END OF ARTICLELIESEL'S PRACTICAL POUFBUNNY AREA
on Petticoat Pond
7. PRACTICE AND GENERAL STUFF
If all has gone well your machine is set up and sewing! Now take some larger scraps, layer them together, and draw some lines on the top piece. Draw some straight lines, a circle, some curves, and "S" curves. Sew along each line trying to keep the stitching on the line. Keep doing this until you feel confident in your ability to control the material flow. Again, it’s better to sew slow and get what you want than to go fast and end up with trash. Do this exercise with different types of material to like nylon chiffon, nylon tricot, and cotton broadcloth. If you feel like an adventure try some corduroy.
General Stuff:
When you start or end a line of stitching it is important to lock the thread at the beginning and at the end of the stitching line. If you don’t do this the stitches will come apart. My machine, and I think most machines have a way to put the machine into reverse. That is make it sew while the fabric is backing up under the foot. To lock the beginning of a stitching line sew ahead along your line for about an inch. Then put your machine into reverse and sew backwards over the stitches you just did. Put your machine in forward and continue sewing until you get to the point where you want to end the line of stitching. To lock the end of your stitching line again put your machine in reverse and sew backwards along your stitches for about an inch. Then put the machine back in forward and sew back to the end. When your there be sure the needle is all the way up, lift the foot, pull your material out from under the foot, cut the threads, and lay the machine’s threads out behind the needle so you’re ready to start stitching whatever comes next. Give yourself lots of room to work. You’ll be really impressed the first time you work on a petticoat and discover how much more of it there is than the little part you’re working on at any given minute. Keep your work laid our in front of the machine flat and ready to go under the foot for several inches ahead of the foot. Fold the under layers of the petti to the left of the sewing head to keep them out of the way. Keepthe layer you’re working on about equal between being in your lap, being laid out to the left of the sewing head, and being in back of the machine. After your all organized and you sew for a couple of minutes you won't be organized anymore. Stop sewing, leave the foot down with the needle t rough the work while you shuffle the petti around to get organized again. Once you’re reorganized start up sewing again. It’s very important to keep your work organized. If you let your work get in a mess you’ll find out how easy it is to sew things together you didn’t want to sew together.
There are usually lines on the plate where the sewing happens. These are guide lines to help you keep your work straight. If your work starts drifting off where you wanted to sew then steer it back by turning the work pieces sideways as they are entering the foot (BE CAREFUL). Also be sure that the top and bottom pieces of fabric stay lined up the way you want them. It’s very common for the bottom piece to move under the top piece and if your not keeping track you’ll find you’ve only sewn thread onto the top piece when the bottom piece moved out from under the needle. Using pins to hold the pieces together helps, but still check. If you do use pins be sure to remove each pin just before it goes under the foot. Some people just sew over the pins, but I’ve found that I get bent pins and sometimes broken needles from doing that. Go SLOW until you are used to how the piece you are working on handles. If you get off your sewing line and need to get back to it faster than you could by steering the work under the foot here’s one way I get back. Stop sewing with the needle through the material. Lift the foot and turn the material so you’re headed in a good direction to get back. Lower the foot and sew back to where you wanted to be. Again stop sewing with the needle through the material. Raise the foot and turn the material until it’s headed in the direction you want to be sewing in. Lower the foot and continue sewing. This will leave a little zig in your sewing line. This method is also useful if you have to make a tight turn in your line of sewing. Other things you could do are: End the current stitching line, move the material, and start a new line of stitching. This will also be noticeable on the completed work. The last resort is to stop sewing, remove the thread from the current line of sewing on the material, and start over. If you get it right the next time there shouldn’t be and visible signs of a problem. That is if you didn’t damage the material while removing the thread. If you have to remove thread from material there is a tool I’ve heard called by two names one is "Button Hole Opener" the other is "Seem Ripper". It’s a small sharp tool like a two tined fork with one tine longer than the other. It’s sharp on the end and there is a cutting edge between the tines. The tool is inserted between the two sewn pieces of material and the cutting edge between the tines is used to cut the thread so the pieces of fabric can be separated. BE CAREFUL! it’s easy to cut the fabric and it’s easy to cut yourself.
Good Sewing! More to come. -----Liesel
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