic attack (I'm kinda high strung) just doing a 3 inch straight line. So, good on you for going to 6! But when I finally got over that, I used old sheets, curtains, anything I didn't want and could rip apart. The other thing I did was rip the seams on clothes I didn't really care about anymore and practiced sewing them back together. Now, several years later, I only exclusively make my own clothes and am regularly complimented on it. Practice practice practice! And remember, the most important part is to have fun!
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Sep 9, 2010 15:51
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amishsexpot posted:That's so exciting! It is a Janome 8050. It is pretty cool, it has lots of surprising features. Of course, I don't know what to expect from a sewing machine. Finding the thread cutter on the back was an amazing revelation. The only thing I don't like is that it is a bit small. I've moved on from sheets to muslin, and I'm iterating on a pattern for some pants which I started from some that I have. I'm more interested in the patternmaking... I really want to understand why it is difficult, if that makes sense. Also, this spray on glue that I got is the most amazing thing. I practiced doing some bias binding with it and now I won't do it any other way. It feels like cheating.
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Sep 9, 2010 16:18
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Sewing straight seams by hand? What madness is that? Try cheating with a screw-on or magnetic seam guide instead. very posted:Also, this spray on glue that I got is the most amazing thing. I practiced doing some bias binding with it and now I won't do it any other way. It feels like cheating.
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Sep 10, 2010 00:07
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gandlethorpe posted:I'm a little concerned about its strength, though. I only doubled layered the bottom of the bag. I plan to double the strap, and my mom suggested that I reinforce the long sides with vertical pieces of felt. Did I make a mistake deciding to make the whole thing from felt, or is it still possible for me to make a comfortably sturdy bag? I know you posted this a few weeks ago, but that's an awesome bag. I would think any future bags made of felt would do very well if you added a simple liner. That's what I am going to do for my crocheted bags, which are very stretchy without it.
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Sep 10, 2010 00:53
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Cross_ posted:Spray on glue on bias binding? Please elaborate. Well, a bias binding can be a bitch to pin in place, right? Especially if the edge is very curvy or if the binding is supposed to be very thin. So, I just sprayed the binding material with glue.. then I was able to fold it onto the edge and it just stuck there in place for me to sew with no pinning required. The glue that I got is just tacky enough that you can still move/reposition things.. and the tackiness seems to go away after a day or so, and then I guess it just washes out.
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Sep 10, 2010 01:07
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very posted:
Patternmaking isn't difficult itself, it just takes a little bit of math and some drawing of straight and curved lines. The hard part is doing the fitting and changing it from there, or manipulating an existing pattern. You can change a pattern 100 times before it will fit right. I think patterning is really easy, and the bigger challenge lies in draping. Anyway, I know you're just beginning, but this book is pretty comprehensive and good for people at all levels. A bit pricey, but it's worth the investment. I'd also recommend getting a book on sewing, such as this one that gives good detailed instructions on how to sew collars, pockets, hems, etc.
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Sep 10, 2010 06:48
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So I bought this book, and enjoyed it so much, I decided to take an improv quilt class. And enjoyed that so much, I made this: It was a joy from start to finish - no matching seams, no rulers, no measurements, I enjoyed the hand quilting, which I hadn't done before, and even the binding!  Love those curves.
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Sep 21, 2010 11:08
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Wow, meche, beautiful! Question about POWAH.. my bernina is fine for most tailoring jobs on a pair of jeans except when I'm doing cuffs and hit the area where its a seam double onto itself so theres who knows.. 6? 8 layers of denim? It won't always punch through. Do I just need a high power machine or should I go slow, change needle, etc?
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Sep 21, 2010 23:02
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ta! I'm by no means an expert, but I found a denim needle helped - sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs here, but I'm the kind of person who goes "what? a special needle, I think not!" and is always surprised when the proper tools actually do make things much easier. Sorry, that's the limit of my knowledge regarding denim. But am planning a denim quilt, so would be interested in any other wisdom?
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Sep 22, 2010 11:14
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Not an Anthem posted:Wow, meche, beautiful! Yeahn, a special denim needle and the machines at a jeans factory itself are made with metal gears, whereas a lot of machines now are made with plastic gearing. Be careful, because those gears can't take a lot of torque and you might end up frying your machine. Make a friend who has an old-school Husqvarna or industrial/commercial machine.
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Sep 23, 2010 23:43
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I find that when hemming jeans the best way to deal with seams was to rip out any seams I could so that I wasn't going through quadruple-plus thicknesses. That seemed to prevent the giant seam blob as well as the inevitable needle snapping. Remove as much bulk as possible and use a denim needle and go slowly. (Then again, my new favorite technique is to just buy the newly-discovered petite-short size from Levi's, so it's been a while since I've had to do this.)
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Sep 24, 2010 04:45
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Took way too long to make this vest since I messed up the interfacing and had to redo it: Action shot !  By the way, this is Simplicity Pattern collection 2741 which is a very good deal : http://sewing.patternreview.com/Patterns/23865
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Sep 24, 2010 23:15
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I'm thinking that a Halloween costume is probably going to be a really good project because it doesn't really have to be perfect. But, knowing me, I'd have to really get a jump on it. One problem is that I don't have any clue what kinds of fabrics to get. I don't know what any of these things are called. They sure as hell don't have anything like this at any local fabric stores... I don't think so, anyway. Maybe I'll take this picture to one of them and see what they think. Let's entertain the idea of the jacket and pants below. This would be a great project because these pants are actually somewhat like the pants that I'm working on. Which fabrics would you look for? Which websites would you use? I'm not at all afraid to spend money if it is going to make the project great.
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Sep 27, 2010 06:49
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Does anybody know of any sewing resources (esp. blogs) that are hand-sewing friendly? An ideal resource would be someone's collections of clothing patterns that they've explicitly sewn by hand and labeled according to difficulty. Or else a collection of patterns that they indicate which would be wise or unwise to sew by hand. For example, both of these skirts are easy, but I think something like this skirt would be hard for me to do well by hand at my beginner level, since it's more structured (and I'm not so hot at sewing in a straight line yet  ), whereas this would be easier. It would be really handy to have some sort of pre-selected collection of easily hand-sewable patterns, rather than trying to guess if I can do them well or not. Does such a thing exist? If not, are there any other good hand-sewing resources (books, blogs, etc) in general that you know about?
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Oct 4, 2010 15:45
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Are you opposed to getting a machine? You can find them used and cheap just about anywhere, probably for the price of any book. That said, this book is pretty helpful with hand sewing, as are most couture technique books, and it is relatively cheap. Has a lot of different types of useful hand stitches. If you attempted that first skirt without a machine, you'd be looking at 20+ hours of handwork with each panel, the waistband, skirt and hem, whereas with a machine will take you maybe 3 hours tops as a beginner. Hand sewing makes me want to die edit: ^^ and for the person above, mood fabrics carries a pretty good mix of fabrics. You'd probably looking for suiting fabric, though their website is a little difficult to navigate. He was likely wearing wool, but you can probably get away with a polyester for a costume if you don't want to spend that much. vaginadeathgrip fucked around with this message at 07:09 on Oct 8, 2010 |
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Oct 8, 2010 07:03
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vaginadeathgrip posted:Are you opposed to getting a machine? You can find them used and cheap just about anywhere, probably for the price of any book. That said, this book is pretty helpful with hand sewing, as are most couture technique books, and it is relatively cheap. Has a lot of different types of useful hand stitches.  Plus I can't sit still while watching TV or a movie, so it gives me something to do with my hands. I used to do needlework, but I'd rather make something functional like clothing if I'm going to sew. (Although you're dead right about the time differences. I'm making an apron now that would have taken me maybe 1-3 hours max on a machine, and it's taken me almost a week to do it by hand and I'm still not done.)Thanks for the book rec!
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Oct 8, 2010 20:21
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I'm looking at repairing holes in jeans, tshirts, and maybe the occasional sock. I have no intention of making clothes or quilts. What should I be looking for in a machine?
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Oct 9, 2010 16:25
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Meat Recital posted:I'm looking at repairing holes in jeans, tshirts, and maybe the occasional sock. I have no intention of making clothes or quilts. What should I be looking for in a machine? Something used, preferably made before the 80's or whenever they started making plastic parts because you want something made of METAL  that can sew through anything. Some good brands: old Singers, Viking, Janome, Pfaff, Bernina. Go to a garage sale! But make sure it works. Also you want basic stitch functions like forward and back, zigzag and maybe some hem stitches if you are feeling saucy. Don't be an idiot like me and get a computerized machine that has 80 stitches because you will only ever use 2 of them.
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Oct 9, 2010 19:30
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Hopefully I'm not doing anything bad by resurrecting this thread! I've finally actually finished some projects (for the first time ever!), and wanted to share.  First off, I made myself a skirt and three pairs of legwarmers! One red, one a deep plum, and one brown. The red legwarmers are in the first photo:    The second photo shows the fancy machine stitch I used for the hem (yeah, I cheated, so what), and the third photo shows my first ever zipper/buttonhole. They're kind of wonky and not very pretty but goddamn am I proud.  Next up, I finally finished piecing and basting my very first quilt (I may or may not have mentioned it here about a year ago)! I'm waiting on a darning presser foot in the mail, and then I'll work on quilting that sucker up. It's roughly 4'x6' and the face is made of velvet, the backing (second photo) is an old sheet I dyed myself.   Piecing the velvet was a huge pain in the rear end as, even with copious amounts of interfacing, it was stretchy and the fuzz of the velvet made the pieces move around all over the place under the presser foot. Even so, I already have the pieces cut for a second identical quilt, except it will be shades of red (like the piece in the middle of this one), with a single teal square (the lightest of the colours on this quilt) in the center. This one's for my BF, the red one is gonna be for me. D'awww. edit: Yep, just checked back, and I started this quilt at the same time I started the cathedral window quilt I posted about back in December of '09. Speaking of, I've got a quarter of the CW quilt's backing done, and all the 'window' pieces cut. I'm excited! 
Muffy_the_Diver fucked around with this message at 04:45 on Nov 2, 2010 |
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Nov 2, 2010 04:41
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I finally took my sewing machine out of the box and wow, I suck. I did a good job on a bag I made during a class but on my own I'm impatient and cut corners. I made a simple tote yesterday but didn't like the handles so I tried to fix it and spent more time on it than I would've if I had done it right in the first place. Sometimes the bobbin thread gets snarled when I first start sewing and then I have to pull at the fabric to free it from the machine. Any ideas on what's causing this?
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Nov 5, 2010 02:17
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Arien posted:I finally took my sewing machine out of the box and wow, I suck. I did a good job on a bag I made during a class but on my own I'm impatient and cut corners. I made a simple tote yesterday but didn't like the handles so I tried to fix it and spent more time on it than I would've if I had done it right in the first place. When you first put the fabric under the feed dog and start sewing, are you holding onto the loose thread ends to make sure they're not getting sucked under? When I forget to do that I get the same problem. If you are doing that already, though, I have no suggestions.
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Nov 5, 2010 07:41
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Arien posted:I finally took my sewing machine out of the box and wow, I suck. I did a good job on a bag I made during a class but on my own I'm impatient and cut corners. I made a simple tote yesterday but didn't like the handles so I tried to fix it and spent more time on it than I would've if I had done it right in the first place. Happens to me when the needle size is too small, stitch length is extremely short, or the fabric is too stretchy. Add stabilizer and pick a larger needle. I have never had any luck with holding the thread ends - does not seem to make a difference on my machine one way or the other.
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Nov 5, 2010 22:09
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^ Thanks for the advice. I'll try holding onto the ends and hopefully that will help. I don't think it's the fabric since it's plain woven cotten, could be the needle but the machine is new. Can anyone recommend some sewing blogs or sewing websites? There are a ton for knitting. If there's a sewing equivalent of ravelry.com that would be awesome.
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Nov 6, 2010 03:24
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Hoping someone can help me with this problem. I'm recovering a crib liner for a couple of friends who are adopting a little girl from Taiwan. Everything was going great until I sewed my first "tie" (the strap they will use to tie the liner to the crib). The top looked great, but the underside was awful. It was basically these loose loops with little thread balls. I moved the top tension up from 4-5 to 8 and that made the loops and balls go away underneath, but now both sides are a little tight and also each stitch is a little diagonal. I re-threaded the top and took the bobbin out and put it back in. Still the same results. I'm still relatively new to sewing. Anyone have any ideas how to get both sides to have a nice and neat straight stitch? All I have is a brother xl-5130 someone gave me. Top:  Click here for the full 640x478 image. Bottom:  Click here for the full 640x478 image.
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Nov 7, 2010 01:09
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Maybe take the tension down a little from 8? If that doesn't work, I'd try winding a new bobbin and putting it in. For some reason sometimes you'll get a bobbin that doesn't wind just right and it can really poo poo things up.
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Nov 7, 2010 18:21
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I've got a muslin for these insane low-crotch trousers just about how I want them... I still don't know how to buy fabric, though. But I've found that http://www.moodfabrics.com/ probably has what I want. Edit: gently caress it. I got some "medium weight" suiting that happened to be cheap. We'll see what happens. very fucked around with this message at 18:58 on Nov 7, 2010 |
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Nov 7, 2010 18:39
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Arien posted:
I can! I love looking at what other people are doing with their machines. There are lots of free patterns and tutorials online, you just have to start at a link filled place. A few of my favorite ones are as follows. http://sewmamasew.com/ http://www.colettepatterns.com/ http://sewing.patternreview.com/ You can start at these and bounce onto other blogs with numerous tips, ideas, fabrics and patterns. You can also look at the major sewing pattern sites for free patterns and tips. http://www.burdastyle.com/ has some good free patterns.
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Nov 7, 2010 22:45
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Cross_ posted:Sewing straight seams by hand? What madness is that? on my machine (bernina Special 1000, a fantastic metal clunker that is older than me) there are lines etched into the foot plate that you just line up the edge of your fabric with and sew and you always get a nice straight seam. I thought all machines had that. To contribute:  Excuse my "yes I am a dickhead" outfit what with the 80s pleated pants and threadless shirt and flamboyant waistcoat. The waistcoat looks lots better with a white button down shirt or something but I wasn't going to change.  Apologies for the horrible puffy effeminite small child hand - but yes, they are double welt pockets! I always put WORKING ones into waistcoats cause I am addicted to having pockets in anything that are large enough to be used for at least my phone. Yeah I know, "ruins the line of the garment" or whatever but I don't care. This is a major problem with women's clothing - useless pockets - and this is part of the reason why I am into sewing. Well that and the fact that every single dress in the world seems to be made for a d cup and I am b.
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Nov 10, 2010 00:43
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Infamous Sphere posted:on my machine (bernina Special 1000, a fantastic metal clunker that is older than me) there are lines etched into the foot plate that you just line up the edge of your fabric with and sew and you always get a nice straight seam. I thought all machines had that. Also, yay pockets!
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Nov 13, 2010 10:41
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Christmas is coming and I really want to make my sister some awesome Ruby Slippers. I haven't sewn in ages, though, so I hope someone with an expert eye can help me out! I want to sew sequins onto this shoe:  Do you think it would be too thick/difficult? I'd glue gun it, but I'm afraid the glue might not stick to a fuzzy surface. Maybe a combo of glue gun and sewing would work?
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Nov 15, 2010 21:40
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Wedemeyer posted:Christmas is coming and I really want to make my sister some awesome Ruby Slippers. I haven't sewn in ages, though, so I hope someone with an expert eye can help me out! Glue might work, but it would probably seep between the sequins and look awful. Your best bet would be to buy stringed sequins (instead of loose/single ones) and coil them around the shoe, hand sewing them in place. This will be much easier if the fabric on the shoe isn't glued to the shoe-form but is loose so you can sew just through the fabric and not the whole shoe.
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Nov 16, 2010 23:42
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I've seen a few ruby slippers, my favourite is here. She just used ropes (for lack of a better word) of sequins and used fabric glue to fix them onto a shoe. You can get sequins like that by the meter/yard at most craft or fabric stores - look in the trim section. Does it have to be those shoes? I guess you could remove the details on the toe, and fabric glue would probably stick to the shoe fabric.
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Nov 17, 2010 21:53
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I read through the last dozen or so pages of this thread over the last couple days and the stuff you guys do is utterly AMAZING. I do little costumey things here and there - mostly modifying existing stuff - but this is my first attempt at something a little more 'everyday' and made from scratch.  It's made out of a $3 Wal-mart fleece blanket. No pattern, minimal measurements, all sewn by hand - obviously it looks a bit wonky, but I kinda like it that way. Gives it some character. Also the teeth are sewn on in such a way where you can fold them under for a bit of a sweeter (i.e. less deranged) look:  I have more blanket left, and while I'm on the hook for a second bear hat I should still have even more left over to fool around with.
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Nov 17, 2010 23:40
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My mother is looking to buy a new iron as her old one is falling apart (20+ year old GE). She does all kinds of stuff, from cushion covers to dog coats. Are there any recommended brands, or features to look out for? Mister Facetious fucked around with this message at 01:37 on Nov 18, 2010 |
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Nov 18, 2010 01:34
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Does anyone have a good guide/tips on sewing a button fly for trousers? I am having trouble finding good literature. This is my first time making a fly of any sort.
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Nov 19, 2010 20:45
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So "medium weight" suiting is quite thin. I guess this means I get to experiment with interfacing and stuff.
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Nov 20, 2010 22:34
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clam 2 posted:Does anyone have a good guide/tips on sewing a button fly for trousers? I am having trouble finding good literature. This is my first time making a fly of any sort.
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Nov 22, 2010 04:52
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