Miscellaneous Sewing Tips

June 2010

18 June 2010 - Unknown Author

No matter what your sewing skill level, you can always learn something new. Here’s a collection of random sewing tips:

When to use pinking shears?
• Pinking shears are perfect for finishing seams for tightly woven fabric.
• They are great to use on light-weight fabric when you don’t want a seam finish to show through.
• Pinking shears are just right for finishing seams on non-fraying heavy fabric like fleece, where you don’t want a heavy straight line to show through on the front of the seam.

Zip Tips
Invisible Zips:
• Iron the hidden zipper open before sewing. This will help get the stitch line as close as possible to the teeth. It will also smooth out the fold caused by packaging, making a smoother install.
• Use an invisible zip foot. It has grooves underneath that make sure the zipper passes through and stays in place.

All Zips:
• When zip crosses a seam, make sure to trim away as much bulk as possible, and press the seam open.
• Always sew from the same direction on both sides.
• When in doubt, baste the zip in first, it’s worth the effort.

Dart Tips:
• Press vertical darts to the center of the piece, press horizontal darts to down. After sewing, press the dart flat, to embed the stitches, then press on the wrong side in the appropriate direction. Finally, press on the right side.
• On a single dart, start at the big end.
• On a double dart start in the center and sew toward one end, then start at the center and sew towards the other end.
• After starting at the big end, grasp the thread ends and pull them to the front, using them as a guide to sew to the small end.
• Use a tailor’s ham to have a perfect finish.
• Keep your iron clean. Regularly clean the reservoir, and use iron cleaner on the plate.
Do you have any sewing tips? I’d love to hear them!