Sunday, June 6, 2010

Sewing Chores!

Today, just a list of a few things I don't really look forward to doing (but often need to do) in terms of sewing!

  • Ironing. I have a small card table for a sewing table, and no ironing board, so the width of the fabric is more than the width or length of my table, and it has to be shifted all around the table to sew. Small pieces, fine! Bigger pieces... More than a yard really? PAIN!
  • Binding. Maybe I haven't discovered some way to make this feel easier, but every time I've bound something I've had serious difficulty. It seems like if I don't use a really wide binding, then while I'm sewing it on some of the fabric in my fabric sandwich gets loose and doesn't sew into the binding properly... I have some pretty messed up pot holders - we'll put it that way!
  • Cutting patterns. This always seems like it's quite more difficult than it should be. Does everyone cut their patterns as exactly as I do? It takes me forever to cut out a pattern! And I find that it's more difficult to search out which pieces I need for the piece, so I just cut every piece of the pattern on the first go so they're ready for next time... Am I making this more of a task than it should be?
I'm sure there are more things I could think of, but for now... Those tasks are my sewing enemies! What are yours?

2 comments:

  1. I hate cutting out to. It's the worst.

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  2. Hi, Jen! Your garage looks great - and lots of space in there you aren't using yet. Go buy an unfinished flat front door at Home Depot, along with two adjustable sawhorses. Put them together and you've got a great sewing/cutting table! If there's no room in the house for them, you get that sweet hubby of yours to clear you out some more space in the garage! Next, pick up a copy of the magazine "Quilts and More" - there's a great section in the back of each month's called Back to Basics - the section on Better Binding is great and quite the easiest binding method I've ever found. And on cutting patterns - I usually cut out the paper pieces I need, then trim them down to the correct size so I don't cut the fabric wrong. Then I sort them by "cut on the fold" "cut two" "cut anything else". I lay out the largest pieces and the pieces on the fold first, then put the smaller pieces in the empty spots. I very seldom look at the layout on the pattern guide unless I just can't make the pieces fit on my fabric. Hope this helps!!

    Thanks for stopping by my blog, by the way! Hope to see you again!!

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