The Best of Sewing with Nancy

If you enjoy the first release of a movie nine chances out of ten, you'll like the sequel. That's what I'm counting on happening with "Fancy Footworks 2." Over six years ago, the first release of this not ready for the big screen series aired. The response was extremely positive. Starting with this episode I'll showcase additional presser feet. The first feature is the invisible zipper foot. It was designed to do one thing and do that well namely, use it to insert an invisible zipper. I'd like to show you how. "Fancy Footworks 2" that's what's coming up next on Sewing with Nancy. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest-airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman

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Baby Lock, a complete line of sewing, quilting, and embroidery machines and sergers. Baby Lock, for the love of sewing. Madeira, specializing in embroidery, quilting, and special effect threads because creativity is never black and white. Koala Studios fine sewing furniture custom-built in America. Clover making a difference in sewing, quilting, crafting, and needle arts for over 90 years. Fuller Brush Vacuums, dedicated to keeping homes clean. Fuller Brush Vacuums. Amazing Designs and Klass needles. Recently in my blog I asked the question "What would you like to learn most on Sewing with Nancy?" To my great surprise, the number one request was how to insert an invisible zipper. So, your wish is true! With this zipper all you see is the tab of the specialty zipper and the tape is enclosed within the seam. In order to do this, you need to buy a specialty foot and the zipper. Let's look at the foot. The foot goes along the zipper. It has special rollers in the front. It has various shanks that can slide onto the base in comparison to a traditional zipper foot. With a traditional zipper foot you cannot stitch close enough to the coil of the invisible zipper. This is a different zipper type, in addition to the foot because it has a coil, you can't see the teeth. Here is the zipper itself. What we're going to do first is an unusual step for a zipper process. That is to press the coil flat from the wrong side. You want it flat so that you will not get a sneak preview of the zipper coil underneath. We're going to press that flat. At the sewing machine I have one-half of what's going to be a skirt sample. This is the right side of the skirt. I have marked the seam allowance 5/8". I marked it down the edge with a light chalk mark. I have not sewn the seam. Below the zipper, the seam has not been sewn. Here is the right side of the skirt and the right side of the zipper. You flip it, so you have right sides together. Align the pressed out coil to the 5/8" line. If you did not press it flat you're not going to be able to sew right in this edge. Let me get this lined up. The roller portion of the foot is going to scroll right down this little coil. You can do some pinning. I'm just going to hold it in place. As I'm stitching I'm going to stitch so that the coil the zipper foot is stitching right in that area. You can do a little testing, like I just did and now just sew. Notice how that roller section is guiding right next to the coil. It takes a little time to stitch it down and match that 5/8" seam allowance. I'm sewing to the end. Obviously, we're going to have a road block in this area. I'm just going to use my stiletto to flatten this out and stitch as close as I can to the stopping point, and then cut the thread. After you've sewn one half then bring the other half of your skirt, your pants, whatever you're creating. Meet right sides together. This is right sides together. You want to make sure you're starting at the same point. I'm starting at about 1/8" from the top. Sink the foot to make sure that I'm sewing in the right spot. Flatten out the coil and stitch. Let that zipper foot run right down the pressed coil. Again, I'm going to get to a road block where all these seams come together. Stitch to the point, and clip. Now we'll see how we did. When I raise this up I'll be zipping the zipper. Let me just zip it up for you. We should have an invisible zipper. But, the seam has not been sewn at the bottom edge. We're going to meet the seams right sides together like we normally would. Luckily, my seams match pretty well even though I'm talking and sewing at the same time! I can use the same foot. That's the nice part about it. I'm going to slide the foot to the left. So that as I'm stitching the needle will go along the right side of the foot. I'll guide this along the 5/8" seam allowance. If I did my sewing correctly, as I'm reaching... reaching to this point because I don't have a foot in the way I can sew right next to my original stitching. Cut the threads, and we'll see how I did. I have to admit, sewing and talking are not always the right combination but as I pull this to the right side you'll see there's a little chalk mark but everything meets in this area. I'm working on silk dupioni and it would need a little press. But notice that with just three rows of stitching I have a zipper that is enclosed in the seam. You can't see the zipper tape. It's one continuous seam. A great technique of combining the unique zipper foot the invisible zipper foot, and the specialty zipper. For smooth sailing over varied thicknesses of fabrics stitching nap fabrics, or sewing on tacky surfaces the roller foot is your choice. Next on "Fancy Footworks 2" we're going to take a close-up look at this specialty foot that's been around a long time. Sometimes it comes along with your sewing machine. It may have metal rollers. It may have plastic rollers. Regardless, there are two sets. One near the toes of the foot and near the back, spilt into two. It's a little easier to see on this version with the metal rollers. The purpose of this, as I put it on the top of my machine is that the bottom of the foot does not ride on the fabric rather, just the rollers. So if you have a tacky surface if you have a nap fabric you're not going to have as much friction. It will sew so much more readily. We made this trim and thread "pizza." Many times, we use this for embellishment. This is just a small sample. There's a lot of varieties of thicknesses because we have thread, fabric, trim. It's kind of a fun embellishment. When creating the sandwich for this trim I like to use a wash-away. On a base fabric, I have-- I have the base fabric and lots of extra thread. If you have an embroidery machine and you have lots of thread clippings you may want to keep a little bag by the side of the machine. It could come in handy for this trim and thread pizza. We also put some suede and trim. Just like you're making a pizza, you'd add some dried "tomatoes" and you'd add some- I like anchovies on my pizza, so we'd some of those and then some cheese. Then you can cover it with the wash-away stabilizer and then pin the layers together. Another option would be to cover the top with clear vinyl. Then you wouldn't have to wash this away later on. This is the option we're going to show you now of dissolving this after we do the stitching. Speaking of stitching, the setting is pretty simple. We're going to set the machine for a zigzag stitch. A wide width would work out well. A length of "1" or "2", you can do some settings. Test out some settings. Then use a universal, or a sharp, needle. If you're going through lots of thicknesses consider a sharp needle. The roller foot on this tacky surface of the wash-away and the varied thicknesses that we have you just do zigzag stitching. Just stitch, it's kind of random. You don't certainly have to follow-- Maybe I should take out this pin. Here we go. You don't have to follow any pattern. You're just tacking down all the surfaces. Because later on, we're going to be dissolving this-- Look, as I go over a lot of thicknesses it just rides over that area. We can simply just fill in the blanks. You want to have a lot of a gridded or random surface It's kind of mindless sewing, just fill it in. I'm kind of going in a circle. You don't necessarily have to do that. You can just see, and have fun with this. I'll just do some more turning. After you've done lots of the stitching and you think that you have nice coverage of your stitching then you're going to look at how we have it here. We have lots of stitching, lots of layers. Then you can dip it in water, soak it in water and the top layer will come off. After the saturation you have to kind of work that wash-away stabilizer away. It's cornstarch based, so you don't have to worry about it having any ill effects on your fabric or the water. That will dissolve, and you'll have this pizza. An embellishment, but you're using the roller foot to easily go over the tacky surface of the wash-away. Or, if you'd like to have vinyl on the top to make a permanent cover on the top. The varied thicknesses that you have can easily be accomplished by letting the rollers of the foot easily glide over the fabric. Make the edges of a seam meet perfectly or quilt multiple layers without shifting by using a walking foot. It's hard working presser foot that most sewing and quilting enthusiasts shouldn't be without. When sewing multiple layers together, as in a quilt this small little sample shows the top layer. It has batting and backing. Often, the sides edges aren't even because of shifting. Why the shifting? Well, with a traditional presser foot it pushes the top layer. The feed dogs bite the lower layer and then the top layer becomes longer. With the walking foot, there are special designs incorporated in this foot that help prevent the shifting. This is an unusual foot. It has lots of features to it. We'll take each feature one by one. First of all there's a C-clamp. This C-clamp, you'll see later, fits around the needle bar. As the needle goes up and down then you see the unique grip pad on the foot that goes through the opening of the foot. I kind of feel like I'm working with a little boy's toy here! It's fun to see that on this grip pad when the needle's in the raised position the fabric's being held down by this pad that has a textured underneath surface. It's kind of fun to watch how this works on your machine. It fits on with a low shank. You can get it in low shank, and sometimes high shank. It may come with your machine. You may buy it separately. It all depends upon what's included in your accessory box. Then there's a third part of it. This guide bar along the side will make it easier for you to sew equidistance between rows if you're doing machine quilting let's say for a baby blanket. Honestly, the hardest part about working with a walking foot is getting it on your machine. I find it easiest to completely remove the screw that attaches the foot to the machine so that you can place the C-clamp over the needle bar. I have my walking foot on my machine and the C-clamp is black. You see it clamping over that needle bar where you'd remove the needle. Then of course, I have the guide bar on the side. There are two times when I use this. When I have heavily napped fabrics such as corduroy or velveteen. When I work with this, just lower the presser foot. I have a straight stitch. You don't have to do a lot of pinning. As I'm sewing, look at what happens. Look at the those pads. When the needle is down they're raised so it can advance. Now it holds it flat. So it prevents the shifting that takes place with the traditional mechanism when sewing. Obviously, I'm going to have even lengths of my top layer and bottom layer as I do this. When you incorporate three layers batting, top and backing-- this is a small sample-- but to a quilt you're going to pin your layers together then mark a 45-degree angle. I prefer marking a 45-degree angle on my fabric. Then, if I'd like to have my rows about an 1-1/4" apart I'll tighten the screw so that the guide can easily be positioned at the same mark. Then just stitch. It's just straight stitching. The foot does the work for you. It prevents all these layers from shifting uneven distances. Now for my next row, I simply guide the bar next to the first stitch and see if I can sew straight. It's not difficult, and you get the general idea. The foot does the work for you. Just like tools for carpentry plumbing or any other interesting type of process we have the same kind of processes, or help, by working with specialty feet. When your working with a walking foot it helps all the layers to have equal distances when you've finished the stitching. When a satin edge or an appliqud edge is on your sewing agenda use the satin edge foot. Designed with an even zigzag stitch in mind this specialty foot provides a uniform stitch ideal for finishing edges. Not all of us have sergers. If you would like a finished edge this satin edge foot is ideal for getting that heavy concentration of thread on an edge without puckering. We've used chiffon. You can use organdy or cotton fabrics. It really doesn't matter because this foot will help you achieve it. It comes in a package with multiple shanks for the foot. You'll have to find which shank best fits your foot. Do use the shank that comes with the machine rather than snapping it onto the machine. The reason is that this is a little bit more secure. I found out the hard way! Use the shank that comes with the package. When working with this I want you to look at two details. Mainly, the metal pin. That will be the key for the stitches to have a uniform look. The zigzag stitch will stitch over the metal pin so the stitches are formed on that pin. Regardless of the weight of your fabric it's not going to pucker. The pin can be adjusted as well as with the guide bar by turning the screw on the side. You can get it further away you can get a wider or narrower zigzag stitch. Again, a lot of testing is needed. You're going to attach this to your sewing machine and then set your machine for a zigzag stitch. As we look at my screen the width that I have set is at "3" and the length at "1". Again, testing will be needed. A relatively short stitch length a relatively medium-to-wide width zigzag. Then use an embroidery needle because I'm using rayon thread for this particular fabric. Match the needle with the thread. Now when you set this on your machine you're going to have to turn the wheel by hand a couple times to make certain that the needle straddles that metal pin. You may want to adjust this depending on where you have your stitch set. Then fold the fabric, I've folded the fabric in half goes next to the guide bar. The shorter stitch length I'm just stitching, over the pin. As I'm stitching, it just guides. We purposely chose light-weight fabric. I realize you can't see it just yet but you will, after I do some stitching. Light-weight fabric like this, with a traditional zigzag would make a wavy edge, or perhaps a puckery edge. But not in this instance. As I lift this up, I'm going to show you what it looks like. You have a very fine edge. It's really evenly stitched. You can see what a nice look that is. I could even have the stitch wider or closer together. I like that finished edge. You may not always want to have two layers of fabric and a finished edge. Napkins, this would be an ideal stitch and way of finishing napkins, with a satin edge. You may not like to have two layers. This small, little sample shows the satin edge stitch and then we've pressed under about a 1/2", prior to doing the stitching. Then trim away the excess fabric. You can trim it away using a beveling technique. Beveling just means to have your scissors and the fabric at the same plane. By guiding the edge of the scissors regardless if it's curved or not you can cut right next to the stitch. If you cut in the normal section you'll get a distance. You'll get a little extra fabric. Guiding it and beveling it, you'll have a nice finish. So the trick is to use a satin stitch stitching over the metal pin and guiding the fabric right next to the edge. You can make the stitch close together or slightly narrow, as I have on this sample. You're the designer, you're the sewer. Make the foot work to your best advantage. We sew because we like the process. We sew because we like the end result. And, we sew because on occasion, we sew to honor special people in our lives. Today's Nancy's Corner guest created a gift of a quilt that crossed decades using military uniforms as the fabric to honor military service. I'd like to introduce you to Cathy Ott. Cathy is a retired U.S. Army Reserve Major and has made a very special quilt. Welcome to Sewing with Nancy, Cathy. Thanks for inviting me today, Nancy. I had to ask you to be my guest when I read about this quilt because you made it for a special person. Yes, I did. I made it for my daughter's boyfriend, Zach Radtke. He is a specialist in the United States Army Reserve and is stationed at the 377th Maintenance Company in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. You have many uniforms in here as the fabric. Yes, there are five different uniforms in the quilt. They start with uniforms that I wore when I was in the military. Three of the different squares or different types of uniforms have the O.D. fabric in them. One was one of the first original O.D. fabrics which required a lot of ironing in order to keep it straight. Then was the permanent press uniform. Then the third O.D. green one is the uniform that was worn in Vietnam which was much more light-weight. So things have changed since that era and that decade in both the feeling of the military and the uniforms, as well. Yes, it has. They have patterns in their uniforms now. I was fortunate enough to wear the B.D.U. with the forest camouflage in it. Today, Zach wears a uniform that has a digital pattern to it. You can see that in the lower panel here. You incorporated many interesting batiks the brown and the black. It really makes the green stand out. Thank you. It's really a nice combination. Lights, mediums and darks whether you use military fabrics or if you use traditional fabric. The part that I find fascinating as well is the border. We'll show you the border next. We've recycled on Sewing with Nancy many times. This is another way of recycling. This bottom panel is part of one of the newer uniforms. It has on it, one of the pockets from the actual uniform itself. It has the Velcro on it where you can stick patches such as the names. You can put them on and take them off. It also has his rank on here. It has all of his ranks since he's been in the military. You put more patches. His unit patch is over on this side. He can add more patches as he gets into more units. You signed your quilt with a cuff. I like this. Yes, on the back is the cuff from one of my uniforms with my rank on it. Cathy told me that the tricky part was cutting the uniforms not necessarily the geometric shape but making that first snip. Exactly. Exactly, cutting into a uniform that I'd taken so much care for was hard. You're used to pressing and maintaining it, and now you were cutting it up. Yes. Good job making that first cut. This is very charming, has a great story to tell and the reason you made it is because? I made it for Zach so that if he gets called up or gets deployed he has something from home to take with him that he can curl up into his duffle bag. It's small enough, compact enough so that it could fit in, and he could carry it. Oh, it's great. It's machine quilted with variegated thread. It's quite compact and it's heavy because some of the fabrics in here are not the traditional weight of cottons. Correct. It will keep someone warm and comfortable. What a work of love that you put in this. Cathy, thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me come today. You're very welcome. If you'd like to learn more about Cathy and other guests on Sewing with Nancy and anything Sewing with Nancy you can go to NancyZieman.com where you can watch 52 of the most current Sewing With Nancy programs online. At the bottom of the page you'll find an area that says "Nancy's Corner," just click on that and you will be able to find out information about all our guests for this section of the program. You can also sign up for our blog and other social marketing areas. I hope you've enjoyed this first program of the series. We'll be back with the conclusion of the program. Thanks for joining us. Bye for now. Discover how to save time, plus simplify your sewing and quilting with specialty presser feet. Find the techniques for the feet featured in this series, plus more in the "Ultimate Fancy Footwork" book, compiled from books written by Nancy. The book is $24.99, plus shipping and handling, plus DVD. To order this book, call 1-800-336-8373

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sewingwithnancy.com/3007 Order item number NNUFFBK, "Ultimate Fancy Footwork." Credit card orders only. Visit Nancy's website at NancyZieman.com to see additional episodes, Nancy's blog, and more. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest-airing sewing and quilting program

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