The Thrifty Stitcher
Modern, funky sewing classes in London
Tips and Tutorials
Website of the month
This website is a fantastic way to read reviews of patterns from stitchers all over the world before buying
Mini tutorial of the month-
As we have said before, never ever throw anything out!
Small scraps of delicious or expensive fabric can be used in lots of different ways.
- Patch-work is made from sewing lots of small pieces together
- Little pieces can be used to cover buttons and add accents to clothes. Cover buttons can be sewn on wrist cuffs to make unique jewellry.
- Applique is another great way of using up little scraps, it can be as simple as letters on a cushion, or an elaborate picture built up from fabric
Another great way to use up smallish scraps is to make your own bunting. Great for children's bedrooms, or at a summer BBQ. You can even make some marque bunting for any brides getting married this year and save them a fortune! You need only lots of pieces that are around 12 cm wide by 20 cm deep. The triangles can be as big or as small as you like really, you also need some ribbon or tape as long as you want your bunting to be. If you are making really long lengths, then buying some cotton india tape from a wholesaler is a really cost effective way of making your bunting. If you want to be really thrifty, why not tie lots of odd ribbons together to make a rainbow length.
- Decide how big each of your triangles is to be, and make a card/paper pattern that size
- The way to work out how many triangles you need is to decide how long your bunting is to be when finished- aprox 2.5 times the actual length of the area you want to hang it, will give you a bit of swag. Then decide how far apart you want your triangles to be. Add the distance between 2 triangles, to the top width of one of the triangles. Divide the overall length of the bunting by this figure, and it will tell you how many triangles you need.
- Cut out your triangles in your chosen fabric, or fabrics if you are having a mixture. A really quick way to finish the edge is to cut them out with pinking shears making a feature of the edge.
- Pin your triangles onto your ribbon or tape, with a space between them( whatever you decided at the beginning)
- Using a zig zag stitch on your sewing machine, stitch all the triangles onto the tape or ribbon with either a matching discreet thread, or a contrast one for effect
String up your unique bunting and feel nostalgic..........
Thrifty’s Book of the month-
This book is the book I most recommend to all my beginners students. It's Packed with easy, and useful projects that will quickly gibe a newbie sewer a lot of confidence. There are projects for absolute beginner sewers, but also projects to challenge when you've moved past the beginner stage. The instructions are very clear, and the scandinavian style is totally appealing
Alterations tips
- When thinking about altering clothes, remember the body has 2 planes to consider - height and width.
- If altering the width of a garment you may not need to re-fit as this plane is easier to adjust.
- If you are altering the height of a garment, you will nearly always need to re-fit after the adjustments are made. For example taking up the shoulders will shorten the arm-hole which may then need to be adjusted. Shortening flared trousers for example means the flare is less at the hem, and they may not look as attractive.
- Trying to make clothes smaller than about 2 sizes involves a lot of alteration time, which if you’re paying someone may not be worth it. If you find a vintage Chanel suit in a charity shop that’s 4 sizes too big, it may well be worth the additional expense. If it’s a Primark dress in the sale, then just leave it on the rail.
- If something is more than one size too small, it’s very unlikely that you’ll be able to get it let out. Fashion garments rarely have less than 0.5 cm seam allowance, meaning that there is total of 1.5 cm available around the body to let out. Letting out satin or fine fabrics means you may be left with track-lines where the stitching was. Letting out darker fabrics means that you may end up revealing fabric that is a different colour from the faded outside.
- If you let down a hem and get a strong line where the original hem was, think outside the box. Stitch some ribbon and make a feature of the ribbon whilst disguising the ugly line.
- Some alterations or repairs are boring to do. Personally I would rather get the tedious jobs like replacing zips done at a dry cleaners. Replacing a zip is fiddly and time consuming and I would rather use the time to make something fun, It’s generally only about £10-£15 to get it done for you. Shortening hems however, is a relatively quick and easy thing to do yourself and not worth paying £10 for.
- Big jobs that require a lot of space and equipment are often worth getting done by someone else. If you have to clear away your sewing space each time you sew, then the chances are that you’ll never finish that pair of curtains. If that’s the case you can concentrate maybe on the small hand sewing jobs that are achievable.
- If you want to do a big sewing job but really don’t have the space or a sewing machine, then go to a sewing studio that offers the space by the hour/session. There are lots of places across london that offer space by the hour and it’s a great way to get sewing and not worry about clearing up!
- Fabric is no longer cheap, and the cost of cotton and wool has just gone up, meaning both our clothes and fabric will soon get a lot more expensive. Think about cutting up existing old garments or curtains to use as fabric. Recently a student of mine used a sarong she bought on her honeymoon to make a yoga mat bag. Something that would have sat in her cupboard is a reminder of her honeymoon at every yoga class.
- Before you take stuff to charity shops think about whether or not you could re-purpose the item. Taking the waist band off a pair of jeans and binding the edge for example makes them bigger. A pair of old worn out jeans can be opened up and made into a skirt using perhaps an old favourite worn out blouse as the insert.
______________________________________________________
