Tangled Thread - Tips, Trick and Tutorials in Sewing & Stitching

March 26th, 2008

tip of the day - sharpening scissors

I have to admit, I’m pretty obsessive about my good scissors - I even have my DH trained… If the scissors have my name on them, don’t touch!
But even the most meticulous care won’t keep your fabric scissors from going dull eventually (especially if you’re cutting polar fleece!)  Do you trust your lovely scissors to […]

By Chloe -- 9 comments

March 24th, 2008

tip of the day - keeping track of pattern alterations

I like to alter patterns quite a bit - but I don’t always remake the tissue pattern pieces.  Sometimes I just use the pattern as a starting point and cut the fabric differently (ei: I have a proportionally long waist and need to add 2″ or so to shirt patterns).
But what happens if you forget […]

By Chloe -- 1 comment

February 3rd, 2008

tip of the day - slippery, sliding duvets

It’s cold enough in my neck of the woods that I need every little inch of duvet that I can pull out from underneath my dogs :-)  For some reason, they think that it’s their duvet!  It doesn’t help that my duvet slides around inside the duvet cover - and duvet covers aren’t quite warm […]

By Chloe -- 1 comment

November 15th, 2007

tip of the day - sticky needles

I’m working on quite a large piece of fabric that’s been heavily fused together.  Needless to say, my sewing machine needle is covered with sticky gunky glue and is breaking thread like crazy!
Did you know that alcohol-based hand sanitizers will dissolve the glue from fusibles?
I keep a cotton ball lightly dabbed with the gel next […]

By Chloe -- 3 comments

August 17th, 2007

tip of the day - working with fabric covered buttons

I love the look of fabric covered buttons with some garments.  I think they’re a little dressier - and definitely easier than matching an unusual fabric.
But what happens when you’re using an extremely thin or fine fabric to cover the buttons?
I’ve had problems with button caps popping off, just because the fabric wasn’t heavy enough […]

By Chloe -- 0 comments

August 11th, 2007

tip of the day - unsticking sticky needles

I haven’t had a chance to finish the tutorial on the embroidered butterflies, so I thought I’d post a quick tip for sewing machines :-)
I find that when I’m sewing fabric that has heat-fusible or spray adhesive on it, my sewing machine needle can gum up.  The needle generates a lot of friction, which heats […]

By Chloe -- 0 comments

August 5th, 2007

tip of the day - using pattern weights

I’ve been using pattern weights to secure my patterns, instead of sewing - pretty much since I started sewing.  There are commercially available weights, but they seem awfully expensive for chunks of plastic-coated metal :-)
There some definite advantages to using weights, over pinning.

It’s so much faster!  It takes seconds to slide the weights into position.
You […]

By Chloe -- 0 comments