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From: Rudi
Date: 02-02-2006, 01:58 AM (1 of 10)
| When sewing two or more pieces of fabric together, is it best to just guide the material with your hands on top of the sewing table or hold all the layers with your right hand. Sometimes when i start out with fabric lined up and start sewing, at the end, one layer is longer or shorter than the other. What am i doing wrong? |
User: Rudi
Member since: 02-02-2006 Total posts: 1 |
From: paroper
Date: 02-02-2006, 02:46 AM (2 of 10)
|
When I first read this title I was thinking "If I feed my fabric will it grow?" Obviously, I've been up way too long. When the fabric enters the machine, the machine does ALL the feeding. You can guide the fabric to keep it straight, but let the machine take it through with the feed dogs. I keep my right hand below the machine or sometimes in front of the pressure foot just to keep the fabric aligned, sometimes I don't use it at all. I lay my left hand on the fabric to the left side of the machine but near the presser feet just to make sure that the excess fabric on the left side does not cause the fabric to turn away from the sewing guides marked on the machine. The machine is perfectly timed so that the feed dogs will feed the fabric from the bottom as it stitches. Forcing the fabric does nothing to help the quality of the stitch. The fabric feeding through is actually a different issue. You have the feed dogs on the bottom to make the fabric move foreward with each stitch but you have nothing on the top. The walking foot was invented to aide in keeping the top fabric even with the bottom. The pressure from the foot is causing the top material to stretch as it stitches and it is not feeding smoothly from the top. It is probably stretching as the fabric sews across grain (where the fabrics stretch more). On some machines you can also adjust pressure foot tension (weight) on the fabric. If you machine has an adjustment, it is usually at the left end of the machine or it is an odd push down rod located at the top of the machine. It could also be on the back. If you "mess" with this, remember the "regular" setting as it is probably the best for general sewing (maybe not). Pinning the fabric can also help with this problem. It sometimes help keep the fabric together in small areas so that it doesn't stretch so much. pam
Bernina 200e, Artista V5 Designer Plus, Explorations, Magic Box, Bernina 2000DE & 335 Bernette Serger, Bernina 1530 Sewing Machine, Bernina 1300 DC Overlock (with coverstitch) |
User: paroper
Member since: 02-03-2004 Total posts: 3775 |
From: paroper
Date: 02-02-2006, 03:29 AM (3 of 10)
|
One other thing. Directional sewing also helps with the stretching problem. Sewing across the ends of the fabric as you aproach the bias can present a problem. If you sew with the grain of the fabric, for instance up the skirt instead of down the skirt where you sew into the cut ends, a lot of your problem will be eliminated. Many patterns have little triangles or arrows on the seam allowance to show the proper stitching direction. This does not totally emliminate problems but it does cut them considerably. Too many women attack the sewing machine like they are at war and try to force the fabric through the feed dogs. I was amazed when I was at a sewing session of mature woment the other day...we took turns trying out the new BSR system on the Berninas. Probably 3 out of 4 women were forcing the fabric through the feed dogs. They have to be exhausted by the time they have sewn all day, not to mention the quality of the stitch suffers. Sewing should be relaxing. Let the machine do the work. If you've sewn like that for 20 years, it will be difficult to learn to relax, but the results will be fantastic. pam
Bernina 200e, Artista V5 Designer Plus, Explorations, Magic Box, Bernina 2000DE & 335 Bernette Serger, Bernina 1530 Sewing Machine, Bernina 1300 DC Overlock (with coverstitch) |
User: paroper
Member since: 02-03-2004 Total posts: 3775 |
From: mozeyrn
Date: 02-02-2006, 10:09 AM (4 of 10)
|
Pam, I know directional sewing will change how something looks, but why? If I have a side seam to sew how is it that sewing up from the hemline will be different than sewing down from the waist? Just talking about basic woven material (no stretchy or slinky stuff). Thanks!! - Maureen.
Learning something new with every stitch!! Kenmore 16231000 |
User: mozeyrn
Member since: 11-29-2005 Total posts: 349 |
From: paroper
Date: 02-02-2006, 10:28 AM (5 of 10)
|
All fabric has stretch. That is why you cut bias strips from uphostery fabric or cottons to make piping. THat is also why if a cotton fabric is off grain you can cross pull the fabric and straighten it (if it hasn't been heat set). On long seam like skirts, where you a little stretch on a long seam can make big differences and where there are often curves and cross cuts on hips, or on tops at the shoulders and necks where there is more bias and fit is critical, directional sewing is crucial to a good seam fit. Most tafeta and satin is not all that stretchy. It crawls but the problem is that is also is shiny so a little bit of pucker shows up like crazy. THat is why we more often think of those fabrics as being the ones that require special sewing direction. Knit problems speak for themselves. Ok, so how do you know which way is with the grain? Well, it is king of like with nap. If You sew in the direction of the long strands of the weave. If you sew up from the bottom from a straight or a-line skirt you can see that you are not sewing into the tops of the cut threads, but with the long threads and across the tops of the threads where they are cut. I hope I am explaining this so that you can understand. If you took a piece of graft paper and drew a skirt pattern, curving it inward toward the waist (that is removing a dart), you will see that the flow of the lines is upward. As you draw, you are pushing the cut lines into the skirt. If you sew downward, you should be able to see that you are spreading the cut lines away from the skirt...that is where the stretch comes from when you sew. pam
Bernina 200e, Artista V5 Designer Plus, Explorations, Magic Box, Bernina 2000DE & 335 Bernette Serger, Bernina 1530 Sewing Machine, Bernina 1300 DC Overlock (with coverstitch) |
User: paroper
Member since: 02-03-2004 Total posts: 3775 |
From: plrlegal
Date: 02-02-2006, 12:34 PM (6 of 10)
|
Pam also one of the things I have noticed a lot of ladies doing when they sew is they hold the fabric at the front and back and stretch it as it goes through the feed dogs. I have yet to figure out why they think it is necessary to do this. I have a Pfaff with IDT so it takes care of feeding the fabric evenly through the feed dogs. I have had to learn to have a very light touch in just guiding the fabric and not holding or tugging on it. Patsy Patsy
|
User: plrlegal
Member since: 05-19-2001 Total posts: 318 |
From: paroper
Date: 02-02-2006, 01:05 PM (7 of 10)
|
Oh, I know why they do it. They do it because they think they are stretching the fabric so that the seams will give. They got this crazy idea because someone told them to stretch knit fabrics as they sew. Since most knits stretch only one way, they are only pulling the fabric lines together, they are not putting more thread into the seam. A slight zig zag which goes from side to side would do a much better job of that, not to mention a stretch stitch (two forward, one back, two forward) that many machines have. You have the right idea for any machine, Patsy. We just need to keep the fabric from shifting when sewing. All the machines will take care of the feeding of the fabric. pam
Bernina 200e, Artista V5 Designer Plus, Explorations, Magic Box, Bernina 2000DE & 335 Bernette Serger, Bernina 1530 Sewing Machine, Bernina 1300 DC Overlock (with coverstitch) |
User: paroper
Member since: 02-03-2004 Total posts: 3775 |
From: DorothyL
Date: 02-02-2006, 02:08 PM (8 of 10)
|
I have a Pfaff also and that extra little foot does help -- a lot. I stretch the fabric to give a little ease now and then though. And I use a TON of pins but I take them out before they get to the needle. I hand baste a lot too. But I know I don't always sew in the right direction. I try to, but sometimes it just isn't convenient. Dorothy |
User: DorothyL
Member since: 12-09-2002 Total posts: 3883 |
From: plrlegal
Date: 02-02-2006, 03:32 PM (9 of 10)
|
In my own sewing experience, if I have stretched the fabric while sewing a seam, the only thing that happens is I end up with a puckered seam. I've read a lot of the things women blame puckered seams on (i.e., cheap thread, winding a bobbin to fast, etc.) but I can almost bet that if the same seam were removed and sewn in the right direction and without any stretching of the fabric while it's being fed through the feed dogs, the same seam will not be puckered. Patsy Patsy
|
User: plrlegal
Member since: 05-19-2001 Total posts: 318 |
From: DorothyL
Date: 02-03-2006, 07:32 AM (10 of 10)
|
Patsy -- I know that to ease I should not stretch the smaller side and let it pull the longer side in. I should make the seam line of the larger side smaller one way or another. But if it is just a tiny bit for just little way -- I cheat. It doesn't always work either and I do get a bit of pucker occasionally. We all have short fallings in life and now you know one of mine. Dorothy |
User: DorothyL
Member since: 12-09-2002 Total posts: 3883 |
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