Still Learning

Just a couple of tips from the sewing desk today. I’ve been making progress on February’s make, so much so that there is only the final hem to do. Sometimes I have to leave the final hem for a couple of days, pulling on and pulling off the almost finished garment, seeing how it stands up and trying to decide if it’s worth the effort of the final finish – a weird seamstress’s superstition I have invented, I think.

On to some little things that have made all the difference to this project…

This is a trick I first saw in one of my japanese sewing books. It is especially tricksy to turn up the hem of a knit fabric evenly, since the best thing about knits – their fluidity – is also what makes them a pita to sew with. Instead of having to re-measure your folded hem allowance constantly, simply draw a line on a piece of card and fold the fabric over the edge up to your mark. Nifty and quick – I had my sleeves pinned in mere moments.

If you are coming to dressmaking from more crafty kinds of sewing you may be used to fitting your machine with a standard needle and zipping away with no problems at all. Different fabrics present different challenges – what to do about a perfectly functioning machine that is suddenly skipping stiches? The answer is most likely not that your machine is broken, or even that the tension needs adjusting,  but that you need a different needle. The topmost line of sewing is done with a standard needle (90/14), and I had a few skipped stitches, so switched to a stretch needle. But lo – more skipped stitches. The skipping only stopped when I used a finer stretch needle (75/11). It’s a small thing but it might save you some grief – they aren’t expensive, and they can make a difference. I would probably now add needles to interfacing and pressing in the list of ’seemingly unimportant things that matter’. Never too late to get even more geeky about your sewing…