Hand-Stitched Badges for Me-Made-May

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Tasha

A beginning embroidery primer, with free patterns.

For the last few years, May has found us around Washington DC. We usually do two art shows there, and in between stay with some dear friends and ride the Metro to visit the sites of our nation’s capitol. The whole time we’re surrounded by so many people (especially from my middle-size-town perspective). Since it’s Me-Made-May, I spend even more time thinking about what those people are wearing than I normally would. It’s easy to get a little bummed out when I look around and consider that, of the hundreds of strangers I can see at any given moment on the subway platform or at a monument, perhaps none of them are wearing anything handmade. But it also got me thinking that maybe they just haven’t considered it, that if they knew there was a whole movement going on, that folks around the country and the world were encouraging each other and posting about their handmade wardrobes at that very moment, maybe it would encourage a few of them to at least think about it.

So I wanted to bring something that said I was participating in Me-Made-May, and/or that I had made part of my outfit, off the internet and onto my physical person where all those strangers could see it. I started to talking to Zoe about it, and she liked the idea too. I owe her big thanks for her support, bouncing ideas around, and of course for putting on this challenge for us again this year! Since MMM is all about stitching, and I’ve been doing a lot of hand-sewing and embroidery lately, here’s what I ended up with:

You can make them too! I designed these little badges with embroidery beginners in mind, and I’ll walk you through some parts that might be confusing, so even if hand-sewing isn’t usually your thing, you can handle it. If you’re already further along in your embroidery journey, feel free to skip down and glance through the photos, then print the pattern and get started. Click the link below to get the pattern:

MMM-badges-pattern

materials & tools

You’ll need some felt, and some embroidery floss, thread, or fine yarn.

Wool felt is an ideal material to start stitching on, since it’s forgiving, doesn’t ravel, is thick enough to not need backing, and you can hide ends and extra stitches in the thickness.

The Me-Made-May badge is stitched here in variagated cotton floss, and the “I MADE this!” one in wool thread. There’s more about the specific threads I used at the end of this post.

You’ll also need a few basic sewing tools: a sharp needle with a long eye, and a small sharp scissors. I always wear a thimble like this one when I’m hand stitching.

Finally, you’ll need a scrap of tissue paper and a fine-point pen to transfer your design to the felt.

thread types

Let’s talk for a minute about the differences between cotton and wool, and floss and thread, for stitching. Wool threads designed for embroidery are often labeled “crewel” (a type of embroidery) and are usually made up of two single strands (called plies) twisted together. This plying is integral to the structure of the thread, and it’s not meant to be separated.

Cotton floss often comes in a loosely twisted bundle of threads, which can be separated to make various thicknesses. This is called “strandable” floss. If you look closely (maybe with a magnifier), each strand of this kind of floss actually has its own two-ply structure. Some cotton threads have a non-strandable structure as well.

Just like in sewing or knitting, the different properties of wool and cotton fibers make a difference to how they work in embroidery. Wool’s crimpy, elastic nature means that it plumps up, filling gaps and making it easier to embroider a smooth satin stitch or a plush knot. Cotton is denser, smoother, and less elastic, meaning you may need more thread to cover the same area, and the stitching will have a tighter, flatter look.

getting started

Put a little piece of tissue paper over the printed pattern you want to make. You can use scraps of tissue, and iron them flat if necessary. Using a fine-point pen that won’t bleed, trace the pattern carefully, including the circle around the edge. Make a single line for thinner shapes and letters, and draw around the outline of thicker shapes. Pin the tissue to your felt, with the pins outside the circle. You’ll stitch right through the tissue and the felt to make the design.

I tried several methods of transferring the patterns to my felt, and this one worked the best. An iron-on transfer pen (not a pencil) also works, but it makes thick permanent marks that are a little fiddly to apply, and must be covered with stitching.

To thread the needle, I use the techniques I shared in this Seamwork article about hand-stitching. I found that it helps to fold over the end of the wool thread, and to wet the end of the cotton floss.

To begin, take a long stitch on the back through the thickness of the felt, coming up near where you want to start. Let a little bit of thread remain on the back surface. You can trim it off later to neaten things up. If possible, take your first stitch as a backstitch to anchor the thread.

General embroidery tips:

Stitch in good light! It’s unbelievable what a difference this makes.
Test out your stitches and thread on a scrap before you start, especially if you are experimenting with new stitches and/or aren’t sure what thickness of thread to use to get the look you want.

How even your stitches look depends mainly on how even the tension is between one stitch and the next. Start off slow and even.

When moving from one letter or shape to the next one, take a stitch through the thickness of the felt to keep it hidden. To keep long stitches from pulling the next part of the embroidery out of shape, push the needle straight through to the back of the work, then take a long stitch into the felt, coming out on the back near where you want to start again. Then bring the needle up to the front in your next spot.

the stitches

Most of the text in these patterns is made with backstitch. I explain this stitch in that Seamwork article, and in even more detail in this post.

Backstitch tips:

Put your needle in right at the end of the last stitch for a solid line.

Look ahead at the section you are stitching, and decide whether to divide it into two stitches or three, etc.

Think about the path of the thread when you come to corners and curves. Remember that where the needle goes in is the beginning of the current stitch, and where it comes out is the end of the next stitch.

For the scallops around the edge of the Me-Made-May badge, I used a simple straight stitch. Follow the individual lines on the pattern for a looser look that shows off the separate threads, or fill in the whole scallop shape, depending on the thread you’re using and the look you’re going for.

I filled in the thicker lines of text with satin stitch, which is basically a row of straight stitches very close together, so that they look like a solid surface. It’s easier to keep these stitches even and plush-looking if you work them over a base of another stitch. For these patterns I outlined the satin stitch sections in backstitch first.

Straight & satin stitch tips:

Backstitch around the outline of all the text, and finish all other parts of the design that use the pattern as a guide, then remove the tissue pattern before you fill in the satin stitch. You’ll be able to see exactly where the stitches are more clearly, and pulling off the tissue will be easier.

Cut carefully around the outer circle of the design. Leave the outside of the tissue pinned to the felt for reference and later cutting (you may actually want a few more pins at this point to hold it smoothly). Tear out the part under the badge itself. Pointed tweezers are an ideal tool for pulling out tiny/stubborn pieces of tissue.

I find it easier to keep an even tension if I put the needle all the way through to the back at the end of each stitch, and bring it up again close to the stitch I just made on the same side of the shape I’m stitching. This method is slower to work than the more common technique of taking the needle under on one side of the shape and up on the other side in one stitch. But, it uses less thread and is easier to control, especially when you’re starting out.

Stitch as close to the foundation backstitches as possible for a full look. You can even push the foundation stitches to the side with the needle to make more space and keep the line of stitches even.

If your satin stitch comes out a little lumpy, it can help to put the eye of your needle into a row of stitching and move it gently back and forth.

When making satin stitch around curves (like on the D in “MADE”) it helps to make the stitches inside the curve as close together as possible, and fan them out a bit on the outside of the curve, a technique that’s illustrated in detail on Needle ‘n Thread here.

The round knots around the outside of the “I MADE this!” badge are colonial knots. They’re a variation on a French knot where you loop the thread in a figure eight around the needle before pushing it back into the fabric. I like these because they hold a larger, more textural shape, and can’t come undone as you’re making them. They look especially plump in wool threads. There are more pictures and explanation about colonial knots on Sarah’s Hand Embroidery Tutorials.

finishing

When you come to the end of a section of thread, bury it through the felt for a short distance and come out on the back. You can trim the ends close, since some thread remains in the thickness to keep your stitches from pulling out.

Once all your stitching is complete, cut out the felt circle, once more going carefully around the shape you traced.

Sew a pin, a clip, or a magnet to the back, and it’s ready to go meet the world.

supplies

I used handmade felt, because I have lots of scraps of it laying around. Use what you can find near you, but if you possibly can, use real wool felt rather than the synthetic stuff. Wool is just so much lovelier to work with, and it will hold up to wear much better. Mine was 2-3mm, or around 1/8” thick. Weir crafts sells a variety of felt online, including some that’s handmade and some that’s made in USA.

I discovered two things while looking for threads for this project: there are probably as many small companies and indie dyers making embroidery threads as there are making knitting yarn, and I personally am just not interested in using floss in flat colors. My mom has been into embroidery for as long as I can remember, and a quick dig through just part of her stash resulted in many more beautiful options than I could use.

For the Me-Made-May badge, I chose two colors of variegated cotton “painter’s threads” from Tentakulum; 121 “Cezanne” and 125 “Matisse.” They’re made in Germany, and available through embroidery suppliers in the US, including Artistic Artifacts. DMC also makes a couple of ranges of variegated floss, which are a lot more common, at least where I live.

For the “I MADE this!” design, I used some amazing fine crewel wool thread, dyed with natural pigments by Renaissance Dyeing, out of France; color numbers 0309, 1622, 1708, and 2000. Single colors are available in the US through Hedgehog Handworks. Photos do not do these colors justice; they are good enough to eat! Any crewel wool or very fine yarn that you like would be a good substitute.

In case you’re wondering, while I had plenty of materials to choose from right in front of me, I did do a little searching to see what I could come up with for organic/traceable threads. Renaissance Dyeing looks good on the sustainability front; they use all natural dyes and local wool, it’s just that they’re far away from me. Organic Cotton Plus also sells a line of organic cotton embroidery floss which is grown & spun in Peru and dyed in the USA.

Personally, I think I’ll be using a lot of the yarn scraps I have lying around, especially for larger designs. And I think it would be well worth it to buy (or spin!) some natural colored thread, and drop a tiny skein into every dye pot I try. It takes so little, why not?

resources

All you have to do is start searching on Instagram, Etsy, or wherever you get your internet eye candy to find amazing examples of beautiful modern embroidery. I particularly like Katherine Shaughessy’s crewel work, she has two books with a fun modern aesthetic, and sells supplies and patterns (with some free ones) on her site Wool & Hoop. Yumiko Higuchi also does some of my favorite embroidery. She likes to to mix wool & cotton threads, and her book just published in English (Simply Stitched) does a great job of taking advantage of the properties of both, as well as being full of inspiring designs.

If you make one of these, I’d absolutely love to see it! Share it using #mmmay16, #handstitched, or email me a photo. And of course, I’m here to answer questions if I can.

Happy stitching!

Back into My (Slow) Groove

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Tasha

Hello and happy October 1 everyone! We’re home, and Bryan’s big exhibit is open. I’m getting back into my own routines and creative practices. I have a backlog of stuff to share with you, but I wanted to start with two very October-first-related items:

The new issue of Seamwork magazine comes out today (the menswear issue—cool huh?) and I have a tutorial in it about how to sew your own leather thimble! It’s coincidentally perfect for:
#slowfashionoctober which also starts today! I think this is a great idea and I’m excited to see what everyone comes up with. I’ll definitely be writing more about “slow” and how I feel about it this month. And I’ve also decided to use it to tackle maybe the slowest-ever project—a sweater that my mom knit for my grandmother, which I’ve tried to make over so I can wear it, but it needs more help. I have a plan, so we’ll see how that goes.

Stay tuned, and hope you’re looking forward to October plans as much as I am!

Tips and Ideas for Sewing Cover Buttons, DIY and Store-Bought

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Tasha

As I mentioned in my knitted cover button post, I got into some online research on DIY cover buttons, and I couldn’t resist making up a couple of sewn ones. Special thanks to Sophie of Ada Spragg for pointing me towards Ebony H’s tutorial for fabric covered buttons on SewStylist! I love the idea of covering existing buttons, and especially that you can sew through them. But, I’m kind of a purist, I like things clean, and held together with needle and thread alone. And I had some more ideas … so, below is my version.

If you’d rather use a cover button kit from the fabric store (I do this a lot too), scroll down (way down) towards the bottom of the post, and I’ll include my favorite tips for those as well.

Let’s get started, shall we?

Measuring & planning the button front

Draw around your button with a fine-point marker. It’s easiest to use one that erases with water or air, but if you don’t have that, you can use any regular marker that won’t show through your fabric, just keep all markings on the wrong side of the button. Draw another circle outside the button outline—this is the fabric that will wrap around the button to the back. It should be just a little smaller (about 1/8″ or 3mm smaller) than the thickness of your button plus half its width. If your button is bigger, you can have more of a gap in the fabric at the middle of the back. For these little buttons, I wanted as much fabric on the back as I could get without it bunching up in the middle, so that it has the best chance of staying in place and not fraying as I sew it. Mark the distance you want outside the button outline at several points, then connect them to make an outer circle. (This picture also shows the markings for the back piece, which we’ll get to later.)

Embroidery (optional of course)

If you’d like to add any embellishments, it’s easier to work them before you cut out the fabric pieces. I was inspired by this post on The Purl Bee, but decided I’d rather have simple stitching. I think this would look great if you used the same thread as the topstitching on your project.

Since I used a water-erasable pen, I could stitch on the same side as the marks, following the button outline.

Once I was done with my embroidery, I caught the thread ends in the stitching on the wrong side, and trimmed them off.

Sew & gather the button front

Cut out your fabric circle. Then sew a line of running stitches around the edge, around 1/8″ or 3mm inside the cut edge. Ordinarily I’d use matching thread for this, but as you’ll see, it won’t show, so use contrasting if it’s easier to see. Start with a knot, or leave a long tail so you can pull on both ends of the thread when you’re done. The smaller you make the stitches, the easier it will be to pull your gathers in tight.

Time to pull the gathers around your button. At this point it occurred to me that I needed to get the button wet at some point to erase the marker, and it might be easier to manipulate the gathers if the fabric was damp. It totally was! So I highly recommend spritzing your fabric with a little water before you cinch it around the button. This should work for all natural fibers.

Pull the gathers in tight. Use your thumbnail or an awl, etc. to redistribute any gathers that are bunching up.

Once the gathers are set how you’d like them, stitch around the back, a bit inside the edge, with a series of backstitches to hold them in place.

The button back

I wanted another fabric piece to cover all these raw edges on the back. To make one, draw around your button again, but this time just add a tiny bit around the edge, I found 2 mm to be just about perfect (I know you have a metric ruler, fellow Americans).

Stitch another circle of running stitches, this time just inside the line you drew around the button. Leave a tail of thread at the beginning and the end.

Pull on both the thread tails to gather the raw edge to the inside. It may help to get the fabric wet again. You can use the blunt end of a needle to push out any parts of the turned-in edge that get bunchy. This doesn’t have to end up as a perfect circle, since it will be on the back, but roundish is helpful.

Once the back looks pretty good, I like to tie the thread ends in a knot, so the fabric won’t come ungathered as I sew it on.

You can guess what to do now, right? Yep, sew the back piece in place, using tiny stitches around the edge.

Finish off with a couple of backstiches under the edge.

That’s it! I sewed them on using my favorite method, making a thread shank on the back. You could also sew just through the fabric on the back of the button, rather than through the original button holes, but I think this would leave the fabric on top of the button free to shift around a bit.

The possibilities here are endless … and speaking of endless possibilities:

Tips for store-bought cover button kits

I use these a lot (at least I did before I discovered the above technique). My favorite are the tiny ones (surprise). Here are my best tips:

1. Get the kind with the teeth facing inwards, not the ones with the flat metal edge. The teeth are a lot easier to work with, and you can use them without tools, precisely centering your fabric. The flat edge also cuts through the fabric over time, meaning your buttons wear out faster.

Ones on either side, good, the center ones, not so much. Her hair! Can you tell I inherited cover button kits from both my grandmothers?

2. Use another layer of fabric, or something thin and opaque like interfacing, under your button fabric. This prevents the shiny button from showing through, and gives your button a subtle but nice plusher look. The extra piece only needs to be the size of the button top, since it doesn’t need to wrap around.

I replace the fabric on a couple of these buttons on my coat about once a season. The ones with a layer of interfacing do seem to last longer.

3. The guides printed on the back of the button kit are probably too big for thick fabric and/or knits. You need enough fabric to secure in the teeth, but not so much that it bunches up and keeps the back from seating in securely. You may need to experiment to find the right size circle for your fabric.

4. Pull the fabric up from two opposite sides, and hook it onto the teeth by pressing it under them. Repeat at right angles to your first two points, and then do the places in between.

5. For knits, it’s up to you how much you stretch the fabric as you pull it over the button. Pulling less will make the buttons look more plush. Try to be consistent, however you like it.

6. It’s totally possible to use the metal parts of these kits many times when the fabric wears out (like on my coat). Use any small flat tool to pop off the back, then pull off the remains of the fabric, and start again.

7. You could definitely use embroidery on these as well (they do in that Purl Bee tutorial), just be careful when centering the fabric—see 4. You could even use the embroidery to tack your two layers together.

I think that’s the lot, for now anyway. Best returns of the season, everyone!

How to Add Pockets in Seams

Posted on October 24, 2014 by Tasha

I used to joke about this, but I’ve decided it’s actually true: the lack of pockets is holding women back. I mean, if our choices are either carry a purse everywhere and don’t let it out of sight, ask someone of the opposite gender to hold things for us, or attempt to stick our phones in our bras, of course we’re going to struggle to be taken seriously.

I do carry some kind of bag most places I go (with essential stuff like my notebook, and sometimes knitting in it), but there are lots of times when just pockets will do. Everyone needs pockets, good pockets that are actually big enough to put your phone in, and sit down afterwards.

I was so exited about finishing this dress that I forgot to add the pockets, and had to go back and put them in! I’ll include a bit about the decorative edging I used at the end of the post.

This is why maker & fixer skills are important: instead of complaining about the lack of pockets, we can change it, and add some ourselves. Guys who don’t have enough pockets in their lives are welcome too!

In this post I’ll go over adding pockets to a seam in your garment, commonly called “side-seam” or “in-seam” pockets. You can do this as you’re sewing, or retrofit pockets into a garment that’s already finished. In short, the steps are: 1. Plan your pocket, and prepare the pieces. 2. Sew the pocket pieces to the garment seams. 3. Sew the garment seams, including around the pocket. If you have some beginner sewing skills, you can handle this. (Ahem, get some skills here.) Let’s get started! As usual, click on any of the photos to enlarge for a closer look.

Plan & Prepare Your Pocket

First figure out how big and what shape you’d like your pocket to be. You can use a pocket piece from a pattern you have, or trace the shape of an existing pocket that you like onto paper for a pattern. (If you trace an existing pocket, remember to add extra space—seam allowance—all around it to account for the fabric that will be used up in the seams.) I used the pattern piece at right, which is a common shape for side-seam pockets.

Figure out where along your seam you want your pocket to go, and mark it with pins. Measure the length of the flat side of your pocket, the part that you’ll sew into the seam. This is how much space you’ll need on your seam for the pocket. If you’re sewing from scratch, you can just center the pocket on your pin marks, and sew it as explained below, before you sew the seam. If you’re adding pockets to a garment that’s already finished, you’ll need to rip the seam where you want the pocket to go, taking out a space a bit bigger than the pocket piece, to give yourself room to work. I really like using this method to rip seams. Don’t worry about tying off the ends of the old seam here, because you’ll sew over them later.

Fabric and Piecing

You’ll need two pocket pieces for each pocket you want to add. Cut them so that they’re mirror images, i.e. so that you can sew the shape together and have the right (public/outside) sides of the fabric touching.

This kind of pocket doesn’t show much, but you’ll probably be able to see a bit of it peeking out. If you have matching fabric, obviously cutting your pockets from that will make it blend in the most. If not, choose something you like that you won’t mind seeing a bit of. The pocket fabric should be fairly tightly woven/sturdy, especially if you plan to carry heavy objects in it.

If you have only a bit of matching fabric, you can cut each side of the pocket in two pieces, so that the matching part is at the top. When planning this, don’t forget to add extra seam allowance where the pieces meet. Sew the pieces together into the pocket shape before you attach them.

On close inspection you can see that the two halves of this pocket are pieced in different places, and that’s fine. The printed fabric matches the outside of this dress, and the white is scraps from the lining.

Note: You can also add to a skimpy existing pocket (I hate those!), by cutting off the bottom and adding more. Rip a bit of the old pocket seams along the sides to give yourself room to work. Sew each side of the new pocket bottoms to the old pocket tops, then sew around the pocket, overlapping the old seam. The finished pocket may look something like the one above.

Sew the Pocket to the Seam

Once you have your pocket ready and know where it will go, pin one pocket piece onto one side of the garment seam. Line up the seam allowances, and make sure you place the right side of the pocket touching the right side of the garment piece. Sew the pocket on, using the same seam allowance as the garment seam, or just slightly narrower. Start and stop a little bit outside the pocket. You don’t need to back-tack your seams, they’ll be held in place by other stitches later.

This illustration shows attaching the pocket to a seam you’ve ripped, which is still in place above and below the pocket. It’s the same if you’re starting from scratch, except that the other piece of the garment won’t be attached yet.

Repeat this procedure with the other pocket pieces, making sure that any two sides which will be one pocket are aligned at the same place on the garment seam.

Using your iron, press the pockets open, away from the garment. Don’t skip this step! It will make all the difference in a clean finish.

Here’s what it looks like in real life, with one side of the pocket sewn on and pressed open, although it’s a little hard to see in the tiny print:

Sew the Seam with a New Pocket

To finish, sew the garment seam, including around the pocket. When you get to the top of the pocket, sew just inside of the pocket stitching and fabric, to avoid catching anything in the seam that will show. Stop with the needle down, and pivot at the point where the seam allowance matches on the garment and the pocket. Keep sewing, around the pocket, and pivot again when you reach a point just inside (towards the garment, not the pocket) the first seam at the bottom of the pocket. If you’re sewing from scratch, you’ll sew the whole seam above and below the pocket in this step as well. If you’re refashioning a pocket, you’ll start and stop just enough away from the pocket to overlap the old seam stitching.

The stitching for this step is shown in the darkest color, overlapping the old seam, and just outside of the seam that attaches the pocket pieces.

Look, brand new wonderful pockets!

If your garment has a lining, you now have two choices. You can leave it alone, meaning the pocket will sit between the garment and the lining, which is usually good. On my lightweight dresses, I decided to make an opening in the lining seam, so that the pocket would be inside the lining too, and show less from the outside. All you need to do for this option is to rip the lining seam at the pocket opening, or leave a gap when you are sewing the seam. Knot the thread ends, or back-tack your stitching, to hold the edges of the gap in place.

And Finally, Optional Decorative Pocket Strips

Since I was thinking about celebrating pockets, I decided to make the ones on my latest sundress a little more visible by adding fabric strips that matched the binding and straps on the dress. Just in case you like this look, here’s how I did it:

1. Cut strips 1/2″ wider and longer (for 1/4″ SA) than you want them to appear when finished. I made them 1/2″ wide finished, (cut 1″ wide) and slightly longer than the pocket opening.

2. Press the strips in half to mark the center, then press the SA under all around.

3. Topstitch each strip in place, close to the edge of the strips.

4. Sew the seam, and around the pocket, as you normally would.

Have you ever added or improved pockets? What do you think about how the pockets in ready-to-wear relate to our society’s image of women? Any other relevant thoughts?

Basting: Thread Magic

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Tasha

I kind of feel sorry for anyone who doesn’t like basting, or thinks they don’t. It’s a like a magic wand for your sewing. It keeps things exactly in place for exactly as long as you need it, doesn’t distort your final sewing, doesn’t need to be removed as you go, and can be pulled out when you’re done, leaving no mark behind.

I fell in love with basting many moons ago, while sewing a collar onto a button-down shirt. I had all the layers of shirt and collar scrunched together ready to sew, and no matter how many pins I put in, the fabric kept shifting under the sewing machine as I went and getting terribly uneven, and/or folding over and catching pieces of the shirt I didn’t want in the seam. After ripping it all out and starting over two or three times, I decided to baste it in by hand and see if that was any better. Held by the basting, the shirt and collar seam went through the machine without a hitch, as nice as I could ask for, on the first try.

Basting just means any kind of temporary stitching, meant to hold fabric in place until you can get the final stitching done. The advantage is that the basting doesn’t have to be neat and even, or strong enough to hold up with wear, so you can concentrate just on the fabric while you’re basting, and then just on stitching when you’re sewing the final seam.

If I’m in a situation where I want basting, usually it’s because I need more precise control over the fabric, so I baste by hand. To baste, simply sew running stitches (illustrated at the top). The stitches can be pretty big and uneven—concentrate on the placement of the fabric layers with each stitch, rather than the stitches themselves. I like to begin and end with a backstitch, just to keep the basting from pulling apart until I’m done.

Some good places to use basting are: when you want things to align exactly (like matching stripes), when there are a lot of shifty layers (like the collar seam), or any other time when you want to make sure some part of your project will stay in place while you sew it. For the soft bra below, I knew there was no way the lace would stay in the folds I wanted against the fabric if it was held only by pins. Plus, basting allowed me to put everything together on my dress form, seeing exactly how the lace would work on a body, and then take the whole thing off the form and sew it.

It worked great! When you’re done with the final seam, you can remove the basting easily. Pick out the backstitches at the ends and grab one thread tail, then you can often pull out a long basting thread with one pull. Unless of course you sewed over it in the final stitching, but no worries, that happens. Just pull out what you can at once, you may have to cut and pick out a few small thread bits.

Although it may sound like a technique for more advanced sewing, I definitely recommend basting for beginners too. When you’re just starting out, learning how your machine handles fabric, especially in tricky situations, isn’t easy. You can baste practically anything that you just can not get to stay in place while sewing on the machine, get much better results, and save yourself a lot of frustration. According to The Mary Frances Sewing Book, back when most garments were sewn by hand, it was more efficient to baste a seam first, and then sew it, than to sew the final stitches while trying to keep the fabric layers in place.

Best of luck with your sewing!

How to Mend a Small Hole: Sewing a Patch by Hand

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Tasha

Here’s another way to fix a small hole in a shirt or a sweater—especially a hole that’s a little too big to simply sew back together without causing puckers. No sewing machine required though, it’s more invisible to sew a little patch like this by hand. These examples are in woven fabric, but this technique also works on knits. I sewed a patch like this on the front of this sweater, which because of the fuzzy knit fabric is too invisible for pictures!

I’m going to demonstrate on two skirts, which happen to both be made of linen, cut on the bias, and have small holes. The difference is, the blue one at the top I fixed for keeps—it had a little tear, but the rest of the fabric is still in good shape. I bought the pink stripey one for a dollar on the sale rack at St. Vinnie’s, and it followed me around the country on our summer travels for years. I even tried out two different ideas for adding pockets to bias skirts on it. By now it’s on its way out, the fabric across the back has a few tears, and is super thin and ready to tear in a lot more places. It’s ready to retire, but I can get one more use out if it by fixing one of the holes with bright green thread so you can see what’s going on.

To start, cut a circular patch, about three times as big across as your hole. Making it a little bigger will make the sewing easier, and you can trim it later. If you have a piece of the garment fabric, cut the patch from a section that matches up with where the hole is, in terms of color, pattern, or wear. If not, just try to find something that matches as well as possible. Hold the scrap behind the hole to see how it looks. If your fabric is very loosely woven, you may want to sew around the edges of the patch to keep it from unraveling. Otherwise, a circular patch should be ok as it is through normal wear and washing.

Click on any of the pictures to enlarge, you can see more detail here than I could while sewing the patches!

Carefully center the patch behind the hole. Match the grain (the direction of the grid of threads) of the garment and the patch. This is especially important if the garment is cut on the bias (with the grain at 45°) like this one, because I want to avoid changing the drape of the bias cut.

Pin the patch in place through the front of the garment, sticking each pin in and out of the fabric twice. Check to see that the patch is centered over the hole, and re-pin if necessary. If the fabric is slippery, it may be easier to sew a few temporary basting stitches, and pull them out when you’re done, than to get the pins to hold it.

Knot your thread, and bring it up from the back. Sew around the hole a couple of times, sewing through both layers using small backstitches. Don’t pull the stitches too tight, or the fabric will pucker up. Try to catch each thread that is cut by the hole on one pass or the other. If there are intact threads in the center of the hole, tack them down to the patch too.

The goal is to keep the hole from unraveling any further, without adding so many stitches that it makes the patch stand out.

When it’s done, secure the thread with another knot or a couple of backstitches just through the patch on the back.

Here’s the finished patch on the front:

And from the back. You can trim the patch, but leave some around the edges so that if it unravels slightly, there will still be enough fabric to hold it in place.

Here’s the back of the blue one:

Hopefully this adds another option to your mending toolkit!

DIY Crib Rail Covers for Teethers — A Tutorial

Posted on December 5, 2013 by Tasha

So apparently, small teething children will chomp down on wooden crib rails like beavers. I really had no idea until, visiting our dear friends at the end of the summer, I saw the evidence first hand, little teeth marks right through the wood finish. My friend the mama was thinking about ordering some covers for the crib rails, but I knew we, ok I, could easily make some, and I would get to sew! In August, after months away from my sewing machine, this seemed like a gift from the universe, plus it would be so useful and cute for friend mama and her little one! I’m going to share my notes and method, which should work for any crib, below. This is a fairly quick project, so if you are still looking for a gift for a young family, it could be a good one.

To make up for only having quick snapshots of this project (did I mention there was a baby involved?) I’m making it my illustrated post for this month.

First things first, I measured the crib. I wanted the covers to go around the whole rail easily, so I added a little extra ease to my measurements. The back rail is against the wall, apparently too awkward an angle for little one’s head to chew, so I didn’t worry about that one.

$crib rail protector math$ I know that the quilt batting (which I want here for padding) will shrink a little bit, probably not enough to affect the width, but for the length I’ll include a bit extra. I usually use 1/2″ seam allowances, which I did for the width. I decided to use 1″ seam allowance on each end for the length, since that is where I am likely to want more wiggle room. To figure out how much fabric I need, I made another diagram, since I’m really a visual thinker.

So here are the supplies I got, including a little extra fabric for shrinkage, since it’s 100% cotton:

Two yards fabric (Modern Bliss design #13662 by Robert Kaufman)

One yard super wide cotton quilt batting, for two layers of batting in each cover

Eight yards of totally beautiful soft cotton ribbon for ties

All of this came from Stitchin’ Post in Sisters, OR.

When getting ready to sew, don’t forget to preshrink your fabric! Wash the fabric and dry it the same way you (or the recipient) plan on treating the finished project. I also put the ribbon through wash and dry, in a lingerie bag, just in case it was going to bleed any dye, etc., since a baby might be chewing on it. I didn’t pre-shrink the batting. The package it came with says it will shrink 3%, which will give the covers a bit of that puffy quilted look once they are washed. After washing, I ironed the fabric and ribbon to get rid of wrinkles and make it easier to measure and work with.

Cut or rip the fabric and batting into strips 10″ wide (or the width you picked for your crib), and then divide them for the length of the covers, as in the diagram above. Take one fabric section with its corresponding batting to the crib, make sure the size seems close, and decide where you want to put the ties and how long they should be. We decided on 7″ for each tie, which divided fairly neatly into 8 yards, 20 ties with two sides each. I just cut the ends of the ties at a diagonal to keep them from fraying, and left the other end, which will be sewn inside the cover, squared off.

I pinned the ties to one side where I wanted them to go, and then with the fabric off the crib, folded it in half to match and pin the matching tie. It’s helpful to leave just a bit of each tie sticking out beyond the fabric, so you’ll be able to see where they are when you’re sewing.

Make a fabric stack for each cover, with two layers of batting on the bottom, then one layer of fabric (right side/public side up) with the ties pinned in place (I pinned them in the middle too, so that they wouldn’t shift around and get caught while sewing). Then top with the other side of the fabric, right side down towards the ties.

Hold the whole sandwich together with a few pins, and sew down each long side with a straight stitch, 1/2″ from the edge—our planned seam allowance.

Each time you come to one of the ribbon ties (which you’ll know because the ends are sticking out) sew over it, then back up and sew forward again, so that there are three lines of stitching holding each tie in place. Blend back to your seam allowance line, and keep sewing to the next tie.

Once you have sewn down both sides, turn the whole thing inside out and tada! The batting is on the inside and the ties are on the outside. I had thought I would trim the batting from the seam allowances, but when I got to this stage it didn’t seem necessary. I just pressed everything in its new orientation, smoothing things out and using the iron with steam.

Check the size of the cover on the crib, the fold the ends to the inside to get the length you like. I decided to stitch them closed by hand, using a ladder stitch which picks up a little fabric from each side. It just looks better, and I can also add a line of stitching near the ends when quilting so that the hand stitches won’t take much strain. The white UFO near my fingers in the photo is the head of a pin . . .

All that’s left is the quilting! I don’t usually quilt; I’m too obsessed with the properties of different fabrics, their drape as a 2-D material wraps a 3-D body, and the possibility of walking around all day protected and flattered by garments I made. I do see how quilting is perfect for something like this though, and I don’t mind the quilted look, but it does bug me when the stitching totally contrasts with the fabric, especially when I like the fabric as it is. I decided to use the diagonals in the print as guides for my quilting stitching, and not to worry about them being exactly all the same. It gave the covers more of a modern look, which the mama and I loved. I did check the batting instructions, which said to quilt no more than 8″ apart, and make sure the maximum distance between my lines was not more than that. I quilted to one end, checked the measurements and then did a second round. I didn’t have access to a walking foot, so I spread the fabric and batting sandwich outward from the foot with my hands as I went, and it worked just fine.

I just loved making these, mostly because at the time I was thrilled for the chance to take a project from idea in my head to finished object in my hand! I’m sure I could have looked up someone else’s directions, but I didn’t want or need to, and I love how my version came out. I played with the balance between making something as good as I can, because it’s for my best friend’s baby, and going with the flow, letting it be a bit inexact and show its handmade-ness, because it’s the real world, and because I always think handmade things are the most beautiful.

If you try this project, I hope you’ll agree, and have as good a time as I did! Happy week everybody!

A Hot Weather Sundress, and Making Spaghetti Straps

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Tasha

I’m catching up here. You know how sometimes, if you prepare carefully for something, it doesn’t happen? I made this dress for Me-Made-May, but didn’t end up wearing it until the middle of June, due to unseasonably cool and rainy weather all month long. This year I wanted to up my pledge for May, so that I wore at least two items of me-made clothing at all times. When it’s really hot out, I like to wear only two items of clothing period, one of which must be a sundress, which allows as much heat to escape from my skin as possible. My airiest one in particular was 1. wearing out and 2. not me-made, so I clearly needed to replace it before May. It had a couple of features which I wanted to replicate in my self-stitched version: just about the lowest neckline I am comfortable wearing in public, layers of very light fabric, and gathering at the empire waist.

I used my self-drafted sundress pattern again, altering it this time for a cross-over gathered front. Each time I make a new version of this dress, I change the back in an attempt to make it not pull up at the center back, and both times so far it has not worked. Any ideas? I’m pretty happy with how the front came out though. One thing I’ve learned: the key to keeping the bodice from immediately gaping open when I bend forward is to ease the top edges into a slightly shorter binding, so that I take some of the fullness around the bust out again. It’s especially important since I replaced the darts on this version with gathers.

This fabric is a cotton batiste, I’m sorry to say I have no recollection of where it came from, I just remember it being in my stash for a long, long time. My first idea was to use plain white for the lining layer. As I was cutting out the main fabric pieces, I dropped a piece in my fabric scrap pile, and it happened to land on top of a piece of felt in this light minty green color. I suddenly remembered that I had another piece of lightweight cotton in a really similar color, which might look great as the inner layer. It turned out there was just enough of that fabric for the lining and bindings, and I really like how the green adds a little hint of color under the main fabric, and how it looks peaking out at the hem, a detail I added to show off the second color. Even though I decided not to join any of the official fabric stash-busting challenges going on this year (despite this cool anime dinosaur logo) I have been making a conscious effort to use the fabric I already have, and making some good progress, in part inspired by all the other sewers who are doing the same.

Click on this picture (or any of the others) to enlarge for easy reading.

With all the sundresses and tanks I’ve been making the last year or so, I’ve gotten a lot of practice making thin “spaghetti” straps, and come up with a method that I like. If the fabric is lightweight, like this one, I’ll use two fabric layers for each strap. Since the dress will hang from the straps for most of its life, I want them to be fairly sturdy. I cut each one 1 1/4″ wide, and a couple inches longer than I think I’ll need. I get the best results when I zigzag the two strap layers together first, with a narrow zigzag right on the edges. It keeps the layers from shifting as I sew, and from unraveling as I turn the strap right side out. Then I press the strap in half, to get a clean even fold. I stitch the strap seam with a short straight stitch, 1/4″ from the edges. Then turn it right side out. I use a long wire, as explained here. The straps come out about 1/4″ wide, and somewhat thick and rounded. If you do the math, the extra 1/4″ in the width becomes the “turn of cloth”, the extra fabric needed to go around the seam allowances which fill the middle of the strap.

I decided to use light blue thread for topstitching the bindings and hems on both layers. I topstitched over the straps as well, to go with the look of the bindings. At one point, I started to wonder if I was going overboard using up things from my stash and adding more colors. But if I took a step back, I realized that if I saw this dress in a store window, I would want it immediately. So that was a good imaginary test! Since I’ve been wearing it, I’ve noticed that all the colors in the print go with lots of other things in my wardrobe too.

Special thanks to my aunt Barbara for taking the pictures of wearing the dress, and for letting me use the beautiful hollyhocks in her garden as a backdrop! That was the first time it was warm enough to wear the dress, as you can probably tell from my lack of tan here. . . What about you? Are you making anything for your current weather, or the coming season?

Making Drawstring Bags—Another Option for the Top

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Tasha

Hello! There’s been just a little more radio silence around here lately than normal, but hey, that’s what retreats are for, right? Today let’s jump back in with some thoughts about drawstring casings on bags. In the second part of Hello Sewing Machine, I guide you though making a drawstring bag and leaving a “buttonhole”—a gap in the side seam for the drawstring to pull through. That’s probably my favorite way to finish the casing, and one that helps you think about how a piece of fabric becomes a finished project, which is why I chose it for my beginner e-book. There are lots of other options though, basically any method that encloses the raw edges and leaves a place for the drawstring will work. One of my proofreaders asked about making a little hem on the sides of the bag instead, and I wanted to present that option here. In my example, I’m altering a commercially made bag which doesn’t have much in the way of seam finishing, and is not going to stand the test of time. You can also easily use this technique on DIY bags. Click on any of the pictures to enlarge for a closer look.

On this bag, there’s nothing to keep the raw edges from unraveling. I’m especially concerned about the area where the drawstring emerges from the bag, because it’s likely to get a lot of wear and tear, which will cause the fabric to unravel faster.

My first step was to take apart the seam stitching, down to where I wanted the seam to stop for the new finish. I stitched up to that point and back down (with red thread) to hold all the stitching in place. Then I took apart enough of the seam holding the casing down to let me make a narrow hem on the edges.

If you are making your own bag, just stop sewing the side seam a little ways from the top, and back tack over the seam end. To figure out where to stop, think about the parts of the casing you need to leave room for at the top of the bag.

At the very top is a little extra fabric, usually turned under (or stitched over) so that it won’t unravel. It serves the same purpose as a seam allowance. Then you have the inside and outside of the casing (keep in mind we are looking at the bag from the inside), and you will also need a little more room (about 1-2″ or 3-5 cm) for the transition between the hemmed edges and the seam. Once you figure out where the end of your seam will be, go ahead and overcast the seam edges, continuing a little bit past the point where your seam stops. Then on each edge above the seam, fold over and press down 1/4″ (or .5 cm) with your iron, towards the inside of the casing. Fold over the edge again in same direction, using your first fold as a guide, and press in place again. Then stitch down your hemmed edges, sewing close to the edge with a straight stitch. Sew across the seam as well, below the top where you stopped stitching, so that all the stress from opening the bag is not on just one point.

Next, sew your drawstring casing in place. Normally I would press a small fold at the top edge towards the inside, and then fold and press down the width of the casing. Since the casing here is already sewn in place around the rest of the bag, I opted to replace the original stitching, overlapping it with the red thread. Make a small back tack at each edge, since those ends won’t be held down by any other stitching later. Then I used a mock-serger stitch to go over the small raw edge below the casing, since I don’t want it to unravel and lead to my casing pulling loose.

A quick note about ends: I like to bury them inside the casing or hem, or wherever there’s a double layer of fabric, so that enough thread remains to keep the stitching from pulling out, but it’s hidden. I thread the ends on a hand-sewing needle, pull them between the fabric layers for one long stitch, and snip them off where they come out.

Here’s an another example of a commercially-made drawstring bag using the same concept. I think they hemmed the sides of the drawstring first, and then caught them in the side seam, and finished the seam allowances with a serger. As I said, you have a lot of options!

There’s lots more thorough and friendly beginner-oriented directions for sewing seams, overcasting, using your iron to make a casing, and everything else you need to know to plan and sew a drawstring bag in my e-book, Hello Sewing Machine!

If you have other beginning questions, feel free to let me know, I’m always curious about what’s on your mind. You can also read my answers to others’ questions in this post on Sew,Mama,Sew!

Giveaway and Sewing Tips from Me on Sew,Mama,Sew! Today

Posted on May 27, 2013 by Tasha

I’ve been waiting to see what questions everyone would ask on Sew,Mama,Sew! this week. I admit that I was a little nervous, kind of like when I first started teaching sewing years ago. What if someone asked a question that I totally didn’t know the answer to? Actually, I did get one—but it was a very specific one about piping around corners on a pillow, and since I’ve never done that, I think I can be excused. In general though, all the questions were great! And really relevant for beginners.

If you’re wondering about the tension on your sewing machine, or how to clean and oil it, I talked about that. If you have trouble sewing around curves, or with slippery fabric and knits, I’ve got some tips to help you out. If you’re not clear about when to finish fabric edges and how, I covered that. And at the end, there are a few resources to help with fitting and selecting interfacing. Most of the answers were excerpted or adapted from Hello Sewing Machine, where of course you’ll find a lot more answers to basic sewing questions.

Phew! Thanks to everyone who wrote in with questions, it was great to see what readers were curious about. You can read the answers over on Sew,Mama,Sew! today.

Plus, I’m offering both a chance to win a free copy of my new e-book, and a coupon code for a discount if you order one on Etsy, so go check it out!

Tasha Miller Griffith

Sustainability and Belonging through Textiles

Category Archives: Beginner Sewing Resources