Sewing Dilemma - WWYD

Fiber & Textile Discussion and Questions
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I made this for my little scissors a couple weeks ago so they could travel in my purse without becoming a tiny hidden weapon in there.

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Ever since though I have been glaring at that awful topstitching. It’s utilitarian but embarrassing…

Everything was going great until I went to sew the front and back together. It’s really thick and holding it still was hard, especially at the end of the day when I was tired. I want to rip the stitches out and redo them, but I need a way to deal with the extra thick fabric and the difference in thickness when I get to the single side top stitching at the top. So, first I need to do this earlier in the day, but I was thinking someone here might have a brilliant idea for making it easier to sew on the edge of thick fabric. Cardboard up against the project maybe? I mean, for the presser foot to balance on. A different type of presser foot? Something else? What do you all think?

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Do you have a walking foot? I use that mostly for quilting, but it is terrific on layers of fabric or thicker fabric as well. It keeps the fabrics from stalling or jumping so that you get much more even stitching.

Mine is nothing fancy, although it has a guide arm so that I can space evenly without marking if I do any type of grid pattern for quilting. I got it on Amazon for under $20.

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I don’t have a walking foot in my normal use sewing supplies BUT there was a weird foot in some stuff someone gave me and all I recall is my aunt said it was for quilting so it got put with “stuff I don’t do right now.” I think I know where it is though so I will pull it out when I get to my studio today and investigate what this one actually does.

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A free motion quilting foot usually comes with sewing machines…is it round? There is also a 1/4" foot.

Maybe this will help?

Ways to sew thick fabric

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All the feet are coming out and being reinvestigated today. Lol… I have been sewing for most of my life and I have had this machine for about 20 years, but all that which I do not use regularly has been not sticking in my brain lately. I will probably head over to the bike shop/ art studio here soon because now I am sure I am just a forgetful dork who needs to refriend all the feet in my collection. :laughing:

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I am guilty of the same thing…I have feet that I have never used. I even have a ruffler and a blind stitch foot…yeah, even old dogs can learn new tricks, so I should do the same thing! ha ha

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This looks like a hand sewing project to me. Teesha Moore style embroidery thread decorative edge stitching. It’s secure & gorgeous too ;).

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I want so much to do some decorative embroidery edging on this! I seriously considered that first! I’d have to use pliers to pull the needle through because of my hand strength issues though. I did find some interesting longer needles though yesterday while rifling through some random unorganized supplies. Now I want to go look at them again to see if they’d work for that…

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I think if you just catch the very edges of both sides it wouldn’t be too thick but still strong enough to hold it all together.

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So, one thing that’s funny - because I learned to sew as a little kid and was a serious introvert growing up - hiding in my room crafting away - I can NEVER remember the real names of all the gadgets that come with my machines. The feet have shapes and then letters printed on them that correspond with a diagram and THAT is how I know them. Google image search is actually how I learn their names now. I know what most of it DOES and I can look at most feet and grok their purpose somewhat, but names don’t stick.

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I’m going to try at least. I will update with how this goes…

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Have any if that ribbony looking trim left? 'Id just hand stitch that over the top stitching. You’d only have to go thru the top layer to appliqué it down .

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Definitely not enough left, unfortunately.

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You can try grading your seams.

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That I already do, but once I had two pieces of multiple layers each, it no longer mattered. The darker flannel is pretty thick and the green flannel has heavy duty fusible interfacing to keep the scissor point from going through it.

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Do you baste it first? I would.
(Is ‘baste’ the right word in English? You know, like with basting thread.)

Also, I would sew slowly and lift up the sewing machine foot a bit when approaching a thicker part.

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That is totally the right word. I had it clipped together but not basted. I was sewing very slowly. I may have just done a terrible job because I was tired.

I’m now feeling pretty inspired to do the embroidery thing though. I just need to rip out all these ugly stitches first…

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The main problem when coming from a thinner part to a thicker part somehow seems to be that the foot isn’t parallel to the plate below anymore. I don’t know why that makes a difference, but I got a sewing foot that has a little push button that levels the foot to the upper level of the fabric layers. It looks kind of funny having more than half of the foot hanging in the air but it works.
If you don’t have a foot like that try sewing close to the “step” in your fabric, stop and wedge a little piece of cardboard or a thin button under the back of the sewing foot to adjust the front and the back of it to the same level. Just go slowly for the first couple of stitches after that.

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Now I have a dozen sewing machine feet and accessories spread across my desk and I keep getting interrupted by customers (not complaining) but this has evolved into a whole project and I think I found something similar to a walking foot that I have never used… And I have two of them somehow…

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You probably have this all sorted, but a quick-n-dirty option would be to use fabric glue to attach some trim to cover it. It might feel like cheating, but… this is a scissors holster for inside your bag! Perfectly fine to glue.