Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Tuesday Tips

Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny 40 degrees (warm for January). I needed to go to the grocery store, but I blew it off in favor of staying home and sewing something that was NOT a winter coat.

Today, the temperature dropped 30 degrees and it's snowing. And now I really REALLY have to go get groceries. Sigh.


Yesterday did provide me an opportunity to use today's tip. The speed of my serger totally intimidates me. Not to mention that it features a knife. Couldn't they have used a less-threatening term, like "fabric cutting thingy"? Obviously, all this speed and slicing business makes me afraid to use pins any time I use my serger. I have no idea how much a new knife costs, and I'd like to keep it that way!

Most of the time I can keep pieces of fabric together with my fingers and guide the fabric along, but I have trouble sewing a t-shirt seam from sleeve hem to bodice hem. It's hard to navigate around the underarm corner and to keep everything aligned without pins.


My solution? I take those pesky thread tails (from attaching the sleeve to the bodice) and tie them together. That small knot keeps the underarm portion aligned, and can easily be cut off by the serger when sewing the side seam. No broken pins, no cursing, no trips to the ER (does that happen? I don't know...I have an over-active imagination).

Time to guzzle the last of my coffee and head out into the blizzard-ness. Have a great day everyone!

4 comments:

  1. I left pins in once and they ended up ruining my cutter. I suppose it depends what model you've got but my new blade was about 13 pounds. Not too bad but easy to avoid having to buy a new one!

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    Replies
    1. I should probably buy an extra one to have handy, just in case!

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  2. That's one of the best tips I've read recently! I will definitely do that next time! I was having trouble getting the underarm seams to match up on my lady skater dress and I ended up hand stitching them together at the seam so that it wouldn't shift out of place. I like your idea much better, bravo!!

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    Replies
    1. Oooo I just bought the Lady Skater pattern this week, I can't wait to sew it up! You'll have to share your version :)

      And I've tried basting at the arms too, but it's such a pain to go from serger to machine to serger.

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