Stitch and bitch thread #5 This whole thing is fabricated.

[NutellaEllaElla]

Welcome back seamsters! It is soon to be September and Autumn is on its way.

Welcome @Craftybodger I wish I was so speedy! It takes me so long to complete each project.

You're not wrong @pastabest, I've recently DIY'd a pergola, reupholstered chairs, etc but making alcohol never occurred to me!

I make sloe gin but nothing more involved than that! I did make apple membrillo last week from a tray of windfall apples given by a friend - looking forward to having that with a bit of strong cheese.

And agreed, I'm very likely to think "I bet I could make that" - although the reality is it's usually much quicker to buy the thing ready made!

I think that’s a very good observation. I’m always repairing clothes and furnishings and I’ve just finished restoring a leather recliner chair.

When we get back home we’ll start collecting the rest of the apples and will probably start on pressing next weekend.

Hi, just found this thread after being here for over ten years 😅. I love sewing and go to a class weekly. It’s a great class because everyone takes their own patterns and machines and make what they like - while having the teacher and others there for advice and help.

One thing I’ve found really helpful is finding someone on YouTube who has a similar body size and makes similar things to me. There are often sew alongs and advice of any alterations she needs to make to pattern to fit as she would like.

And cheaper!

Hi @ElizaCBennett and welcome! That class sounds so great, I wish there was something similar near me, how did you find it? Do you have any projects on the go at the moment?

Would love to go to a sewing class or group. I tried one last summer but the teacher would tell you what to do, then you’d do it, then she’d humiliate you in front of the group whilst telling you the PROPER way to do it before having you redo it her way.

I’m a teacher too. I do not use humiliation to teach. That shirt is still unfinished.

That reminds me too much of the sewing class at school 40 odd years ago.

Your pinning is untidy
Your tacking is untidy
Your machining is untidy

Undo, do again time and time again. All to produce an underskirt which was never finished let alone worn.

No wonder it took me so long to get back into sewing.

Humiliation never works as a teaching method.

It's so sad and utterly pointless!

So i've realised that the fabric I bought is stretch whereas the pattern I wanted to make is woven. So back to the drawing board on that score. Do you think I could replicate this with this pattern?

NutellaEllaElla

Thank you. The class was originally at the local college but is now elsewhere. I always hear people say they’d love a class but my teacher finds it difficult to get new members!

My WIP is the Itch to Stitch Belize Short and Skort. I’m making view D

@NutellaEllaElla the description on the pattern says loose fitting wrap dress and it doesn’t look like it has shoulder pads, so I guess it depends which elements of the inspiration you’re aiming to recreate.
This one has the shaped skirt, and long set in sleeves but it does have a gathered skirt. the Atelier Jupe Savannah has the shaped front skirt but a different style to the top.

@ElizaCBennett would you mind sharing what area your sewing class is in, it sounds great!
Im sorry Gnome and Crafty had such bad experiences. I must admit sewing at school didn’t really do much to encourage me to enjoy sewing - I took it up in my early 20s when I was offered my late great-grans machine and taught myself by reading blogs and trial and error (and calls to my mum or grandma).

SBAM

My class is in Chelmsford, Essex

@ElizaCBennett I guess it's easier to congregate online. I actually found one near me after you inspired me to have a quick google but they run in the middle of the week during the day so unfortunately I can't go.

Thanks for looking @SBAM, it looks like I could mix and match some of the features on the various options.

Ahhh Eliza, close but not close enough! (Aka I’m a scaredy cat about driving further than about 20minutes)
Sounds like a lot of fun though, sewing isn’t always the most social of hobbies!

So I spent today recutting my pattern (Waves &Wild Stephanotis from last Thursday). I graded differently, gave myself more room in the shoulders, dropped the waistline and reduced the skirt length to compensate. Then I played pattern Tetris to get it all from 2.5m. I’ve cut it from a very floral jersey with a navy base. I think I’ll always associate it with the Queen’s funeral. I’m intending to sew it when the children have gone to bed. Hoping to wear it tomorrow and Wednesday evenings.

Well for all my dithering and indecision, i've done no sewing this weekend.

None here either, though I have done a good amount of knitting so still somewhat productive. Need to get some patterns printed before I can get started.

We now have several brew bins of cider happily bubbling away.

Sewing has gone okay. Sleeves to inset then hems to sew then done.

Does anyone else ever suffer brain fart? At one point today I completely forgot how to get the bottom thread up to the top! Something I must have done hundreds of times without thinking.

All the time. Aka perimenopause in my case. Lucky if I can remember my own name at times.

Glad it's not just me though I dont want to frighten you but I am well through menopause so this probably started some time ago and I have forgotten.

It must have taken me a good 15-20 minutes of pointless needle wobbling up and down for me to hold onto the tail of thread from the needle and for the whole thing to work. On the plus side I gave the inside of the bobbin compartment a good brushing out in case that was the problem!

I think you scared us all off the thread for 2 days @GnomeDePlume

Tomorrow I must grow a pair of ovaries, bite the bullet and tackle the neck binding that wouldn't move through the machine despite walking foot. I will probably practice on scrap fabric and I will do as advised above and try starting in the middle in case it was just the beginning bit not being enough to grip onto that is the problem. My main worry is about unpicking - i've found it impossible with this fabric! I can't remember having this problem before, i've mostly used woven fabric - is it a stretch fabric thing??

Is it a ribbed type of knit or something smoother Nutella? I’ve had problems with unpicking on a polyester ribbed knit but cotton Lycra jersey isn’t so bad. Using the lightning bolt type stretch stitch makes it harder too.
I hope the starting in the middle trick works!

I think sewing machines sometimes get nervous at the start of a row and just sit there moving the needle up and down in the same place.

I sometimes take the garment out and do a couple of inches of stitching on a scrap of fabric to reassure the machine (and me) that everything is okay.

It's smoother but very light, it's the first time I've used the lightening stitch. I didn't want to use zig zag on the neck band.