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One thing that also helped me is realizing that the tension discs in my machine release tension every time I raise the presser foot. So, every time I raise the foot for some sweet 90 degree pivot action, or whatever, I'm always sure to pull the top thread through the machine a bit to ensure the tension remains constant, and so the thread stays seated in the tension mechanism where it's supposed to be. If I didn't pull the thread through, that's when I would get the bobbin tangle of death.
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Sep 28, 2015 21:51
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So, anyone want to spend £25 on a mini quilt kit that inadvertently looks like a swastika? Rachel's got you covered. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rachels-Gre...lting+templates
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Oct 7, 2015 20:17
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Finally a project started and finished. My aunt ordered a bunch of herringbone wool for making little Children's duffel coats but decided it was too dark and the herringbone too much of a fiddle to be matching up. I decided to try my hand at a flatcap.   I developed the pattern myself taking some basic pointers and dimensions from a couple of commercial hats I own. I have an Olney that I wear a lot but I always wished it had just a little more peak to help block the sun when I'm cycling or walking in the mornings / evenings. Probably took me a couple of days to develop the pattern and then an evening to put it together. Would go faster if I did another one now, there are a couple of elements of the construction I would approach differently and I've got some modifications to make to the pattern which will make things easier. ReelBigLizard fucked around with this message at 13:58 on Oct 9, 2015 |
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Oct 9, 2015 13:13
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learnincurve posted:So, anyone want to spend £25 on a mini quilt kit that inadvertently looks like a swastika? Rachel's got you covered. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rachels-Gre...lting+templates
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Oct 11, 2015 21:35
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Hello Sew-nerds! I am looking for someone to help me with an idea I have. I wanna have some little pouches sewed up to hold small bass fishing lures into, kinda like a wrench roll, but much smaller. Wrench Roll:  I have some leads on places to get them made, but no one to help me make prototypes and test poo poo. I will gladly pay for time and materials, but have no idea what custom sewing this simple is "worth", as most of the places I have googled talk about much larger and more complex stuff. The ideal case would be to fine a fellow fish nerd who can do the work and help test stuff. Anyone here interested or can steer me somewhere else?
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Oct 12, 2015 23:54
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ReelBigLizard posted:Finally a project started and finished. My aunt ordered a bunch of herringbone wool for making little Children's duffel coats but decided it was too dark and the herringbone too much of a fiddle to be matching up. I decided to try my hand at a flatcap. Daaaaaaamn, that is nice. Looks super professional.
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Oct 13, 2015 22:35
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Dr. Kloctopussy posted:Daaaaaaamn, that is nice. Looks super professional. Thanks, it wasn't super hard, it just requires some patience and a lot of pinning to get the pattern matching up. I used some stiff felt for the brim, which I think is much more comfortable than the plastic that usually gets used in these caps. I need to make some final adjustments to the pattern and then I'll scan it in, digitise and upload it here as a PDF if anyone is interested? You don't need a lot of fabric, might be able to sneak it onto an A3 sized piece, so it's a good use of tweed / wool / other remnants. You could make it with practically any heavy fabric.
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Oct 14, 2015 14:15
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ReelBigLizard posted:I need to make some final adjustments to the pattern and then I'll scan it in, digitise and upload it here as a PDF if anyone is interested? Yes please. Needing to buy one of these every time I lose one is getting to be expensive. Better get into the manufacturing game.
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Oct 14, 2015 19:17
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Halloween sewing 
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Oct 14, 2015 19:50
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^^^ Amazing! Nice job. I'm in the market for a new sewing machine. I'm just experienced enough to be dangerous. Want to start doing more clothes, I do costumes every year, want a machine that could potentially handle denim/leather/upholstery fabric, want auto-threading, adjustable presser foot pressure, needle threader, free arm, one step buttonholing (that actually works!), adjustable speed (my nine year old's learning to sew), auto backstitch and threadcutting would be nice, I hate the Singer 'hold the threads when you start a seam or face to darkness' thing, don't really care about embroidery or quilting (God gently caress quilting) though being able to say, embroider my dog's name and our ph number into his collar would be cool. Basically something like the Brother 900D without the Disney crap would be cool. I really like the pfaff top and bottom feed dogs and seam guides on all sides because I'm left-handed and like to do things bass-ackwards sometimes. The Pfaff Creative 1.5 looks spiffy but lol 2000 dollar price tag. I learned to sew on old-rear end Singers and still sew on old-rear end Singers and I am tired of old-rear end manual everything Singers. I know I'd sew a lot more if half my time wasn't spent fighting the machine.
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Oct 16, 2015 19:05
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What you want is a new rear end singer. The singer 9960 quantum stylist is literally exactly everything you listed.
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Oct 16, 2015 19:20
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If you go to a sewing-machine dealer, they will often have trade-ins from people who buy a new machine every few years. It's like used cars -- you can save a lot of the machine is just a little out of date.
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Oct 16, 2015 20:00
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bunnielab posted:Hello Sew-nerds! I've seen similar things on etsy (I own a hair stick organizer that's very similar, but much too large for your needs). Try punching "roll up organizer" into etsy if all else fails. I got a ton of hits. This shop looked fairly affordable and possibly up the right alley as they take custom orders, though their usual use is for organizing crayons. Funhilde posted:Halloween sewing This is awesome. This wins major 'awesome parent' award points. ReelBigLizard posted:Finally a project started and finished. My aunt ordered a bunch of herringbone wool for making little Children's duffel coats but decided it was too dark and the herringbone too much of a fiddle to be matching up. I decided to try my hand at a flatcap. Also this is the best and I would love the pattern. I think my husband would like a hat like that. flutterbyblue fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Oct 22, 2015 |
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Oct 22, 2015 01:31
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The squirtle costume was for a client. I made a pumpkin costume and hopefully a penguin costume for my baby.
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Oct 22, 2015 05:16
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Spoonflower lets you upload your own fabric designs and have fabric custom-printed. It also lets designers sell fabrics without having to sign up with one of the major manufacturers. Spoonflower now offers a wide variety of printable fabrics, and continues to have a very bad search function. To enter a contest for a sketchbook and 2 yards of poly crepe de chine, go here: (disclaimer: this is a referrer link for me. Nonreferrer link is here) Currently Spoonflower is promoting their Sprout store, which lets you order a pattern and custom yardage as a package. Until October 30 at 12 noon EST, you can order any two fabrics and instructions for a zippered pouch for $1.00 and $1.00 shipping. (No idea if they ship internationally.) https://sproutpatterns.com/dollar_project_day has all the details. Edit: I've ordered a set of swatches and all the fabrics seemed high-quality. I ordered this on heavy cotton twill to recover a chair of my daughter's, and this in cotton-silk to make a skirt for her, and both were saturated prints and excellent quality. Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 00:09 on Oct 30, 2015 |
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Oct 30, 2015 00:03
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I've heard good things about Spoonflower myself, though with one catch: if you have large areas of solid black, it's gonna come out more of a dark charcoal grey. Though, those reviews were several years ago so it's possible that they've found a method to get better blacks since then. Here's one person's comparison shot: 
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Oct 30, 2015 17:25
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Bugger, this isn't the bird thread, sorry.
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Oct 31, 2015 22:51
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Funhilde posted:The squirtle costume was for a client. I made a pumpkin costume and hopefully a penguin costume for my baby. That is still awesome parent points! With bonus points for making a costume for someone else's kiddo on top of it all. Also pumpkin costumes are the best. I had one I wore for a couple of years to school events that was stuffed with newspaper to get the round shape. It was so warm. I also spent a lot of recess trekking across the field to collect lost paper, so it was good exercise as well.
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Nov 7, 2015 17:15
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Hi sewing thread! Got a baby laying around, so I thought I'd try my hand at sewing for her. Baby pants. Pardon the lovely cell phone photography. So here's a question. I would have liked to topstitch around the waistband and ankle bands, but I'm a beginner, and I had just produced an item of clothing, and I decided not to push my luck. But how do I topstitch stretchy fabrics? If I just used a straight stitch, it wouldn't let the fabric stretch properly, right? My machine has a stretchy straight stitch but it kind of looks like rear end. Is that what I'm supposed to use?
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Nov 8, 2015 00:30
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The line you see that looks like topstitching on professionally-made knit garments is a serger stitch, not a knit stitch. You don't topstitch knits with a regular machine for the reasons you give.
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Nov 8, 2015 00:33
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Zigzag stitch is the best choice for sewing machines and stretchy fabrics. If you have a fancy machine there are other options, but zigzag is pretty reliable.
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Nov 8, 2015 00:35
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Most machines have a stretch stitch. It looks like lightening on the machine. You can also do a zigzag with a long length and small depth. Many knit items are top stitched this way.
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Nov 8, 2015 01:03
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Collete pattern blog has a TON of tips on knit sewing. They also have a book. https://blog.colettehq.com/tutorials/how-to-bind-knit-edges-the-ultimate-guide
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Nov 8, 2015 04:19
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I am pretty tired after Halloween sewing (12 costumes) but I was determined to get something made for my two friends getting married this week in Hawaii. One of them worked on my website for free so I wanted to do something for him. Both grooms are Burning Man friends so I thought they would dig the vintage fabric and pattern I used. I only hope they fit! I only had 2 yards of the Hawaiian fabric so I chose to use green with it.    
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Nov 8, 2015 06:04
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Funhilde posted:Most machines have a stretch stitch. It looks like lightening on the machine. You can also do a zigzag with a long length and small depth. Many knit items are top stitched this way. Those are glorious, Funhilde.
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Nov 8, 2015 07:32
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Public Serpent posted:Hi sewing thread! Got a baby laying around, so I thought I'd try my hand at sewing for her. You can topstitch knits with a double needle. Make sure you get one for jersey/stretch. With it you just do a straight stitch but the bobbin thread ends up zig-zagging between the two top threads so the stitching can stretch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ttR4iZZfH4&t=586s
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Nov 8, 2015 07:47
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I shouldn't have laid down the law the way I did. I personally think zigzag or stretch stitch topstitching looks distracting, unless you're doing it in a contrast thread on purpose. For kids clothing and underwear it is good to top stitch to make certain seams more durable. A pair of infant pants come off an on a to during the course of a day. There are a bunch of pattern companies I've been following online that sell good patterns for knits. I'm hoping to start making my own leggings, underwear, nursing tops and clothes for the baby.
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Nov 8, 2015 09:06
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If you don't like zig zags then the third stretch stitch here is an option:
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Nov 8, 2015 12:16
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What is it about a serger that makes it handle knits better? Is it the multiple threads?
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Nov 8, 2015 18:31
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Sergers wrap thread around the edge of the fabric with weird mechanical objects called "loopers". This both binds the edge and provides extra thread that enables stretch. They're also a hell of a lot faster than sewing machines, which doesn't matter as much for home sewing.
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Nov 8, 2015 18:48
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Sergers wrap thread around the edge of the fabric with weird mechanical objects called "loopers". This both binds the edge and provides extra thread that enables stretch. They're also a hell of a lot faster than sewing machines, which doesn't matter as much for home sewing. If you have a serger like my wife's, you spend as much time fiddling around with it to get it ready as you do actually using it, which negates much of the time savings for most projects 
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Nov 11, 2015 22:47
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canyoneer posted:If you have a serger like my wife's, you spend as much time fiddling around with it to get it ready as you do actually using it, which negates much of the time savings for most projects
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Nov 11, 2015 23:13
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So, I am going to try to make something nice for myself for the first time. Normally I just make Halloween costumes  I am going to try to do a poor man's dupe of this dress: https://www.chotronette.com/shop/mint-lemonade/ I have never worked with lace before, though! My current plan, which is not very well thought out, is to use an "easy"-grade pattern that I bought, and just do a lace overlay. Because I couldn't really find a lace dress pattern that I liked. (I honestly don't mind one bit that the bodice will not be see-through because of this). Will that work? Basically just cut a lace version and a fabric version of the same pieces and pin it all together and sew? Will the lace cause any weird problems that I'm not accounting for?
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Nov 17, 2015 20:04
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cloudy posted:So, I am going to try to make something nice for myself for the first time. Normally I just make Halloween costumes Depends on how much you care about obvious seams. You can cut one of each, baste the lace to the fabric and from there treat them as one piece, but what looks better, and is pretty important if your lace motifs are nice and thick, is the lace applique method.
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Nov 18, 2015 20:19
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Thank you! That's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. Not sure what kind of lace I'm going to buy yet, but hopefully I can find something that looks a bit more weighty while still keeping it under-budget. I found a youtube video that I think explains it with visuals (skip to 1:19). Looks like it's gonna be tough. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK2Jwg5BqcI
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Nov 19, 2015 04:58
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Have you ever thought about putting together a book? I have (normally) no interest in wrestling/athletics gear and only a casual observer's relationship with sewing but I would absolutely buy a book of your work/projects and I imagine a lot of other people would too. Would be stunning if it was just beautiful and detailed photography but if you included tutorials I imagine that'd be a big draw for crafters/makers. Ready for Christmas 2016 please! Hemlock fucked around with this message at 01:36 on Nov 21, 2015 |
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Nov 21, 2015 01:11
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Hemlock posted:Have you ever thought about putting together a book? I have (normally) no interest in wrestling/athletics gear and only a casual observer's relationship with sewing but I would absolutely buy a book of your work/projects and I imagine a lot of other people would too. Would be stunning if it was just beautiful and detailed photography but if you included tutorials I imagine that'd be a big draw for crafters/makers. Haha, well, I don't know about a book, but I really do need to at least get better photos taken if I ever want to go anywhere with these. Right now I'm on hiatus from big projects because I just don't have the money. The parquet themed one I want to do next totals up to over $100 in supplies, ugh. I've been making knock off Hunter Welly Socks for some extra cash right now, but that's not exciting! Oh, but I did let myself buy $10 of black denim recently, that turned into:  I didn’t make us matching jean jacket/vests on purpose, but I just had so much fabric left over after making my boyfriend's vest, and I needed a black jacket. Can you tell from the picture we are 1’ and 100Lb apart?   My jacket was based off an old jean jacket I bought at a thrift store. It was an unusual design, with patch chest pockets, and no welt hand pockets or front seams. So this time, I added those design elements, basing them on the ones from my boyfriend's jacket (from which I patterned his vest)  It was my first time doing a warm lining like this. It came out nice and clean, but I wish I had added a little more ease, it’s a bit snug over a sweater. In the body, it’s a thrifted sweatshirt fleece, backed with batting. The sleeves are (also thrifted) silk quilted to the batting. Not the most exciting project either, I guess, but we're both happy. '
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Nov 28, 2015 17:35
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Would anybody be able to help me identify what this fabric is? And also what kind of technique is used for that pattern? I got this couch from my grandmother's house when she passed because it is big as gently caress and I don't sink into it and wreck my back. Best guess would be its from the 1950s or early 60s.
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Nov 29, 2015 03:37
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It's damask, I think? It's a weaving technique where the pattern is done in satin weave, if I remember right.
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Nov 29, 2015 04:54
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I have some pants that are made of a thick cotton material, which appears to be two separate plain-woven layers that are fused together somehow. Now that they are wearing out, I see the layers separating in a few places. What might this kind of material be called? It is pretty nice in that the material is thick and warm but the weave is tight. Edit: Double cloth?
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Dec 6, 2015 18:33
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