I had anticipated all kinds of issues before I even started, just so I wouldn’t be surprised if I ran into any. But shockingly, I didn’t. This little project — my final one from my Sew Me! book — went off without a hitch.
That fabric was from the remnant bin at Joann’s. I thought it was knit when I bought it, but it’s woven polyester. Very soft, very messy when you cut it, a bit slippery, and drapey. Which made cutting it an exercise in precision. But with my giant cutting mat, the timely realization that I can fold the fabric to make it fit on the mat for cutting, and the convenient fact that the stripe pattern lined up with the selvages (making for a nice built-in guide), even cutting it wasn’t overly difficult. And being precise while cutting made everything else that followed so much easier.
I put my walking foot to use and I think it has redeemed itself. Feeding the fabric through the machine was painless. It was easy to control, and sewing such long seams (58″) made it even more impressive.
Those wonder clips everyone raves about also redeemed themselves on this project. I used them instead of pins due to the nature of this fabric.
And there we have it; a nice ruffly scarf to dress up or dress down.
I know I harp on the crummy walk-throughs in this book a lot, but the bottom line is, I learned a ton (a lot of it because of the crummy walk-throughs):
- how to work with seams (sewing them, pressing them, finishing them, trimming them, turning corners, different types of stitches and what to use them for)
- applique (fusible web and accompanying techniques for transferring patterns and protecting my iron and ironing surface, little know-hows on turning around sharp angles [I’ll have to share what I’m discovering at some point later])
- fusible interfacing (from sheer to medium weight and the challenges presented with heavier weight interfacing)
- bias tape
- grommets, snaps, and eyelets
- buttons and button holes
- velcro
- zippers
- all sorts of wonderfully diverse tools: wonder tape, disappearing ink, chalk cartridges, steam-a-seam, stabilizer, turning tools,
- all sorts of vocab
Oh the possibilities that await!
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