Loving John Lewis

I’ve written elsewhere about the disruption to my sewing mojo caused by moving within London.  Last week I decided I needed to resolve this once and for all so I set about rearranging the furniture in our drawing room and now I have a dedicated sewing space.  My table is in a light and airy position next to the window, it will be a bit chilly in the winter but in the spring sunshine it is a pleasure to work there.

The other cause of my lack of mojo was my overlocker.  I was given a second hand overlocker at Christmas and despite a few initial misgivings have fallen completely in love with it and the easy finish it gives me.  As the overlocker is sitting in Suffolk this has meant that anything I want to make in London has to wait until I get to Suffolk so I can give it the treatment.  I did try bringing the overlocker up to London, but then I had the opposite problem.  Short of lugging the thing backwards and forwards the whole time the only solution was to get a second machine.  This might sound like a huge extravagance (actually it is) but I have a John Lewis credit card and after years of carefully saving up the loyalty vouchers you are given (alternative view – years of over spending on my credit card) I had enough to get a Janome 9200D.  I could, of course, have spend these vouchers on groceries, but where’s the fun in that?

The 9200D is a basic model very similar to the one I already have but has a slightly different threading mechanism.  It came with a DVD which shows all sorts of different ways of using an overlocker  - gathering, rolled hems and so on, which I’ll have to try.

Anyway, no excuse now not to get on with my sewing.  I am still fitting the toile for my jacket and have also made up a dress which I will blog about once I have photos.

Overlocker

Straight out of the box

My new overlocker arrived on Christmas Eve and it’s been sitting in its box calling to me over the holiday.  Today I had a couple of spare hours so I took it out  and set it up for the first time.

The instruction manual said the easiest way to thread it was to tie the new thread to the old and pull through all the loops.  Sounds good, but unfortunately this machine wasn’t threaded when it arrived so I had to do it the hard way.  Actually that’s no bad thing as it helped me get to know what was under the cover and where all the pieces were.  The first couple of threads (loopers) were very fiddly to set up but the upper threads were relatively simple.  I used different colours so I could see the effect each thread had on the final seam – this is an idea I got from Sam’s ”serger series”.

All threaded up

Attempt one!

Attempt one was not successful and re-reading the manual I realised I had missed one step in setting up the first looper thread.  Unfortunately they only way I could see to fix it was to remove all the threads and start again.

Attempt two

Attempt two was much better and produced a lovely neat line of stitches.  I had a bit of a play withe the knife and the different stitches before the green thread (looper thread one again) ran out.  So I rethreaded the whole machine again, this time using large spools of white thread that were in the box with the machine.  I am quite pleased with the final result and can’t wait to try it out on an actual garment rather than just an old scrap.

Overlocking

A friend of a friend has an overlocker which is no longer used and has offered to give it to me! Whilst this is undoubtedly exciting news, after the first rush of enthusiasm, I was a bit worried that I might not make best use of it and won’t really know what to do with it.

I’ve seen on the internet lots of garments with beautifully neat overlocked seam finishes and I’ve heard they are perfect for use with knit fabrics, but is that all they do or is there more to them than that? How will I cope with sewing seams that look like they can’t be taken apart? As self-confessed Queen of the Unpicker how do I get confident enough go be able to know that when I sew a seam I won’t be pulling it apart ten minutes later because I’m not happy with the way it looks or because there’s a problem with the fit?

I had a look on Amazon and can see there are numerous “complete” guides to overlocking or serging but the problem with these books is knowing how useful they will be. I really don’t need a tutorial in making napkins as one book promised!

Do you have any advice that could help me? Have you found any books particularly useful? What do you use your overlocker for?

O Brother!

My Father has suggested on several occasions that I might like to take my Mother’s old sewing machine; last weekend I finally dug it out and here it is! I learnt to sew on an old Toyota that must have been bought in the early sixties and that is what I expected to find in the bottom of the cupboard this was housed in. I had forgotten that Mum replaced that machine with this newer Brother model shortly after I bought my Toyota in the late ’80s.

I assumed I would need to give it a service (or at least a good clean out) but it actually works perfectly. It has a good sturdy cover which has kept it free of dust and Mum was always good at keeping it clean and well oiled when she used it.

It runs much more smoothly than my Toyota and so far it hasn’t eaten any fabric or just plain refused to go on. The stitches are neat and even, even when sewing over lumpy bits. I need to do another search of the cupboard to find the accessories box as at present I am missing some of the pieces. Fortunately it takes the standard bobbins I use for the Toyota and although the foot is a clip-on one I think I can probably change some of the bits around so it fits the invisible zipper foot I have for my Jones machine.

I was thinking of replacing the Toyota (or at least buying a new machine) at some stage in the future as it can be a bit temperamental and I’m always worried that any fine or delicate fabrics will be snagged. Maybe I don’t need to do that now!

A sailor repairs a signal flag aboard HMS Alcantara 1942 – Cecil Beaton

My sewing machine features in the forthcoming Cecil Beaton exhibition in the Imperial War Museum!

Hello Dolly!

I spent a fun Saturday with my friend making Dolly. The instructions were from Thread magazine and to make her we used about a kilometre of duct tape, a coat hanger, a tall cardboard tube, one table leg and a breadboard (yes that made for an odd shopping list).

This is how we did it:

1) Drink, eat and wee before your start (once you get going you won’t be able to move enough to do any of these things)

2) Put on some decent underwear (i.e. a good bra) and cover that with an old t-shirt that you don’t mind doing without, wrap any bits that this doesn’t cover in cling film (neck and lower hips)

3) Cut your duct tape into various lengths – I used two 500m rolls of silver tape.  I understand that there is a danger that some types of tape shrink but Threads did recommend Duck tape which you can buy in the UK from B&Q.  You will need some really short bits and some longer bits (say up to half a metre in length).

Spacey?

4)  Get someone to wrap the tape around you quite tightly.  We wrapped it horizontally around my waist and hips and crossed it over the bust area, using smaller bits to fill in the holes and crevices.  You need to put about 3 layers of tape.  We finished with a bit of white tape to mark my waist, shoulders and centre back and front.

A Jane Suit

5) Carefully cut up the back through the duct tape and the t-shirt (avoiding your bra and any bits of flesh that might be in the way) and remove.

6) Make two notches at the top of the cardboard tube for the coat hanger to sit in and tape securely.  The tube we used was a bit shorter than me (you need one at least as tall as your height to the base of your neck).  The base of the tube is supported on a stand made using an upturned table leg screwed onto a bread board.

7) Tape shoulder pads into the shoulders and lady lumps to keep their definition, then place the dummy over the coat hanger and tape up the back.

8) Stuff the dummy as tightly as you can.  She turned out to be very greedy!

9) Check the dummy’s measurements against your own before finishing her.  I found the waist on my dummy was quite a bit bigger than my real waist. I think because I had been moving around as I was wrapped.  To remedy this we cut darts into the tape shell to reduce the size and then re-taped the holes back up.

10) Cut bits of cardboard to go into the arm, neck and hip holes and taping them securely in place to stop the stuffing coming out.

11) Compare your height to the base of your neck to that of your dummy and alter the length of card board tube to match.

It took us the best part of a day to make her.  The wrapping didn’t take long at all but the stuffing was quite time consuming and  fiddly.

I’ll probably have a go at tidying her up and decorating her when I have a chance but in the mean time I was glad to see she fitted into my new Beignet skirt beautifully!

Mon Atelier

This is the lovely work room I had made for me last year.

The table is on castors (from Ikea) which means it can be swung out into the room when I am cutting out fabric. I can also wheel it under the window if I want to use the natural light.

The shelves have big red boxes (also from Ikea) which hold fabric, notions and patterns. At present all my smaller tools are in jam jars, this isn’t very convenient and makes for an untidy look. I am planning to get a small filing cabinet like the one sew incidentally has. It too will have wheels so I can make best us of the space.

Out of the picture I have an ironing board and a small wooden trunk on which I have stacked books and a radio.

The room is at the top of the house and there are lovely views over the surrounding fields.

I love the fact that I can spread my work out and not have to clear up until the end of the day. I also love that it’s organised with everything to hand.