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Sewing Hints  From Live Guides Videos
Kathy Ruddy, Unique Patterns Design

BREAKING THE RULES OF SEWING #1

 To sharpen the point on a shirt collar: Thread a needle but do not knot it.  Just below the collar point, stitch the needle through the seam from one side to the other and pull on the threads. This caused the bias fabric at the collar point to stretch and thus make the shirt collar more pointed!

BREAKING THE RULES OF SEWING #4

To keep elastic from loosing it’s stretch or growing as it is sewn:  Lengthen the stitch length to baste (just under 1/8”).  This way, the longer stitch will have room to contract to a regular stitch length.  Keep in mind that if you stretch the elastic and then stitch with a normal length stitch, the stitch is too short to contract and it ruins the elastic!

SOLVING THE MYSTERY OF TENSION

To sew a successful seam on lycra, follow in order each of the following steps until you have success and the seam does not pop: 1) Shorten the stitch length. 2) Narrow the seam width by moving the cutter closer to the needle. 3) Drop the outside needle and sew the seam with just one needle. 4) Loosen the needle tension.

THE GENERIC SERGER VIDEO

To prevent possible damage to your serger or your project on seams  that require pins or stretching:  Use your sewing machine to baste stitch the seam first.  This way you can check to see if the seam is sewn correctly (not crooked).  Remove the pins and them you can stitch and trim the seam on your serger at top speed with confidence! 

More Information on Unique Patterns

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