How to use the binding foot

 

If you get frustrated putting on binding because you sometimes miss catching the back of the binding and get little gaps – you need this article! Never miss the back again and get perfectly straight stitching – learn how to use the Binding Foot.

Do you remember that lovely big box of sewing feet I bought? I've been gradually working my way through them a bit at a time, with varying degrees of success. I'm never one for worrying too much about the accuracy of my sewing so these are certainly helping me get a great finish on all of my test pieces.



There is one in particular I wanted to share with you, the Binding Foot. This is a revelation! I now worship the binding foot and have been making up all sorts of little bits and pieces to add some binding onto.

Let's take a look at how it works
 
Features of the binding foot

The binding foot is adjustable so that it can deal with varying widths of binding. It works with bias binding and is perfect for use around gentle curves and circles, and it also works with straight cut binding for straight edges too. With some practice you can also use it to get neat mitered corners too – maybe once I get a bit more practice, a new how-to will follow to show you my tips for doing that. For now we'll assume we have to add binding to a straight edge, and will do it in a single pass, sewing front and back at the same time (perfectly).

There are two wheels on the foot. One so that you can adjust the position of the foot itself and slide it left or right and then another wheel that adjusts the width of the clear part of the foot that holds the length of binding. This controls a sliding guide that runs along the length of the binding as you sew and keeps it snugly in place against the guides for perfect stitching.



The plastic parts are flexible, especially when that lower wheel is turned to the wider setting, so that they can be opened wide to allow the fabric and binding sandwich to be put together.

Mine has numbers printed on indicating the width of the binding, but you don't really need the numbers. Just turning that wheel until the binding is snug is more important that using a number as a guide I think.


 
How to load the binding and fabric

Open up the lower wheel to move the guide over to the right hand side. This allows the upper and lower piece of the ‘jaws' to open up more easily. Now at this point, some tutorials I have read suggest feeding in your binding first and you can certainly try this and see if you get on OK that way.

Binding first method. Feed in the binding tape with the open edge on the left and the fold on the right. Separate the open edges and slide both the top and bottom edges inside the little tabs on the left of the jaws. This is how it should look with the fabric top and bottom separated and held by the little plastic guides.



Adjust that bottom wheel until the guide now moves over snugly to the folded edge of the binding so that the binding is held in place smoothly between the left and right edges, but without puckering.



Now open up the jaws with your fingers and slide in the item/fabric/garment/quilt to be bound. Push the edge right up to the fold of the binding. Slip the foot and binding up to the start of the edge to be bound. You are all set to sew.



Whole sandwich method. I found this one easier personally, so try each and see which you prefer. This time instead of loading the binding first and then the fabric after, I pinned the binding to the fabric and loaded it into the foot all in one go. Move the guide over to the right so you can open up the jaws easily. Near to the start of where you want to sew, pin or clip the binding to the fabric/quilt as if it were ready to sew, with a gap of 3 or 4 inches between your pins.



Now slide the foot in place around the whole sandwich, between those pins, and position the edges of the binding in the little guides on the left. Make sure the front and the back are lying in the guides smoothly.



Turn the lower wheel to move the right hand guide snugly up against the fold of the binding. It's all now in place and ready to sew. Remove the top pin, slide the foot back to where you want to start sewing and you are all set. Remove the lower pin as you sew.

I found this way less fiddly by loading the whole sandwich at once.


 
Stitching

If you have a machine with an adjustable needle – easy! Clip on the foot to your machine and adjust your needle to exactly where you want to stitch your binding. Pick right on the edge, or just back from the edge to be extra safe you won't miss a spot on the back.

If you don't have an adjustable needle position, then you will use the little screw at the top, loosen the foot and then slide it so that the needle position is lined up just right so sew along the edge of the binding. Then tighten the screw again.



Just manually drop your needle down into the fabric to check you are happy with the placement. Assuming you are, then you are ready to sew. Your foot may be pretty flat or it might be like mine. With my binding foot, the front plastic part is at an upward angle as it faces me. The presser foot itself is of course flat against the bed of the machine and the feed dogs, but in order to feed my sandwich into the foot, it worked best for me to hold it up at a slight angle to feed in.



Now just sew merrily along, make sure the binding stays in the little guides and that the fabric or quilt in between the binding stays butted up close to the fold and let the foot and the machine take care of the rest. What do you get? Perfectly sewn binding front and back, a perfectly straight line of stitching, and no missed bits when you turn it over – genius!





So if it drives you crazy when sewing on binding, that you turn it over and find you missed the back in a couple of spots, make your sewing life easier with one of these binding feet. Get it in the super-set of presser feet above, like I did or you can of course buy them separately too.

credit: so-sew-easy.com

How to Use the Pintuck Foot | Tutorial

 

I've been learning more about the different sewing machine feet in my mega-box of presser feet that I bought. This week, the pintuck foot has been intriguing and delighting me. Accurate sewing has never been a strong-point of mine so the prospect of sewing lines and lines of neat and accurate little pin tucks – well, that would fill me with horror!



Bring it on now that I have the pintuck foot. Accurate and straight sewing has never been easier with this simple addition to the machine. Often seen in heirloom sewing mixed in with other decorative stitching, pin tucks are pretty and give dimension and structure to your sewing. They can be used purely as a decorative addition, but with some clever thinking they can also be used to give shaping to garments in place of pleats and darts too. Imagine a nice crisp white cotton shirt pulled in at the waist with an evenly spaced row of neat pin tucks – adorable. I had a shirt just like it back in the 90's! Maybe I could recreate that now I've been practising.

All about the pintuck foot
 
The pintuck foot has evenly spaced grooves on the bottom and is designed to be used in conjunction with a twin needle to create evenly spaced raised tucks of fabric. Typically found with 3, 5, 7 or 9 grooves on the bottom, the feet vary according to the weight of the fabric being sewn. Usually the finer the fabric, the smaller the pin tucks and the more grooves you would have on the bottom of the foot to accommodate that.



You can make both corded and un-corded pin tucks. With the corded pin tucks, a thin cord is sewn into the tuck to give it more dimension. Usually you will use a separate attachment or a special bobbin cover to exactly line up the cord with the twin needle as you sew and then the cord is caught by the zig-zag of the bobbin thread on the reverse side. I'll just be making the un-corded pin tucks today.
 
Choosing your double needle

First I recommend that you check out the earlier article about how to sew with a twin needle. This will give you plenty of tips on threading the machine and the needles. Hint – get yourself a good needle threader because your automatic threader on the machine won't work with a twin needle.



Now you need to match the size of the needle to the size of the pintuck foot. You can generally get twin needles any where from size 1.6 to 6.0, which is the distance in millimeters between the points. The needle has to match the foot, so the more grooves you have the smaller the needle distance needs to be because the needles have to match the grooves in the foot.



See how the needles here lie along the grooves in the foot I'm using. If the distance between the grooves matches the distance between the needles, you have a good match.

Twin needle sizes (being the distance between the needle points in mm)

1.6 (use with 9 groove foot)
2.0 (use with 7 groove foot)
2.5, or 3.0 (use with 5 groove foot)
4.0 (use with 3 groove foot).

Use these needle sizes as a guideline as some feet might vary. Always test your needle again the grooves before sewing.
 
Setting your tension

If you have ever used a twin needle to create a hem on a knit garment, then you'll probably have realised that setting a higher tension causes the fabric to ‘tunnel' between the needles and lift up off the surface of the fabric. On a garment hemline you don't want that to happen and so will usually loosen the tension to make the double line of stitching lie nice and flat. When using a pin tuck foot you DO want that to happen to give your tucks lift off the surface of the fabric. How much lift is up to you. The higher you set your tension the higher the lift in the pin tuck.

I tried 3 different tension settings, and of course all machines will vary so you'll need to experiment to see what works best for you. The set of pin tucks at the higher 6.0 tension brought the fabric in more and created more height in the tuck, but when I went really high to 7.5 it actually bunched up too much and caused puckers so dropping it back to 6.0 gave the best result for me. In contrast, leaving it at the regular 4.0 tension made them pretty flat and it was hard to exactly follow the previous tuck so those came out a little uneven.



Use some scraps of fabric and be prepared to try out different settings to see which gives you the neatest finish and the best dimension without over-puckering.
 
How to sew with the pintuck foot

Starting out with a nice straight line is going to be key to making all the other lines straight too. Use your favorite marking tool and draw your starting line. It will need to be on the right side of your fabric so you can follow it, so make sure it's a marker that will wash out/erase with heat/water etc. You can add your pin tucks in either direction so it's up to you if you start your first tuck in the center or at one edge.



TIP – creating pin tucks will pull in and shrink up your fabric. Therefore give yourself plenty of space and create your pin tucks before cutting your fabric to size for your garment or project.

Add and thread your twin needle and snap on your pintuck foot. Best to test your tension on a scrap of fabric first to make sure you get the size of tuck you are looking for. When you are ready to go, simply drop the foot and follow the line you created, keeping it centered though the middle of the foot and between the needles. Ta dah – magic, one beautiful pin tuck completed.



Now decide on your spacing. You can have your pin tucks spaced right next to each other or you can use the grooves in the bottom of the foot to space them further apart. If you want them closely spaced, then move your fabric over just slightly, left or right, until the tuck you just sewed is now directly in line with the next groove. Follow that line as you sew the next tuck, keeping the groove in the foot nicely following along that pin tuck and there you have it – beautifully even pin tucks.

 

Follow that line as you sew the next tuck, keeping the groove in the foot nicely following along that pin tuck and there you have it – beautifully even pin tucks.



Just keep repeating these steps, moving across the fabric, following the previous tuck, and sewing a new one, until you have the number that you want. For some reason, as in nature, an odd number of tucks always seems to be a little more balanced so go for 3, 5, 7 or 9 for best results.

If you want them spread further apart, then the process is exactly the same but instead of following the closest groove, skip one or two and keep the original tuck in that further groove – your next tucks are now further apart and you can leave them like that or go for the heirloom look with the embroidery in the channels.



In this example, I've made a very pretty but subtle decoration by spacing the pin tucks widely and then adding a line of decorative stitching down the center. You can still use your pin tucks foot at this stage to make sure your decorative stitching is running directly down the center, or switch to your regular foot.



Pin tucks have always been a more traditional and subtle way to add shaping, definition and decoration to your projects. They are usually sewn as in these examples with a thread in a similar color to the underlying fabrics. For more definition or perhaps a more modern look, consider using contrasting threads, and maybe even a line of decorative beadwork on sequins to break up the tucks.

credit: so-sew-easy.com

DIY Tutorial | Upcycle Old Jeans Into A Beautiful Zippered Bag

You already know our answer to what you should do with your old jeans. Therefore, here is another DIY suggestion: the jeans bag. This bag can be used when going to the gym or for your city escape weekends.

Check out the images below to find the steps on how to create the beautiful bag. There are also some directions for making it, but in Russian (–>Instructions).

Note: Pay attention to reinforce the bottom of the bag and the handles. The only difficult part may be the sewing of the zipper. So, keep in mind: if it is not perfect at your first try, do not give up! Have fun!

DIY Toddler Chef Costume Ideas

The other day I shared this Cupcake costume with you all! You may not have realized that the little lady was a twin! I had to throw something together for her brother right?? I decided to make him a chef costume and it turned out perfect! Here are a few chef costume ideas for you to make your own!



DIY TODDLER CHEF COSTUME IDEAS

This post may contain affiliate links. You never pay more but I may receive a small fee which helps with the upkeep of this site.
 
SUPPLIES:
1 Fat Quarter for apron and 1 Fat Quarter for hat (white or with a pattern.)
2″ of 1″ Elastic
18-20″ and 10-20″ of 1.5″ grosgrain ribbon.

INSTRUCTIONS:
 
CHEF HAT:

The first step is to measure the circumference around your little one’s head. This little man has a head circumference of about 19″. I cut my ribbon to be 18″and then sewed each edge under 1/4″. Next attach the elastic to one of the edges of the ribbon and then to the other to make yourself a big circle, as you can see below.



Now take the circle you just made and lay it out on one of your fat quarters. Draw a circle about 6″ out from the circle all the way around, obviously as you can see from my picture precision is not crucial!!



Now cut 3″ in on one spot.



Fold the sides in and sew them under (pictured below.) 

 

Pin the two sides of the slit to either side of the elastic, as I have done below. This should be on the wrong side of the ribbon, the inside.

 

Now take the whole thing to your sewing machine. There are two options. You could skip the step where you pin the circle to the ribbon and sew a gather stitch around the bottom of the circle. Then pull the stitch until you have a piece that is the same measurement as the ribbon circle.

OR you could be lazy like I am and just start sewing and gather as you go! This makes for a few more gathers in some areas and a few less in some. But I am completely and totally ok with that!

 

Ta da you have a finished hat! It is really actually super simple!!


 
CHEF APRON:

The apron is also really simple! Cut a fat quarter to be about the same width as the front of your kiddo. You can trim the length too if a fat quarter is too long, I made this one go from the chest bone to knee.

Fold the top two corners in and sew in place to create that apron shape. Then sew all the edges under by 1/4″ to keep from having raw edges. The last step is to add a ribbon connecting the top two corners, this will go over the head and keep the apron in place. Last add a ribbon on either side to tie around the back. Super quick and simple!


 
ROLLING PIN:

The last of the chef costume ideas I have for you is to create a cute little rolling pin. I used one of the rectangles of felt that you can get at the craft store. Cut a few inches off the length. Then using hot glue roll it into a tube and hot glue in place. Stuff it with stuffing or use newspaper or scrap fabric, whatever you have lying around.

Then hot glue the ends to the left over felt from when you trimmed it. Trim the edges and hot glue them down. I folded up some more felt into little tiny handles for the rolling pin and glued some of the sprinkles from the cupcake costume to finish the look.

Now this guy is 

ready to hit the streets for some trick or treating!

DIY Tutorial | How To Sew On Buttons by Machine

Buttons are the perfect finishing accent to so many projects. Not to mention the fact they are also a very functional closure. But if you have to sew on a lot of by hand, you might think twice about using them. I personally find sewing buttons by hand tedious, time-consuming, and I can sometimes have trouble getting them to look perfectly uniform. Sew4Home exclusive sewing machine sponsor, Janome America has come to our (and your) rescue. There's an easy method for sewing on buttons by machine. You can be sure they're securely attached, perfectly aligned, and once you've done one, your machine can use the same settings for multiple buttons of the same size.



For this demonstration, we're using the Janome Horizon Memory Craft 15000 machine, which has some nifty automatic button-sewing features. But these same general instructions should work with any machine that can perform a zig zag stitch with the feed dogs lowered.



If you want your stitches to blend in, choose a thread that's the same color as your button. If you'd like a nice contrast, choose thread that's the same color as your fabric. Or if your fabric has multiple colors, pick the one you'd most like to bring out. Here at Sew4Home, we sometimes use a contrasting color for button stitching (as well as the buttonhole) because it acts as a subtle accent.


 
We recommend a button sewing foot

It's a foot that's been specially designed to hold your button still while your machine stitches it down. Janome's Button Sewing Foot has a rubber coating to help keep the button from slipping.



The foot attaches to the machine ankle in two places to prevent it from rocking back and forth. Most manufacturers should have something similar.



If you absolutely have to sew on a button without a button sewing foot, you can remove the presser foot on your machine and use just the ankle of your machine to hold the button down. Or, you can hold the button down with an Open Toe Satin Stitch foot or similar, but you'll need to tuck some fabric under the back of the foot to keep it from rocking.
 
Set up your project

• Using a fabric pencil, mark on your fabric where you want the button. Place your button on the fabric and then tape it down with a piece of clear tape. You can sew right over the tape and it will easily pull off when you're done. 

 

• Lower your feed dogs. Depending on your sewing level, "feed dogs" might be a foreign term. These are the "teeth" that push your fabric across the needle plate. They are located directly under the needle. In the photo below, you see the presser foot removed and the feed dogs lowered.

 

• You need to lower the feed dogs so the machine doesn't try to feed the button across the plate, and so the needle can stitch over and over in one location. The feed dogs on the Memory Craft 15000 lower automatically when you choose the button sewing function. Check your manual to see how lowering is done on your machine.

• Attach a button sewing foot. The Janome Button Sewing foot hooks onto our MC15000 at the back of the ankle then clicks into place like a regular snap-on foot. Check your manual for how to attach your machine's button sewing foot.

 

• Choose your button sewing stitch. Your machine may even have a stitch just for sewing on buttons. If so, select that. If not, you can use a zig zag stitch. Just set the stitch length to 0.

• Position your button under the foot so the needle will come down in the left hole of the button. Lower the foot to hold the button in place. Then hand crank the machine so the needle comes down, ensuring it's going through the middle of the left hole. You may need to lift the presser foot and move the button slightly for better alignment.

 

• Continue to hand crank the machine so the needle goes back up then comes down in the right hole. You can adjust this drop position by adjusting the stitch width. Just remember that any change in stitch width will apply to both swings of the needle, so you will need hand crank up and down again to test that your left hole position is still correct.

 

• When your needle hits the middle of each hole on the button, you're ready for stitching.

• Slowly sew 8 or 9 stitches. Our MC15000 does this number of stitches automatically. 

 

• Raise the presser foot and slide your button and fabric out. Snip the the top and bottom thread tails, leaving at least 4" of thread. The tails will be coming out across the top of the button. Remove the clear tape.

 

• Using a hand sewing needle, pull your thread tails through the button so they are directly under the button but still on the top of the fabric. Wrap the tails a few times around the stitches you just made (just as you would do when hand stitching a button in place). This will form a nice "shank" for the button.

 

• Then insert the needle through to the back of the fabric, right alongside the stitching, and tie the two thread tails into a knot. Double or triple the knot for security. Trim the tails close to the knot. 

 

• And now you've sewn on a button. As you repeat the process, it will go much more quickly.

 
For buttons with four holes

If your button has four holes, simply move the button forward slightly, and repeat the process for the second set of holes.

You can decide if the stitches in your four-hole button look better parallel or crossing. If you'd like a crossed or "X" effect, you will need to reposition your button at the appropriate angle.

Our thanks again to Janome America for helping us give you the information you need to keep your sewing machine running at its best. For more about Janome machines, accessories and projects, visit them online or follow them on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube


We also thank the helpful ladies at Paramount Sewing & Vacuum in Eugene, Oregon for walking us through this demo, and explaining the great tip about taping down the button.

credit: www.sew4home.com