The sewing thread

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  • kacie
    kacie Posts: 901
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    Hi, I've just got myself my first sewing machine, I haven't really done any sewing since school. Got to figure out where I can get reasonably cheap fabric from still, thinking maybe charity shops might have things I can use, if only to just practice and get the hang of the machine.
  • maryb
    maryb Posts: 4,658
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    Hi Kacie - whereabouts in the country are you? I know plenty of sources in London/suburban Kent. Charity shops are a good idea for cheap sheets/duvet covers to use as trial garments to get the fit right

    Someone has started a thread about not buying any clothes for a year and I have joined in on the proviso that I will do a Ready To Wear fast and make any new clothes. So far I have made a jersey top using a Burda pattern
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00V4PTGSM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    It's a totally counter intuitive set of instructions but it's really flattering. I'm an apple with only 5" difference between my waist and bust/hips (and that's with pulling the tape measure in:D) but this actually makes me look as if I have a waist that goes in instead of out. Also it was my first time sewing knits other than ponte which is so stable it might as well be woven. This was quite slippery and silky, bit of a pig really, the sewing machine hated it even using the tricot stitch and a jersey needle, but I feel a sense of achievement having finished it
    It doesn't matter if you are a glass half full or half empty sort of person. Keep it topped up! Cheers!
  • fuddle
    fuddle Posts: 6,823 Forumite
    I looked at the thread too maryb and wondered whether to join on the very same proviso but I worry that my lack of skills might have me nekkid!:rotfl:

    Can I ask what I am doing wrong? When I go to lift up my foot (talking sewing machine here) I often catch the thread from underneath and have 4 strands to cut as opposed to 2. How can I stop this happening?
  • GlasweJen
    GlasweJen Posts: 7,451
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    Can I join in? I learned machine skills in school but no patterns. I've done a few quilts for family and they've went down well, I've also made some accessories for my dog and mickey ears for my nieces but thats the extent of it.

    I've signed up to sew 12 items for stillborn and premature babies this year and really need to get started on them
  • maryb
    maryb Posts: 4,658
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    I'm not sure Fuddle. It happens to me too occasionally but I'm not sure what causes it. Maybe check that the needle is right at the top before pulling out the fabric so that it isn't halfway through forming a stitch?
    It doesn't matter if you are a glass half full or half empty sort of person. Keep it topped up! Cheers!
  • camelot1001
    camelot1001 Posts: 5,977
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    That happens to me too sometimes, just thought I was doing something wrong or the machine is having a turn. Sadly I'm not very advanced so don't have experience of such things!

    Can I ask you all what make of thread you use? I like to use Gutterman, just wondered what others use.
  • fuddle
    fuddle Posts: 6,823 Forumite
    That sounds like it could well be that. I am sewing squares together so I am on a conveyor belt, so to speak. Maybe I'm removing the piece without checking that the needle is back up. I'll be more careful and see what happens. Ta muchly :)
  • katkin
    katkin Posts: 1,020
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    Some tote bag ideas:)

    I've picked out a few fabrics from my stash that should be big enough as I'd like something roomy with strong straps and a lining.

    There's plenty of free patterns out there from the complicated, quilted, pleated, zipped or super simple. Too many to choose from! :cool:

    Lined-Tote-Bag.jpg

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    I'm hoping to make a start this weekend if I can decide which fabrics and design I like the best :D
  • westcoastscot
    westcoastscot Posts: 1,404
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    Fuddle it sounds like your needle isn't right back up, and if you put it up by hand, turning the wheel on the right, you need to do so in the same direction it moves when you're sewing , iyswim.
  • My first encounter with sewing was when I was seven and had to be unpicked by the teacher after accidentally embroidering a table mat to my skirt. Things didn't get much better in secondary school, where it took me a year to make a cookery apron and two years(!) to make an A-line skirt.

    Which all makes my decision to support me and the kids on the break-up of my first marriage by investing my last sixty quid in a second-hand Jones sewing machine and becoming a seamstress more than a bit baffling :) Talk about throwing yourself in the deep end - I taught myself in a crash course involving lots of library books (this was in 1991, no internet then) and a fair bit of on-the-job training that my early customers were blissfully unaware of :)

    I worked from home doing this for seven years, first using my reliable Jones, which only did straight stitch and zig-zag, then trading up (allegedly) to a Toyota which could do a 101 things, all of them badly, as well as regularly choke on it's own motor, which it did with great skill. During this time I did everything from turning collars for little old ladies to reupholstering the inside of a boat. I made ballgowns and work trousers, part of the set for a U2 concert and a ton of other stuff, including some mending for a nearby dry-cleaners. It must be a good eighteen years since I last sewed for anyone else, but I still see some of the curtains I made hanging up in windows in the part of town where we used to live.

    I'd love to be able to say I'm as passionate about sewing as most on the thread seem to be, but it was mostly a means of making money for me and I gave it up at the first opportunity. As already mentioned by someone, you do need a ton of space (which we don't have here now anyway) for making stuff like curtains, somewhere private for measuring and fitting customers if you're sewing for other people, space to keep the stash etc. When I was done, I made a big patchwork quilt from scraps left over from various jobs. It fitted a double bed, touching the floor on all sides and weighed a ton. I contemplated the future joys of washing it and promptly gave it to my sister :)

    These days it's more about saving money than making it, so maybe me and this thread have found each other at the right time :) Most of my sewing over the last decade or so has involved raiding the airing cupboard for old duvet covers etc to make costumes for Youngest Daughter on school dressing-up days (often at stupidly short notice), and I must have saved a fortune over the years by not having to buy her one of the limited range of commercial costumes that most of her friends resign themselves to wearing.

    It's not even just about saving money, though. Sometimes it's about being able to create solutions (from nothing, admittedly!) to problems that couldn't be addressed any other way. My oldest daughter has just moved back home for a while after sharing with a friend went wrong, the main reason she left in the first place being that her room here is about the size of three phone boxes. She has acquired so much additional stuff in the meantime that we wracked our brains trying to think of where to put it all in a room that can't accommodate much in the way of storage crates. So I have spent a few days lining the quirky wall above her bed with those hanging thingys (technical term!) with pockets in, made from a roll of fabric that's lurked in the loft for years and suspended on garden canes covered with black duct tape. She is happily re-homing the last of her possessions as I write :)

    It's a bit sad (and surprising, in these environmentally conscious days) that kids don't seem to be being given the skills that will help them to draw on existing resources in this way. I showed my young neighbour how to sew a Rainbow Guide badge on her daughter's tabard not long back because she was never taught at school.

    Me and the Toyota laughed and cried too much together for me to want to throw it out (I did the crying, while it sat and laughed at me :) ) and so it went up in the attic when I recently bought the Brother LS14 mentioned a couple of times on the thread already. Even without taking the rock-bottom price into account, I absolutely love this machine and can't recommend it highly enough to those thinking of buying.
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