Holy milkshake Batman!MaulWalker said:
I thought I could just skim through this for some tips...wrong.
You guys had me up to scissors and Eveningarwen's photos of her machine and the go go grommet thing but my eyes started to glaze over and roll back into my head when we got to ham...
I never realized there were so many sewing "tools." Need to go back and read this again...
Thanks for your giving us the benefit of your knowledge/ experience.
I started a thread in the OT to see why folks who make beautiful props thought they could never learn to sew. One person replied they were going to stick to props because wood and metal don’t move. If that was true, you wouldn’t need clamps. Pins are the clamps of the sewing world.
Straight Pins
What you will need most of are straight pins. These are thin pins about an inch to an inch ¼ long. The heads can be metal, plastic, or glass.
You insert the point from the top of the fabric, slide the point under the bottom layer of fabric, and then push the point back through the top layer. If you really want a strong and secure pinning, push the point back down through the layers, slide the point under the lower layer, and back up to the top layer. So instead of having just one fabric “lump” over the pin, you will have two.
Metal heads are cheapest but if you are pinning heavy fabric your fingers may hurt at the end of the day. You also shouldn’t iron over them as the head of the pin can scratch the soleplate of your iron (the working surface of the iron).
Plastic head pins are small balls of plastic that encase to the metal head. They are usually multi-color and may even be pearlized. They are kinder to your fingertips if you are pinning heavy fabric. Whatever you do, do not iron over the plastic heads as they will melt.
Glass headed pins are small glass balls that encase the metal head. Once again, these are kinder to your fingers and you can iron over them.
Pins get lost and they have sharp points; expect to get stabbed.
Storing Pins
You have some options for storing pins. You are going to want something that makes it easy to get to the pins when you want them and can quickly accept pins when you remove them.
Fabric stores sell pin cushions. These are stuffed with fiberfill and usually red and in the shape of a tomato. I haven’t used a pin cushion in 20 years. I found that every time I knocked the pincushion off my sewing table pins would go flying. Round shapes aren’t that stable.
Some folks attach a magnet to their sewing machine to hold pins as they remove them when sewing.
I store my pins in an Altoids tin. Easy to grab pins in the tin, easy to toss pins in as I am sewing, and the lid closes tightly when I travel or store the pins in my sewing box.
Safety pins
You will also need a handful of safety pins. The ones from a dry cleaner are a good size. These are useful for threading elastic or cording through a casing.
At some point, you are going to have to do some hand sewing. Needles are sold in packages with multiple needles in them. A good general size are sharps.
If you share your home with a cat or dog, keep close watch over threaded needles. Your pet can swallow them and do some serious gastrointestinal damage.
I plan to cover machine needles when I discuss sewing machines.
If you buy only one measuring device, make it a fabric measuring tape. These are usually made of flexible fiberglass and you will find them folded and attached to a blister card like the yellow one in this picture. These are typically 60 inches or 152 cm long.
You will need this to measure your body, or whoever’s body you are sewing for. In addition, you will need it when you layout your patterns.
An additional measuring device you may already have in your prop workshop – a yardstick. This is useful when laying out patterns.
You may find a small, 6” ruler handy.
Finally, you may want to invest in a sewing and knitting gauge. This is one. The blue plastic piece moves along the center track. This tool is useful for turning up hems, laying out pleats, etc.
You will need to transfer pattern markings to your fabric. The availability of these sorts of tools has exploded since I started sewing.
Important:
Prior to using any of these, you need to test them on scrap pieces of your fabric. While they are designed to be removed, they sometimes leave traces behind. I also recommend that you not iron over any of the marks – that may make them permanent.
This picture is a selection of what is available now.
On the far right is tailor’s chalk. This is sold usually in a pack of several colors – pink, blue, yellow, and white. You draw on the fabric with the chalk. To remove, you brush it off.
On the far left is a marking pencil. These come in several colors – you will want a light colored one for dark fabrics and a dark colored one for light colored fabrics. The brush on the end is supposed to remove the marks.
The ones in the middle are designed to be easy to remove. The blue one is a felt time marker that can be removed with water. The remaining one is a roller ball pen with disappearing ink. With this one one need to be careful you don’t mark your fabric too far ahead as the marks may not be there when you get ready to sew.
There is one marking device that I do not recommend. It is a tracing wheel and paper. Tracing paper has a waxy colored coating on it. You position it on your fabric so that the coating is in contact with the fabric. The tracing wheel itself is a toothed wheel. You roll the wheel over the pattern markings and it creates little dots of color on your fabric. It also perforates your pattern paper. I like to save patterns and reuse them. I find that the tracing wheel destroys the pattern.
tictoc -tictoc said:
Please don't freak out - that isn't my intent at all.
Think of your own workshop - you don't run out and buy every tool you think you might ever need. You start with the basics and then add tools as you need them.
As I see it, after your sewing machine the absolute basics are:
When you decide you want to make covered buttons or set lots of grommets, then you need a grommet setter.
- scissors
- seam ripper
- iron
- pins (straight and a couple of safety pins)
- needles
- a fabric measuring tape and
- someway to mark fabric
When you have a tricky pressing areas, you can fake a ham out of a towel. I didn't buy a sleeve board until about six years ago, when I made the Wicked Witch of the West's costume. Those sleeves are a (&%($*%& to iron and I finally broke down and bought the sleeve board.
Thanks for the feedback.
Lynn
I thought some of you might like an idea of how much it would cost to get you started with the basics. Luckily, most sewing tools aren't terribly expensive.
I looked these prices up on Amazon. (Amazon has a section called 'Arts, Crafts, and Sewing')
Lynn
- Fiskars scissors 8" multipurpose - $10.65
- Gingher scissors 8" knife edged dressmaker shears - $23.55 (much cheaper than the fabric store!)
- Fiskars SoftTouch scissors 8" (like Eveningarwen's) - $11.50
- Fiskars scissor sharpener - $8.61 for the top of the line one
- Medical (iris) scissors (the little ones I like for trimming thread) - $1.95
- Iron - $17.98 (Amazon only has one model. You might find one cheaper at a mass merchandise store)
- Straight pins - $7.88 for a 1,000 (metal heads)
- Seam ripper - $4.46
- Fabric measuring tape - $4.64
- Needles (for hand sewing) - $4.70 for an assortment of 25
This my hem guide that I LOVE! I got it out the local sewing shop.MaulWalker said:
If you buy only one measuring device, make it a fabric measuring tape. These are usually made of flexible fiberglass and you will find them folded and attached to a blister card like the yellow one in this picture. These are typically 60 inches or 152 cm long.
You will need this to measure your body, or whoever’s body you are sewing for. In addition, you will need it when you layout your patterns.
An additional measuring device you may already have in your prop workshop – a yardstick. This is useful when laying out patterns.
You may find a small, 6” ruler handy.
Finally, you may want to invest in a sewing and knitting gauge. This is one. The blue plastic piece moves along the center track. This tool is useful for turning up hems, laying out pleats, etc.
You fold the item to the measurement you want and just iron over the guide and keep sliding it around the skirt or pant leg or what ever item your hemming Strongly suggest one!
PS once I straiten up my work shop I'll post some pics
Last edited by TeresaMRoberts; Nov 21, 2011 at 7:50 PM.
I have to add the grease pencil, for marking surfaces, it works on other surfaces like glass and other surfaces that pens and pencils may not work!
MaulWalker said:
I have one of those, the green stem pulls out as a measuring tape. Not crazy about it. I also have a pin pillow I made back in home economics 30 years ago! I don't store the pins this way, just next to my machine for when I'm removing them as I sew.
That's a great idea! I may start doing that.Some folks attach a magnet to their sewing machine to hold pins as they remove them when sewing.
Ha! I do that too! I have several tins for various storage including safety pins, straight pins, buttons, beads etc. All labeled.I store my pins in an Altoids tin. Easy to grab pins in the tin, easy to toss pins in as I am sewing, and the lid closes tightly when I travel or store the pins in my sewing box.
Either you have a lot of tins or not that many buttons. I finally had to break down and buy button storage boxes. I got tired of dumping out jar after jar of buttons to find the right ones. Part of the problem is no garment gets thrown out before I remove any reusable parts - buttons, zippers, hooks and eyes, etc.Guri said:
Ha! I do that too! I have several tins for various storage including safety pins, straight pins, buttons, beads etc. All labeled.
Great idea for a thread, Maulwalker!
I personally like rotary cutters for a variety of things, but one of my favorite uses for them is making edge and middle of the piece cuts for distressing! Great fast way to get the destruction done on the fabric before the more refined art is done on the cuts.
BTW, I work in a costume and scenery shop where I have to protect my good sewing tools all the time. I have to refer to my machine, tape measure & scissors etc as "My POWER tools".
Jayne - I hadn't thought of using a rotary cutter for distressing. I just use a box cutter. A rotary cutter certainly would be a more "civilized weapon." Glad I haven't thrown/given mine away!Jayn said:
MaulWalker said:
an elegant weapon for a more civilized "age"
(yeaahh, we're geeky)
Brilliant thread.
EveningArwen
would you mind sharing make and model of your hand press and what your thoughts are on it??
I've been looking for one for a while but there is so much variety out there its hard to choose.
Don't know wether to go with something off of ebay or somewhere else
I wish I had a nice sewing machine that can do zigzag and buttonholes, however the machine that was donated to me was built in the 50's, only goes forward and backwards. On the plus side, it does sew through the Sommers material required for the BSG flight suits.
I have a Singer Overlock that I bought on ebay for a mere $200. I took it in to my local Singer store and had it overhauled. The proprietor said I lucked in to an amazing deal; the machine is worth around $1000 and I only had to pay $100 for him to polish/sharpen the cutting blades and tune up the machinery.
One thing I have learned is it is important to keep your sewing machines well oiled and stored in the correct manner.
Auryn said:
I bought from this site here.
Machines and Dies
I called her up so I could ask questions about the press and she was awesome to talk to. So nice and super super helpful. My press is the osbourne and while she doesn't have the cutter and setter for grommets on her site she will order them for you when she orders everything else. Since I got the press, grommet setter and 5/8" button setter she gave me a bit of a discount on the button setter. She also told me how to save on shipping. I got priority shipping and everything fit in a large flat rate box at $15 because she took the press out of the box and took off the handle. So when I received it I just put it back on. It was really simple to do. So much better then having to pay like $35 or $40 because of how heavy the box is.
Also I ended up realizing that my button setter had a defective part and it didn't really dawn on me until I had it for at least....6 months??....something like that. But it started to get worse and wouldn't set my buttons correctly anymore and I brought it to her attention and she replaced it straight away. I seriously could not recommend this place enough, they've been great.
I believe the cost for the cutter and setter for the grommets was around $60? And the button die set was around $50-$60? I can't remember exactly, I just knew that the press and the grommet set were cheaper then anywhere else I had looked. Most places charged over $200 for the press and $40 for shipping.
Oh also note that the sizing I got, the 00 grommet and the 5/8" button sets were both special order. But it only took 2 days or so for her to receive them before they got shipped to me. Super fast.
What are some good starter projects for guys? I have a Brother sewing machine, and a serger, but haven't used them yet.
If you're looking for just sample projects that you may never actually use then simple things like a circle skirt or tunic. It will only have a few seams and a very basic pattern to cut out but you will be able to practice sewing straight seams, attaching a waist band or elastic band on the skirt, possibly some kind of drawstring channel on the tunic, basic sleeves and both of them you can use your serger to finish the seams and you can hem both of them at the bottom if you want to practice some hand stich hems for an invisible hem.Zaxmon said:
Those would be fast simple projects that you could see right away what you're putting together. And I know guys always want to laugh at the idea of creating a skirt but a circle skirt really is super super easy and tends to be a generic starter project in lots of beginning sewing classes. Each of these things you can also add things onto to practice. Such as:
on the waistband of the skirt you could do a button hole and button instead of a channel for an elastic to go through.
on the tunic you could attach a ruffle or cut a V down the front and do grommets and lacing.
I would suggest looking at pattern companies such as Sewing Patterns | McCalls Corp
They have all 3 basic pattern companies, mccall, vogue and butterick and mccall and butterick have "easy" sections in them and they also have the "costume" section which half the time any of those patterns are super easy and have pretty decent detailed instructions. I would say that for anyone just starting out with not much of an idea of where to begin that would be the way to go.
My b/f has a pair of flannel boxers he made about 10-12 years ago in high school home economics class. He is beyond proud of them. He can't sew now but I think it would be a great starter project because you have straight stitches, curve stitches, and elastic.Zaxmon said:
PS I prefer Simplicity patterns, more verity and they have some really easy ones as well but i do use butterick sometime.
I hardly sew or wear much that requires buttons, so, I don't have that many - just replacement types.MaulWalker said:
Velcro - now, that's another matter. I've accumulated SO much of that stuff.
I checked the Big 3 "easy" patterns. Only McCalls has something that a guy might wear - hospital scrubs or pajamas. Same design, just more room in the pajamas. It is McCalls M5504. I would start with the pants.
There were a number of dog costumes in the easy patterns. Maybe you could rival Art's and Star War Chick's Wampug?
MaulWalker said:
I checked the Big 3 "easy" patterns. Only McCalls has something that a guy might wear - hospital scrubs or pajamas. Same design, just more room in the pajamas. It is McCalls M5504. I would start with the pants.
There were a number of dog costumes in the easy patterns. Maybe you could rival Art's and Star War Chick's Wampug?
That's why I mentioned if he doesn't care about making something for him to use/wear. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of simple guy stuff to make. Most patterns out there are for women. But something like a scrub or pajama would definitely fit in the easy section. Simplicity.com: Patterns, tools and supplies for all things sewing, knitting, quilting, and crafting. as well does have some pretty good patterns that are quite easy. And again, don't look only in the "easy" sections but look in the "costume" section as well. There are some really simple patterns there that could be modified and turned into something you can use without becoming to overwhelming. Especially when you get used to the basics.
Always be careful with patterns because half the time the sizing they say on the outside is not the finished size of the garment. Always check the actual paper pattern (if you end up using a bought paper pattern) for the final sizing. They tend to have a 6" "ease" difference where it is 6" larger then the measurements on the outside. Super annoying when you want a fitted pattern lol. When checking it will usually be on the pattern piece for the front and the back and the finished measurements when sewn will be at the chest area, waist area and hip area if you have a full piece garment.
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