SEWING TIPS

Members are encouraged to contribute their "tips". Click HERE

"Fabricologist Resource Center"

sounds more impressive than

"Fabric Stash"

Asking a seamstress to mend is like asking
Michelangelo to paint your garage.
 

Creative Clutter is Better Than Idle Neatness

Buttons: Organize loose buttons by stringing them on twist ties, and then simply twist the ties to prevent them from falling off.

Hemming: To get rid of hemlines when lengthening blue jeans, color over the hemline with a blue crayon. Cover your ironing board with newspaper or cloth, and iron in the crayon color by pressing the jeans wrong-side-out.

Hemline marks let down: Try rubbing around the line with white vinegar, then wring out a cloth with solution of cloudy ammonia and water and after ½ hr press the cloth over the hemline on both sides of material.

Make kitchen towels or table runners out of soiled tablecloths and towels. Make drapes out of tablecloths.

Make potholders out of old ironing board covers.

Old clothes - Use to make quilts, pillows, and blankets. Always save the buttons.

Old pillow cases - Use for laundry bag.

Patterns: If you have a sewing pattern that you will use often, transfer the pattern and all the markings to non-fusible lightweight interfacing. It will last a long time.

Pinking Shears: To keep shears sharp, cut through a sheet of folded aluminum foil or coarse sandpaper.

Pleats: To change pleats in slacks, dip a cloth in a solution of 1/4 cup white vinegar and 2 cups water. Wring out thoroughly and cover the old pleat. Press with low setting on steam iron.

Pressing Cloth: Dampen a brown grocery bag, and use it as a pressing cloth.

Protect your buttons! Every time I buy a new garment, put a dab of clear nail polish on the back of the buttons. You will never lose a button and it works a treat on kids' clothes.

Quilts: Use an old blanket as the batting for a quilt.

Sew buttons on with nylon fishing line or dental floss. If you need a different color, finish the job by using a little matching thread to cover the white.

Sewing: Leftover rickrack, binding, elastic, etc. can be wound around an empty thread spool and secured with a straight pin.

Store sets of buttons on diaper pins, or keep organized in egg cartons. Take of the lids and stack to save room.

Store sewing bobbins in empty prescription bottles. The threads won't get tangled, making your next sewing project much easier.

Tape a small bag to the sewing table to get rid of the pesky threads and scraps. When the bag is full, just throw it away and replace with a new one.

Thread: To prevent tangled thread when sewing by hand, knot each strand separately instead of knotting them together.

To do a quick hem on a pair of blue jeans, turn them up and tape with silver duct tape. It lasts through many types of washing. If the blue jeans shrink a little, simply tear off the duct tape and re-do.

To get rid of crease marks when lengthening clothes, dampen the crease mark liberally with white vinegar. Place a damp cloth over the crease mark and press with a hot iron.

To remove creases from permanent-press fabrics, use two to three tablespoons of white vinegar to one or two cups of water. Soak a cotton pressing cloth in the solution. Squeeze out excess moisture. Place cloth over the crease or wrinkle, and press with a hot iron.

Use leftover candle stumps as pincushions. Needles slide into fabric smoother.

Use leftover denim from cut-off jeans to make garden gloves. Simply trace around your fingers for the pattern.

When basting, thread the needle, but don't cut the thread from the spool. This way you won't have to keep re-threading the needle.

When your child's pullover sweaters becomes to tight to wear, turn them into a cardigan by cutting them straight down the front and binding the front edges with an attractive trim.

---------------------------------

Place the brim of a baseball cap under your serger and sweep thread tails into the 'bowl' of the hat.

 

If you have a bad stitch on top of your fabric, your problem is the bobbin thread. If the stitch is bad on the bottom it is your top thread.

 

When testing your machine's tension balance, thread the upper thread in a different color than the bobbin. This will help you quickly determine which tension adjustment needs to be made.

If you have a serger with differential feed, set the feed part to the first notch toward gather when you are serging knits. The fabric won't be stretched out of shape like it normally is when sewn or serged.

Save an empty dishwashing liquid squeeze bottle. Use puffs of air to gently clean threads and debris out of the way as you sew.

When working with a fabric that is hard to tell which is the wrong side and which is the right. decide which side is which and then use the bright color sticky dots to mark on the wrong side. You can tear them in half and get twice as many as come in a package.

 

After using a pattern, it is hard to fold it just right to fit in the small envelope it came in. Place the whole thing, tissue and envelope, in a 1 gallon zip lock bag and keep that in your pattern box (or filing cabinet drawers, etc.) It is much easier this way and you don't have to worry about losing pieces. Also, to know what pattern you have without having to search through your whole stash, make a copy of the front and back of each pattern envelope and put it in a binder. This way you can flip through the binder to see what you are looking for - fast and easy! Be sure to write down what box/drawer the whole pattern is kept in on the copy page in the binder.

Keep an empty medicine bottle with a childproof cap next to your  machine for discarded pins and needles. The bottles also work great for storing bobbins.

Keep a sewing diary/journal. Keep a swatch along with a photo of each item sewn. Also include the name/number of the pattern you used, along with any alterations you made on the pattern.

-------------------------------------------

Top 10 Needle Threading Tips

Threading a sewing needle shouldn't take up your valuable time and it shouldn't be frustrating! Following a few simple tips and tricks can make the job a breeze!

1) Put White Behind the Needle

Whether you’re threading a sewing machine needle or a hand sewing needle, white behind the needle makes the eye much more visible.  Keep a small piece of index card pinned to your pin cushion. Then when you are threading a needle that piece is always available to place behind the eye of the needle.

2) Put White Behind the Sewing Machine Needle

Many new sewing machines have a white presser foot holder. If your machine has the standard silver presser foot holder, tray a dab of White-Out on the foot holder, behind the needle. Allow it to dry before sewing fabric.

3) Cut the Thread with Sharp Scissors

Always use sharp scissors to cut the thread. A clean cut thread is always easier to get through the eye of a sewing needle, than a fuzzy shredded thread.

4) Cut the Thread at an Angle

Cut the thread at a forty-five degree angle. Even if you can't see the angle, the angle will make it easier to thread the needle.

5) Stiffen the Thread

Stiffen the thread with saliva or bees wax. It will be easier to control through the eye than a limp thread.

6) Use a Needle Threader

A needle threader comes with many packages of assorted sewing needles. That little wire, gives you a big eye to thread even if your sewing needle has a tiny eye. How to Use a Needle Threader

Visit sewing machine dealers and notion departments to see many new needle threaders available to thread hand and sewing machine needles.

7) Sewing a Machine with Built in Needle Threader

A built in needle threader is available on almost all upper end sewing machines. If threading a needle is stopping you from sewing, consider making a bit of an investment to make sewing enjoyable.

8) Solving Clumsy Hands

Consider using tweezers. Long bent handle tweezers are available for threading a serger but can work just as well to hold the thread while threading any sewing needle.

9) Use Moisture

Try a bit of moisture on your thumb behind the needle. The moisture works like a magnet to draw the thread through the eye of the needle.

10) Use an Eye that Matches the Thread Size

If you're using fine thread use a needle that has a small eye, but if you are using a thick thread, choose a needle with a larger eye to accept the thread and prevent damaging the thread as you sew.

---------------------------------------

Prethread Serger Needles
It's easy to thread your serger needles -- thread them before you put the needle in the machine.

 

A Safe Way to Sew Beaded Fringe
Beaded fringe can be tricky to sew into a seam by machine because if the fringe moves it's easy to sew through a bead and break the needle. To keep the fringe in place, use a glue stick to secure the flange and painter's blue low-tack tape to secure the fringe out of the way. This ensures that you won't have to wrestle with the fringe to keep from breaking beads or needles when stitching blindly through two layers with the beads sandwiched in between.

 

Removing Water-Soluble Marks
A great way to get rid of marks made by water-soluble markers without a major wash is to use a pen-shaped, sponge-tipped envelope moistener to apply water to the mark and a paper towel to absorb the extra moisture. Touching the sponge to the mark and giving it a gentle squeeze releases just enough water to do the trick.

 

Elastic Connection
Most patterns tell you to overlap the ends of an elastic waistband when sewing them together. To eliminate bulk, some sewers butt the ends together and sew through them and a piece of ribbon. An even easier method is to butt the ends of the elastic together and sew down the seam with a wide triple-zigzag stitch. Backstitch all the way back to the starting point. This seam is virtually undetectable when the elastic is sewn into the casing.

----------------------------------------
 

Fat Quarter Trivia

What is a Fat Quarter?

A quarter yard of fabric cut on the fold to produce a wider yield.

How big is a fat quarter?

18 inches by 22 inches

What can be cut from a fat quarter?