Best way to learn is to just jump in and try! I just wish your machine was cooperating so you wouldn’t get frustrated while learning!
The hardest part of learning to sew is not knowing why the machine isn’t working correctly. Persistence and patience will get you through.
Trouble shooting:
Dust!
Make sure the needle is in the most down position when turning, if not then the threads will slip any time the foot is lifted.
Old thread breaks, if you can snap it with hand pulling it’s no good.
Use a new needle for every big project, sharps for non-stretch fabric, ball point for stretch. Size matters: 8 for very light fabric - 16 for denim/canvas.
Sewing requires focus & concentration while learning, do yourself a favour & take a break when you’re tired.
Ok! Finally picking back up from where I left off, I went around the edge in an attempt to keep the neck piece from being too…flared? Fluted? Which mostly helped. (I may hand sew along the seams later, ).
Anyway, now I’m working on the…Well, they’re not sleeves, sleeve-like decoration? .
And so I’m going over the directions for the bias tape and watching quite a few videos to try and get a feel for it.
Just remember that is is called BIAS tape for a reason…it has to be cut on the bias to give it stretch to go around curves. It is not the same as binding used for quilts, which can be cut on the grain.
If you don’t wait to make your own, which can take a lot of fabric since it is cut on the 45 degree angle, just buy it.
You will not get a good enough stretch or shaping if it is not BIAS tape.
O_o, woops! I think I cut, the one I made “on the grain”. I’ll have to look into the grain angles and try to get a better understanding of it all. (It’s a size 3 dress, so I should be able to make some long enough for it. Maybe 12 to 16 inches long for each piece. Eh, will just have to research as much as I can.
Ok, I’ll take some of the bits and pieces of fabric I have and see how this goes. (Starting to get dizzy again, so .
Ok, I was able to get it to turn a little (via the press method), but it was slow going, and still not as sharp of a curve as I’ve seen in a video somewhere. However, I did iron out the bias tape crease, . Also, I measured out the sleeve holes, so I’d only need 12 inches for each. Maybe 14 inches just to have a little room to play around with. So all I’d need would be sqrt((14+2n)^2/2) of fabric. (Where n is the width of the bias tape).
however, if I feel safe enough to drive and happen to need to go out, or get a ride, I’ll just buy some…
Ok! Not driving anywhere today. Anyway, am making them after all. Just going really really slow as I can barely concentrate on anything.
I still messed up, I only wanted 16 inches, as that’d give me roughly four inches to play with, but instead of cutting on the 14.5 inch line, I cut on the 16 inch line. Meh, just gives me roughly 7 extra inches to spare on each one.
Way too light headed right now. Can’t think.
Finally found a vid on this kind of sleeve…Pshew! Now I can go to the next step.
How to finish armhole when cap sleeve attached/sewing technique
Ok! Starting on my wife’s shirt, and I’ll have to do something different with the parchment paper. Not even two will work. What I probably could do, and what I’ll probably wind up doing, I’ll do a half piece up to the lengthen/shorten line, then do the bottom piece crosswise. I don’t think I could save too much fabric from the sides anyway, so it should be fine. Besides, It’d be really easy to lengthen and shorten it doing it that way,
Are you lengthening the pattern with paper? Parchment paper tends to resist tape, but any paper will do. Wrapping paper, newspaper.
Hmm! That gave me an idea for measuring her front to know how long it should be, , but for the most part, this one is merely going to be the test piece as I’ve got a lot of plans in store for her shirts (been watching a lot of videos on adding lace and other decorations).
Oh duh! I did not think of that. We’ve got plenty of wrapping paper. I think we even have some that’s pretty difficult to tear.
Ok! I realized that I won’t be able to see through the wrapping paper, so before I use the tiny fabric pizza cutter and poke holes everywhere, I’ll attempt my idea first. I have a few waste fabrics to partially construct the front and back and one arm to see how it will fit, and if this method turns out to be too difficult, then I’ll start poking the pattern onto wrapping paper.
I made sure to note how far down the bottom piece is from the top part. (I do plan on adding a couple of inches, though, so on cutting the first test piece it will actually be 3.5 inches instead of 1.5). The only real issue I can see I need to rectify before I go to the next stage, I need to mark where the center line is on the lower piece, . Completely spaced that out. Yeesh! (I am not very good at re-folding the patterns, heh).
Well, it did work. Also, wife doesn’t agree with me that this fabric would make a really nice shirt, .
Ok! Had my wife try it on, and definitely need to do some tweakin. Below her chest, the back side needs to come out, and the front (below her chest) needs to be widened. So, looks like I will have to start learning how to mix different sizes for different parts of patterns.
If anyone knows of any vids that help explain that, I’m all eyes, heh.
Also, this is the best slit I’ve sewn yet. This time I snipped the seam just above the stitches and sewn as close to the stitches as well as I could, then I pressed and hemmed it. So looks like I’m that much closer to being better at those.
I don’t know how to grade patterns, but I found some interesting pages about it:
Also, Carol Kimball has interesting posts about modifying patterns!
and the first two images in the very first one I clicked on…clicked. Ear is ringing like crazy and quite dizzy at the moment. So will try to store this into memory…
Now to figure out how I’m going to transfer this. I am going to have to cut out the pattern, s, I could cut out the largest sizes, so all the other sizes are preserved. and then what? .
Head’s not too great at the moment, but I’ll figure something out. This is going to be a no-brainer, just need a tiny little more healthiness, .
Ok! It’s…a process, heh.
I took the extra width T and the length L from where the changes take place, and divided it into four sections to make the main marks for the new design.
and thus at any point n along L would be n(T/L) away from the point on the original pattern.
As for the decorative pleat, I’ll have to rewatch a video I found on that, but realistically it most likely won’t be an issue if I leave it as is.
Pppp! Back to the drawing board. The neck and shoulders have the wrong measurements (paper shifts as I work, even with weights)…AAAAAAaaaand I just realize I’m not doing that size. O_o. Darn it. Need to make sure I close the door so I can work uninterrupted, heh. So lightheaded right now.
Oof! A lot of it seems off. Very little is centered on the center line. Still too dizzy to do much, but I’m steadily working on it.
Woot! The grease worked, and there is no squeaking and squawking now. She runs as smooth as she can.
Got a little side tracked, but at least I got it done finally. Now I need to reorganize my bedroom and get ready to work on the shirt again.
Ok! Second test is finally done. The top part is good (i may want to deepen the V, ), but the bottom, or mid section is still just a hair too tight.it is a knit fabric that I’m going to use, so I’m wondering how the stretch will work with it. How much force could it take before being over stretched…This is something I am completely in the dark about.
Also, I cut this out with using the sissors guiding along the pattern. The V neck was the only thing I marked out. I think a little more practice, and I may not need to mark some things out. At least large things like shirts.
And one more thing, now the sewing machine runs smoothly, the stitches look worse, and the tension should be goood…Anyway, it looks like I’m going to have to play around with the settings again.