A sticky tip for sewing

i had decided some time ago that i would like to have a striped bateau neck t-shirt.  i shopped around for awhile and then decided i would be better off sewing one. minor problem, i had not machine sewn any knit fabric before. but i decided that wasn't going to stop me. i found a pattern, new look 6838, that i thought would work and some fabric. i cut out the pattern, and then it just sat there waiting for me to work on it. i even ran across this tip on pinterest about sewing on knit fabric and doing away with wavy seams.

then today i decided to try to work on the shirt. i got out the pattern, the cut fabric, my scissors, my pins, and my lovely featherweight. i am not a very experienced sewer, even though i have sewn for quite a few years. and while i adore my featherweight the needle plate does not have seam allowance marks. so i got out the handy dandy blue painter's tape to make my own seam allowance mark. 

as i started to sew the back seam the edges of the fabric were rolling like crazy. my mum had come to sit with me while i was sewing. she and i got to discussing how knit fabric was notorious for rolling. i mentioned to her the cool tip i had pinned on pinterest. then my mum being the clever and resourceful lady that she is asked why i didn't just try using the painter's tape.

 brilliant! that is exactly what i did, and it worked wonderfully. i simply tore off short pieces of the tape and laid it close to the edge of the fabric on the seam i was preparing to sew.

i also pinned the pieces together below the tape.

i then zipped it up on the sewing machine.

how it looks after it's sewn

then comes the fun part of taking the tape off. since i used a painter's tape, available at most hardware stores in the paint department, it is a low tack and is easy to remove. i simply tore off one side of the stitching.

and then the other side. as you can see the fabric started to curl up.

sometimes when you pull the tape off a wee bit of the tape gets stuck under the stitches. don't worry it's quite easy to remove. so there you have it a sticky tip for sewing knit fabric.

if you give this tip a try let me know how it works for you.

Cheers!

well hello one and all!


hasn't it just been a long time? a year. wow! who would have thunk it?


to play a bit of catch up...and to just touch on some of the highlights of the year in crafting

in 2011 this wee beauty was able to come and join me in my crafting adventures. she is a 1935 singer 221 featherweight sewing machine. she purrs just like a kitten and can handle anything. she came with all sorts of attachments. frankly the attachments baffle me but are fascinating to play with. 


one of the projects we worked on was the Simplicity 2365 blouse pattern. we even used french seams on the pattern, a first for me. we used a lovely medium blue lawn fabric, that i found at a garage sale, of course. we even tried teaming up on creating a quilt for one of the young ones. it turned out rather wonky. i assure you it had nothing to do with my sewing partner, the 221, just me and my quilting abilities.


last year i also became fascinated with ball jointed dolls and tried my hand at painting a face on a hujoo berry style doll.

i realize in this form she appears a bit creepy. 

but i did have a lot of fun  helping her look like this

I apologize for the funky arm position. 

maybe she was trying to say "it took her this long to finally finish me." i realize the face isn't perfect. in this pic her eye shadow looks quite heavy, but in person, it isn't that strong. 

 my mum even got in the fun and knitted the lovely stripey socks. you can kind of get an idea of her towering height by the fact that she is leaning against my laptop screen, which is about 8.75" tall.

and then for Christmas i decided i wanted to try my hand at making  putz/glitter style houses. i  have never really worked with glitter. i loved the results of glitter but working with it can definitely be an adventure. trying to make sure one doesn't sneeze or that the young ones don't come up and try to explain something to you while using the standard sound effects.

 an over all lights out shot

i decided to color and glitter the bottle brush trees. as you can tell from the lovely pink tree in the left hand corner of the pic.

i even tried my hand with making a semi snow globe-ish type glitter house

complete with a wee deer.

all in all a fun and successful crafting year.

and for the crafts for this year? 

well so far I have tried my hand at making some peg/kokeshi style dolls. i completed one but then sent it to our niece and forgot to get a pic of her. duh! anyway's i'm working on another one and will get a pic of her. i am going to try my hand at making some jewelry using shrinky dinks,  inspired by this necklace and then this bracelet tutorial. i also tried my hand a some wire wrapping. (and yes i realize there is a joke in there somewhere) and followed this tutorial

as you can tell by the last three links i am still having fun with pinterest. it is my go to spot when i want to find inspiration or a yummy new recipe. it's also lovely if your friends or family are using it as an easy way to share things that you find on the net.  not that i'm trying to enable you or anything. heaven's forbid! (grin)

anyway it's been a hoot catching up with all and i am going to try and find a little more time to keep up with you all this year.

Cheers!