Sewing Machine Maintenance

Sometimes our sewing machines get dusty, sometimes they start making a strange sound or have a strange smell. These are all signs that your machine might a need a cleaning.

*Every sewing machine is different, what I do on my machine may be different than what you are supposed to do on your machine, please refer to your machines manual for the proper care instructions.

Even though we take care of your machines it is important to have it serviced by a professional regularly. If you use your machine often, for large projects, once a year is a good idea. If you just use your machine for small projects every once in a while, it can wait longer.

Some sewing machine care quick tips:

-Never pull thread backwards through your machine, this ruins the tension disks causing the thread to be too loose.
-Never turn the wheel of the sewing machine away from you, always towards you, turning it backwards will knock the timing off causing the machine to skip stitches.
-Never try to sew with the presser foot up, it should always be down when sewing. Putting the presser foot down engages the tension disks. Without the tension disks engaged the thread will be too loose and will knot and tangle in the bottom of the machine. If you need to do free motion sewing there are specialized presser feet for it.

Main Dress (Butterick 4827, View A)

After many twists and turns I finished the main dress of my costume and thus finished my 2015 Renaissance festival dress.

Part 1

Part 2

The Underskirt (Butterick 4827, View B)

I have finished the underskirt for my Renaissance dress. Here's a look at how it went.

I used the brocade for the underskirt. You have to be careful with brocades because they fray very easily, I serged every seam after it was finished sewing. I used satin pins, close together, to keep it from sliding. I also used a universal needle in size 90/14, and a 2.5 stitch length.

I was surprised because I had more fabric left over than the extra 1/8th that I bought. Also I didn't even use one spool of the thread I bought, (which was 100% cotton, sew all, thread).

Also I tried to use a disappearing ink fabric marker, and it worked, but it faded within 20 minutes. That was a lot quicker than the week it took on the cotton I tested before. Not a bad thing I didn't have to worry about the ink showing.

Now on to the more difficult project. The dress part.

Happy Sewing

Renaissance Festival Dress: A Closer Look at the Envelope

Sometimes when you start on a pattern it's hard to make sense of all the information on the back. Today I take a closer look at Butterick 4827 and weed through all the information to get to the stuff that applies to me.....And then I went shopping.

The orange fabric is a crepeback satin in Autumn (it was a red tag fabric at Jo-Anns)
The blue fabric is a Brocade fabric: turquoise paisley
Pellon 910 Sew in Featherweight interfacing.
Gutterman Sew all Thread: Color 474 "Curry"
Gutterman Cotton Thread: Color 7532
5/32 Eyelet kit with tool
Black Hook and Eye

And now I'm excited to get started on this project.
Happy Sewing 

Space Pants (Simplicity Pattern 9871)

Aside from a pillow case, pajama pants have to be one of the best beginner projects and the best introduction to pattern reading. Simplicity 9871 is a very easy pajama pants pattern. It's one I've used multiple times. My husband saw this cool, colorful space fabric and had to have a pair of pants.

If you're looking at this pattern and confused or terrified of the daunting task in front of you don't fear I'll walk you through it.

I used:
Simplicity Pattern 9871
Size XL
3yds of Fabric -Large Planets (It only calls for 2 7/8  but I always get that extra save it for quilting and stuff)
Black thread
1 inch elastic

Happy Sewing

Dress Form Unboxing and Assembly

A dress form, it's a lovely tool to help you get an idea about how your garment is going to look. How fabrics are going to drape and also a really good tool for hemming skirts.
They were 50% off at Jo Ann's this weekend, so I decided to get me one.

I got the Dritz simple fit, it's a basic model. Easy to assemble and adjust, I have nothing to put on it yet but I'm ready to use it for my Renaissance dress.

Major Pattern Haul and Crafting Update

With three pattern sales in a row of course I had to make a haul video.

The patterns I picked up

Butterick
4669
4486

McCall's
7217
7218
7212

Simplicity
1444
1122
1077
4080
1506
4059
4762
1087
1095
1091
1092
1093
1094
1074

So excited to get new patterns.