Tips, Tricks, and Cheats

(Tip) -- If you can't deal with patterns printed on tissue paper (and who can?), iron the uncut pattern to light weight, iron on interfacing. It will cut better, it won't blow away if you breathe on it, and it won't be full of wrinkles anymore. (Actually, one of my sewing teachers says you should always iron patterns because of the wrinkles. I'm just not that OCD.)

(Tip) -- Patterns can be more easily stored in clear page protectors in binders than in their original envelopes, or in a pile on a shelf, or what-have-you

(Trick) -- When dealing with loosely woven fabrics (the currently fashionable large thread boucles or some handwovens), cut with a very sharp rotary cutter, then *immediately* stay stitch slowly, feeding as evenly as you can, about 3/8" in from the edge. Don't serge the edges until after you've done the stay stitching. There's too much of a risk that the serger will cause the cut edge to spread and ruffle ("lettuce edge" is the technical term, sayeth my mother).

(Tip) -- When you sketch a design, sketch the back view too. Draw in all the seams, and closing edges. This sounds obvious, I suppose, but I've noticed that most of the girls in my fashion design class don't do it. It's actually a crucial part of the thought process when you're planning to make a new dress.

(Cheat) -- If you're working with a commercial tissue paper pattern, you don't have to cut it out exactly before you lay it out on the fabric. You just need to get the pieces you need out of the main of the pattern. Save the exact cutting for the fabric. Tissue won't hurt your fabric sheers.

(Tip) -- It's easier to refill your iron's water reservoir with a bottle (like your plastic drinking water bottle) than it is to carry the iron over to the sink. Using pre-filtered water will extend the life of your iron.

(Tip) -- Contrary to all logic, you can't really use hair dye on feathers. It has too many conditioners. You *can* use food coloring, RIT, and any chemical protein dye.

(Cheat) -- Accidentally sewn two panels of a skirt wrong-sides-together (aka, "inside out")? Don't bother ripping the seam. Just cut right inside it. Loosing an inch out of the width of period skirts won't even show (unless you were matching a pattern).

(Trick) -- When sewing down metallic trims, many people make the mistake of using metallic threads. Sewing with metallics is an exercise in hating yourself. Fortunately, you don't need to do it -- for metallic silver, use light grey thread, for gold, use a medium gold (coats&clark temple gold is a favorite) and for antique gold, a dark gold thread will work. These are almost invisible, and much easier to sew with.

(Cheat) -- A thin layer of flexible fabric glue, applied to the back of your fabric, makes a great sizing to prevent pinking and slashing from ripping and fraying.

(Tip) -- Those Glad and Ziplock disposable containers come in great sizes for storing sewing machine feet, pins, tape measures, marking pens, thread, bobbins, ribbon and trim remnants, and a host of other sewing table essentials. They're cheap, and since they have mostly clear bottoms, you can store them upside down in a drawer and tell what's in them at a glance.

(Trick) -- If your machine has one of those odd buttonholer feet where you put the button in to the little spring loaded slot, you prolly have a problem with the button flying out at an inopportune time (like, while the machine is busy making the buttonhole). You can avoid this by putting a similarly sized coin or washer into the spring loaded gidjy instead of the actual button. (Believe it or not, I haven't seen this show up in any magazines yet!)

(Tip) -- You can use buttonholes instead of grommets for most bodice and corset lacings. This is especially useful when it's 3am and you're worried about waking the neighbor (or, more accurately, the neighbor's german shepard, who is capable of waking the neighborhood).

(Trick) -- Three easy steps to convert a modern straight sleeve pattern to a period, slit at the front model:

1. Fold the pattern in thirds, like you would fold a letter
2. Cut one third of the sleeve off from one side, at the crease.
3. Transfer this piece to the other side of the sleeve and tape the edges together. Instead of the single hump at the top of the sleeve that you started out with, you should now have sort of a wave

(Tip) -- Mixing RIT dye colors is legal. I've never gotten anything truly unexpected from throwing two different colors together. I also keep liquid black RIT on hand when I'm dying fabric - you can throw a splash into the dye bath if your color is turning out too light (stir *immediately*)

(Tip) -- Before cutting fabric for shirts and chemises, rip off about 2.5" (including the selvedge) along one side of your yardage. This gives you 4 or so yards of neat selvedge to use for ruffs and cuffs on the shirt, and you'll probably never miss those 2.5" of width.

(Tip) -- Don't iron it! When finishing a costume, if you have an edge that should remain "crisp", don't reach for the iron. Run a line of stitch right next to the edge. Ironing has to be done again and again, but stitches are forever...

(Trick) -- Those "Jelly Roll" pens make a great marking pen for almost anything. I use them to take notes on my muslin patterns (works better than those blue fabric markers, and your notes won't disappear in high humidity!), mark crucial points on fabric (if you get the ones with the silver outline around a dark color, they'll work on dark or light fabrics), and mark leather and plastic canvas. I never thought I would find *anything* that would mark on plastic canvas!

My friend Jenny of Festive Attyre had a great idea when she decided to do a weekly Featured Attyre segment on her site. When someone else comes up with an idea that good, you rather have to find some way to co-opt it for your own nefarious purposes. Originally, I thought I was capable of a weekly update. I'm not. Additions will be ... sporadic.