Thursday, January 13, 2011

Hand Sewing Tips


     Sorry about not posting yesterday, our Internet was out. But here is the post I meant to put up.
      
     I spent most of the day working on my latest project. It includes all of these lovelies:  (Does anyone know why I've having such a hard time getting a crisp, clear picture?)

      I'll fill everyone in more later, when everything is final. But for now I wanted to share a few sewing tips for those times when the sewing machine is actually more difficult to use than to sew something by hand. First of All:
  1. Use Beeswax. It is wonderful!! I had never used it before this project, and I really wish someone had told me about it easier. In over six hours of sewing, I did not have a single tangle or snare, and only one thread snapped. I can not stress enough how much more fun hand sewing became after I found this wonderful invention.
  2. The self threading needles are actually pretty cool. They become unthreaded if you pull ridiculously hard on the thread. I thought they would be too good to be true, but actually I think they did very well.
  3. If something looks too delicate or awkward for the sewing machine to handle, it probably will be. It took me far longer to wrangle with Madeline and have to undo everything I just struggled to put together than to sew it by hand.
      These are just a few things to try or even just store away in the back of your mind for the next time a sewing project requires nothing more than needle and thread.

3 comments:

stephanie said...

I REALLY wish last year I would have asked you to teach me how to sew. I feel like it would be a good way to keep my hands busy to keep me from getting bored and doing other things. haha. I'm excited to see what this project is!

Mary Moury said...

It's really sew easily (hahahahahahaha, sorry) I recommend you go to Hastings and see if they have the Klutz books. They have one on hand sewing that explains it all so much better than I ever could. I have to have my hands busy now, and Klutz is how I learned all of it, sewing, crocheting, knitting, you name it.

Liz Backlund said...

I like beeswax! I use it for bookbinding.