Not So Old Dog (Re)Learning Not So New Tricks

Lessons learned from a big project...

If you were to be totally honest, would you say that you sometimes fall into bad habits and/or take the easier way out?

I'm talking about sewing, but I guess the question might apply to life in general too.

Not being here to judge your real life decision making — not today, anyway ¬‿¬ — this post is about lessons relearned during my recent "big" project, the jackets to duffle duffle bag.

As you can see from the title of this post, these tricks are not necessarily new, just that we sometimes ignore them at our peril.

I thought I'd round them up for you just in case you may have fallen into bad habits. But then again, who knows? Maybe these are new tricks to you.

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About Pinning

Something that became my mantra while making the duffle was "pin well and trust your pinning". I don't know how many times I repeated this to myself during the final stages, when the layers got thicker and the "thing" that I was sewing got bigger.

Bottom version is pinned well...

You know how sometimes we pin quickly and/or haphazardly because we're in a hurry and figure we can just adjust it during sewing?

Well, guess what? We're really not supposed to be adjusting our pins when we sew.

When we're sewing, it should be a matter of trusting that we pinned correctly and removing each of them before the needle runs into it. Having to adjust pins on something that's under your machine's presser foot is just not optimal.

Therefore, always take the time to ensure that edges are aligned when you pin, use enough pins — and wherever you can, place them perpendicularly — and check for any shifting of "sandwiched" layers before going to the sewing machine.

In the two photos shown above, the first one shows that even though it may look good on the surface, peeling back the top fabric shows that the red (zipper tape) layer has shifted slightly. The lower photo shows the problem fixed, with all three layers aligned evenly.

About Clipping Curves

Undoubtedly you've heard of "clipping" curves. It's when we make small cuts into the seam allowance to enable curved seams to lie flat(ter). We most often do this after sewing a seam, but there are times when it's actually necessary to do this before sewing.

Snip into a zipper tape to allow it to curve along an edge...

This is particularly important if you're attaching a zipper against a curved edge. Zipper tape can be stiff and difficult to bend. If you make small cuts into the edge, it can effectively spread out and curve around something without you having to apply muscle at the sewing machine.

When I attached the end panels of my duffle onto the "giant tube" that was the base and side/top pieces sewn together, I knew that clipping the curved areas of the tube first would have made the sewing go much more smoothly.

But I didn't do so, instead opting to... baste.

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About Basting

Sometimes you just have to hand baste. I don't like hand sewing, but I've come to realize that hand basting is a necessary "evil" in my sewing world. Would that I could replace it with machine basting, but in many cases, it's simply not a viable alternative.

That's because the reason why you need to baste is often the reason you can't effectively machine baste. It comes down to the very real conundrum that if a particular area or item is going to be difficult to machine sew without basting, how are you going to run a machine basting stitch around that same area or item?

My tropical leaf rug had to be hand basted a couple of times...

In the case of attaching the end panels of my duffle bag, I didn't want to take the "big tube" to the sewing machine and rely only on pinning (done well or otherwise). My decision to hand baste was to ensure that the bulky layers wouldn't shift around while I sewed. In retrospect, I should have clipped the curved areas also.

About Seam Allowances

It is easier to sew a curved seam with a smaller seam allowance than a larger one. I first learned this lesson when I made some kimono slippers many years ago. The heel of this item had an extreme curvature — as you might imagine — and it was very difficult to sew around it with a 1/2" (or even worse, a 5/8") seam allowance. When I made subsequent pairs, I went with a smaller measurement and had an easier time of it.

With the benefit of hindsight, however, might the initial job have been easier still if I had clipped that curve and hand basted it first? Most assuredly.

All other things being equal, if the thickness of what you're sewing together is manageable and the seam won't be subject to undue stress, go with a smaller seam allowance if the item is curvy. In the case of my duffle, I sewed everything with a 1/2" seam allowance to ensure that sufficient material was in the seams, to reduce the chance that they might come apart over time due to heavy loads.

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One last reminder if you have an older sewing machine like mine: position your needle down before turning or adjusting anything. I believe that some (most?) modern machines have a setting allowing them to stop with the needle up or down automatically, which is quite helpful. I was wishing I had that function a few times during my duffle project.

This is particularly important if you're sewing something with many layers, because you could lose control of all of them if you lift the presser foot without keeping the needle down. If you pin well and trust your pinning, the result may not be that bad, but only if you haven't already pulled the closest pin at that point. Which is why basting is — again — a potential game changer.

See how all of these old tricks tie together to prove that you shouldn't take the easy way out?

Last September, I left a handmade heart at Mount Terry Fox Provincial Park in British Columbia. It had a tag on it identifying my blog post, but I haven't been so fortunate as to have made contact with whoever took it. (And who knows, it could also have blown away and been eaten by a bear.)

My second attempt at giving away a heart...

So this update is not about that heart, but about a second one. This one is made up of three different fabrics (seen in the past on this project, this one and this one) and is bound with my Winter Webs fabric, which no one else has. A bit of daisy chain ribbon adds sparkle.

Reverse side...

Due to an upcoming lifestyle change, we won't be traveling a certain highway as regularly as we have in the past, so I've decided to take the opportunity to leave a heart along the way to mark the occasion.

We'll see if this one makes a connection.

'Til next...