With snaps the complication was unevenness: the presser foot was too hard to get in position, so I took it off entirely. With buttons, at least in this case (I was sewing a thick pillowcase), the complication was that they needed to have shanks. Toothpicks to the rescue!

Pardon my lint!

There are three toothpicks under the button in this case; for a smaller button you could omit the center toothpick (this may give a shorter shank if the fabric pulls up between the two outside toothpicks, but the smaller the button the less likely you are to need a shank at all). I lined the needle up where it needed to be, placed the toothpicks, and then slid the button in between the toothpicks and presser foot.

It’s quick and easy, though I did secure the thread ends by stitching them all to the back, tying a square knot, and running them between the layers of fabric before snipping them.

Side note:
I made a batch of fabric baggies recently, and with the experience of using my original set for a long time I adjusted the flap size to improve them. I’ve updated the post with baggie sewing instructions accordingly.

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I realized that my current dress pants fit great right out of the wash, but as the fabric relaxed (mine all have a little lycra in them) they would sag down on my hips, ending up too low – they didn’t look or feel good and they became too long. I envisioned pants where the legs were made of the gently stretchy fabric but the waist was made from something with no stretch at all, and realized I could mimic that by stabilizing the waist with something non-stretchy.

So here is the technique! I did my first round of waist stabilization back in February, so I can attest it does work. It shows from the outside, but isn’t obvious, especially if you wear your shirts untucked as I do.

Acquire some narrow grosgrain ribbon, or another non-stretchy material.

1. Pin the ribbon to the inside of the waistband, just far enough from the top edge that stitching through its center will be below the top of any belt loops the pants have. You will have to pin from the inside of the waist but sew from the outside of the waist, so have the points of your pins sticking out on the outside of the waist or buried between the layers of the waistband.

2. Looking at the outside of the waistband, sew a straight line down the approximate center of the ribbon. It is more important to have it straight relative to the edge of the waistband than relative to the ribbon. When you get to a belt loop, sew a bit underneath it and then backstitch. Lift your presser foot, pull the fabric out a little (so there is a small loop of thread) and start stitching again past the belt loop, starting with a backstitch to get as close as you can to the belt loop (underneath if possible).

3. Trim the ends of your thread and the loops that bypass each belt loop. Complete!

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If you look at hem stitching with the end of the pants leg downward, it looks like the drawing above: a series of horizontal dashes with little slanted teardrops extending down in between the dashes. The stitching will pull out to the right. If you can easily see what you’re doing, you can pick away at the loose end of the thread – the left-hand end of where the blindstitch overlaps itself – until the loose end is attached directly to a dash, and pull from there.

If you can’t easily see what you are doing, as was the case with me this weekend (busy fabric, probably inadequate light), you can still pull out commercial hem stitch. There are four steps, shown in the diagram: first, cut the thread toward the left end of a dash. Second, pull the dash’s thread toward the right. It will probably get hung up a little (if not, keep pulling!). Third, pick at the teardrop to the left of your cut in order to free the dash thread. Fourth, pull the dash thread to remove the stitching as far as it will go!

When you can’t start at the very end of the stitching you’ll need multiple rounds of pulling to remove all the stitching, but it’s still very quick – especially compared to a seam ripper!

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Patterns

The back of the pattern envelope will help you choose your fabric, as well as telling you what you need for fasteners, elastic, etc. Pay special attention to pattern envelopes that say “sized for stretch knits only.” That means the way the pattern is designed and sized, using non-stretchy fabric may produce a body cast. Note also that pattern sizes don’t match off the rack sizes. This may be less true for children and juniors, but for adults… I’m two sizes bigger in sewing patterns than in off the rack clothing. Measurements are provided to make sure you’re cutting the right size.

Cut apart the pattern pieces needed for the garment you’re making. This will in most cases be far from all of the pieces in the envelope. If there is a length variation given by pieces with two possible bottom lines, and you’re making the shorter version, if you think there is any chance you’ll ever want to make the longer version, then cut neatly along the dividing line, fold up the bottom portion of the longer version, and save it in the envelope. Otherwise, just cut somewhere near to and outside the cutting line; no need to be precise when you’ll be cutting again anyway.

If unfolding and running your hands over the pattern pieces doesn’t smooth them very well, you can iron them. My grandmother always did, with a dry iron at the wool setting.

Fabric Preparation

I always wash fabric for clothing prior to cutting it out (clearly I avoid dry clean only fabrics). That way if the fabric makes any changes in the wash, it’s happened ahead of time. I run a zigzag stitch along each cut edge first, to prevent fraying. The zigzag doesn’t have to be tight – I use the widest zigzag and often the longest stitch, though for something particularly fray-prone like satin I’d probably shorten the stitch. Depending on the fabric, you may need to iron it afterward, though with some fabrics if you remove them from the dryer promptly they are ready to go. Something I have learned recently is that pushing a steamy iron along fabric will stretch it, and so now I only use steam for persistent wrinkles, and when I do use steam I try to pick up and set the iron, maybe wiggling it a bit in place, rather than pushing it along.

A little vocabulary, in case it’s needed: perpendicular to the cut edges are finished edges. “Finished” doesn’t necessarily mean smooth – they may be a bit fuzzy – but does mean that the edge won’t ravel. The finished edge is called the selvedge, and its direction is called the straight grain (or sometimes just the grain) of the fabric. The direction from selvedge to selvedge (parallel, or parallel-ish, to the cut edges) is called the cross grain. Halfway between straight grain and cross grain, which is to say diagonally on the fabric, is called the bias. Some selvedges are shown in the picture to left.

The pattern instructions will show you layouts suitable for different width fabrics. Most of those will have the fabric folded in half, selvedge meeting selvedge, so you can cut two mirrored pieces at once. It is important that the fold line be smooth, and this will sometimes require the cut edges not be aligned. The picture to left shows the diagonal ripples that indicate the selvedges need to be slid a bit along each other; the ripples are caused by the cross grain being a bit twisted.

Laying Out

Again, the pattern instructions will show you options for laying out the pattern pieces. Some pieces may be laid out with one edge at the fold line (often the piece that crosses the center front of the garment). Others will be out in the middle of the fabric, but have a long line on them showing the direction of the straight grain of the fabric (pictured; depending on the brand it may or may not have arrowheads or a “grainline” label). The easiest way to get that line the right direction is with a ruler: make each end of it the same distance from the selvedges.

Why? Aside from making sure that, say, the sheen of the fabric is the same on each piece, the grainline marking has structural purpose. The straight grain of the fabric is the least stretchy direction. Most patterns have the grainline positioned so that the straight grain will be vertical in the finished clothing. This makes the vertical line of the clothing the most sag-resistant direction of the fabric. For patterns that use stretchy fabric, the grainline makes sure the stretch goes the correct direction. Some patterns, for swirly skirts for instance, will have the grainline pointing diagonally, so that the vertical (and horizontal, too) line of the clothing is on the bias. The bias is the most stretchy direction, and provides for a lot of mobility even in non-stretchy fabric.

Knowing this, you can figure out when it’s okay to violate the rules. If I’m cutting a boxer shorts pattern out of cotton flannel (read: not a lot of weight hanging, reasonably sturdy fabric, no stretch to worry about orienting), I let the grainline marking be with the straight or cross grain as necessary to fit the pattern on the fabric.

Pin your pattern pieces through both layers of fabric, with the pins parallel to and within the cutting line, making sure to get pins in each corner. How frequent your pins are depends on the fabric and the need for precision; for stable fabric every 5-6 inches might suffice, whereas for shifty light fabric, you might need them every 1-2 inches.

Cutting

There are numerous markings on patterns, and to me the ones essential in the cutting process are the triangles. These will later help you correctly line up pieces of varying shapes in order to sew them together. I was taught to cut the triangles outward, so as to avoid weakening the seam allowance, and that the most important thing to be accurate with is where the main cutting line meets the outside edges of the triangle(s). The height or shape of the triangles isn’t so important as long as you can match those corners (not every pattern mirrors the triangles on the outside of the cutting line like the one pictured does).

There are numerous other possible markings, including dots, and dashed-line triangles or diamonds indicating darts, but I haven’t found a good system for transferring them to the fabric and tend to just go back to the pattern while sewing and mark these (with sewing pins, typically) when I’m ready to use them. Generally, instructions say to transfer those with chalk or a fabric pen – the kind that fades or washes out.

There you have it: my approach to cutting out patterns. Keep the pattern envelope with its instructions and pattern pieces close at hand.

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Oh, and happy birthday to my mama!

1. Our sewing machines had two pedals: one knee and one foot. They were industrial machines that came this way, and I don’t know how easy it would be to retrofit a home sewing machine with such an apparatus, but one pedal lifted the presser foot and one ran the machine. To be honest I don’t remember which was which, but I assume the knee pedal ran the machine since that motion is much less fatiguing over the course of a day than working a foot pedal. Hands-free presser foot manipulation saves a lot of time over the course of a day.

2. We tenderized jeans. Hemming jeans even on an industrial machine presents its challenges, and we kept a mallet in the shop to flatten the seams before sewing. Nowadays I use a Jean-a-ma-jig (there’s a similar tool called a Hump Jumper), which works well, if slowly.

3. We used razor blades instead of seam rippers. They are WAY quicker. You want to make sure you have a sharp one so that it cuts threads without much pressure; that keeps you from accidentally slicing into the garment. Of course you have to use it in a particular way: by pulling the two pieces of fabric apart from each other and slicing the taut threads between. For removing, say, topstitching, a seam ripper is probably still better. You do end up with a lot of loose threads, but they may not matter if the fabric is to be trimmed, and otherwise you can try the lint roller trick (not something we did in the alteration shop. I honestly can’t remember how we dealt with threads).

4. My favorite trick and one I will implement if I ever have a sewing space suited to it (and use my iron enough to warrant it): we had our iron cord hooked up high. I can’t remember whether it was the ceiling or high on the wall, but we had an extension cord, and from the iron the cord went upward before going through a hook and heading back down to the outlet. The cord never gets in the way or hung up on anything, or crumples your fabric by dragging against it. It’s a simple, brilliant move.

Attribution: Razor blade picture by Zephyris via Wikimedia Commons. All others via Pixabay.

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Okay, that was uncalled for. But swing tacks, also known as French tacks and thread bars, are pretty great. They are a connection between two pieces of fabric that keeps the fabric in general alignment while allowing some motion. You’ll almost always find them at the hem of lined pants, for example, so the lining can’t twist or bunch up. I used them recently for my wool peacoat (which you may recognize from its relining).

The center back hem of the lining needed a tack. I’d tacked it twice already, but it kept coming out because I was doing the shortcut: a finger-knit chain (which should be called finger-crocheted, since it is exactly a tightened crochet chain). The problem with that is it only stitches through each end once, unlike a thread bar. The pockets also needed tacks so they would stop coming out every time I pulled out my mittens.

How do you make a swing tack? Stitch back and forth between your two layers a couple of times – I usually have 3 or 4 crossings (here, three, with doubled thread) between them. That allows you a strong connection that’s not just through a single bit of fabric. Then make a buttonhole stitch down the threads to hold them together and give them a layer of protection against wear. Buttonhole on thread is actually a series of half hitch knots, and it goes surprisingly fast. In the image above, the half hitch is made but not tightened. It may be hard to tell what’s on top: where the thread crosses itself, the part closer to the needle is on top. Where the thread crosses the tack, the tack is on top at the upper crossing and the thread is on top at the lower crossing.

When you tighten the stitches they will be much closer together than is necessary to sufficiently cover the thread bar, so don’t despair if your stitching seems to be making no progress! Just spread them down the bar with your thumb and forefinger.

Pardon the blur. The added benefit of a properly-made swing tack is the buttonhole stitch wants to spiral around the threads, causing the whole works to coil up when it’s not being pulled on, and hiding completely under the fabrics.

Besides swing tacks, thread bars are used for invisible belt loops and for lingerie straps (where one end of the bar is inside a garment shoulder and the other attaches to a snap, with the other half of the snap also on the garment shoulder – you can use lightweight ribbon for this as well). They are a good tool to know, and one I’ve been meaning to write about for over a year!

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I didn’t want to sew the snaps on by hand, because it takes a long time and is just annoying. So I thought maybe I could do it with a zero-length zigzag stitch on the machine. The only problem was my regular presser foot couldn’t get close enough, and the other foot options (such as the zipper foot) didn’t accommodate zigzag. Solution? Take the foot off entirely!

Set the stitch length to 0 and the stitch width appropriately (with a size 4 snap for me this was in the middle of the range). The flat side of the snap is much easier than the rounded side; with the flat side, sew on the right side of the snap and the presser foot mount will help hold the snap in place. You’ll have to move the fabric and snap in the midst of your stitching to get good coverage on the stitching hole. The foot mount tries to bounce the rounded side of the snap out of place, so for it sew on the left side of the snap to keep it clear of the mount. You’ll have to hold the snap in place yourself, so be careful the screw that holds your needle in place doesn’t whack you in the finger while you do. I did all the stitching with the hand wheel on the side of the machine.

I don’t know how many snaps will be amenable to this, but certainly whenever it’s okay to stitch all the way through what the snap is attached to I’ll investigate this option.

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Ah, there it is. What we used to call “bobbin art” in the costume shop, and what I just discovered online is called “birdnesting” by others. This happens when there is insufficient tension on the top thread to pull the bobbin thread up and out of the way, so it gets caught by the hook again and again, along with the later lengths of bobbin thread. “Insufficient tension” really means “no tension” in this case, so let’s have a look at the tension disks.

Yep, I missed completely. That thread should be one disk back from where it is.

Now, I’ve been sewing for well over 20 years and sewing with this specific machine for close to 15. This is just something that happens from time to time, and why we recommend completely rethreading the machine as the first step to diagnosing or solving any machine problem, “we” meaning us at the Sew-op. Learning to deal with these sorts of problems is the main benefit of Basic Sewing – thread gets caught on the presser foot. You catch a part of the fabric in your seam you didn’t mean to. Your seam line veers too far toward or away from the edge of the fabric. In the era of seam rippers, all are fairly quick and easy to fix, and if you want sewing to be a relaxing hobby I think it’s better to just accept the occasional necessity of ripping stitches. [Though thread caught on the presser foot typically just needs to be pulled out.]

In other news, I’ve decided to mostly depart from scheduled posts. I have one lined up for tomorrow morning, and I will try to post twice a week still, but I think it is silly to delay things I’m ready to show until some arbitrary time.

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Jump past uses of knots to tying knots or additional resources.

Uses of knots

Shoelace tying begins with a half knot, which is also the first half of the square knot. The square knot is perhaps the fundamental knot for tying two strands together. While Animated Knots and The Morrow Guide to Knots both say this is not a good knot under strain, the amount of strain in crafting is typically far less than the limit for this to hold. I use it mostly in crochet: in a chain bracelet, it ties the beginning and ending strands together. If I change to a new strand of yarn in amigurumi, I might tie the ends of the old and new strands together with a square knot. I sometimes tie the beginning and ending tails of embroidery yarn together this way, for securely stitched facial features and so forth.

To put a starting knot in a length of sewing thread I use a few overhand knots, and to finish off at the end I use a few half hitches around a stitch or a bit of fabric. The half-hitch is also the fundamental knot of friendship bracelets and tatting. The overhand knot is useful for tying tassels, because the thread or yarn ends will lie in a smooth bundle; ends coming out of a square knot want to point away from each other.

The slip knot is used mostly in crochet as well, though it is useful whenever you want a removable knot (say, to hold a strand in place during work). In crafting we tend to use the term “slip knot” regardless of which end of the cord is tied around the other, but in knot tying they are separated into slip knot (released by pulling the short end) and noose knot (released by pulling the long end). Both have their uses as beginning crochet knots: the noose knot, also referred to as the locking slip knot, can’t change shape after you stitch on it without distorting the rest of the work (and hence won’t want to change shape). The knot tyer’s slip knot, also called the adjustable slip knot by crafters, can be used as a magic ring substitute: stitch your first round all into the first chain, and then pull the cut end to tighten that chain and close the starting hole.

Finally, the lark’s head knot is an easy way to attach a hanging loop to an object, and preferable if the loop should be removable. It can also be used for fringe, but isn’t that secure – a little picking can loosen the strands and ultimately remove them. It is the knot used for latch-hook rugs, where the extra friction from using fuzzy yarn and having many neighboring strands of fuzzy yarn make up for the insecurity. [Latch-hooking is not to be confused with rug hooking, which uses no knots.]

Tying Knots

Links below are to other pages about knots; most are to Grog’s Animated Knots.

• Half Hitch

  The half hitch is an attaching knot in sailing; it must be made around another item. I wasn’t completely honest about its uses, because in crafting an extremely similar knot called the figure four is used at least as often and fairly interchangeably (in fact, in macrame it is called the half hitch). The figure four requires one end of the thread be attached and the knot be made right up against the point of attachment. The photo below is of a half hitch; the diagram is a figure four. To make it a half hitch you would take the thread right to left through the loop on the left (which would be a good idea in the diagram, where the thread emerges from the fabric far away from the stitch it is knotted around). The figure four is the knot used for friendship bracelets; in that and macrame direction matters, with the figure four often called a “left knot” and its mirror a “figure P” or “right knot.”

  In either case, make the knot by passing one end of the strand around an object and wrapping it around the other end of the strand. For a half hitch, come through the loop you formed by crossing the strands; for a figure four just make sure the loose end is trapped under the fixed end.

  In sewing, the object you knot around is a tiny bit of fabric or one of the last stitches that was made. One knot might not stay put, but a few of them will hold your thread very well.

  

  You may notice the half hitch is really an overhand knot in disguise, made around another object and given its own name because it is typically made and used differently.

• Lark’s Head Knot (AKA cow hitch)

  The lark’s head is another joining knot, but instead of joining the end of a strand it joins the middle (or something inward a bit). Bend the strand and wrap the bend around the item you are tying on to (if necessary you could pull it with a hook). Finally, pass the ends of the strand through the loop and tighten. If you wish to make a lark’s head knot onto fabric, the easiest way to do it is thread both ends of the strand on a needle so it has a loop dangling from it, stitch through the fabric where you want the knot, and pass the needle through the loop before tightening.

  

  To a macrame artist the knot above would be a reverse lark’s head; the lark’s head would be the version where the vertical strands are underneath the horizontal bar of the loop.

  For a fancier version with more friction (and hence resistance to coming unpicked) try the cat’s paw.

• Overhand Knot

  The overhand knot is a half knot tied with the ends of a single strand: cross one end over the other, making a loop, and pass it around the other end through the loop. This is my preferred way to tie a knot in the beginning end of a length of sewing thread. Typically I make at least two, with more if I need a larger knot. I never got the hang of the “wrap and roll” knot, much less the one that’s made around the needle and passed down to the far end of the thread.

  

  To make a larger knot with more friction, and hence more hold, pass the end of the strand through the loop four or five times instead of once. The result is called a multiple overhand knot. The Morrow Guide to Knots advises making sure that in the wrapping, one end of the rope is coiled around the other, which is straight. Then pull abruptly to tighten the knot so the wraps completely hide the rest. This is a good knot to put weight on the end of a cord.

• Slip Knot and Noose Knot

  The slip knot and noose knot are an overhand knot tied so that one end of the strand loops back through the knot, without crossing a strand in between. The difference between them is which end goes back through. As with the half hitch, though, the overhand knot idea isn’t the way to think about tying these.

  Although you will see many instructions to tie a slipknot with a crochet hook, I always do it by hand. Decide which end of the strand you want to be able to pull to release the knot (control the size of the loop, or pull it out of the knot entirely to untie it) – let’s call this the release end. Hold the opposite end in your left hand, near where you want the knot. Loop the strand as though writing a cursive lowercase e, with the release end on top, and pinch the crossover point with your left hand. Reach down through the loop with your right hand and pull up the release end, so just a loop of it comes up. Hang onto that loop and the release end, and pull the end in your left hand to tighten the knot. In the photos below, the release end is toward the right.

  

  As I mentioned above, the terminology is different between crocheting and knot tying. The standard crochet slipknot is the knot tyer’s noose knot, also called the locking slipknot; it can’t work loose after you’ve continued crocheting. Its release end is the long end. The knot tyer’s slip knot is also called that for the crocheter, and more specifically the adjustable slipknot; it can loosen up after you’ve continued stitching but conversely can be tightened down. Its release end is the short end. As long as you can secure the end after tightening it sufficiently, it is fine to use for crochet.

• Square Knot (AKA reef knot, sailor’s knot)

  The Boy Scouts say “right over left, left over right, makes a knot tidy and tight.” The square knot is composed of two half knots (the first picture below) made with the same strand on top: cross the strands and loop one around the other underneath. Cross the strands again, same strand on top as before, and loop one around the other under the cross but above the first half knot.

  

  The granny knot is what you get when you don’t keep the same strand on top for both half-knots. It is less secure. The Animated Knots page’s picture of it (see the top square knot picture, mouse over “granny knot”) even looks less secure.

  If the square knot is not secure enough for your purposes, try a surgical knot (mouse over “surgical knot”), which involves crossing the strands a second time in the first half-knot (or, if desired, both). If you want to get fancier, try the sheet bend, also called a weaver’s knot; fancier yet is the carrick bend, known in macrame as the Josephine knot.

Additional Resources

General Knotting: Grog’s Animated Knots is a thorough resource, especially for related knots and uses, although sometimes you have to use another source to find the name of the knot used on Grog’s site. Wikipedia’s list of knots is a good place for synonyms, and is also quite thorough. The Open Directory Project, which I always forget still exists and isn’t just an artifact of the Web circa 1996, has a list of links to various knot references for different purposes.

A practical and old use for knots is making netting, as taught at More Than Fish and Hammocks and Rita’s Netting Nook (note some “classes” on the latter page are not free). The related art of tatting creates lace; there is a nice photographic introduction at Atelier de Happa (though the page didn’t render quite right for me) and links to video instructions at Tatted Treasures. It is natural to move from tatting to macrame. Stone Brash Creative has a great macrame tutorial with lots of knots for that craft.

Decorative knotting for paracord, making bracelets and keychains and the like, is the content of Unique Ropecraft. From there I found a site for boondoggles, or what I would call plastic lanyards. For traditional Chinese knots, try chineseknotting.org or a page from a New Jersey Cultural Heritage site. I could not find a site dedicated to tying Celtic knots (though there are plenty dedicated to drawing them) but several can be found in the gallery on Fusion Knots, and Threads magazine has an article about weaving a Celtic knot to make clothing trim. There are many pages for friendship bracelet patterns, but the best introduction I found is at The Purl Bee.

Finally, I had an embroidery sampler panel on knots, and although most of my favorite online stitch dictionaries are not organized in a way that allows picking out knots, Sarah’s Hand Embroidery is the exception. Unfortunately there are no internal links so you’ll have to scroll and pay attention, but the stitch families are in alphabetical order and the knot family is tenth in line, with yellow and orange samples. Click on a photo to see stitching instructions.

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My solution, after crying, was to move a drop-leaf table behind my sewing machine and a filing cabinet to the left in front of it. I also have an end table/plant stand in front of the filing cabinet; it is significantly shorter but still a lot taller than a chair, and while something taller than it would be better, it is still an improvement over just the filing cabinet. The filing cabinet, end table, and I hold the curtain before it goes through the machine, and the table catches it as it comes out the back.

This improved the situation immensely. I also had to lower the thread and presser foot tensions to avoid skipped stitches and make the curtains feed more smoothly.

I later talked to a quilter and she told me she has a table behind her machine and a table to the left of her machine. If I hadn’t exhausted all the appropriate-height furniture in the house (well, there’s the dining table, but that won’t fit in the sewing room now), I would be extending my support system more to the left. Which would leave no floor space on which to work, but you can’t have everything. I do feel somewhat like an executive behind a big desk.

Anyway, I’m just sharing in case anyone out there has to sew big, heavy items, and was looking for others’ experience. I’m looking forward to having space in my sewing room again, and catching up on my own sewing projects!

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