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

It's those projects that sweary KATM labels are made for!

⬆️ KATM labels 🤦‍♀️

I do have some that say Hand fucking Made! 🤣

Well the instructions on the New look pattern were wrong and had me dress the lining in back to front so I had to unpick that.

Argh so annoying!

I am determined to do some sewing this week. A new top to start with, I think.

Sounds like you had a pretty frustrating time @NutellaEllaElla. I hate it when instructions are wrong/ don’t add up. So much time wasted! 😣

I made some good progress with my Sewaholic Granville over the weekend. I’ve now made it to the point where I previous had to abandon the project because nothing was lining up...I’m pleased to say that this time after actually reading the instructions things are looking much better.

Encouraged by my progress, I’ve now bought the Deer and Doe Melilot, as well as quite a few fabric samples. I don’t normally buy samples, but I’ve been spending so much time recently just staring at pictures of fabric that I had to do something! This level of fabric buying angst is not normal 😂

I've just had some lining fabric for the Sew Over It Kate dress delivered, because the fabric I wanted to use was too thin. Just need to work out how to line the top, as the top is button up. I think it will need to be joined at the same time as the collar and sleeves, and sandwiched into the button placket. Worst case, I'll just take out the lining fabric and wear a slip under it I think.

I have a Deer and Doe on my queue, but I've not got to it yet - the Zephyr dress.

I can't decide if I should buy material to make potty training pants or just buy pre made ones. I'm 99% sure if I buy the fabric I can make more than 5 for £20. But the fabric has me in a tizz.

PUL fabric for the waterproof outside- what's the difference between PUL fabric and cotton coated PUL fabric.

Should I just do Terry cotton pants with a cotton outside. - I can see the downside that the clothes will get wet.

Could I just buy a waterproof mattress protector and cut to size...

This is why I end up buying patterns and not doing anything, I over think things!

@Roastingmychestnuts i bought the Terry cotton pants for DC1, we barely used them - I found they disguised the beginning of a wee a little so I couldn’t immediately get her on the potty, but a big wee still ended up on the floor/clothes etc. For DC2 we just went with a large stock of regular pants, and made him sit on a folded towel on the sofa for a few weeks until we were confident he was reliable.

If you happen to live anywhere near me I have 5 pairs of the Terry type pants you can have 😂

DS was brilliant to potty train and I got away with nappy pull ups for one week and then he was mostly reliable to wear underwear , however DD despite telling me she needs the potty or toliet refuses to sit on either of them and stands and lifts her top instead to wee out of her belly button 😂

So I'm hoping having some pants on her instead of nappy will re-enforce she needs to go sit down or she'll be wet, as at the moment she knows that she's a nappy/pull ups on. Plus at nursery I'm not sure how many puddles they will be happy with..

The carpet cleaner is on order and hopefully getting delivered this week!

On a unrelated note, do sewing machine manuals normally have a service manual in it? I've a singer from the 90s and I broke a needle on it last week and at a guess the timing has gone as it refuses to pick up the bottom sitch every other stitch. I've done a full clean but think I need to reset the timing , the manual I have is off the internet and doesn't cover servicing.

I've another 90s singer so I'm not without a machine but the one I've broke is the MIL so would like to fix it.

@Roastingmychestnuts DD sounds fun! If you want to PM me I can look into sending you the pants - I’ve tried giving them away on my local Facebook and people keep not turning up.

No idea on servicing I’m afraid, I have a computerised machine I wouldn’t dare tinker with!

@Roastingmychestnuts No service manual with either of my sewing machines - only the basics covered like 'add oil here' in my standard manual. I have seen videos on youtube explaining how to do more advanced things like resetting the timing, just search by your machine model - I was looking at how to replace the blades on my overlocker after an unfortunate incident with a pin and found lots of help on there.

My fabric samples have arrived! So glad I ordered samples as the one I thought I’d like best (the check one), turns out to be nothing like the “light, soft fabric” the website claimed it to be. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen shirting fabric as thick and stiff as this.

I’m sure it’d make an amazing formal shirt (if combined with better sewing skills than I possess!) but it’s not really what I’m after. Ah well, at least I didn’t buy two metres of it 😄

I was so proud of myself yesterday when I opened up my sewing machine and fixed my bobbin winder.
Then I went to do some sewing today, proudly wound up the bobbin (winder now works perfectly), and found that the entire needle shank is somehow 5mm forward of where it should be. I cannot now use my sewing machine to sew.
I need to sew a load of costumes for a World Book Day work booking, so I bit the bullet and bought a new machine from Amazon, which should arrive on Monday.

Hello can I join you?
I class myself as a novice sewist and haven’t done anything for months (maybe a year?!) for three reasons, no designated space so have to clear myself off the dining table every mealtime, a too-interested child whom I then end up supporting with a little project instead, and the one which really holds me back - waiting to finish losing weight until I cut the fabric for a certain pattern!
Anyway, DD is away this weekend and I plan to encourage the others to eat on their knees ;-) I wanted to know what people think about making the garment now or losing the rest of my target weight….I can see it both ways!

@ChoccyJules welcome!

Id say make it now, there will always be other special beautiful fabric available if you do change shape so much that the garment can’t be altered, but you should take the opportunity to sew and wear something lovely asap.

Am doing it! Actually Pre-washing the fabric (unlike me) and zigzagged the edges beforehand as the internet told me to.

Sizing question. Am making trousers from sew house 7 and it says use hip size if waist is smaller. So far so good. Coming out as as US 12 which is OK as I am a UK 16-18. However I note from looking in the mirror that my widest part front-on is actually my thighs and side-on is my tummy and neither of these gets measured. Is a 16 likely to fit?

Oh and that is using the Finished Garment size as recommended in the booklet.

Do you have any inexpensive fabric you could use to make a shorts version of the pattern to test fit?

As someone who's weight fluctuates I tend to stick with items that can cope with the fluctuation, so I make a lot of dresses in stretch fabrics, full skirts (the fullness hides a tummy), floaty tops, coats etc.

For a while I was running into the trap of thinking 'I'll sew that when I've lost the weight' and then never getting anything done. Either sew for the shape you are now and take it in when yoy need to or sew things that you can still wear if your weight changes.

And welcome! More the merrier.

Welcome @ChoccyJules . What pattern are you making? Your thighs being the widest point may not be a problem at all depending on the cut of the trousers. I’d expect there to be some extra space in the tummy area, so wouldn’t worry took much about that, but if you can make a test piece in some cheap fabric as SBAM suggested, that would probably be a good thing to do.

Sorry to hear about your machine @InMySpareTime . That’s bad timing 😬 Do you think your original machine can be fixed?

@CrimsonAlligator I've had the machine to pieces trying to figure out how to get the shank in the right place, but I really can't see how it even moved in the first place. I might eventually get it fixed but a new one was £90 and it would cost a fair proportion of that to get the old one fixed (plus it would take time I don't have).
I've cut out and tacked some of the costumes so they should be quick to sew when the new machine arrives.

Old sewing hand here, for the person with machine issues. Undo the cover and look inside at the mechanics. Visually follow the movement as you turn the side handle slowly. I did this with my machine and saw that one of the rubber belts had half-torn from old age. Then I could just go online and order a new one & replace it myself. It might be a simple fix.