Sewing mythbusters: twisting thread

Twisting thread three spools of thread

I’ve just tested a theory I heard of a long time ago and always wondered about.  The theory is: When handsewing, does thread threaded from a spool twist more than if it were threaded from a bobbin?  In other words, does it matter which end is knotted?  Have you ever tried this to see?  I…

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Shortening a metal zip

Shortening a metal zip

Shortening a metal zip is a little tutorial for you to file away until you need it.  Use it for shortening separating zips for jackets. How did I learn to do this?  One season, the designer I worked for used a lot of zips in her range.  Zips were IN.  She did zip fronted jackets,…

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Winter shorts finished

Last week’s winter shorts are finished and ready to go.  In fact, I wore them this morning. It took four fittings and a lot of unpicking to transform them from Danny DeVito sized trousers to Liz Haywood sized shorts.  The drawback to cutting down a large garment into a smaller one is that, in terms…

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Winter shorts – trousers transformation

I dug up an old UFO to finish this week -some trousers I thought I’d turn into winter shorts.  Actually, it isn’t so much an UnFinished Object, more like a project I planned and never started. About four years ago I bought two pairs of men’s suit trousers from the op shop, because the fabric…

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My Father’s shirt

My father's shirt sketch and swatch

During my 1970’s childhood, my Dad had a body shirt in an orangey/yellowy/ browny floral Liberty print.  It was originally a special shirt but became a gardening shirt at the end of its life. It had worn out by the time I was a teenager, and Mum gave it to me and I unpicked it. …

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May 4th: Star Wars Day

Star Wars Day lego

As I idly flipped the calendar over for May, my eyes wandered to May 4th: Star Wars Day.  I’d never heard of it. Was it a day to remember Ronnie Reagan’s “Star Wars” strategic defense initiative, that had me designing nuclear fallout shelters in the covers of my school books back in the 1980’s?  Or…

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Blast from the Past: PVC clothing

During the school holidays, my daughter and I thought we’d make a pencil case from a pattern in a children’s activity book.  The pencil case is shaped like a shark with a clever zippered opening for the mouth. We searched around for some suitable fabric, and I remembered I had some silver PVC fabric offcuts…

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An Autumn Outfit

Japanese cardigan and featured skirt

As curling columns of smoke and the buzz of chainsaws announce the settling of autumn in our part of the world, I sat outside and sewed a skirt to go with last week’s Japanese cardigan. It’s my own basic A-line skirt I’ve used several times before.  It has a waist facing, centre back invisible zip,…

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The curse of the elastic waist

elastic waisted skirt front waist

Dear Friends, have you ever made something that deep down you knew wasn’t ideal but secretly you hoped would work out?  Like, for example, an elastic waisted skirt? I made myself an elastic waisted skirt to wear last summer; I wore it only once.  It was a foolish notion for someone who doesn’t really have…

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Like or loathe it: tailors chalk

I would say that most home sew-ers don’t use much tailors chalk, because generally we use paper patterns that are pinned to the fabric, not cardboard patterns that need tracing around. I would also say that most home sew-ers don’t like using tailors chalk, mainly because it’s hard to get a fine line.  There are…

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