Tuesday's Top Tip - The Ideal Use for a Wooden Pencil Case

This rather smart wooden pencil case was sitting in a charity shop waiting for me.

It now has a new lease of life as a bobbin box.

It is gradually being filled up with bobbins full of quilting thread in different colours.  Very handy. 

Tuesday's Top Tip - Preventing Snags on the Singer 15K

This is what I kept getting at the beginning of a line of stitching on the Singer 15K - this is the underneath of the work.  The black is the bobbin thread and the white the top thread.  I was getting these annoying snags when using the treadle and thought it was me doing sloppy footwork.  Then I found I got the same problem with the 15K hand machine that I have just cleaned up.  It must be to do with how the stitch is formed with the central bobbin mechanism.

The top thread forms a loop on the back of the work.  Sometimes it doesn't get caught in the stitches, so you can just pull it tight afterwards, but usually it ends up in a bit of a tangle as in the top picture.

The way to prevent this happening is to hold the end of the top thread when beginning a line of stitching.  This holds the thread firm so it doesn't get pulled underneath to form a loop.  Once two or three stitches have been done you can let go of the thread.

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Tuesday's Top Tip - Pegs, Not Pins

This is what I was wrestling with last week - huge heavy quilted sections that had to be fed through the treadle to join them together to assemble the whole quilt.  Ordinary straight pins are not strong enough to hold the thickness and weight.  Safety pins could put too much strain on the fabric - the top binding, the strip of white, is a single thickness.  Clothes pegs do the job perfectly.  You can match the sections where there are joins at a right angle to the seam you are sewing, the pegs are easy to remove as you are sewing, and most important of all, you don't jab yourself. 

Update - here is the finished quilt!

Tuesday's Top Tip - Changing the Top Thread While Sewing

This is a little trick I use when I run out of top thread - if the top thread has run out make sure that the old thread is still held in place by the tension discs before putting on a new reel.  If you carry on sewing after the old thread has run past the tension discs, the tension of the stitch will be fouled up.

This is also a handy dodge if you want to change the colour of your thread as you are sewing.

These photos show how I have changed from light to dark thread to match the colours I am sewing over, keeping the work in the machine and without any interruption to the stitch underneath, so the bobbin thread just carries on as normal.  The line of stitching which runs from the top to the bottom of the picture was sewn all in one go.

When I reached the end of the white material that I was sewing over, I made sure that the last stitch was still on the white and that I did not  carry on sewing over the dark red.

Then, keeping the foot down and without moving the work, I raised the needle and pulled the top thread loose from above and cut it with about four inches of thread to spare.

Next, I re-threaded the machine with the dark purple thread, pulling the tail ends of both threads out of the way behind the foot, and carried on sewing.

To finish, the tail ends need to be threaded through to the back, and there is now an uninterrupted line of stitching that has changed colour exactly where you wanted it to. 

Tuesday's Top Tip - Ripped Tea Bag

There is an awful lot of treadling going on here, getting through the quilted sandwiches and gallons of tea.  Sooner or later, in haste and thirst, you end up ripping a tea bag.  No need to throw it away, mustn't waste tea - just grab a clothes peg.

Of course, you could just take it to the sewing machine to sew it back up, end up ripping it a bit more and watching the tea leaves spill down into the bobbin area.  How do I know?   

Tuesday's Top Tip - Make your own Spool Felts

Hold a coin firmly in place against a piece of felt and cut around it.

A 10p coin is the perfect size.

Fold the felt circle into quarters and snip off the point.  Yes, I know the picture is fuzzy.  Just like the felt.

Done!

Time taken - less than it takes for the kettle to boil for a cup of tea.
Cost - a minute fraction of the coin you cut around

Tuesday's Top Tip - Felt under the Seam Guide

The seam guide needs to be screwed down tightly so it doesn't shift out of position while you are working.  The danger is that a touch too much pressure can damage the surface of the bed of the machine.  If your machine is beaten up already, then a few more scratches add a bit more character. However, if you want to prevent damage, the answer is a piece of felt.  Cut a little hole for the screw to go through, and you have the perfect protection.

Tuesday's Top Tip - Test Strips

There is always the fear that the dye will run and that all your hard work will be ruined.  Even when fabric has been washed, a dodgy dye can still catch you out.

Once I had bought my collection of colours from Oakshott Fabrics I cut a tiny strip from the edge of each piece and then sewed the strips to a piece of white cotton.  Then I washed and dried the test strips, ironing them while damp, to see if any of the colours ran.

I made one test strip before I had washed all the fabric pieces, and a second test strip after washing the fabric.  So on one test strip the tiny strips of colour were being washed for the first time, and on the other they were being washed for the second time.  The third test strip is of a few additional colours from Oakshott fabrics and a strip of the selvedge of the backing material I used for the Diamond Jubilee wall hanging.

Only one of the colours, one of the dark reds, ran ever so slightly.  But I wasn't worried by this, because I had subjected the test strips to some serious abuse - pouring boiling water over them, standing them in the hot water for an hour or so, giving one of the test strips a blast in the microwave to heat the water back up again, leaving the strip lying soggy on a plate for hours.  I worked really hard to get that red to run.

So all told, provided the finished quilt is never left in a leaking attic, I am confident that the colours will hold fast.

The strips are also jolly handy for colour matching when you go shopping for threads and matching fabrics.

Tuesday's Top Tip - The Pin Tin

For years I would have a messy pile of pins in a tin and risk getting the sharp end of one pranging me under a fingernail every time I went to pick one up.

Then one Christmas a watch came in a posh tin with sponge fitting snugly inside. Never mind the watch (not mine anyway), it was the tin I was interested in.   Absolutely ideal.  Now I can keep my eyes on my work and pick up or put back pins without even looking.  The pins sticking up above the top of the tin are all rammed down into place when I put the lid back on.

Tuesday's Top Tip - Take the bobbin out before you put the machine away

A well kept machine will be oiled.  Gradually the oil will seep down.  If the machine is put away with the bobbin still in, the cotton on the bobbin will soak up the oil like a sponge. 

This is the bobbin that was in Maria's machine.  She has no idea how many years ago her grandmother filled this bobbin, but the machine spent years stored away in a Shropshire farmhouse and had plenty of time to drink up the oil.

So even if you are putting the machine away for ten days or ten years, take the bobbin out.  You don't want a smudgy surprise coming up with the bobbin thread next time you start sewing.

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Tuesday's Top Tip - Machine Storage

It can be awkward getting machines in or out of a cupboard - they are heavy and difficult to slide into place when their little rubber feet start resisting.  You will find the answer at the greengrocer's.  The flat boxes used for vegetables are the ideal size.  Cut down one end and make it into a flap at the front, and slide the whole box with the machine on top.  Now you can get the machine in and out of its cubby hole without pulling a muscle.  

Tuesday's Top Tip - To Stop Bobbins Unravelling

There is nothing more irritating than opening a tin of bobbins and finding that they have tangled themselves up with each other by the threads.  They do it all by themselves during the night when the lid is on just to annoy you next morning.  An easy way to scotch them is to go to the kitchen and find some of those covered wire fasteners that come with a packet of food bags, and wrap fasteners around each bobbin to keep the end of the thread in place.

It works just as well on long bobbins too.

Tuesday's Top Tip - Padding the Handle

Have you ever been busy sewing with a hand machine and realised that your thumb is aching from the pressure against the wood of the handle?

Here is the answer.  A short length of foam pipe lagging held in place with an elastic band.

Tuesday's Top Tip - Rubber Feet

Old sewing machines with worn out feet have a nasty habit of sliding around the table and scratching it.  For this reason I strolled into our local hardware shop a couple of years ago and said I wanted rubber feet for sewing machines.  The assistant hesitated all of two and a half seconds and said "You need seat stoppers."

"What?" I asked, following him as he beetled around the corner inside the shop.  I didn't have a clue what he was talking about, and had strange images of moving armchairs in my head.

Then he thrust a little packet of four rubber feet at me, and the penny dropped.  Evidently I don't spend enough time gazing at the underneath of a toilet seat to have thought of the solution earlier.

The feet came with their own screws, but I had to buy some tiny washers to go inside.  If you slide the machine a fraction sideways the feet come off their screws if there isn't a washer in place to prevent it.  And then you end up with a scratch bigger than the one you were trying to avoid.

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Tuesday's Top Tip - Stitch Length Regulator Knobs

Stitch length regulator knobs often end up jammed solid on machines that have spent decades in cupboards.  The only way to ease them free is with lashings of oil and patience - don't expect a result the same day.

Then you are raring to go with a project.  Halfway through you start wondering where the little oily smudges are coming from on your hitherto pristine work.  Cleaning it off with washing up liquid gives time for reflection... and you realise that the stitch length knob is the culprit.

The solution?  Well you could create a stylish little cosy in black velvet with gold trim to match the machine.  Otherwise, you could reach for the nearest paper bag, rip off a strip and keep it in place with sellotape.  The latter option has more immediate appeal.  

Tuesday's Top Tip - Tea Break

Every serious sewing session includes a tea break.  Five minutes in the kitchen for a breather, dreaming up marvellous projects and scoffing biscuits, back to the sewing machine with the second mug of tea, put it on the table, start stitching again from where you left off... aagh... oh horrors...

The moral of this story applies mainly to right handers using a hand machine.

Don't put your tea on the table too close to the sewing machine.  As soon as you start sewing again the tea goes flying.

How do I know?  Bitter experience, many years ago when I was young and foolish.  Such an awful waste of tea.  I just want to spare you all the same agony.