Stitch and bitch thread #6. What a yoke!

[NutellaEllaElla]

The other thread is so painfully slow so lets hope a shiny new one will run a smoothly as a well behaved sewing machine. Pin your places here my lovely stitchers

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar I love your granddaughter’s dress. It’s so cute and practical too. Those pockets are going to be well used. 😂

Did you follow a pattern or just wing it yourself? I have a 2yr old (going on 20) granddaughter and she’d love wearing that.

This is the pattern https://thefoldline.com/product/childrens-portobello-pocket-dress/ It was pretty easy, although I didn't exactly follow the pattern. The skirt should be cut in four panels and when you sew the panels together the edges of the pockets go into the seams, which is a really neat finish. However because I used the bird and flower fabric for the skirt and plain on the bodice and pockets I wanted to use a whole piece for the skirt, so I sewed the pockets on as patch pockets. The skirt is also slightly fuller than the pattern called for so that I could pattern match the back seam.

I also put sew-on snaps at the back instead of buttons, partly because I quite like the clean look it gives to the back, but mostly because I have never done a buttonhole and it scares me. (Photo of back, closure and pattern matching)

Such lovely fabrics @BlackAmericanoNoSugar

And buttonholes ... I learn to sew on a Singer that had been my mother's 21st birthday present. It was a lovely machine: very beautiful stitching forwards & backwards, but no zig-zag. So like you, I use press studs and zips A LOT. I also used a lot of French seams, flat felled seams, and Hong Kong bindings to neaten edges. So I learnt a lot.

Then I bought a Brother machine waaaaay back in the mid-1980s when I started earning my own money. It had a fancy automatic button-holer - fancy for then.

But I really had to practice. Practice. Practice. And I still do - I often do a test buttonhole with the thread & a scrap from whatever I'm sewing so I can see what I need to adjust.

They are a bastard to unpick, but I have unpicked many many button holes ...

When I was young my mum's machine didn't do buttonholes. So most of the fastenings were zips or those hammer-in press-studs

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar thanks for the info. I’ll add it to my ever growing list of sewing projects to reduce the stash. 😁

I've been doing quite simple sewing for a while, things without many pattern pieces or requiring interfacing and using very stable fabrics like linen and ramie. I've got used to being able to knock up a new item in less than 2 hours from start to finish.

I've cut out a shirt dress pattern tonight with a princess seam bodice, a collar, 2 different button plackets and 8 different panels to sew together for the skirt.

in viscose challis.

I didn't even get round to cutting out the interfacing pieces let alone actually getting any sewing done.

I may cry if I don't like it when it's finished after spending most of two hours kneeling on the floor pinning it and cutting it out.

My days of pinning and cutting out in the floor are long over. I use a nice big table and I've been looking for some risers to temporarily make it higher when I cut out but its legs are too fat for anything readily available!

I have an A0 cutting mat on my dining table. Works perfectly!

I cut my first dress on my dining table but have since bought a SewEzi cutting table and it makes a huge difference to my back. The first dress took nearly a week to trace and then cut because I could only do a short time before my back started to go into spasm.

When the first of my DCs moved out I converted their bedroom to a sewing room. I got an IKEA dining table (in the reduced section) and put an A0 cutting mat on it. My knees won't do the floor thing any more

It is so much easier if the sewing space works for you.

My sewing room doubles as guest bedroom for when DD comes to stay so DH built me a table which has a huge drop leaf. When not in use the table folds up to being about 45cms deep and about 1.6m wide.

When set up as a sewing room the bed is stood on its end and I use its legs as space to drape cut out pattern pieces and hang the big square edge!

I have an A0 cutting mat, and a table etc but we are currently mid major renovations/redecorations doing one room at a time so I have no set space for sewing until its all done. All my bits are scattered throughout the house (along with everything else) and the kitchen floor and table are currently the only spaces I can sew without disturbing people in the evening.

Hopefully when it's all done I will have whole small bedroom to myself again as a permanent sewing room..

I still use the floor to layout and cut. It’s how I started and it feels odd to do anything else. My knees are starting to object so I’ll have to rethink. I’m lucky that we have a strange room tacked on to the side of the house. Previous owners used it as a bedroom for their elderly mum, we’ve used it as a playroom, second living room, sleepover room, office and now I have a sewing corner in it.

What I’d really like is a garden room I saw recently to turn into my sewing space. Can’t afford it and haven’t got room for it but I can dream.

The short version of Sauvie has now been cut out. I’m using a red duvet cover that I found in a charity shop for 50p and bought for toiles. I’m hoping it will be wearable although I don’t plan going out in it 🤣

I’m jealous of all of these sewing rooms. It’s just the dining table for me, but I’m lucky that it’s a large one, which makes things a bit easier.

I’ve traced my Ogden cami and have made my first alteration to the pattern, as it looked like it would be a bit short for me. Now I just need to cut the fabric, which always takes me AGES.

I should have more than enough fabric to make a colour blocked version as suggested by a few of you up thread, as well as one or two plain ones. I really like the idea of a bit of colour blocking so thanks for that!

I use an 8 seater dining room table in the dining room.

I cut out with scissors & pins - and I'm lazy and don't trace, but do mark certain pattern markings with tacking thread through the tissue paper patterns (I by mostly Vogue as their size 12 is pretty good basic fit for me).

So, I'm interested in how people find using a rotary cutter & sewing weights? I notice this is what they use in the GBSB. Is it more accurate?

i use a rotary cutter for straight lines (along a straight edge to be more precise) but i don't understand why so many people seem to use big rotary cutters to cut fiddly things - i find scissors (and pinned pattern pieces if that's what you're using, rather than weights)

I guess it's what you're used to?

If you have good technique, a rotary cutter gives a super crisp edge. I've never mastered it, I think you need to get the right amount of weight and angle, so mine are wavey and whiskery because on the ground is too close, and my table too high.. On some of the skate/dance facebook groups you see people cutting out lycra appliques using this method and they are so neat they can just zig zag them directly onto the leotard. They're also big on using a cricut with a rotary blade to do really intricate appliques.

I'm mainly a trace, pattern weight, scissor girl though. Unless it's a pattern I don't think I'll use much, then I cut out the pieces around the biggest size and then weight it, chalk the line where I think size 16 is. Do a bit compare and correct, remove pattern and then cut out with scissors.

Tilly and the Buttons have a new pattern out - Esti. https://shop.tillyandthebuttons.com/products/esti It's wide leg trousers/shorts + camisole top. Nothing revolutionary there. In fact, to me, annoying as the trousers don't come with pockets apart from patch pockets on the bum. (Yes I know I could add some). If it shows up in my sewing subscription I might get it (depending what the other pattern choice is) , but probably wouldn't buy it.

I don't know if it helps @Jins, but I wear gardening knee pads to protect my knees when I'm cutting out as I am used to doing it on the floor as well. They're pretty great, not mightily attractive though!

I’m lucky to have a sewing room, though it’s a box room so big stuff I still cut out on the hallway floor. I have a height adjustable desk, so I can raise it right up for cutting, with an A1 cutting mat. I’m generally a fan of weights and a rotary cutter, but I bought a smaller cutter (28mm, and I have a standard 45mm too) for awkward curves. It’s super useful for making baby clothes.

I only trace printed patterns, PDF ones I’ll cut. I quite often skip marking the notches too.

@kittykarate that pattern is a bit lacklustre. I like the square neck detail on the top, but I find patch pockets need perfect accuracy or they look a bit rubbish.

Tilly and the Buttons and other of the modern pattern makers really should be more on-board with pockets.

I recently bought a few dresses and a skirt from C&A (we still have them here) because i need clothes for going to the office (we can literally wear what we like but I prefer dresses mostly). And the skirt, surprisingly for a relatively cheap linen elastic-waisted garment, has 2 side-seam pockets. The dresses? nope. I will spend a lot of tomorrow adding pockets to my purchased garments without them, and being grumpy about it. You can't put much in them but a tissue, a lip salve and my office-key-card will be ok.

Well that’s not persuaded me to give TATB a try! What an uninspiring pattern.

Front of Sauvie complete

I have a pair of A1 cutting mats plus a smaller one useful for bits falling off the edge. I keep them under a big freestanding cupboard, nice and flat and out of the way. No sewing room for me and no prospect of one, either. It at least stops me from getting too 😍about a big, heavy sewing machine (but not from accumulating multiple smaller ones!)

The joints in my hands are somewhat knackered, some more than others, so using scissors for more than the odd snip is painful for me, so rotary cutters are very much my friend. I use them for all long cuts then use scissors for details. Unless a pattern is on thick paper, I use a combination of weights and pins (on corners and around notches, mostly) to ensure everything stays where it should. Blades can be expensive but I find cheaper ones a false economy. Even Fiskars. I have a mix of Olfa and Fiskars and I've found swapping from a well used Olfa blade to a Fiskars blade to not give any real improvement, save for the little nicks that an old blade can accumulate.