My Favorite Sewing Tip

Please wait until after May 3 to post here.

When taking out a seam, I love to use my lint roller to pick up all the loose threads when I'm done. Or it works great to clean up the ironing board if I'm using a fabric that's prone to raveling. Yay for lint rollers!

Find a pin and pick it up...

...And all the day you'll have good luck (lucky that you didn't step on it).

When I drop a needle or pin and can't find it, I get out my trusty flashlight, turn off the lights, and point the flashlight in the direction of where I was sewing.  The flashlight will pick up the silver glint of the pin, making it easy to see and pick up.  Ta dah!

My favorite tip comes from my Grandmother and my Great-Grandmother, though neither one expressly passed it on...

Never be afraid to try something new, and sometimes it's the doing that's important, not the perfection (or imperfection) of the result.

One of my favorite things I've received from my grandmother is a single quilt block in the cathedral window pattern.  Grandma pieced by hand in what little free time she had.  I asked my mom why she only had one square of these beautiful little pieces.  "Because she wanted to prove to herself that she could do it.  It only took one square."  I love that she didn't have a half finished quilt that she would look at with regret.  Instead she had one block that showed her what she could do if she wanted to.

My great-grandmother lost her sight to macular degeneration, but she never lost her love of quilting.  She still pieced by hand, sewing from one finger to the next.  She even machine-quilted a few things.  The crazy seams might have horrified any quilt afficianado, but I look at them (and the tiny drops of blood from her pricked fingers) with such pride.  She never stopped doing what she loved, and sharing it with others.

How many times I have allowed myself to get so frustrated by a mistake that I don't even finish the project!  The patience and persistence of these great ladies is something I yearn for.

Slip a small scrap of white paper behind the eye of your sewing machine needle to make threading way easier...especially if you're "mature" and sewing late at night!

Thanks I was having this problem just last night.  I am newly "mature" and still learning the ropes.

tee hee! me too...i'm not sure how to define "mature", but i think i'm too young for that.  my body on the other hand, has a different opinion!

 
Before prewashing my fabric, I serge the raw edges. This eliminates all the raveling.

to colourfast and preshrink fabric,i place it in a bucket of hot water wait for water to cool then hang on line to drip dry
end result preshrunk fabric that feels like new
i learnt this from my great aunt

love that colorfasting tip... a lot of fabric i buy end up shrinking, so good one, thanks.

I sew mostly for little girls, and do a lot of gathering, so my tip is this:

if you set the thread tension to  a high number like 7 or 8 and stitch length to long(basting), the fabric will ruffle up automatically when you sew... no pulling threads, no need for any special feet, no clear elastic, no zigzag over heavy thread, anything!

 this is best done for making long lengths of ruffle, for hems or ruffle accents. I usually just ruffle a long strip of fabric and attach it the dress, then cut off the excess ruffled strip.

I tried this the other day as per instructions to make ruffled flower broach http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2010/05/tutorial-scrappy-strip-rose.html
and it didn't work on my machine.  Viking 183. 

i so love the rose and the gathering tip
thanks ladies

Gonna go and try the ruffling tip.  Thanks.

The ruffling tip worked great for me! I've been sewing on and off for years, and always zigzagged over crochet cotton to gather (which also works really well, as long as you don't catch the crochet cotton in your stitches!)  Turning up the top tension is easier still.  Just make sure you leave a long tail at the beginning and end, so if you do need to adjust,  your gathers don't fall off the end of the thread (don't ask me how I know this!)

lkcantwell,

Thanks for the colorfast tip. It will come in handy.