Sewing Lessons & FAQ

[anabolina]

Oh bother, does anyone else have a lot of unfinished projects. I have 5 dresses hanging on a closet door, 2 need buttons, one needs me to finish the sleeves and hem, and 2 just need to be hemmed. Actually, i think i have to replace the skirt on one since the skirt is hanging weirdly. It needed to be gathered, but the tread broke while I was pulling it, then I decided to avoid gathered skirts on my body and tried to cut down the amost gathered skirt and it didn't work very well.

I also have a dress that's halfway sewn and a pair of pants and shirt that are cut out, but not sewn.

Anyway, does anyone else have this problem with finishing their projects, I keep wanting to start new ones.

 

[BonnieJean]

Anabolina,
Yes, that's me too! I've got several sewing projects going in various stages of production. I think its because I have the attention span of a squirrel!

 

[Elaina]

I have a cfew shirts that need buttonholes on them, but with the treadle and the dismantling of the machine, I tend to do all the holes at the same time, about when I get 3-5 items to do that to.

 

[ShooShooBaby]

i have boxes of unfinished mending and sewing projects. it's a bit embarassing!

 

[Lady Day]

Ive got a lot of altering to do. And I think 'man I need a new skirt' so I make one, and then go to the altering pile and go 'crap! I had a skirt like that already!' :eusa_doh:

LD

 

[Elaina]

For me it's always been a conscious effort not to have UFOs (UnFinished Objects) around. I rarely go to something new if the one I was working on isn't done, and usually then only because it's something I need to go somewhere important and I don't have anything I like. It keeps me from gathering too many.

And be honest about the repairs. If it's out of your skill, interest, etc. Don't do it. It'll pile up before you know it, and nothing gets done, donate, or rip apart and use as a pattern for something you WILL do.

Not to say that I don't have a skirt (I have 2 and a jacket) I actually need to completely remake, but they are "finished" as far as it goes, and just need that tweak.

 

[anabolina]

Goodness Elaina, I wish I could do that. I just get tempted by the next pattern and fabric. For example, I added 2 more dresses to the to be completed pile today. Both need hems and sleeves, although both look fine withou sleeves, hmmm. But one of the reasons I took to sewing is to make stuff with sleeves rather then the oh so popular sleeveless sundresses. Oh bother, pretty soon I'm going to run out of places to hang stuff.

 

[RetroModelSari]

I think I have one or two UFOs laying around. One is a blouse that is in need of me putting buttons on it and I can´t remember more for the moment. I sometimes lay something aside but sooner or later I pick it up again and finish it when I don´t have another project that tickles me (or the perfect fabric to go with the project ) at the moment. That´s mostly my Weekend-projects that I do when I get too bored. lol My boyfriend wanted me to sew something over a hole in his jeans, but this turned out horrid (way too thick fabric and I sewed his butt together trying to fix it ), so no more fixing-projects for me. I rather create something completely new.

I just finished a jacket that I had laying around since beginning of this year but didn´t wanted to finish it cause I wanted to do clothes for my summer-holiday first. Now I can start the georgous suit-project that I was looking forward to since a while!

 

[Elaina]

Oh I get tempted too, but I found when I first started that if I didn't get some discipline in my sewing, I was going to have piles of nothing.

When I get the itch to sew something new, I cut it out. But the actual sewing I mostly wait to finish the one garment before going on. Not always, but mostly. As soon as I posted, I needed to make a shirt for my husband, and wound up putting a shirt I was making to the side. In all fairness, I wound up not really caring for this shirt for me, but I have the sleeves and collar basted, and need to actually sew them on. When I finish my husband's shirt (sometime this evening), I'll have to finish my shirt before I move onto this wonderful teal silk shantung fabric I have and figured out what to do with it. Of course, both the shirt I don't like and my husband's need buttons, so I'll have to finish my shirt to make the buttons (sadly, I've got less then an hours work on my shirt to be done.)

I also tend to do purses to break the monotony of garment making. It takes me a couple hours and I get that creative break to go back to the project I was working on, since I think most people have problem with garment boredom. You're sewing this dress, taking a few days and then you get to the point the end is near, and you're sick of looking, working and dealing with it. The most I'll ever have unfinished are things I can have finished in a weekend, but it's been a few years since I've done that to myself.

A sewing list I belong to had the UFO challenge, and at that time, I didn't have any. I got booed on the list, but I never wanted to be my mom where I had all these clothes half made and thrown in a box, that I never got back around to.

 

[Pink Dahlia]

Problem!

I need some help ladies. Hopefully someone can help me.

I have a Brother sewing machine. It's fairly new I would say maybe 1995ish. Regardless it hasn't been used much.

The problem. I was sewing a dress today and ran over a pin. The pin snapped and fell down into where the bobbin sits. Well I cleaned that all out. I got both the broken pin pieces out and even changed the needle because even though I'm not sure if I broke it, it looked dull. All that done, I took apart the bobbin and made certain there was nothing stuck anywhere. I even removed the plate to make sure nothing was underneath.

Now my machine won't pick up the bobbin thread. If I start sewing then it picks up the thread. Weird.

However, when it does sew the stitches look like this:

-----u----uuuuu-------u-u-u--uuuu-------

There are sporadic "u"s (I don't know what else to call them) where the thread is supposed to be straight.

I tried adjusting the tension dial. I've also tried everything else under the sun.

If you have any ideas or maybe something I'm missing I would appreciate it. I know many of you are seasoned seamstresses.

And it's super frustrating for me because I was working on this terribly cute dress. :rage:

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Lotus Leroux]

Hi Pink,

On my old machine something similar happened to me. I tried everything, including adjusting the tension. When I got out the book to my machine I found out that I needed to adjust the bobbin tension. My bobbin case had tiny screws on it and I adjusted those. If I recall correctly that seemed to do the trick.

I am not familiar with your machine but hopefully this helps.

Good luck!

Lotus

 

[Pink Dahlia]

Thanks Lotus.

Well now it will pull up bobbin thread and the "u"s are gone but it is skipping stitches. [huh]

 

[Elaina]

Check google for tension adjustments and it should answer it for you. Without having to ask a lot of questions to just determine if it's the tension or the bobbin tension, that should help you out and be able to fix it, but don't expect to fix it in 5 minutes. I know my tension on my machine and it can still take several hours to get it just so.

 

[Pink Dahlia]

Ugh! I'm so frustrated!

Back to not picking up bobbin thread. I changed the needle. It is in correctly. I changed the tension dial. :rage:

Now it's doing this:

The black is the bobbin thread and the pink is the upper thread.

P.S. - I CAN sew a straight line I was just running out of room on my test fabric.

 

[goldwyn girl]

Looks like a nasty scar No really, I know this is simple but are you sure everything is threaded properly. Both top and bottom.

 

[Lauren]

Often the newer machines will get their timing set off by hitting pins, or even breaking needles. Maybe take it in to the shop? If it's timing, I think it's something that has to be taken care of by professionals, but it's very commonplace.

 

[Pink Dahlia]

Goldwyn
Yes it's been threaded and rethreaded dozens of times. By me and my mom (who's a seasoned seamstress).

Lauren
I was afraid of that. Is it costly?

 

[Elaina]

Looks like the bobbin tension. While in theory I can fix mine (an old 66 Singer) I don't, and to be honest, I'd take it in to the shop for that, but I don't ever mess with it other then to drop bobbins in it to sew.

Last machine I took in that was more modern, which was a 70's model, I believe cleaning, repair and tension adjustment (before I learned how to do my own top adj.) came to about $65 here in DFW. My mom's new machine cost about that the machine was worth t get it repaired, which is why I think she's gotten a new machine this last year.

Prices all vary for what's wrong with it, the shop, location and how much time it takes to get it fixed/cleaned. I pay about $100 if there's a problem, my mom in rural Tennessee pays about $150 for the same service.

 

[BonnieJean]

Just my two cents....

Pink,
It looks like your top thread tension is too loose and your bobbin tension is a little tight. I'm no expert by any means, but I had a similar experience with my late 80s Kenmore when I ran over a pin. It took some tinkering around with the tension to get it to work right. I didn't take it anywhere to get it fixed but, I really think when I ran over the pin it messed up the upper thread tension and I'm pretty sure the dial too as I have to go by what the thread tension looks like now rather than go by the numbers on the dial. If you haven't taken it in to the shop yet, pick a calm moment (I remember being ticked off about it too) to sit down with some scraps of fabric and just change the upper tension a bit. Sometimes it only takes a slight change to make a big difference in the thread tension. I may have changed the tension in a big way and noticed how the line of thread looked on the fabric and then adjusted it back accordingly. Sometimes I'm too cheap for my own good and should just take broken machines into the shop, but I didn't want the expense, unless absolutely necessary, nor the waiting period while it is being fixed. So....[huh] I don't know if any of this helps or not, but I certainly feel your pain, especially since you were working on a "terribly cute dress"!

 

[Pink Dahlia]

Well she's dead. The guy at the shop said that the hook that's supposed to catch the bobbin thread isn't pulling back far enough to catch the thread and a repair would cost $99. My machine is worth about that plus he said that it happens to these kind of machines all the time. So I did not get it fixed. Not when I can buy a new better machine for that (not that I can afford that anyway). But fortunately I have wonderful family and friends who have offered up their machines until I can buy one that works.