Monday, August 13, 2018

HINTS FOR THE ‘HOME-DRESS MAKER’ TO BE

Dressmaking is one of the most rewarding form of handicraft. There is great pleasure to be found in simply choosing with care the raw materials---- harmonising colour, texture and style---- then going on to create a beautiful finished product, added to this is the satisfaction of being able to wear your ‘work of art. Sewing your own clothes is also a money saving proposition.

Sewing your own clothes requires some right kind of tools & equipment otherwise the outcome will not be of the desired quality. It is imperative to have the knowledge of following tools & equipment’s while making dress:

THE RIGHT TOOLS &EQUIPMENTS

There are certain tools and equipment’s which are absolutely essential for the home dressmaker. As with any other craft, if you intend to take out sewing seriously, and to produce neat, professional - looking work, it is essential you have all the necessary tools of the trade. Never try to make do with inadequate or poor quality equipment, accessories or gadgets---- it just is not worth it. Scissors which are the wrong size for the job, thread which is unsuitable for a particular fabric….. small details perhaps but they are enough to spoil your finished garment, and an insult to the time and effort might have spent in the sewing,

HERE WE WILL DEAL WITH NEEDLES AND THREADS ONLY

NEEDLES:

Have a good supply of different sizes of both machine and hand sewing needles. For hand sewing, No. 7 darners are best for basting, and No.9 ‘sharps’ or ‘straws’ for fine work. ‘ Sharps’ are all purpose, sound eyed needles of medium length; ‘betweens’are short round eyed needles used for very fine sewing; ‘milliness’ are round eyed, long and slender; they are used for, basting, hand shirring and similar sewing tasks; ‘crewels’ are medium length with long eyes that make threading easy and they can carry several strands of thread at the same time. For machine sewing use No. 11 for fine fabric No. 14 for general use and No. 16 for heavy fabrics.

SEWING THREADS:

A good varied selection of types, sizes and colours is best. Mercerized cotton is best for most everyday purposes; for heavy fabrics, such as tweed, suiting and corduroy use size No.40 mercerized cotton; for light weight fabrics, use size50.

Unmercerized cotton thread is also available in sizes 10-60. No.40 has the largest shade range.

Silk thread is strong and has a certain amount of elasticity. It can be used on silk like, silk and fine wool fabrics. Button hole twist is a strong, silk thread with a special twist for making hand worked button holes, sewing on buttons and decorative hand or machine stitching, synthetic thread is a polyester stretch, man made and most drip dry fabrics. Its elasticity makes it compatible with knits and other stretch fabrics. There are also excellent multipurpose threads available which can be used for all sewing purposes, in a wise range of shades.

THE RIGHT NEEDLE AND THREAD

Whether you are sewing by hand or by machine it is essential you use the correct weight and type of thread for your fabric and also the right needle size. There are good multipurpose threads available which can be successfully used with all fabric types, but as a general rule natural thread should always be used with natural fabrics, and synthetic threads with synthetic fabrics. Using a cotton thread, for instance with a nylon fabric can cause ugly puckering of seams; and when washing the garment the cotton thread might shrink slightly, where as the fabric will not.

On the other hand if you use a synthetic thread to sew a cotton dress ,when you come to iron the garment you will in al l probability set your iron at a hot temperature could quite easily melt the synthetic thread which should only have a cool iron.

The following chart gives a general guide to the correct thread and needle size for different fabric:

*Fabric*	*Thread*	*Needles*		*Machine* *Stitches per inch*
*Fabric*	*Thread*	*Hand*	*Machine*	*Machine* *Stitches per inch*
Fine: net ,organdie, lace, lown, voil,chiffon	Natural: cotton50 Man made:Terylene	9	9-11	12-16(Natural) 12-14(Terylene)
Light weight: Silk, gingham, muslin, poplin, crepe, taffeta.	Natural: Cotton 50 Man made: Terylene	8-9	11-14	12-14
Medium weight;tweed,wool, jersey,corduroy, linen, satin, brocade, velvet, suiting.	Natural: Cotton 40 Man made: Terylene	7-8	11-14	12-14
Heavy weight:Twill, canvas, furnishing fabric, foam backed	Natural:Cotton 26-40 Man made: Terylene	12-14	13-26	8-10
Stretch fabrics	Terylene: Light weight Heavy weight	9 9-11	10-14 Use Special stretch stitch	7-8
Leather, suede	Terylene	9	16-18	6-10

xoxo

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

My creative endeavors

Yay, I actually did some sewing this weekend and oddly to easy myself into it I chose to make one of the most fiddliest/impractical things (size wise) I could. Mmm a blonde moment if ever there was one. Yeah, I made an under shirt and under pajama with muslin cloth I bought nearly 18 months ago. OH, I'm naughty keeping it that long unused, but at least it's on our clothline now though it is minus the crochet trimmings down and on the neck line. That's still to do.