Would you go for a Singer sewing machine, Brother sewing machines or Janome sewing machine?
January 15, 2009 by Sewing Machines
Filed under Tips
Which Sewing Machine is the best for you? Whenever you are looking for a sewing machine which make would you prefer? Would you go for a Singer sewing machine, Brother sewing machines or Janome sewing machine? Don’t own a sewing machine yet and you do not see why you should get one? Let us briefly explain some of the benefits sewing can bring to you:
Sewing can be a very lucrative way to either cut costs or to start a business and make money sewing. Nowadays there are sewing machines at hand that can assist you in to making the best looking quality clothes, quilts and embroideries.
Should you just want to make clothes and other pieces for your family than that is a great way to make them happy and save a lot of money too.
For the consumer sewing machines there are three or four big manufacturers and in this article we discuss three of them.
Whenever you are looking to buy a sewing machine online there is one site that offers you the biggest discounts on Brother sewing machines, Singer sewing machines and Janome Sewing Machines.
Should you want to learn more about sewing machines and how you could benefit the most from the discount sewing machines online we would like to suggest to you a visit to www.sewingmachines-online.com for a broad selection of the best discounts on sewing machines from the big names in the sewing machine industry.
Sewing machines are a great way to save a lot of money. Just imagine you can start sewing your families own clothing and how much money you will spare out with not having to buy those clothes in the shops? Before we will discuss how much fun sewing actually is and that it is not hard to do at all we would like to mention that we have found a new website offering the best Discount Janome Sewing Machine and a $219 rebate on the Brother 350 sewing machine.
Sewing with the right machine can really give you a new sort of hobby. One that besides the pleasure delivers you end products in the form of a thank you from your family for creating the nicest clothes exactly how they want to wear them.
Once again, we said it before, sewing is not hard to do and nowadays there are many free guides and patterns you can simply download from the internet. Buy yourself sewing machine online, wait for it to arrive at your home and start sewing you and your family’s new clothes.
The site we recommend you visit also has several very good discount deals on some of the finest embroidery machines or double function sewing / embroidery machines for you on offer.
Save hundreds of dollars on your next sewing machine simply by visiting www.sewingmachines-online.com
Your iron is your most important piece of equipment for sewing
January 14, 2009 by Sewing Machines
Filed under Tips
Next to your sewing machine, your iron is your most important piece of equipment for sewing.
For the best results with your sewing projects you should start every project by pressing the pieces of fabric to be cut, and then pressing in between every line sewn. This allows you to have good crisp edges, corners, and seam lines. It sets your stitches (this means the thread is blended in with the fabric instead of sitting on top of the fabric), flattens and smoothes any puckers, and gives your projects an overall more professional look.
Did you know there really is a difference between pressing and ironing? I didn’t.
Ironing is what we do before we put on clothes, that are wrinkled. When you iron you SLIDE your iron back and forth on the fabric with pressure.
Pressing is what we do when we are sewing. When you press, you place the iron down on your fabric, then lift it back up in quick intervals. you repeat this up and down motion, overlapping as you go.
The biggest difference between the two, is that ironing can stretch and change the lay (grain line) of your fabric. This is why when my girls were real young and just starting, and their lines were a little crooked, I would iron their seams in order to manipulate the fabric to appear straight. I used this a lot with their quilting projects.
It is also important to know that although the word is press, it does not mean to push down real hard. What “presses” your project, is having the CORRECT heat or steam when simply setting the iron down. Otherwise, speaking from experience, you risk leaving an impression of the seam on the right side of the fabric, and if your working with a fabric that has a nap (plush fabrics like: velvet, velour, corduroy…) you can flatten the nap.
Again, it is the correct temperature of the heat or steam that does most of the job. So the other problems that can occur (also speaking from, “been there, done that”) includes: scorching, shrinking (from the steam), and leaving shiny marks on the fabric.
To avoid all of these, ALWAYS before sewing, use scrap pieces of the fabric you are working with, and test it for heat and steam tolerance. There is nothing worse than spending time sewing together a beautiful project and then laying down your iron to press a seam and the fabric is ruined, AND you don’t have enough fabric to cut out the piece that you ruined; THEN (deep breath) you finally make it back to the fabric store to find out that they are out of the fabric. YOU GUESSED IT - I am speaking from experience!!
Some fabrics are just too delicate to handle direct heat. In this case use a pressing cloth. This is simply a cloth that is placed over the fabric you are working with to protect it from direct heat. You can buy a “pressing cloth”, but I have found that bandanas and/or muslin work great for this.
The Dos and Don’ts of Pressing:
1. Start by pressing on the wrong side of the fabric
2. Press seam allowances either open or to one side before sewing across a seam.
3. make sure you let your fabric cool or dry before moving it, otherwise it can distort the shape of the fabric.
4. Do NOT press over pins. Not only will they melt, it can also cause puckers that are hard to remove. You also do NOT want to iron over basted lines, again because it can leave an impression that is hard to get out.
5. Never use starch when sewing. Over time, the starch on the fabric will cause a sticky residue that builds up on the needle of your sewing machine, which then leads to lint sticking to the mechanisms in the sewing machine. When quilting, we sometimes use magic sizing (you get this at the grocery store where the starch is located).
So what type of iron is best for sewing?
With sewing it is important to have a good steam iron. You need one that allows you to press with or without steam.
After speaking with several professional seamstresses, and my older daughter sewing more professional looking projects, I followed their advice and bought a separate iron just for sewing. By having a separate iron, I don’t have to take the time to clean the excess starch from ironing our clothes, before working on our sewing projects.
What other equipment is important to have for pressing?
Starting off, all you need is an ironing board or an ironing surface that is covered with a light padding and cotton fabric. Because pressing truly makes the difference between a homemade looking project and a professional looking project, as you sew more often, you will want to enlarge your pressing tools based on what you prefer making.
The two additional tools we use often, are a sleeve board and a pressing ham. Sleeve boards look like a mini ironing board which allows you to get smaller tubes, such as sleeves, over the board to press, as well as get to “hard to reach” places. The pressing ham is great for pressing curved edges and seams, to get the natural shape of the curve, instead of a flat look.
You may be wondering, “if I have to press in between almost every step, how do I keep my young kids focused on what we are doing”? This is why the first thing we do, is review all of the steps to figure out all of the sewing lines we can do at the same time. Then we pin them all, sew them all, and finally we press the seams sewn. Then we repeat the process. This helps you to not only keep your child’s focus, but to manage your time. And if you are the one sewing, it keeps you from getting leg cramps from getting up and down all the time!
To also help manage your time, make sure you have your ironing board and iron set up close to your sewing area.
Remember, irons are dangerous! They can burn you, and cause fires. So YOU must decide when your child is ready to start pressing.
Because of these dangers, I actually got an automatic shut off on my iron. Good thing to!!!
Industrial Sewing Machine Versus Domestic Machine
January 14, 2009 by Sewing Machines
Filed under Tips
Let me tell you a story. When I opened my first clothing alteration shop, I started out with a borrowed over locker from my sister in law, and my very old mini Elna sewing machine. I remember an Asian gentlemen walking up to the door of my shop and saying to me ‘You can’t do clothing alterations on that machine!
You need an industrial sewing machine!’ As the business grew, I got more domestic machines, and when I opened my second shop, I put domestic machines in. I did buy a semi industrial blind hemming machine, but I can tell you we had an exceptional reputation for superior workmanship. We had customers coming to us from the other side of Sydney. So I had domestic sewing machines in all my shops, except one. That one I put 2 industrials in but the shop was sold soon after to people who believed in industrial sewing machines.
My favorite domestic sewing machine is the Janome My Excel which isn’t expensive and does everything that I need to produce high quality clothing alterations.
Industrial sewing machines were designed for factory work. In particular piece work. The machines were in rows and the seamstresses using were sewing just one particular part of a garment, and another person was sewing another part of the garment. They are very fast, so for piece work they are excellent.
I actually find them too fast. Let me explain. If I am re stitching the facing back on to a gown after I have taken the straps up, I am only sewing a section of say 2′ or 5 cm. With my domestic machine I lock off at the beginning, sew the seam and lock off at the end. With an industrial machine, you have to slow it down because it would sew too fast, and you wouldn’t get the machine sewing into the seams as you need to.
People who use industrial machines, and have worked out how to stitch in this way I admire. My hat goes off to you. Personally I could never control the monster.
The other reason I like domestic machines is the fact that they can do zig zag and many other types of stitches. Most industrial sewing machines can only sew straight stitch. You can get industrial machines that do other stitching, but why have so many machines when you can have one.
Yet another reason is the fact that the domestic sewing machine has an arm on it for sewing sleeves and hems with ease. The industrial machine has a flat surface to work on. This means you have to try and lay the fabric as flat as possible to sew correctly.
With the domestic machine you can slip the hem over the arm of the machine and stitch around with ease.
All my step by step manuals will be on how to do clothing alterations on your domestic sewing machine. I will also go through what you need to perform an alteration with the same workmanship that I performed in my shops.
