Sometimes you need some help. And sometimes you just need some temporary help. Help to hold things together until they get the final approval (fitting). Or help to hold things together perfectly lined up (underlining). Or just an extra hand to hold things together without using every pin in your pincushion. The basting stitch is […] Read more…
Sewing By Hand: Back Stitch, Half-Back Stitch & Prick Stitch
Let’s simplify our lives and have one go-to stitch for sewing seams and repairing. That will be the back stitch. Once you master the back stitch your life will be ever so simplified 😉 But seriously, the back stitch is one handy, all-purpose stitch that can take a lot of strain, pulls, tugs and general […] Read more…
Sewing by Hand – The Basics
As much as my sewing machine (it’s more like a computer with a needle) can do, there are situations and techniques that require a hand stitch. This video will show you how to stitch three basic hand stitches, two knots and the best way to thread a needle. The Close-Ups and Details The Running Stitch; […] Read more…
How To True A Pattern
What if the seams on your pattern are not true? What if the side seam of the back bodice is longer than the side seam of the front bodice? Or if the shoulder seam is way off? Or how do you fix a seamline that becomes wonky after you added length or another alteration to the […] Read more…
How to Sew a Maxi Skirt; Step by Step
Let’s Make This Skirt (Part 1 of this post showed how to draft your maxi skirt pattern. You can find that post here) This skirt is a straightforward kind of sewing project. The pattern is made for woven fabric, such as linen, twill, denim, basically most any bottom weight fabric. However, because it does gather […] Read more…
How to Sew On Patches
I use to cringe whenever one of my children earned another scout badge. Ug, sewing those tough little things onto a sash was bad enough, but sewing them onto the chest pocket was the worse. Other moms advised me to glue the badges on, or to buy Badge Magic at the scout store (how convenient). […] Read more…
Guide to Hand Stitches: The Slip Stitch & The Fell Stitch
Although you could sew most garments entirely by machine there are many times and many construction techniques that you could sew more accurately, with more beautiful results, and maybe, in the long run, sew it even faster, if you turned off your sewing machine and stitched by hand. This is a tale of two hand […] Read more…
How To Sew On a Button
Sewing on a button. My dad might say, “There’s a right way and a wrong way” but really, if you got that button reattached, with thread, then you succeeded. You “sewed” it back on. Job done. However, there is some truth to my dad’s way of thinking. There is a way, and it’s not very […] Read more…
Altering Your Clothes: How To Copy & Transfer Adjustments
There was a time I would wear whatever I made even if fabric puddled up on the garment in some places or it was too tight in others. I made it, I was going to wear it. The same went for ready to wear pieces too. I bought it, I liked it, I was going […] Read more…
How to Shorten a Dress with an Overlay
Once in awhile, someone will ask me a sewing question and sometimes I get to turn their question into a blog post. Such is the case with Rosemary’s question. Rosemary asked how to shorten a dress that has an overlay which is attached in the left side seam. What to Know Before We Go (aka; The […] Read more…