Just Sew It

This website has a long list of links to various wonderful sewing rooms that are a must see. Mine is not on there but I believe I have a post somewhere on my blog showing my sewing space. I don’t have a room as of yet. When my 8 year old moves to his room in the basement I’m taking over his room. Right now, his future room is full of clay projects that I’ve taught over the last couple of weeks.

So, if you need inspiration for making your own sewing room, check that link out.

Cutting your fabric is very easy but it must be done properly otherwise your fabric will twist. What I mean is it must be cut “on-grain”. The threads in fabric runs parallel to the selvage and perpendicular to the selvage.

The selvage is the edge of the fabric that runs length wise along the fabric edge.

Selvage

In most cases, you will fold the fabric with selvages meeting together. Ensure you smooth out the wrinkles. Your ends should not match as they have not been squared off. Once your fabric is laying flat with no wrinkles and it does not look twisted, you are ready to square your fabric off.

Lay a quilter’s ruler down. In the photo, you may be able to see that I’ve lined up the bottom edge (the fold) evenly. NEXT, using my rotary cutter or scissors, I will cut along the ruler. Now the fabric is squared.

Now you can cut your pieces as required or if you are using a pattern lay your pattern as per the pattern’s instructions.

THIS is my baby. She’s my favorite machine. She is a smooth ride and doesn’t skip a stitch. She has plenty of stitches at my finger tips and she is German Engineered and made in the Czech Republic.

Choosing a sewing machine is very much like choosing a car. Test driving a bunch of machines is your best bet when choosing a machine. Pfaff, Bernina, Janome, Husqvarna-Viking, Brother, Singer, etc. I highly recommend going with a dealer as they do offer on-going support. Yes, you can go to Wal-Mart and buy a Singer or Brother but if you have problems or questions don’t count on Betsy-Jo the walmart employee to help you.

If you are not sure if you like sewing, maybe pick up a second hand machine for the beginning. If you decide you love it, go out and buy the best machine you can afford. Sewing on a quality machine can make a world of difference as to how well you sew. My first sewing machine was a Singer. I loved it because it was my first but it was so hard to control the speed. That was the only reason I sold it and bought my Pfaff Hobby 1042 model. I still have my Hobby but my Quilt Expression is my main machine. When this one dies (and I hope it doesn’t for a loooong time) I will probably invest in a commercial machine.

If you have any questions about this particular machine or about any machine you are interested in, just ask away.

This is cute but informative:

How to Measure Curtains for Poles

Video by Natural Curtain Company

1. Use a zipper 2″ (5 cm) shorter than length of finished pillow. Pin pillow front to back with ride sides together. Position zipper along pinned seam, leaving equal distance at each edge. Mark ends of zipper coil on seam.

2. Stitch 3/4″ (2 cm) seam at each end of zipper opening; backstitch at marks. I basted the rest of the seam to help make it easier to press. Press under 3/4″ (2 cm) seam allowances.

3. Open zipper. Place one side face down on seam allowance of pillow front with zipper coil on seamline. Secure with pins, glue stick or basting tape. Using zipper foot, stitch tape to seam allowance only.

4. Close zipper. Spread pillow flat with right side up. Pin the zipper in place from right side catching the zipper tape underneath.

5. Place 1/2″ (1.3 cm) transparent tape (I only had 3/4″ tape so I moved the tape over a bit) along seamline as stitching guide. Starting at seamline, stitch across bottom of zipper. Pivot and continue stitching. At top of zipper, pivot and stitch to seamline. Pull threads to wrong side and tie.

6. Open zipper. With a seam ripper, take the basting out. Turn pillow wrong side out and pin front to back on remaining three sides. Stitch 1/2″ (1.3 cm) seam. Turn pillow right side out and insert pillow form or liner.