Everything from sewing safety to sewing with silk…
More of a random mixed bag of goodies for you in this blog piece. As usual here at GUR Sewing Machines, we keep a note of all our favourite tips, tutorials and general sewing goodies in order to entertain and enthral you: here is the latest collection.
Sewing safety tips
We thought we’d start off on a more serious note this time – and draw attention to sewing machine safety. This is a particularly important consideration if you’re a less experienced sewist: a couple of minutes reading this could be time very well spent…
This common sense guide is by Emily Gaines, and appears on the Shannons Sew And Sew website.
Some key considerations include:-
- Buy fingers guards
- Avoid distractions
- Consider material thickness.
80 – yes 80 – sewing tips all in one article!
An absolute feast of sewing goodies here from the wonderful Vanessa Beaty on the DIY and Crafts website. The article 80 Ingenious Sewing Hacks and Pro Tips You’ll Wish You Knew Sooner will keep you entertained for ages!
All sorts of wonderful things include a great serger thread hack, finishing the top of zips and how to use a bodkin. We really can’t recommend this enough!
We love: Learn Stay Stitching:-
“It’s a great technique for curved edges or anytime you have an edge that may stretch out while you’re sewing. You can also use it on folds of fabric, like tucks, to keep them in place when you’re attaching other pieces.”
Sewing even hems
If you’re capable of enjoying any more sewing excitement after that one, treat yourself to 7 Must-Know Tips for Sewing Even Hems – an excellent article by the wonderful Beth Galvin on the always excellent Craftsy website.
Hems can be notoriously tricky to come to terms with, particularly on difficult to work with fabrics. These seven common sense tips will show you how to be more flexible in your approach by thinking ahead.
We love: “Have a hem session with a sewing friend! You can measure and pin the hems on each other’s garments and make quick work of this task.”
Sewing with silk
Slippery fabrics can be really difficult to sew with: but life just got very much easier with this wonderful how-to Sewing With Silk – Tips and Tricks for Sewing Slippery Fabrics on the Cashmerette website.
Preparation is the key – it makes life so much easier. And in one particular case helps remove the potential for a crushing disappointment once you’ve finished!
We love: “If you are not going to machine wash your silk, take it to the dry cleaner before you sew with it and have it pre-cleaned. Silk can shrink depending on how it’s treated, and a shrunken silk garment is a sad thing indeed.”
Don’t lose any more drawstrings!
This has got to be our “tip of the week” – or would be if we have one…
Really simple and saves much gnashing of the teeth – one of those marvellous suggestions that make you wonder why everyone doesn’t do it!
A big “thank you” Lisa Mabey for this wonderful tip, called How to fix your drawstring so you never lose it again.
We love: All of it!
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