The Sewing Room

craftygranny

shirlgirl2004 wrote: »

Just found a Martha Stewart book at a bargain price if anyone is interested. Only £8.99 inc free delivery which is £1 less than Amazon. You'll find the info here (at the bottom of the page) which includes a link to the site. I love the Martha Stewart site and the book has excellent reviews.:j

I got this bought for me at xmas it seems very good and has a cd full of patterns just need to actually make something now.lol.

Violetta_2

Hello- sorry to but in but I've spotted these machines toyota jeans plus £87.96 after 20%off or the toyota jeans £84 after discount, there are quite a few in the sale most would have a discount. I am tempted by 1 of the toyotas but really not sure, I got a machine out of Lidl's about 7 years ago & never really got on with it, would anyone be able to check these out & recommend 1 are the prices good? Thank you so much in advance.

PootleFlump_3

Violetta wrote: »

Hello- sorry to but in but I've spotted these machines toyota jeans plus £87.96 after 20%off or the toyota jeans £84 after discount, there are quite a few in the sale most would have a discount. I am tempted by 1 of the toyotas but really not sure, I got a machine out of Lidl's about 7 years ago & never really got on with it, would anyone be able to check these out & recommend 1 are the prices good? Thank you so much in advance.

I dont know why but Im not sure if Im convinced. Seems to be only 2 stockists, one of which is Ideal World and only 1 review which is very vague. Its maybe just me but Im always sceptical if not widely distributed and particularly when an advert has "as seen on TV" on it and suggests the RRP is around £200 more than the selling price. Sorry, just my gut feeling TBH and I could be completely wrong.

ali.b.123

Hi, back again been reading the last few pages and bookmarked some ideas that look quite good for a beginner to have a go at, but I haven't heard of heavy interfacing stabilizer is this an american term??? or could I know it under another name. This probably seems like a really daft question - sorry - hope someone could help thank you.

midge61

Hi Pootle

I have a brother machine and so that I could do the free motion quilting I bought an open toe foot here

http://www.jaycotts.co.uk/acatalog/Brother_Presser_Feet__Accessories.html
Hope that is of help for doing perfect straight lines you need a walking foot but they are far more expensive.

Violetta_2

PootleFlump wrote: »

I dont know why but Im not sure if Im convinced. Seems to be only 2 stockists, one of which is Ideal World and only 1 review which is very vague. Its maybe just me but Im always sceptical if not widely distributed and particularly when an advert has "as seen on TV" on it and suggests the RRP is around £200 more than the selling price. Sorry, just my gut feeling TBH and I could be completely wrong.

Thank you, I thought Coopers were a reputable retailer (although I'm not sure where I got that idea from).

craftygranny

Not sure they are reputable if you read all these . I'm sure earlier in this thread someone else was talking about them and some of the comments weren't good . I'll try and find it for you. it starts on page 181 and there were comments a day or two later too.

Justamum

Violetta wrote: »

Hello- sorry to but in but I've spotted these machines toyota jeans plus £87.96 after 20%off or the toyota jeans £84 after discount, there are quite a few in the sale most would have a discount. I am tempted by 1 of the toyotas but really not sure, I got a machine out of Lidl's about 7 years ago & never really got on with it, would anyone be able to check these out & recommend 1 are the prices good? Thank you so much in advance.

A few years ago I did a short sewing course, and one of the women there had one. It seemed to work ok. The only problem is that it is extremely basic and you might 'outgrow' it very quickly if you wanted to do anything a bit more fancy.

PootleFlump_3

ali.b.123 wrote: »

Hi, back again been reading the last few pages and bookmarked some ideas that look quite good for a beginner to have a go at, but I haven't heard of heavy interfacing stabilizer is this an american term??? or could I know it under another name. This probably seems like a really daft question - sorry - hope someone could help thank you.

Hi

Yes, its called interfacing and you can get it in 3 weights - light, medium and heavy. It depends which fabric you are using as to what weight you use on the your fabric. It basically does what it says on the tin (i.e stabilises your fabric). You should pretty much never use a weight that is heavier than the actual fabric itself depending on how much structure you want. If you are using normally cotton you would ordinarily use a medium weight (or lightweight if its just for example for a band around the top of a skirt or something), if you are using upholstery fabric then you might want to use heavy weight depending on what you are making. I use this stockist from ebay but you can buy it in pretty much any fabric shop. Here is the link to the guy I normally get mine from with some listings (If Im doing a bag for examplw with expensive fabric I tend to use a more expensive interfacing but this stuff is great for day to day stuff):

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Richards-Fabrics-and-Trimmings/_i.html?_nkw=interfacing&submit=Search&_sid=84815004

You can buy fuseable or sew in. Fuseable is pretty handy to be honest and I personally use this most of the time (I wouldnt suggest it if you are using very lightweight materials like silk as the material wont withstand the heat of the iron). It just irons onto the wrong side of the fabric. Sew in is good too but a bit more of a faff.

Hope this helps but if you want more info just shout or if you tell us what you are making we can tell you what would be best to buy. x


p.s Thanks Midge and Rufus. x

Ddraig

Can anyone tell me how I do an invisible stitch please?By hand I mean.Im doing a sock monkey.Done backing stitch on the parts I could do inside out.But need to do a stitch I can see for the right side.
I am a sewing amateur so please give me the idiots guide version,lol.tia xx