Does anyone else make their own clothes

Hi Cat,

There is already a thread about this, called "Does anyone sew their own clothes?"

I'ts usually quite near the front page, so have a look at pages 2, 3. and if necessary 4.

HTH.
ivyleaf x

Great! Now can anyone tell me how to make a ra-ra skirt:D. Not for me but for my much slimmer daughter:rotfl:. Have done a quick google but not come up with anything - can anyone help?

moanymoany that's brilliant! and a great price too!

cat64 probably the easiest way to make a ra-ra skirt is to use an existing skirt so you get the fit over the hips and sew a couple of ruffles on it at the level you want it. You could trim off the excess skirt underneath the ruffles afterwards if you have a means of neatening the raw edges. The ruffles are usually two (or four - if they're really long you may need to join them at the sides) rectangular pieces of fabric measuring at least twice the overall length of the hip, or the bottom of the skirt (or width wherever you want to put them). You then hem the long sides of your ruffle and run a long stitch along one long edge, drawing it up to make the ruffle (sometimes it's easier to do short lengths of gathering), knotting the edges securely. The further down the skirt you want to put a ruffle, the longer the pieces of gathered fabric are, i.e. don't make them the same length otherwise they won't fit. Stitch the bottom ruffle onto the skirt first, then the second, third, whatever, on top in tiers. Hope that's vaguely clear.

Mrs F

Oh dear. Poor you, Jen you sound so fed up. I'm not an expert but it sounds to me like a tension problem. Can you check that you have the thread running from the bobbin the right way round? On my Bernina the thread must run forward clockwise, and then you pull the loose end backwards through the tension spring. Is it a round bobbin, or a shuttle bobbin (a long thin spool?) Can you be sure you have it seated correctly in its case? There are no tiny scraps or little thread ends caught anywhere near the shuttle race are there?

Secondly when (if!) you start to sew, hang on to the thread ends for dear life until you have made a few stitches, otherwise the threads get pulled down into the shuttle race and tangle up underneath the fabric. This sounds complicated because you're also holding onto the fabric and trying to keep it straight but it's all easier with practice.

I hope I don't sound patronising but sometimes it's just easier to unthread the whole shebang and start from scratch, there may be a tiny hook which you've left unthreaded by mistake, the bobbin might be the wrong way round, you may have missed the tension wheel with your upper thread, all sorts of things could be the reason for this. I really hope you can get it fixed before you throw the machine out of the window in disgust. Maybe you could ask your bus driver for help if you see her again?

The classes sound very badly organised! What a shame. Hopefully they'll get their act together soon and you'll find some likeminded souls to help you out.

Best of luck.
Mrs F xx

Mrs_Flittersnoop wrote: »

Oh dear. Poor you, Jen you sound so fed up. I'm not an expert but it sounds to me like a tension problem. Can you check that you have the thread running from the bobbin the right way round? On my Bernina the thread must run forward clockwise, and then you pull the loose end backwards through the tension spring. Is it a round bobbin, or a shuttle bobbin (a long thin spool?) Can you be sure you have it seated correctly in its case? There are no tiny scraps or little thread ends caught anywhere near the shuttle race are there?

Secondly when (if!) you start to sew, hang on to the thread ends for dear life until you have made a few stitches, otherwise the threads get pulled down into the shuttle race and tangle up underneath the fabric. This sounds complicated because you're also holding onto the fabric and trying to keep it straight but it's all easier with practice.

I hope I don't sound patronising but sometimes it's just easier to unthread the whole shebang and start from scratch, there may be a tiny hook which you've left unthreaded by mistake, the bobbin might be the wrong way round, you may have missed the tension wheel with your upper thread, all sorts of things could be the reason for this. I really hope you can get it fixed before you throw the machine out of the window in disgust. Maybe you could ask your bus driver for help if you see her again?

The classes sound very badly organised! What a shame. Hopefully they'll get their act together soon and you'll find some likeminded souls to help you out.

Best of luck.
Mrs F xx

hi,

yes I am throughly fed up with it ... i hate it when i am learning something completely new and I need lots of specialist help - it was like that for a long time when I got a computer.

It doesnt sound at all patronising - i am so inexperienced in this yet. When I first got a computer we switched it on and it loaded up in MS-DOS, it took us three days to work out how to get it to load in Windows....

I will check those thing and if that doesnt work then i will find my camera and see if I can post a pic and maybe that will help. The bobbin is a small metal round thing which goes into a little metal thing and is inserted into the machine.

Jen