Beginner Sewing Tips from Threadbanger

Carol in her stash, Audrey with her quilt

Manuals for your machines, sewing, serging, or what have you.

Most good machine companies have your manual online as a free download nowadays.
So, If you are looking for the basics on your machine, whatever machine that is, the company's website is an awesome place to start.
So, here are a few to get you started...

Singer
http://www.singerco.com/accessories/manuals.html
You need your model number.
If you can't figure it out, Singer has a little chart to show you where you might find it.
http://www.singerco.com/support/model_number.html

Brother
http://www.brother-usa.com/manuals/default.aspx?ProductGroupID=3&WT.cg_n=Support&WT.cg_s=Manuals

Kenmore
Not so easy with the info, but they have this nice page to help you along...
http://homeappliance.manualsonline.com/manuals/mfg/kenmore/kenmore_sewing_machine_product_list.html

Janome
Choose your machine, click Specifications, in the upper right corner there will be a link to download your manual.
http://www.janome.com/index.cfm/Machines

Juki
http://www.juki.com/downloads.html

White
Like Kenmore, they don't make it easy.
http://www.whitesewing.com/customer.asp

Bernina
http://www.berninausa.com/news-n486-sUS.html

Pfaff
Currently they are charging, but they have a notice that "coming soon" the manuals will be available for free download.
I'm not holding my breath.
http://www.pfaffmachines.co.uk/pfaff_instruction_books.htm

Husqvarna Viking
Not so helpful, but here is the contact list...
http://www.husqvarnaviking.com/global/406.htm

There are many, many other machines out there.
You will find neighbors, relatives, friends, and even strangers who have one in a closet that they want to give you.

Use your google fu to find the manual if it didn't come with one.
Try typing the machine's maker and the word manual i.e.; "singer manuals" or "singer 9444 manual" or "Toyota sewing machine manual" or use the phrase "instruction booklet".

When the person gives you the machine (or sells it to you) ask if they have a box or bag of notions or fabric or stuff that came with the machine that you can have too. Chances are, that manual (and extra feet, bobbins, needles and other treasures) will be inside.
Give them your contact info in case they find the manual later. You'll be surprised at what people will send you (like a cigar box full of vintage buttons from the 1930s they found in grandma's closet). They just want stuff to go to someone who will use it.

If all else fails, send me an email and I'll try to find it for you.

Custom duvet/quilt cover in under an hour!

So, you have an old quilt that you love, but the colors just don't go with your style anymore... Recover it!
Here is my old college quilt, mom made it, it is summer weight and covers a queen size bed.
And, as you might imagine, pink and teal aren't in my color palette these days.
So, what's a girl (or guy) to do? Go to Ikea! Or Target or wherever you can find flat sheets for cheap.
Yes, $10 a sheet. Awesome.
Now, unfold them and stuff them in the washer. Wash on hot with whatever detergent you have. Toss the in the dryer on high. Brilliant, now you've preshrunk so you never have to worry about it again.
Now you have to iron them, which is a pain in the ass. But you gotta. Just the edges will do, though if the wrinkles are really bad, hit the entire thing, Both of them. Use the cotton (highest) setting and steam the heck out of them.

See, even the instructions on the label tell you to do that.
Now, find the selvages, The selvages will be the sides that are not stretchy, they may be finished and look like someone fused them or they may be hemmed, like mine are. Either way, you'll have two stretchy sides and two not stretchy, so line them up, sheet to sheet, All you have to do is match one side, and wow, look, all the sides match!

At this stage, you can start pinning. Here's a pic of the pinned edges. You can do this if you like. I only put these pins in to show you. After I took the photo, I took those three pins out. I made sure to match the two hems and just sewed until I got to the end of that side. But if you are nervous, pin that sucker up.

Sometimes when you get to the end, you will find that humans were cutting the fabric. Now the queen (and king) size sheets are HUGE, I do not have that wide a wing span, do you? So, because the fabric is huge, and other humans half a world away cut it and hemmed it, it may not actually be the same size as the other one. See? Don't worry about that. You won't even notice it. Just set the needle into the fabric all the way, lift the presser foot, turn the fabric 90 degrees, put the presser foot down and keep sewing. You'll do this at the end of each side, but keep track! The fourth side is different. You only go 1/3 of the way in on that one.

Sometimes you run into obstacles, thread breaks, you run out of thread on the bobbins, your helper decides to take a break. No worries. Rethread it and sew over the last two inches of stitching, make sure to hit the reverse on your machine and go back over a few of the new stitches as well, ditto if you run out of bobbin thread. I also backstitched at each corner, because I am paranoid like that.
So, you've sewn one third up the fourth side. Back stitch lift the needle and presser foot and cut your threads. Pull the fabric toward you to the other end. Now stitch 1/3 of the way just like before. Now you have your opening!
See, here is my quilt inside already.

It was really late and I had two glasses of wine so I didn't take shots of the insertion and turning part. I will do my best to describe it.

You've sewn it all the way round, left an opening, right? Okay, here's what I do. Sick your hands and arms in the opening, grab the corners furthest away, go pick up the duvet or quilt you want inside by to corners. Hold on tight and shake the cover you made over top. This flips your new cover inside-out and gets the old on lined up inside nicely. If you made the opening a little bit small, as I did on this one, you may need help from someone with opposable thumbs to pull it through all the way. Or, since I was on my own for this project, I extracted myself from the inside and held both corners on the outside with one hand and that way I could pull it the rest of the way down and over the quilt. I then grabbed a corner in each hand and shook the heck out of it until everything lined up and laid flat.
My mom is human and so my quilt does not line up perfectly or fully in the new cover, but that's okay. I still think it looks pretty good on the bed this morning, don't you?

Beginner Sewing Supplies

If you are a beginner, you will need a few things to get started. Needles, thread, scissors, seam ripper, pins, etc.
Yesterday I went to Ikea for fabric. They have lots of 100% cotton fabrics, meant for curtains, tablecloths, and recovering things most likely, but I love their bold designs and colors, so I buy it for other things as well.

While I was waiting for help (you cannot cut it yourself, on of the few full-serve things at the self-serve retailer) I browsed about and found that they carry little four packs of 100% cotton thread for $2.99. Each spool has 300 meter, roughly 328 yards. They had two color combos, so I grabbed them.



They also carry a sewing kit. It comes in a hard plastic box with a clear lid and has all you need to get you started. $6.99.



The scissors are heavy and sharp. I was very surprised as I had only bought the cheap three pack they sell in the kitchen section before.

fabric for a baby quilt

last week, Mrs P. asked me to ask my mom to make a pink baby quilt for her aunt's great granddaughter.

"Mrs. P wants a pink baby quilt."
"Oh? Mrs P wants a baby quilt?"
"Yeah."
"Oh?"
"Yeah! She wants a pink one. What part of this don't you get?"
"Well, I have this one."
"But that's green and orange. She wants a pink one. Pink! Girly-girl colors! It's for a baby GIRL!"
"Well, I have this one too."
"ARRUGH! That one is BLUE! Pink MOM! PINK!"
"Well, I have some cherry fabric I want to use up...(she walks well, drifts off into her quilt room [my old bedroom] and returns with two arm loads of fabric)... these are pink."
"Yes. They are pink. The cherry fabric is nice."
"Well, what do you think of this?"
(she pulls an electric pepto bismo pink out of the middle of the pile)
"Um, it sure is bright."
"Yeah, and how about these? What do you think of this with this?"
(she pulls out bunchs of clashing pinks and puts the all next to each other covering the dining room table in more pink than a cotton candy machine explosion)
"They're nice. Maybe you could use this and this and those two..."
(I pull out five girly baby pastels in more sedate tone on tone hearts and florals)
"NO! This one is better, and this with this and this and this!"
(she pushes my choices to the chair and pulls out more of of the peptos)
"Um, mom? Why do you bother to ask me my opinion?!"
(she smirks and won't look me in the eye)
"Why do you ask me what I want or what I think if you are just going to denounce my choices or disregard my opinion or put down my taste? I don't care what colors or prints you use. It just has to be PINK."
(she smiles like a caught child with chocolate on their face and a full belly)
"Well," she says, "What about these hearts?"

and I get another cup of coffee and walk back down the stairs into my basement dungeon.
beaten.