T-Day Tips
It came to me that I could share some of my “wisdom” gained the hard way. So as I gain this wisdom, I am going to write little one or two paragraph tips. Hopefully, I will keep up with this and after I get I few going, I will create a page with a list and links. No, I don’t think of myself as some awesome genius or anything. It is just I have been sewing for over fifty years, have taught sewing for many years and have learned a few thing here and there.
Today is about using weights to hold your fabric when cutting. Do you constantly have to reposition your strips as you cut them up? perhaps you need to reposition your fabric as you cut the strips.
Most of us have heard of pattern weights, but I never really tried them. There was something about the idea of using weights to hold patterns to the fabric that did now seem so good to me. Perhaps it was the fact that once the pattern piece was cut out, the fabric and pattern would come apart and then you could not make all those tailor’s marks that were so important.
But when cutting for quilts we don’t usually even used paper patterns. We use the ruler and rotary cutter and cut over and over. Only it seems that each time we cut, the fabric moves and it then has to be straightened up again and again and again.
Well, I was not going to spend a lot of money on pattern weights, so I went looking at my favorite notions store – the hardware store. ACE Hardware has the neatest things and I love prowling through their aisles.
What I found were large washers. They were/are about four inches across and are heavy. Yet they slide smoothly when I need to move them. When I position a piece of fabric on my cutting board I place a few of these huge washers here and there on the fabric and that piece of fabric is not moving until I want it to. It sure saves me a bunch of time.
