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Crafty Thread - what are you working on at the moment?

Boudicca said:
I don't remember where I bought it but I don't buy the expensive stuff, so it's probably made in China, like most cheap 'African' fabric. :D I chose that one from my stash as I thought it would suit you and it specifically said it was 100% cotton. It washed really well and is actually a quality drop of fabric.

Glad you are enjoying them!
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Ha well maybe I'll just let them believe what they want ;) thank you for using such quality fabric on me :oops: i might pester you for the pattern if this hot weather carries on.
 
I’m looking for sewing machine advice and was going to start a new thread but thought I’d ask here first.

I have a very old but good sewing from my MIL. It’s a New Home/Janome and still works well but is horrendously heavy and bulky. It’s probably about 40 years old.
So, if I buy a new one I’d want a decent one but have no idea where to start. I don’t know what I should be looking for, what features I need or what my budget is.

I haven’t sewn for ages but want to again. I’ve just got a bit of money and along with buying stuff for the house, I’d quite like to treat myself.
Help please! 😊
 
Normally, I'd suggest hanging out with the sales people in John Lewis or a sewing machine shop, so you can feel the weight of various machines and chat through the features, and try it out, but that might not be easy right now!
Have a think about what you need - do you need to keep putting it away, in which case it needs to be light, or can you leave it out, so weight doesn't matter so much?
Do you want to sew very thick or very fine materials?
Do you need embroidery stitches?
Are you going to use it loads, or just occasionally?
Personally, I think the fancy computerised ones will get out of date very quickly, and won't be fixable if anything goes wrong in a few years, so I prefer something that will last longer.

ETA: or you can type the words 'sewing machine' and have a thousand ads for them appear on Facebook. :rolleyes:
 
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Looby said:
I’m looking for sewing machine advice and was going to start a new thread but thought I’d ask here first.

I have a very old but good sewing from my MIL. It’s a New Home/Janome and still works well but is horrendously heavy and bulky. It’s probably about 40 years old.
So, if I buy a new one I’d want a decent one but have no idea where to start. I don’t know what I should be looking for, what features I need or what my budget is.

I haven’t sewn for ages but want to again. I’ve just got a bit of money and along with buying stuff for the house, I’d quite like to treat myself.
Help please! 😊
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That sounds like a great machine. Why do you need it to not be heavy and bulky? Where are you going to take it?
 
Thanks both.
At the moment with us both working from home, we do need to use the sewing table to work on sometimes if we both have meetings.

It’s also the measuring and cutting table so I have to move it on and off quite often and I find it really hard to lift. If it was a bit smaller I actually wouldn’t need to move it quite so much.
So far I’ve mainly done simple stuff like bags, cushions and bunting. I’d like to do more bags and potentially with some heavier fabrics like denim and cord.
I’ve never tried clothes but I will I expect.
I don’t think I need embroidery stitches, I haven’t really thought about it.

I don’t know how often I’ll use it, I go through phases where I want to sew a lot and then don’t for ages. I get quite a lot of wrist pain at the moment so again, having a heavy machine puts me off.
There’s just so many to choose from.
My mum always had singer machines and I’m guessing Singer and Janome are still both the most popular/better brands?
 
Looby said:
Thanks both.
At the moment with us both working from home, we do need to use the sewing table to work on sometimes if we both have meetings.

It’s also the measuring and cutting table so I have to move it on and off quite often and I find it really hard to lift. If it was a bit smaller I actually wouldn’t need to move it quite so much.
So far I’ve mainly done simple stuff like bags, cushions and bunting. I’d like to do more bags and potentially with some heavier fabrics like denim and cord.
I’ve never tried clothes but I will I expect.
I don’t think I need embroidery stitches, I haven’t really thought about it.

I don’t know how often I’ll use it, I go through phases where I want to sew a lot and then don’t for ages. I get quite a lot of wrist pain at the moment so again, having a heavy machine puts me off.
There’s just so many to choose from.
My mum always had singer machines and I’m guessing Singer and Janome are still both the most popular/better brands?
Click to expand...
A lot of machines just won't handle heavy fabrics so you can rule out a lot of them straight away. I'm not entirely sure how you tell though. I just went into John Lewis and had a long conversation with them. You could probably do the same over the phone or they may have a buying guide on the website. And honestly I've never come across a modern domestic sewing machine that coped with heavy fabric as well as my Granny's old Singer. I altered a leather jacket on that.

Don't get seduced by fancy stitches, you won't use them.
 
Looby said:
My mum always had singer machines and I’m guessing Singer and Janome are still both the most popular/better brands?
Click to expand...
Brother get good reviews, too. There seem to be a couple of sewing machine service and repair places near you, maybe you could give 'em a call and pick their brains.
 
At school we used to get very smooth wooden boards we could use to tape down paper to paint or draw on, do these have any specific name or where can I get one for cheap because typing in drawing board to amazon or google leads to some expensive results. Can’t be that expensive surely?
 
Artaxerxes said:
At school we used to get very smooth wooden boards we could use to tape down paper to paint or draw on, do these have any specific name or where can I get one for cheap because typing in drawing board to amazon or google leads to some expensive results. Can’t be that expensive surely?
Click to expand...
Couldn't you just get some plywood and smooth the edges? the proper ones tend to be expensive because they're for taping down wet watercolour paper to flatten it, and designed not to warp. MDF would be smoother, but doesn't like wet.
 
moose said:
Couldn't you just get some plywood and smooth the edges? the proper ones tend to be expensive because they're for taping down wet watercolour paper to flatten it, and designed not to warp. MDF would be smoother, but doesn't like wet.
Click to expand...
What about waterproof mdf then, the green stuff?
 
moose said:
Couldn't you just get some plywood and smooth the edges? the proper ones tend to be expensive because they're for taping down wet watercolour paper to flatten it, and designed not to warp. MDF would be smoother, but doesn't like wet.
Click to expand...

I have very little room or kit for DIY :(
 
I got a basic Janone for less than £100. I have several machines and had just paid £91 for my Bernina to be serviced and it still had issues. I just had enough of fiddling about with old, temperamental machines and since I only ever use basic stitches, I just wanted a cheap but reliable new one. I had forgotten how nice it was, to thread the machine and have it work perfectly.Every time. Excellent value and has been a pleasure to use (at my level of sewing).
 
Hello lovely crafty people ... My work situation is changing and I no longer get issued scrubs - I was wondering if there might be someone on here who could make me a few scrubs tops please? I will provide one to copy (unless you know sizing in which case I need green) and some interesting material ... I just don't have the sewing skills.

Will pay postage and pints for your time.

Please.
 
I am making this dress and am having a blank moment. I need to line it because the fabric is a bit see-through but I can't think how to sew it all together at the waist. Boudicca ? Anyone?

I'm not doing the braid inserts.

PS to anyone thinking of using Fibre Mood patterns - they're lovely, and size inclusive, and generally simple to sew, but they are continental so you have to draw the fecking seam allowances on and it's all a bit of a faff on top of printing the thing out, sellotaping it together and adapting it to fit.
 
Also here's a mass update on my lockdown crafting activities. (I also did a lot of nothing and gouging on the internet.)

Didn't start this in lockdown and it's still not finished - Bright Sweater by Junko Okamoto
IMG_20200412_163858.jpg

Jacket (pattern - Julia from Fibre Mood). Slightly underwhelmed by this and toying with embroidery or something.
IMG_20200605_103740.jpg

Skirt for goddaughter - pattern Flat Fronted Skirt
IMG_20200510_161648.jpg

Linen top for mother (Kabuki Tee from Paper Theory) - too big, needs altering
IMG_20200624_074520.jpg

Selection of concrete stepping stones involving bricks, marbles and imprinted fern leaf (more to do still)
IMG_20200628_151250.jpg
IMG_20200705_103901.jpg
IMG_20200713_102730.jpg
 
RubyToogood said:
I am making this dress and am having a blank moment. I need to line it because the fabric is a bit see-through but I can't think how to sew it all together at the waist. Boudicca ? Anyone?
Click to expand...

I would cut and make up another skirt in the lining material, stick it wrong sides together inside the main skirt, machine tack the two together at the top edge and then treat as the skirt piece from there on. But that seems too simple, I can't see the seam from the picture so maybe it's more complicated?
 
Boudicca said:
I would cut and make up another skirt in the lining material, stick it wrong sides together inside the main skirt, machine tack the two together at the top edge and then treat as the skirt piece from there on. But that seems too simple, I can't see the seam from the picture so maybe it's more complicated?
Click to expand...
No, it's just a basic rectangular gathered skirt, no zip or anything. Thanks!
 
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Although I am not actually making anything (apart from masks), I have bought some fabric to make a dress - something I have not done for, ooh, almost 30 years. I used to sew a lot - my own clothes and for my oldest and middle child. For various reasons, I stopped sewing clothes and have only sewn simple household things (cushions, curtains) or done repairs. The endless mask sewing has lit a bit of a fuse and also, given me a bit more confidence to chop into some spendy material...and a mat and rotary cutters certainly helped. I have always found the basic costs of raw material to be the main obstacle for my making ambitions because I don't love bodging things up with scavenged, not quite right materials. Whilst I can make or renovate a fair few items, I want to have good tools and materials (yarn, fabric, paints, wood)...especially if I am going to expend many hours on effort
But anyway, mostly, I just wanted to chat with other sewists because sharing advice is the best way to get back in it.
I did almost faint at the costs of patterns so just going to look at one of my dresses (a simple, pullover. high-waisted gathered dress - no zips, buttons or facings)...am I being a bit deluded? Hope you don't mind, I am especially going to tag Boudicca RubyToogood, friendofdorothy Rutita1, wayward bob...and I know there are other handy needle and thread urbanistas.

I bought 3 metres of 60inch wide, Night Cream plum cotton from Croft Mill.
 
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it's a while since i did anything clothing-wise, and tbh always used a pattern when i did. but i can't imagine something that's a simple bodice + gathered rectangle of skirt could go that badly wrong :hmm:

ideally you'd unpick and trace around, adding seam allowances (many of the patterns i've used esp. the vintage ones need this step anyway). is it a very beloved original?
 
campanula Some of my most successful makes have been copies of things I bought primarily because they fitted, despite the colour not being quite me. The original dresses are long gone to the charity shop but I still have the copies!

I copy using clear polythene, pins and a couple of sharpies. I pin the polythene to the garment down a grainline, trace off the outline using long dashes, straighten it off, makes sure it is symetrical and the seam lengths match, then add seam allowance in a different colour.
 
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