How to line a knitted dress

A knitted dress is by its nature a stretchy garment that can quickly grow stretched out "bags" around the more protruding parts of your body. And if the dress is long, that includes your knees! A very effective solution to the problem is lining. If you wear a slip under the dress, the knitwear will…

Fair Isle is not my thing

Too fiddly to knit. Takes too long. Mind- and finger-boggling all around. Enough reasons to do it. 😋 This Rowan jumper is now in its fifth if not sixth year - since starting. I finished the cabled bits quickly enough and then got entirely lost in the Fair Isle. I'd put it away for months,…

The best stitch for blind hem

...is plain zig-zag. Why? Because it resembles manual blind hem most closely, and manual blind hem is, of course, the golden standard. Domestic sewing machines have come up with a variety of special blind hem stitches, from a wiggling attachment for straight stitch only machines, to fixed or programmable combinations of straight stitching or narrow…

Living memory

During the latest clear-out at my mother's prompted by the imminent downsizing and having to move, she came across a stack of linens that she inherited from the clear-out of her late mother, some 20 years ago now. In that stack there were some old linen towels with faded embroidery, some fine but old lace…

Hopping with a back-clamping Singer 66K

My Singer 66K has back-clamping foot fitting and I don't want to convert it to low shank. 🧐 Whaaaat? Why? Ah, that is a topic for another post. 🤬 Yeah, I heard you. 🤭 This 1906 Singer 66K was made within the first half a year of production of this model in Scotland, and it…

Impossible pattern matching

It's quite impossible not only because it's an intricate pattern, but also because it's Chinese brocade - the world's most slinky and stubborn fabric. Plus, it's a mitred corner. And yet, here it is: And here is another one, on the grain: Can you see how it's done? Zig-zag. What? 😲 Yes, humble zig-zag. Put…

Couching wool with a sewing machine

Couching is an embroidery technique of sewing a cord onto canvas with a fine thread so that the cord appears to simply lie on the fabric, frozen in time. In sewing machine parlance it is often called "cording", and there's a cording foot to guide the cord while zig-zagging over it. But this is really…