I tested it out on bias tape, and set to 15 (its max is 25) it did a decent job. You have to be careful not to stretch the bias tape; pushing your iron along fabric can stretch it (though moreso if steam is involved), so pulling something through a pair of heated plates would definitely do so. Turning it up to 20 might have made it a quicker job, of course, but we’re working with a satiny material so trying lower temperatures was a priority. I’ll probably set it to 10 and test it on scrap dress material at the next lesson.

Naturally the flatiron has to be transported and I don’t want to have to worry about its temperature when doing so. That meant an insulated carrying case of some kind. Another vague recollection came to me, of using a potholder or two to make a flatiron sleeve for travel. I didn’t have any potholders to sacrifice to the cause, but I did have a lot of leftover 100% cotton flannel and some random pieces of the silvery insulated fabric used to make ironing board covers. I did some measuring and cut a bunch of pieces.

The larger pieces are 10.5″x3.5″ and the smaller ones are 7.5″x3.5″. The silver fabric wasn’t large enough to make 10.5″ so it’s somewhere between 8″ and 9″, but that’s still way longer than the hot portion of the flatiron. I laid them out with the silver fabric in the middle, silver side in, and stitched the layers together at 1/4″. I also zigzagged the edge, but not very tightly. The short side got bias tape on its top edge, and then I zigzagged the two sides together. Bias tape all the way around the outside and it was done.

The flatiron fits inside it perfectly. I am quite pleased.

So what else is in my teaching bag? Seam ripper, seam gauge, two sizes of scissors, some rectangles of fabric for stitch practice, and painter’s tape. The sewing machine we’re using has eighth-inch marks, but they’re not labeled. I plan to run a length of tape along the 5/8″ mark to make it stand out, and my business partner suggested painter’s tape instead of the masking tape I was thinking of. Perfect!

The post A flatiron in the sewing room? appeared first on ReveDreams.com.

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.

The post Pattern cutting tips appeared first on ReveDreams.com.

Please feel welcome to comment with your own clarification questions!

Beginning:

• There are two sets of terminology in crochet, known by the shorthands US and UK. I always use US (including throughout this post) and say that in my website but not the individual patterns. There are a few telltales if you don’t know which terminology you’re working with:
  • If you see sc, it’s US. I’ve seen some warnings that US slip stitch can be called sc in UK patterns but (a) I’ve never seen it in an actual pattern, and (b) it wouldn’t be used as a primary stitch unless you were doing slip stitch crochet, in which case you’d know what to expect.
  • If you see hdc, it’s US.
  • If it’s an amigurumi made with dc, it’s UK.
  • If you see htr, it’s almost certainly UK – I’ve seen htr in US-terminology patterns, but there it’s a nonstandard stitch that needs to be defined.
• If you are asked either to chain some number or attach new yarn with a slip stitch, it is implied that you are to tie a slip knot and place it on your hook first.
• The instruction “sc 6 in magic ring” or similar is preceded by an implied “coil yarn into ring, pull up loop, and chain 1.” The chain 1 is often but not always included in the written instructions; the first two implied instructions are what forms the magic ring.
• “Join with sl st into ring,” which would be applied to a chain, always means to slip stitch into the chain closest to the slip knot.

Middle:

• Stitching “in ring” or “into ring” is done by inserting your hook into the center of the ring, not between the strands of any of its stitches.
• In general, in fact, it appears to me that whenever you make stitches on a chain that is attached at both ends (i.e. not a starting chain for work in rows or a chain out/stitch back situation), you will insert your hook under the chain (in the chain space) rather than between the chain’s strands. It is certainly true for granny squares and other afghan motifs worked in the round.
• When working into the top teardrops of previous stitches, make one new stitch per old stitch if not directed otherwise.
• A range of row or round numbers followed by a single set of instructions (e.g., “8-14: Sc around”) means to do the same set of stitches for each row/round numbered, except for anything that cuts or otherwise finishes off the yarn, which (unless the instructions have you start new yarn) are meant to occur only at the end of the last row/round of the range.
• For double crochet and taller stitches, the row or round stitch count includes the turning chain, but not the joining slip stitch (if applicable). This may also be true for hdc but it is less universal.

End:

• “Finish off” (FO) means to cut the yarn, pull up the last loop on your hook until the cut end emerges from the final stitch, and weave that end in. “Finish off” may itself be an implied instruction, as well.
• “Cut a long tail” or similar instructions, on the other hand, mean to pull the cut end through as with finishing off, but then await further instructions. And, of course, it also means to leave enough yarn attached that you can use it to sew two pieces of crochet together or sew an opening closed.

The post Pattern assumptions appeared first on ReveDreams.com.

• Think it all through – Before ever teaching your first class, pay close attention to what you do when you craft. Pull out all the little steps that you’ve forgotten about because they’re so automatic.
• Get some perspective – What’s vital to doing the craft successfully? What’s just a matter of taste? What is in-between: not vital, but desirable to take your work to the next level? The students don’t necessarily have any way to distinguish those levels of importance, so do so for them.
• Be systematic, but flexible – Perspective is part of this, since you have to choose a way to teach things when there may be many ways to do them, but I am thinking of class organization. Write a lesson plan and cover things in a sensible order, but respond to your students’ needs and wants. I usually have the first session of my crochet class fully planned out, but about a class and a half worth of material prepared for the second session so I can adapt it to the students’ desired use for crochet.
• Mind your notes – Even in classes I’ve taught numerous times I refer to my notes regularly to make sure I’m not getting ahead of myself.
• Have samples – Finished and in-progress examples that can be touched and manipulated are one benefit of an in-person class.
• Remind them we’re not used to this sort of activity – In the US nowadays we don’t tend to grow up with handcraft, and the necessary motions and manipulations are very different from, say, typing. Remind them to go easy on themselves and allow time to get comfortable with it.
• Be hands-on – If you only give visual and verbal instruction, even if it includes feedback it’s missing a key element of in-person instruction. Try not to be grabby, but do move things into place for students who are not seeing it. I had an embroidery student once who was such a kinesthetic learner that placing the needle for her and having her complete the motion was the only way she could click with certain stitches.
• Keep it moving, but relaxed – The students are there to be directed, not to tell you when to move on. Definitely ask along the way whether they are comfortable with what you’ve covered, but don’t expect them to volunteer how they are getting along. Some will, of course, but not many. Push them a bit, but be sure it stays enjoyable. Almost everyone will be in a craft class because they want to learn or expand a hobby, and any few who have other purposes will push themselves as hard as necessary.
• Allow plenty of practice time – But don’t expect everyone to have it down pat before moving on. This is one significant example of the previous point. With any activity of substance there is a need for practice beyond what’s allowed in the limited time of a class.
• Let them struggle a bit – Sometimes the only way to learn is to just muck about with it. Try not to let a student do a stitch incorrectly several times, or do something to the sewing machine that is potentially damaging, but don’t leap in preemptively.
• Watch but don’t stare – This takes practice. You want to see whether they are struggling, and almost more so whether they don’t think they’re struggling but are making some error, but without looming over them and making them uncomfortable.
• Silence is not golden – If the room is too quiet, play some soft classical music. By soft, I mean almost subliminal; don’t have it loud enough to need to talk over it, just make sure there is some background noise. This serves two purposes: to help keep students from tensing up while they practice, and to ease the act of asking questions by eliminating the need to break silence by doing so.

What’s your best advice?

The post Craft teaching advice appeared first on ReveDreams.com.

Unlike crochet, there is no clear order in which to teach the fundamentals of embroidery (arguably there are at least two orders for crochet – sc-centric vs. dc-centric – but embroidery doesn’t even have an argument).

That makes it a bit like ballroom dance. I took ballroom dance lessons for a few years in my mid-20s, and I was always interested to see what order dances were taught in, and what dance would be chosen for an isolated lesson to a wider audience. There are straightforward dances, dances that allow you to do a lot with a little bit of knowledge, dances that look impressive, dances that can be done in a wider variety of settings… but nothing that satisfies all desirable criteria at once. Furthermore, of the more interesting and applicable dances, a straightforward basic step often goes with trickiness as soon as you want to learn a turn. How to choose, even after narrowing to a certain category of dance? I have the same problem with ordering stitches in teaching.

Here’s my incomplete and stretched analogy.

• Running stitch and backstitch are like proper dance posture and partner hold: clearly necessary and willingly learned, but not what anyone is actually there for.
• Blanket stitch is like the rhumba: desirable and useful (such as when The Drifters come on at a wedding reception), with a reasonably straightforward basic step, but unexpected complications related to turns (I couldn’t resist, though with blanket it’s really starting and stopping more than turning).
• Chain stitch is like salsa: fun, appealing, widely applicable, with a complicated basic step that can trip you up even after you’ve done it a while, but fairly easy to learn the other moves once you’ve mastered the basic.
• French knot is like the waltz: seems like it ought to be straightforward, but is actually a bit subtle and can be hard to do smoothly and consistently.
• Cross-stitch is like merengue: there’s almost nothing to it – it’s all in what you do with it.
• Feather stitch is like the foxtrot: A little weird at first, then fairly easy as long as you don’t overthink it.
• Achieving even stitch size and consistent tension are like leading with finesse and following responsively: Teachable to a certain extent, but impossible to really learn without extensive practice, preferably in a variety of stitches or dances.

Of course with these I’m thinking of just the fundamental parts: the basic move, turns, breaks; or alternatively, starting, stopping, and turning the basic stitch. You could think of all the fancy moves that you can learn in any dance as akin to fancy variations on stitches – woven, knotted, et cetera.

Any dancer-embroiderers out there have more or alternative matchups?

The post Blanket stitch is like the rhumba appeared first on ReveDreams.com.

Certainly “live” instruction is available on YouTube, there are lots of free patterns to practice with, and most popular crafts even have sequenced curricula available for free online (such as my Learn Crochet series). You can use those materials any time, anywhere, and focus on what you care most about. You can play the videos over and over again without worrying about being annoying or looking foolish. You can scroll back and check over something you can’t quite remember.

However, there is value left in craft classes. Here are the three main advantages I think they offer.

1. Dedicated time to prioritize learning. This is all on the student, of course, nothing to do with the way the class is put together, but sometimes utter freedom to schedule yourself leads to not scheduling at all. Setting aside time and paying for a class are both ways to give learning the priority it needs to happen.

2. Samples and models that can be handled and manipulated. There’s nothing like picking up, turning, peering at, and otherwise interacting with an example of what you are trying to create. In crochet and knitting in particular, one of the skills you have to acquire is reading your stitches. At first it’s all an incomprehensible tangle of strands of yarn, and it’s only with experience that you can make sense of what you’re looking at.

3. Immediate live feedback. This is the biggest benefit, and applies no matter how good you are at self-guided learning. If things aren’t working out, or they seem to be but your piece doesn’t match the example, in a class you have someone knowledgeable to check it over and determine what you are doing differently.

The class still needs a good syllabus and solid instruction, but I try to give a lot of time to guided practice. As a former mathematics teacher I’m used to only explaining and demonstrating in class, but I had office hours then for direct feedback. Now I have to fold it into the class itself. I also produce a lot of samples ahead of time, although I’m playing a guessing game with those – it’s hard to tell which ones will be most useful.

What are your thoughts about in person versus online learning, especially for physical skills?

The post The value of craft classes appeared first on ReveDreams.com.

If we can get through Aviator Owl and the first few rounds of Baby Grump I’ll be ecstatic. The handout will help them through the rest of Baby Grump (you’ll note that unlike the big one, he hasn’t learned how to be grumpy yet).

The bottom of the owl is an open-topped sphere. In that piece we’ll learn how to make the magic ring, how to use stitch markers in the round, which side is the outside, the invisible decrease, consequences of working in a spiral, and how to stuff neatly.

The top of the owl, a closed sphere, will add working around stuffing, sewing round openings closed, and securing and hiding yarn ends.

To complete the owl we’ll have to learn how to pin and sew stuffed items, sewing on the buttons, and a bit of embroidery. The handout will show some embroidery stitches that might come in handy, like the French knot.

Baby Grump begins by stitching around both sides of a chain. The back legs are my beloved bobble stitch, and the front legs are made with separate yarn slip stitched onto the body. We certainly won’t get to the front legs, but I think they are a bit easier to figure out from the handout than, say, the magic ring. Baby Grump also gives the students more practice counting their stitches, because his increases and decreases are not all uniform like the owl. I’ve begun upgrading the Ami Elements page of the Learn Crochet series with additional helpful links and information, and though I may not get to it again before tonight, more is in store.

The post Simplify, simplify appeared first on ReveDreams.com.

Fabric and thread to start: I like to start people with calico fabric (quilting cotton) and two strands of embroidery floss. That is a good combination weight-wise and those materials present no special challenges. Try other fabrics (coarsely woven, fuzzy or fluffy) and other threads (the full six strands of floss, perle cotton, ribbon) after becoming comfortable with the motions of embroidery. That shouldn’t be long, though, and then there are some rules of thumb for matching. Six strands of floss or something heavier like perle cotton is good on a very coarse fabric or to achieve a dimensional effect. On a puffy fabric such as fleece you’d likely want at least four strands of floss to keep the stitches from disappearing. For a smooth-surfaced fabric such as cotton or felt, two or three strands is good (for detail work a single strand might be employed).

Above: A sampling of materials. The fabric is cotton calico. The brown thread is Coats and Clark 6-stranded embroidery floss (6, 4, and 2 strands shown, left to right), the green at bottom is DMC perle cotton size 5, and the blue at top is Columbia-Minerva 100% wool “Persian-type” needlepoint and crewel yarn.

Needles: Embroidery needles tend to be fine and sharp, but unless you are working on unforgiving fabric (delicate silk, say), use whatever needle is comfortable to work with, has a large enough eye for the thread, and is sharp enough to pierce the fabric. Wetting and twisting the end of the thread between your fingers will help in threading.

Knots or Not Knots: Knotting is typically not done in embroidery; instead, you leave a few inches loose at the back and weave them under your stitches later (or to start, if it is not your first length of thread). The same is done to secure the opposite end. Sometimes you have to knot, however, such as if you are stitching around the edge of a piece of fabric. In that case two or three overhand knots to start and a half hitch to end are easiest.

Above left: Overhand knot. Above right: Half hitch.

Comfortable Stitching. To keep your hands and forearms from getting sore, stretch and rub them frequently. Make sure you are not gripping the work too tightly, and change your hand position regularly. If it is difficult to get the needle through the fabric, use a thimble to push and a bit of rubber to pull (you may buy one for the purpose, or cut a 1.5-2″ square of a rubber jar opener). As a right-handed stitcher, I find it is most comfortable to stitch with the needle pointing somewhere between left and forward, and to tighten the thread up or to the right. Experiment for the best solution for you – for me it is frequently not the direction given in stitch instructions.

The post Embroidery: before you begin appeared first on ReveDreams.com.

I’ve got another session of embroidery class tonight, so I’ve been thinking about this question over the past couple of weeks. Should I make it a project class? In December I taught one aimed at making felt ornaments, with a variety of holiday and non-holiday patterns printed on tracing paper. No one used any; they were all interested in embroidery for their own purposes.

Still, it’s nice to have something to hang up in the store to entice people to sign up. That didn’t happen, but I do have a few of the new models I wanted. In the last five or six days I’ve remembered several I would have liked last time, but didn’t note down for myself in any place I’ve looked at since.

You’ll see these apples again.

I have learned some things in the few times I’ve taught embroidery. One was how to successfully make a French knot! No longer are they the bane of my cross-stitching experience. I’ve also had to learn to be flexible in how I describe stitches. I may do well describing the blanket stitch in terms of compass directions or the corners of a box, but that doesn’t mean everyone will. I even had one student who was the most kinesthetic learner I’ve ever met, and the only thing that worked was actually placing the needle for her and having her complete the motion, all the way through the stitch. After that she had it, but description and demonstration did not suffice.

I try to emphasize how much can be done with just a few stitches, bringing a pile of examples to class. The embroideries for my children’s book quilt are almost entirely straight and satin stitches, with a few backstitched or stem-stitched portions (none of which are vital to the look). I have an antique handkerchief done in satin and straight stitch, and a tea towel with lovely flowers and butterflies made from lazy daisy, blanket stitch, stem stitch, and French knot. The examples I hope to have before the next time are more thorough but also modular: different numbers of strands, perle cotton and other non-embroidery-floss materials, quilting cotton versus more coarsely-woven fabrics, stitching in different sizes and with different proportions. Ideally I’ll eventually have a personal stitch sampler with a page for each stitch and for different thread/fabric combinations that can have its pages taken out and passed around.

Since there are only so many stitches we can cover in two hours, I try to emphasize the motions that distinguish the categories of stitches and are common to multiple stitches. Are you overlapping? Catching a strand? Pointing your needle in the same direction as the stitch line is progressing, off by ninety degrees, or backwards? My handout covers lots of embroidery basics, tips, and advanced notes they may come back to later, as well as ten stitches with variations. We don’t come close to covering all of them, but having them in the handout allows me to tailor the class to the interests of the participants. We always start simply with running stitch and general thread management, but then: If they are interested in classic stitching like my tea towel, we’ll cover stem stitch, French knot, chain stitch, and blanket stitch, probably in that order. If they are interested in making pictures more like my children’s book embroideries, we’ll work on the various straight stitches and doodle in thread. If they want to put edgings on blankets and garments, we’ll cover whipstitch, blanket stitch, and cross-stitch, and I might ad lib herringbone stitch.

Doing is the most important part of any class in arts and crafts, though. Doing anything! If I can teach them the basic motions and how to think about embroidery stitches, it doesn’t much matter which particular stitches we cover because they’ll be equipped to learn others on their own.

Maybe I had more answers than I thought…

The post How to teach embroidery appeared first on ReveDreams.com.

As part of the preparation I also posted a new page, which has been in the works for some time now. You can see it above as “Sewing Tidbits.” It is a sort of glossary, including links to other places with useful information. While the alterations class was the motivation for finishing it, there are non-alteration entries as well.

Looking through my small library of sewing books, it turned out only two were really good for alterations to existing clothes rather than to clothes you are sewing from scratch. One is so out of print Amazon doesn’t even have a front cover image for it: The Complete Book of Sewing, new revised edition with over 750 explanatory pictures, by Constance Talbot, 1943. [I am of the opinion that the best sewing books are from the 40s, 50s, and 60s, after electric sewing machines and mass production were well-established, but while people still made a lot of their own clothing.] Ms. Talbot has an entire section devoted to remaking and remodeling – changing the features of clothing either to eliminate worn parts or update its style. The other book that is good, which is probably not a surprise, is The Costume Technician’s Handbook, by Rosemary Ingram and Liz Covey, 1992 (the link is to a newer edition). This was one of the two textbooks for my Introduction to Costuming class in college, and since theaters often have to contend with low budgets, they have to make costumes work as many times as possible. This book has a thorough section on alterations with many, many pictures. Some of the alteration suggestions aren’t great for personal clothing, because in live theater you know the audience is at least a few feet away at all times so the fine details aren’t as key, but many of them are.

I have some show and tell pieces (“manipulatives,” they would be called in education): some children’s clothes I picked up at the thrift store, a partial pant leg to demonstrate how cuffs go together, and a partial waistband. The cuff and waistband are partially stitched but go together the rest of the way with velcro, so you can undo and redo them.

I’ll share some of the other parts of the class, and things I learned or wrote up while creating the sewing tidbits page, here over the next few posts. Please feel free to ask questions and make requests!

The post Alterations! appeared first on ReveDreams.com.