https://howcast.com The best source for fun, free, and useful how-to videos and guides. Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:45:48 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://howcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/cropped-305991373_448685880636965_5438840228078552196_n-32x32.png https://howcast.com 32 32 https://howcast.com/videos/454071-how-to-sew-an-overlock-stitch-sewing-lessons/ Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:45:48 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/454071-how-to-sew-an-overlock-stitch-sewing-lessons/

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Hi, I’m Cynthia Mann and we’re here today at Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles, California. This is also the home of Fabricworm.com. Hi, I’m Melissa Lunden; I’m the resident seamstress here at Birch Fabrics. I teach sewing lessons here, prepare blog tutorials and sew samples of Birch’s line of organic cotton. And I am here today to talk to you about sewing. Hi, so, we’re going to talk about how to sew an overlock stitch. We are going to use my surger or my overlock machine. It’s a little bit different than a regular sewing machine. As you can see, it has four threads instead of two and it has a little blade that cuts the fabric as you are sewing. It really works well with jersey which the stretch woven knit. And what you do is lift up your presser foot, put your fabric in. And so, as you can see the blade actually trimmed the fabric as it sewed in an encased the edge of the material, so the edge is finished. It won’t unravel. It won’t roll up. You can also use the machine in addition to sewing edges. You can actually use it to just sew the two pieces together. You can do this after you’ve sewn a regular seam. Or you can just do it in a lieu of it. As you can see, sewed a really cute, little, mini skirt. And you can, nice and durable. And the seams are all finished. Another way to use your overlock machine is to finish the edges of a garment like this. This is just a regular cotton. And the garment, all of the seams have been finished with the overlock. It will help keep the garment really well constructed. You won’t have any fraying in the seam allowances. And it will just, it’ll look so much more professional. Some regular machines have a version of an overlock stitch where it will be a zigzag. And since your regular machine didn’t have that little blade what you do is after you run that stitch, you just cut very close to the zigzag stitch.

]]> https://howcast.com/videos/454068-how-to-pin-fabric-sewing-lessons/ Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:45:48 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/454068-how-to-pin-fabric-sewing-lessons/

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Hi, I’m Cynthia Mann and we’re here today at Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles, California. This is also the home of Fabricworm.com. Hi, I’m Melissa Lunden; I’m the resident seamstress here at Birch Fabrics. I teach sewing lessons here, prepare blog tutorials and sew samples of Birch’s line of organic cotton. And I am here today to talk to you about sewing. So now, we’re going to talk about how to pin your fabric. If you have two pieces of fabric that you want to sew together along the seam, all you’re going to do is take your pin and you’re going to insert it perpendicular to that seam and keep your pins couple of inches apart. And then, you’ll sew along that seam and remove the pin before your presser foot reaches it. And by putting this way, they don’t get in the way. And if you accidentally sew over your pin, it won’t break your needle. Another way, you can pin your fabric is having the pins go parallel to your seam allowance. If you need it to do this way, you want to make sure you have your pinheads facing you. So as you’re running the fabric through the machine, you can pull the pins easily. And it won’t get tangled up in your presser foot. And a little secret trick is double sided tape. If you are trying to pin something that’s not laying flat like a pocket to a garment, you can use double sided tape in the center of the pocket rather than a pin. The pocket lays nice and flat. You sew it on and just pull the tape out when you’re done.

]]> https://howcast.com/videos/454067-how-to-transfer-sewing-pattern-markings-sewing-lessons/ Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:45:48 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/454067-how-to-transfer-sewing-pattern-markings-sewing-lessons/

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Hi, I’m Cynthia Mann and we’re here today at Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles, California. This is also the home of Fabricworm.com. Hi, I’m Melissa Lunden; I’m the resident seamstress here at Birch Fabrics. I teach sewing lessons here, prepare blog tutorials and sew samples of Birch’s line of organic cotton. And I am here today to talk to you about sewing. Now we are going to talk about how to transfer sewing patterns. You are going to take your commercial pattern piece and you are going to transfer the marks on it to the wrong side of your fabric. And you’ll notice on your pattern piece that there’s a note that says “transfer this mark”. And you’re going to use this mark to line up this piece with the body of the pattern. And there are a couple different ways you can transfer. You can poke a little hole in your pattern piece and then use your tailor’s chalk. You can use a pen, an air erasing pen, just kind of stick it through. You can use a pin to poke through and then use another marker. The final way is to use a tracing wheel and tracing paper. Tracing paper will transfer the patterns or the pattern markings on to the wrong side of the fabric. So you are going to put the fabric right side up, take your pattern piece, and with your tracing wheel, you’re going to firmly press back and forth over the mark. If you had a pattern piece that had a dart, you would very firmly press along the dart lines like that, and when you turn it over, you can see that you have your dart line and then you just have the little transfer mark.

]]> https://howcast.com/videos/454066-how-to-prepare-mark-fabric-sewing-lessons/ Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:45:48 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/454066-how-to-prepare-mark-fabric-sewing-lessons/

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Hi, I’m Cynthia Mann and we’re here today at Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles, California. This is also the home of Fabricworm.com. Hi, I’m Melissa Lunden; I’m the resident seamstress here at Birch Fabrics. I teach sewing lessons here, prepare blog tutorials and sew samples of Birch’s line of organic cotton. And I am here today to talk to you about sewing. Hi, now we’re going to talk about preparing and marking your fabric. The first thing you want to do when you get some fabric is wash it especially if you’re using the fabric for garment sewing. You want to make sure that any preshrinking gets done way before you’ve sewn your garmet. So once your fabric is washed and ironed, then you can get ready to start marking your fabric. If you’re using a commercial pattern you’re going to notice that the pattern pieces have an arrow on them and you want to make sure that that arrow lines up with the grain of your fabric. The fabric has a grain line that’s created from the vertical and horizontal yarns that are woven together and you want to make sure that your arrow is lined up with the vertical yarns which are going to be parallel to the side of the fabric. So here are a couple different tools you can use to mark your fabric when you’re using a commercial sewing pattern. You can use your scissors, if your pattern calls for a notch like here you can use your scissors to make a tiny little cut right like that. There’s also an error erasing pen makes purple mark and it will evaporate into the air over a day or so. You have tailor’s chalk, you have a dress maker’s pencil, and a tracing wheel. You can also use pens instead. It’s temporary. It’s better to use pens with a quilting weight cotton or something thicker to use it on a if you use pens on a delicate fabric the pen holes can show and you don’t really want that. So that’s how you mark your fabric.

]]> https://howcast.com/videos/454051-how-to-use-quilting-cotton-sewing-lessons/ Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:30:49 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/454051-how-to-use-quilting-cotton-sewing-lessons/

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Hi, I’m Cynthia Mann and we’re here today at Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles, California. This is also the home of Fabricworm.com. Hi, I’m Melissa Lunden; I’m the resident seamstress here at Birch Fabrics. I teach sewing lessons here, prepare blog tutorials and sew samples of Birch’s line of organic cotton. And I am here today to talk to you about sewing. So, let’s talk about how to use quilting cotton. Quilting weight cotton like this is a great versatile mid-weight fabric. In this day and age, you can get amazing prints with beautiful colors and they’re just so fun and versatile to work with. You can make clothing out of them. You can make quilts. You can make accessories. You can make really cute baby clothes; maybe even a little apron but you have a lot of options. Another option with quilting cotton is that you have organic options now. There are so many beautiful, different types of organics that can be used. They’re great for the environment. They’re really good for people who have allergies to certain fabric dyes so; it’s a really cool, new option available.

]]> https://howcast.com/videos/454052-how-to-use-voile-sewing-lessons/ Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:30:49 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/454052-how-to-use-voile-sewing-lessons/

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Hi, I’m Cynthia Mann and we’re here today at Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles, California. This is also the home of Fabricworm.com. Hi, I’m Melissa Lunden; I’m the resident seamstress here at Birch Fabrics. I teach sewing lessons here, prepare blog tutorials and sew samples of Birch’s line of organic cotton. And I am here today to talk to you about sewing. So, let’s talk about how to use voile. Voile is a lightweight semi-sheer fabric that’s made from cotton. As you can see, it’s got a beautiful drape. It’s a little bit sheer and if you could feel it, you could tell that it’s got a really nice, smooth, a little slippery, silky feel to it. A great way to use voile is for lightweight summer clothing. You can use it for bath robes, night gowns. You can, some people have used it for making baby quilts which would make it, make something so soft. If you’re using voile for sewing a garment, you might want to line it since it is a little sheer and depending on what you’re making and who you’re making it for, a little layer of modesty might be kinda nice. One of the things about voile is that because it’s kinda silky and lightweight, it’s a little bit slippery so it does take a little while to get used to working with it but after you tried it out a little bit, you get the hang of it. You might need to pin it a little bit more than maybe, you would a regular quilting weight cotton but it makes a really beautiful garment.

]]> https://howcast.com/videos/454053-how-to-understand-basic-sewing-terms-sewing-lessons/ Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:30:49 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/454053-how-to-understand-basic-sewing-terms-sewing-lessons/

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Hi, I’m Cynthia Mann and we’re here today at Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles, California. This is also the home of Fabricworm.com. Hi, I’m Melissa Lunden; I’m the resident seamstress here at Birch Fabrics. I teach sewing lessons here, prepare blog tutorials and sew samples of Birch’s line of organic cotton. And I am here today to talk to you about sewing. Let’s talk about how to understand basic sewing terms. It’s like learning a foreign language, but if you take the time to learn the terminology, everything goes off smoother. The first term we are going to talk about is bias. Bias is the diagonal line running through a woven fabric. When you have a regular cotton like this, you have vertical and horizontal yarns being woven together to create this. It’s pretty stiff this way. It’s really stiff this way, but if you pull on a diagonal, you can see how it stretches. And that’s the bias. You can also use the bias to create biased tape which is a very narrow piece of fabric that’s been folded over and you can use that to finish your edges. The next term we’re going to talk about is selvedge. Selvedge is the finished edge of the fabric. When you have a roll of fabric like this, it’s been folded over once and rolled up. And so when you open it up, it has 2 finished edges. And this edge here which has the manufacturer and all of the color information is called the selvedge. You usually don’t sew with this. What you’re going to do is trim that off before you use the fabric to sew a garment or something else. The next term we’re going to talk about is ease. Ease has 2 different definitions. The first way to use ease is when you’re talking about sewing a garment. A commercial sewing pattern is going to give you the measurements of the finished garment. But that’s going to be a little bit bigger than what your body is so you have ease in the movement of the fabric so you don’t pull and rip your seams. And so you can actually move around in your garment. The second definition for ease is when you have 2 pieces of a sewing pattern. 1 piece might be a little bit bigger and you have to ease that piece in to fit the smaller piece. You do that by running some basting stitches and gently tightening that first piece to fit the exact size of the second piece. So, the next definition we’re going to talk about is innerfacing. Innerfacing is a type of material that you use in conjunction with the primary fabric. It will give that fabric a little extra structure or stiffness. As you can see in this purse, it’s made from regular quilting-weight cotton, but innerfacing has been used to make this purse nice and sturdy and keep the fabric nice and stiff. You can iron on innerfacing and you can sew in innerfacing. So, the next term we’re going to talk about is basting. Basting is when you temporarily sew 2 pieces together so they’re nice and secure for when you sew your permanent stitches. You’ll change your stitch length setting to the longest stitch and you won’t backstitch in the beginning or the end. That way it’s easy to remove when you’re all done.

]]> https://howcast.com/videos/454050-how-to-use-jersey-sewing-lessons/ Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:15:55 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/454050-how-to-use-jersey-sewing-lessons/

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Hi, I’m Cynthia Mann and we’re here today at Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles, California. This is also the home of Fabricworm.com. Hi, I’m Melissa Lunden; I’m the resident seamstress here at Birch Fabrics. I teach sewing lessons here, prepare blog tutorials and sew samples of Birch’s line of organic cotton. And I am here today to talk to you about sewing. So let’s talk about jersey. Jersey is a little different than your regular quilting cotton because instead of being woven it’s a knit. It’s fabulous because it has a lot of stretch and a lot of movement. The best use of jersey is clothing; it’s great, it has a lot of mobility, you can move and it stretches. It’s great for kids clothing and you can use it for other different types of projects, who am I to tell you not to? To sew with jersey is a little trickier and you definitely want to take some time to practice. You can use your regular sewing machine with it but you will use a zigzag stitch instead of a straight stitch because a zigzag will stretch with the fabric. You can also use an Overlock machine and that makes working with jersey a breeze.

]]> https://howcast.com/videos/454043-how-to-sew-with-cynthia-mann-sewing-lessons/ Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:00:49 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/454043-how-to-sew-with-cynthia-mann-sewing-lessons/

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Hi, I’m Cynthia Mann and we’re here today at Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles, California. This is also the home of Fabricworm.com. Fabricworm.com started about 3 years ago and has been steadily growing ever since. Fabricworm was created based on the concept of a person devoted to fabrics, like you hear the word, bookworm, and that refers to a person devoted to books. Well I have been admiring fabrics and patterns since I was a little girl. I remember when I first saw the wrapping paper of a gift I was given when I was 2 years old and I was obsessed with that wrapping paper. That spawned into a love for pattern and a love for fabric in general. We started Birch Fabrics organic cotton with the intention of bringing an alternative to the crafting community that was friendly for the environment. We specialize in quilting fabrics and sewing supplies, and today we have our resident seamstress, Melissa, here to talk to you about sewing. Hi, I’m Melissa Lunden; I’m the resident seamstress here at Birch Fabrics. I teach sewing lessons here, prepare blog tutorials and sew samples of Birch’s line of organic cotton. And I am here today to talk to you about sewing.

]]> https://howcast.com/videos/454045-5-essential-sewing-tools-sewing-lessons/ Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:00:49 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/454045-5-essential-sewing-tools-sewing-lessons/

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Hi, I’m Cynthia Mann and we’re here today at Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles, California. This is also the home of Fabricworm.com. Hi, I’m Melissa Lunden; I’m the resident seamstress here at Birch Fabrics. I teach sewing lessons here, prepare blog tutorials and sew samples of Birch’s line of organic cotton. And I am here today to talk to you about sewing. So, we are going to talk about choose the right tool for sewing. There are so many different things out on the market. If you go to a sewing store, it’s probably be overwhelming. So, I just wanted to talk about my favorites. The first things are my snips. These are awesome. They are very sharp. They are not for cutting big pieces of fabric but for cutting a little tiny threads. And you get so close. It’s perfect. They’re awesome. The second thing, I suggest getting is really good, sharp, pair of fabric shears. They’re wonderful. They cut perfectly. And do not cut paper with them, only fabric. They’ll dull up and they won’t cut as well. The next $1.50 investment that is essential is a sewing gauge. You have one like this a little slide. Or you can get one like this. It’s another type of measuring gauge. It has different measurements. These are so important for when you are checking your seam allowances. They are also great for making sure that when you’re placing things in different spots on a piece of fabric that they are in the same place. You can measure from the outside going in. They are just awesome. The next thing is your seam reaper. It’s your friend not your enemy. If you need to use a seam reaper use it. It’s a good thing. Take the time to reap out the stitches and do it again right. It’ll go so much faster. And then, my last favorite piece is a magnetic seam guide. You use this guide for making sure that you have consistent seam allowances which means that your garment looks great. Everything is nice a straight. Your machine is going to have a metallic plate with some pre-marked seam allowances. So, what you do is place your magnetic seam guide here and then you use your gauge to measure exactly what your seam allowances from the needle position. This is also helpful if your machine has different needle position in that way you make sure you’re sewing exactly where you need to be. And so, those are my favorite tools.

]]> https://howcast.com/videos/454044-how-to-pick-sewing-machine-thread-sewing-lessons/ Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:00:49 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/454044-how-to-pick-sewing-machine-thread-sewing-lessons/

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Hi, I’m Cynthia Mann and we’re here today at Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles, California. This is also the home of Fabricworm.com. Hi, I’m Melissa Lunden; I’m the resident seamstress here at Birch Fabrics. I teach sewing lessons here, prepare blog tutorials and sew samples of Birch’s line of organic cotton. And I am here today to talk to you about sewing. So let’s talk about choosing sewing machine thread. The general rule is to use the same time of thread as the fabric that you’re using. If you’re sewing with 100% cotton material, you use 100% cotton thread. Same goes with a polyester, or a lightweigh silk. There are special types of thread for denim, there are special types of thread for very lightweight fabrics. You just wanna keep it consistent. My next suggestion is, stay away from the cheaper threads. They fray, they tangle. You can try them out. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. My last suggestion is that your sewing machine might actually have a preference. I’ve tried a bunch of different threads, and there’s 1 brand that just works for my machine better than others. So, be creative. Feel free to try different ones out, and see what works best for you.

]]> https://howcast.com/videos/454048-top-5-tips-for-sewing-a-dress-sewing-lessons/ Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:00:49 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/454048-top-5-tips-for-sewing-a-dress-sewing-lessons/

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Hi, I’m Cynthia Mann and we’re here today at Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles, California. This is also the home of Fabricworm.com. Hi, I’m Melissa Lunden; I’m the resident seamstress here at Birch Fabrics. I teach sewing lessons here, prepare blog tutorials and sew samples of Birch’s line of organic cotton. And I am here today to talk to you about sewing. So, here are my top five tips for sewing a dress. First, start with an easy pattern. You have a lot of different options out there and plenty that are for beginners and very user friendly with great instructions and so don’t be scared. Start easy. My second tip for sewing a dress is read your pattern all the way through. Get a feel of what the pattern says, what the different pattern pieces are, what you’ll need. It’s really helpful to have a road map of where you’re going and know why you’re sewing and doing certain things at certain points. My third tip is there’s and old adage, “measure twice, cut once.” It’s important to get a really good idea of how big you are, how big your garment is, and not cut before you’re ready. My next suggestion is to take the time to do a mock up before you use your fancy, pretty fabric. It’s hard to do. Sometimes you get excited and you want to start sewing right away but if you take the time to use some old fabric or some muslin to try out the pattern first. You’ll find out where the pattern works for you, what you have trouble with, and you won’t waste your good fabric. And then, by the time you’re ready to use the good fabric, you’ll have worked out all the kinks of the pattern and figured out how many tricks you need to use, and your dress is going to look perfect. And my last suggestion, when you’re sewing a dress, it to remember that when you’re sewing a dark, you want to start sewing from the outer edge of the fabric and work your way into the center. Don’t start in the center and work back. Good luck.

]]> https://howcast.com/videos/454049-how-to-pick-a-fabric-sewing-lessons/ Thu, 10 Mar 2011 12:00:57 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/454049-how-to-pick-a-fabric-sewing-lessons/

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Hi, I’m Cynthia Mann and we’re here today at Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles, California. This is also the home of Fabricworm.com. Hi, I’m Melissa Lunden; I’m the resident seamstress here at Birch Fabrics. I teach sewing lessons here, prepare blog tutorials and sew samples of Birch’s line of organic cotton. And I am here today to talk to you about sewing. So, let’s talk about choosing fabric. You have so many different options and if you’re doing a specific project with a commercial sewing pattern, it’ll often give you different recommendations but here are a couple just to get an idea. This is a regular quilting weight cotton. It has a nice woven texture. Pretty strong. It doesn’t have a lot of stretch and nowadays, you can get all kinds of different prints and colors. They come in organic and it’s just really versatile for all kinds of projects whether it’s making pillows or clothing. Another type of fabric is linen. It’s a little bit of a looser weave, has a little bit rougher texture but it’s also really good for home dec projects and making clothes. Another type of fabric is jersey. It’s a knit rather than a woven and it has a lot of great stretch. It’s really good for clothes. It’s a little bit trickier to sew with. Um, you can use an over lock machine. You can also use your regular sewing machine but it’s great for kid’s clothes or clothes that need a lot of movement and it drapes really well. Another type of fabric to consider is a decorator weight. A decorator weight means it’s a little bit heavier. It doesn’t drape as loosely, and it’s usually wider. Regular bolts of cotton usually run about 44 inches wide. Decorator weights come at 54 inches so, they tend to be a little bit more expensive per yard but that’s because you’re getting more fabric and it’s thicker. It’s more durable. You can make home dec projects, pillows, curtains. You can make accessories. Also, make outerwear with it. Something like this would be so good for a coat.

]]> https://howcast.com/videos/454057-how-to-identify-sewing-machine-parts-sewing-lessons/ Tue, 08 Mar 2011 15:31:01 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/454057-how-to-identify-sewing-machine-parts-sewing-lessons/

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Hi, I’m Cynthia Mann and we’re here today at Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles, California. This is also the home of Fabricworm.com. Hi, I’m Melissa Lunden; I’m the resident seamstress here at Birch Fabrics. I teach sewing lessons here, prepare blog tutorials and sew samples of Birch’s line of organic cotton. And I am here today to talk to you about sewing. Hi, we’re going to identify the parts of a sewing machine. This is a basic model that’s computerized so it’s a little bit different than your mom’s machine that you borrow when you were little. But the basic features are the same. You have the power cord. You have the foot pedal. You have the thread spool. You have your hand dial which you always crank towards you. Don’t crank away, crank toward. You have your bob and winder. And then you have the thread guide, the thread take-up lever. Here you have your computer settings, and you have your speed. Your thread goes down through. This is your needle. This is your needle crank. This is your presser foot. Beneath the presser foot, you have your feed dogs which are the texturized pieces of metal that move your fabric through the machine. You have your bobbin. This is called the throat of your machine. And when you take this off, this is called your arm. And when you take off your extra little storage case, this makes it a little bit smaller and makes it easier to do smaller pieces of sewing like a cuff. In the back of the machine, you have the switch that drops your feed dogs, which means that your machine will no longer push the fabric through and that something you’ll control. And you’d do that if you were doing free-motion quilting or darning. And that’s your machine.

]]> https://howcast.com/videos/454064-how-to-select-stitch-length-sewing-lessons/ Tue, 08 Mar 2011 15:15:53 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/454064-how-to-select-stitch-length-sewing-lessons/

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Hi, I’m Cynthia Mann and we’re here today at Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles, California. This is also the home of Fabricworm.com. Hi, I’m Melissa Lunden; I’m the resident seamstress here at Birch Fabrics. I teach sewing lessons here, prepare blog tutorials and sew samples of Birch’s line of organic cotton. And I am here today to talk to you about sewing. So now we’re going to talk about how to select stitch length with tension on your machine. Every machine is a little different but most have a range from 0 to 5 which directs the stitch length. 0 being the smallest stitch, no length at all, five being the longest. You’ll use a smaller stitch length when you want very small, strong stitches or when you are adjusting the stitch width as well. Usually you’ll use, in a range between 0 to 5, about a 3.5 for your universal stitch. That way, it’s nice and tight, but it’s also not so small that it will take forever to get through your machine. And then the longest stitch length, which is 4 and a half to 5, is good for non-permanent stitches like basting when you are just sewing 2 pieces together temporarily until you do the permanent stitching. And then you have upper tension and lower tension. The upper tension is what’s going to control how easily the thread moves through the machine from the spool up here. Lower tension is for when the bobbin which you don’t really mess with that often. When you need to adjust your stitch width, on my machine it’s a little button, and that’s going to affect whether your machine is sewing a straight stitch or a zigzag stitch. And zigzag is great for a lot of different things like using elastic or finishing seams and you’ll end up kind of coming up with different combinations of width and length to affect your different zigzag. But a basic zigzag stitch is going to look something like this. And the wider your stitch width, the wider your zigzag. So you can see here kind of a standard zigzag. Here, the zigzag’s a little bit wider because it’s a longer stitch width. And here, the zigzag is here and there because the width is so small.

]]> https://howcast.com/videos/454063-how-to-sew-topstitch-on-sewing-machine-sewing-lessons/ Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:01:05 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/454063-how-to-sew-topstitch-on-sewing-machine-sewing-lessons/

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Hi, I’m Cynthia Mann and we’re here today at Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles, California. This is also the home of Fabricworm.com. Hi, I’m Melissa Lunden; I’m the resident seamstress here at Birch Fabrics. I teach sewing lessons here, prepare blog tutorials and sew samples of Birch’s line of organic cotton. And I am here today to talk to you about sewing. So, we’re now going to talk about how to sew a top stitch. A top stitch is a type of finishing stitch that you sew on the right side of the fabric and it’s a nice decorative stitch and it also helps stablize the two pieces together. So, after you’ve sewn your seam, you turn your fabric so it’s right side out and press. And then, once you have your fabric like this, then you’ll put it back under the machine but using a quarter of an inch seam allowance. You’ll start sewing right along the edge. You can also move the needle even closer to the edge to one eighth inch seam allowance and that’s called an edge stitch and that makes your seam look a little fancier. It’s a little bit more decorative. And, so this is what a top stitch looks like and you’re looking at the right side of your fabric and you can have the fabric, the thread match and have it be really subtle or you can do a nice contrast, like what we did, and make it more decorative.

]]> https://howcast.com/videos/454065-how-to-sew-a-machine-buttonhole-sewing-lessons/ Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:01:05 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/454065-how-to-sew-a-machine-buttonhole-sewing-lessons/

Transcript

Hi, I’m Cynthia Mann and we’re here today at Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles, California. This is also the home of Fabricworm.com. Hi, I’m Melissa Lunden; I’m the resident seamstress here at Birch Fabrics. I teach sewing lessons here, prepare blog tutorials and sew samples of Birch’s line of organic cotton. And I am here today to talk to you about sewing. Hi, we’re going to talk about how to sew a machine buttonhole. And if you have a newer machine that comes with programmed settings like mine, it’s so easy. And what you’re going to do is check your manual and it’s going to show you how to do it. The quick and dirty way is you’re going to take your machine buttonhole foot, you’re going to swap that out for the regular one that you have, then you are going to take your button that you have, and you’re going to place it in the back piece that slides, and when you put your button in there, nice and firmly so it doesn’t fall out, this tells the machine how wide your buttonhole needs to be. So then you put your presser foot in, lock it in, and drop this little lever down. This has a little symbol for a buttonhole and it needs to be positioned behind this little white tab. We’re going to take this scrap piece of fabric, and you always want to do a test buttonhole before you do anything on your finished garment because it’s a lot of stitching and taking it out is going to make a big mess. So what your machine is doing is creating two very narrow, very tight zigzag stitches. And then it’s also sewing stitches across the top and bottom and that’s how it creates the buttonhole. So what you’re going to do once you’re in the right position, press your foot and it’s going to start going. So it’s all finished. I’m going to lift up my needle. And then you can see my button hole. But you’re not quite finished. What you are going to do is trim the extra threads, and then with a pair of scissors or an X-Acto knife, which is my preference, you’re going to very slowly cut open the buttonhole between the 2 rows of stitches, being careful not to cut through the ends and then there’s your buttonhole. And then the last step is to use a little Fray Check. It’s a little chemical solution that helps keep your fabric from fraying and it will keep those little threads from fraying as you use your buttonhole. And you’re all done.

]]> https://howcast.com/videos/454061-how-to-sew-corners-sewing-lessons/ Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:45:41 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/454061-how-to-sew-corners-sewing-lessons/

Transcript

Hi, I’m Cynthia Mann and we’re here today at Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles, California. This is also the home of Fabricworm.com. Hi, I’m Melissa Lunden; I’m the resident seamstress here at Birch Fabrics. I teach sewing lessons here, prepare blog tutorials and sew samples of Birch’s line of organic cotton. And I am here today to talk to you about sewing. So now were going to talk about how to sew corners, and that would be if your going to sew a basic pillow, what you want to do is have your two layers of fabric, this is our mini pillow and you want your fabric pieces lined up perfectly, and then you put them under your pressure foot and you follow along with your seam allowance and your going to sew one side. If your using 5/8 seam allowance, your going to stop 5/8 from the next side of the pillow you can make a little mark on the pillow so you dont over shoot it. And then what you want to do is make sure your needle is in the down position, which means that its through the fabric. Lift up your presser foot and then rotate your fabric 90 degrees. If you are a little bit too far away from the edge you can just swing it back. Do one more stitch by turning the handwheel, lift it up, then put the fabric 90 degrees, and continue sewing. And thats how you do the first part of sewing a corner. Once you finish you can see you have a nice corner, but when you flip it right side out it is going to be a little bulky but you can just trim that corner off, like that. And then, when you turn the corner right side out you kind of use your finger, and your going to poke it straight, you take a pin and very, very gently so you dont rip your stitches, and you kind of just pull out that corner so its nice and sharp, and then youll press it, and you will have a perfect 90 degree corner.

]]> https://howcast.com/videos/454056-when-thread-is-caught-in-sewing-machine-sewing-lessons/ Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:30:43 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/454056-when-thread-is-caught-in-sewing-machine-sewing-lessons/

Transcript

Hi, I’m Cynthia Mann and we’re here today at Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles, California. This is also the home of Fabricworm.com. Hi, I’m Melissa Lunden; I’m the resident seamstress here at Birch Fabrics. I teach sewing lessons here, prepare blog tutorials and sew samples of Birch’s line of organic cotton. And I am here today to talk to you about sewing. Now, we’re going to talk about what to do if the thread is caught in your sewing machine. The first thing you’re going to do is panic and call your mom. And then when she doesn’t answer, you’re going to look at your machine and figure out what’s going on. Most likely, your bobbin thread wasn’t wound properly. Either it’s too loose or there was a problem in the pickup. And what you’ll do is take the bobbin out of the machine, try to clear out any extra threads, and then make sure the bobbin is loaded properly. So if you found that your bobbin is jammed and the thread is all caught, the first thing you’re going to do is take the bobbin out. It’s easy to do it on this machine because it’s a top-loading bobbin, and the bobbin the case is clear so you can see exactly what’s going on. I pull out any extra threads that are caught, and I would make sure first and foremost that my bobbin is wound nice and tight.
The biggest thing is to make sure that your bobbin is loaded properly which means that when you pull the bobbin thread, the case rotates in the opposite direction. If it’s too loose, you’re — it’s going to give you problems, and you’re going to have to unthread it and just rewind it. If you try to do anything else, it’s going to just keep giving you problems. So once you’ve rewound your bobbin and it’s nice and tight, you want to make sure that it’s loaded properly. And my machine has a little handy diagram that shows you if you’re doing it properly. You can see it right here. You’ll reload your bobbin, and you might — while you’re at it — just reload your top thread too because that’s usually part of the problem, and then give some test stitches and see what happens.

]]> https://howcast.com/videos/454060-how-to-sew-an-elastic-waistband-sewing-lessons/ Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:15:47 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/454060-how-to-sew-an-elastic-waistband-sewing-lessons/

Transcript

Hi, I’m Cynthia Mann and we’re here today at Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles, California. This is also the home of Fabricworm.com. Hi, I’m Melissa Lunden; I’m the resident seamstress here at Birch Fabrics. I teach sewing lessons here, prepare blog tutorials and sew samples of Birch’s line of organic cotton. And I am here today to talk to you about sewing. Hi, now we are going to talk about how to sew an elastic waistband. I have a little sample here for a very little waist, and once you’ve sewn your piece or two pieces together, what you’re going to do is make a casing, which is folding over the fabric once, pressing – which I already have – and then folding it over one more time, and pressing again. You’re gonna have your piece of elastic, you’re going your measuring – sewing gauge to figure out that my piece of elastic is half an inch, so I want to make my casing just a little bit wider than half an inch. That way there’s enough room for the elastic to get in, but it won’t have too much room to wiggle around. You’re going to start sewing very close to the bottom fold of the casing. Back stitch a couple stitches, and then sew all the way around, rotating the fabric as you go, and making sure you don’t sew the underside while you’re at it. And then you’re gonna want to stop sewing about an inch away from where you started and then back stitch, and then you are going to start threading your elastic. And this is what your casing looks like. And then you take your piece of elastic and a safety pin. You put your pin at the top of your elastic, and this just makes it so much easier to thread your elastic through. And so then you just kind of push and pull the safety pin and the elastic. So once you’ve decided that this is the right width, then you’ll trim your elastic, take out your safety pin, and then take your elastic, and then with your sewing machine, back stitch – forward, back, make sure it’s nice and secure. And then you’ll tuck your elastic in, smooth it out, and trim your threads. And then what you’ll do is you’ll just finish sewing over those – that opening, stretching the fabric as you go. Back stitch – and then you can take a second to kind of smooth out the fabric. And ta-da, you’re all done.

]]> https://howcast.com/videos/454062-how-to-replace-sewing-machine-needles-sewing-lessons/ Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:00:45 +0000 https://howcast.com/videos/454062-how-to-replace-sewing-machine-needles-sewing-lessons/

Transcript

Hi, I’m Cynthia Mann and we’re here today at Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles, California. This is also the home of Fabricworm.com. Hi, I’m Melissa Lunden; I’m the resident seamstress here at Birch Fabrics. I teach sewing lessons here, prepare blog tutorials and sew samples of Birch’s line of organic cotton. And I am here today to talk to you about sewing. So now, we’re gonna talk about how to replace sewing machine needles. You’re gonna have to do it when your needle breaks, or when you’re done with a project. It’s a good idea to replace them pretty regularly. A sharp needle sews better. So, on this machine, you have the little needle crank, and a supplied screwdriver. So you unscrew your needle, and it will just drop down like this. And then you’ll take your new, sharp needle, and you’ll notice that your needle is flat on one side, and round on the other. And that will be the guide to make sure that it’s in properly. Which you will put up into the machine, and you’ll rotate the needle until it fits in flat side on one side, and then you can just finger tighten the screw, and then finish it up with the screwdriver. And then you’ll rethread your machine, and you’re good to go.

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