Sewing With Nancy

My first job after college was teaching at a fabric chain store in Chicago setting up 20 folding chairs in the middle of the store 15 minutes prior to the demonstration was my classroom. Since then, I've taught in almost every possible venue with my TV studio being my favorite classroom. Over the years, I've tweaked and personalized common techniques. They've been gathered and published in the "A to Z" reference. I'd like to share with you a sampling of these techniques. I hope you'll enjoy "Sewing A to Z." 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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Reach into your wastepaper basket, find a scrap of fabric maybe fold it in half so you have two thicknesses of medium weight fabric and start to sew into this fabric. When working on the sheer fabric I double check my needle because that could also solve the problem. I use a size "70" a universal needle. It's a very fine needle. Perhaps a "60" if the fabric is was very fine. And then, start to stitch into the anchor cloth. And as you get to the edge of the fabric then simply butt or kiss the fabric next to the anchor cloth and sew from one to the other. And as you might guess, when you reach the end you're just going to clip off the anchor. Just like a boat anchor you're going to release it. And there you have your seam, and it's nice and flat. If you'd like to start sewing with a little shorter stitch length that might be a great idea. Replace the area back stitching, or reverse stitching. Knits are another fabric that sometimes need a little help with an anchor. When working with a stretch knit fabric as I'm going to do right now. I often like to work with a wobble stitch. We're going to talk about knit seams later on in this series but I'll set my machine for a zigzag stitch. And rather than have this wide stitch I'm going to shorten it to a 0.5 or 1.0. The length, I like to increase to 0.5. Grab your anchor cloth, place it underneath the fabric start sewing into that area. And for a stretchy seam, a very slinky fabric you just simply easily go from one fabric to the other. A little side note. Notice how I pinned parallel when working with knit seams. And after cutting the threads, you get the picture. You're going to remove the anchor just by a clip. That's our first sewing tip of "Sewing A to Z." B is for belt loops. They're easy to make with your serger or your sewing machine. When working with your serger, you can make great belt loops. Or truthfully, I use this technique more to make trim. This is a cover stitch belt loop. You can see on the underside, the cover stitch. There are three threads. Or, you can use two threads as I have done in this belt loop. To work with this on your serger make sure it can work with a cover stitch or a chain stitch. I have my machine set up for three threads and a cover stitch. You can see the serger cones. And then, for the cover stitch, there's a fourth thread. Or, if you just want to use two needles then simply use the left and the right needle not the center needle. Follow your instructions. I always reference my guide for setting up for a cover stitch because it seems I don't always remember the steps. So, work with a two-thread or a three-thread cover stitch. Follow the directions. Then, on the plate of the cover stitch which covers the blade area you'll be able to attach a belt loop maker. It's a terrific little guide. It fits in the two screw areas. You align it. It adjusts, and you align it so it goes down the center of the needles. I'll just tighten this. The tray that feeds the fabric is about one inch wide. The instructions will tell you exactly how wide to cut your fabric. This has been cut that width. Notice that the end has been shaped. You place, right sides up, the end through the guide. Pass it through a little bit and just start to serge. Keep on serging. As it serges, that's all you ave to do. You can kind of just use the presser control. You don't have to really guide he fabric because it comes out perfectly stitched with three parallel rows of stitching the cover stitch covering the raw edges. Trim on this side, belt loops on hat side. You have a lot of variety. But if you don't have serger you can certainly make belt loops in a very simple way. I have a quick little sample to how you. You can cut strips any size you'd like to make them perhaps starting off with 2 inches or 1-1/2 inches. Fold it in half and press meeting the raw edges on the side. Then, press the edges to the middle. Press each edge to the middle. On this sample, I've pressed the edges to the middle. The final stitch, just use your straight stitch and stitch down the edges. This is a wider belt loop. You could make a narrower belt loop using this pressing technique. Press in half, then press the edges to the middle is the fastest way and a great technique to add to your sewing repertoire. C is for cutting out patterns. Use these streamlined techniques whether you use a shears or a rotary cutter. If you do any garment sewing you've seen a layout such as this. The first thing that I do when working with pattern pieces is roughly layout the pieces. I don't always follow the pattern guide. I'm trying to make certain that all these fit within a certain area. Just roughly lay them out. I do tend to like to lay everything with, let's say, the shoulder all in one direction. In other words, one-way layout. It's just a sure thing to make sure things are even. I match the cut edges of the top. I don't necessarily use the pre-fold. Then, start placing. If there are any pattern pieces on the fold you can see in this particular piece I've laid it on the fold. Then, I pin at a diagonal. Pin to the corners. It makes it easier to cut with the pins at the corners. When placing a pattern on the grainline rather than measuring using a tape measure I like to use a quilting ruler, a 6" x 24" quilting ruler. It's wider, flatter easier to measure from the cut edge to the grainline to get the pattern piece on straight. It covers a big area so that you know that it is on the grainline. I put all pattern pieces on the grain or if they're on the fold, on the fold line. Then I pin the corners. Double check that area. It was straight. Then I would pin around in the corners. Pin at a diagonal. When cutting out, use a shears a long shears, or use a rotary cutter. If you're using a rotary cutter notice that I have a mat underneath. But with a shears, you can simply cut. I think you get the idea with this. If you have the mat, using a small blade, an 18mm-- This is a 28mm blade. You can simply cut all common areas. Then, after you've cut this out, and notice I don't always have all my pins in pace. But you cut all hemlines. Then you can cut right in the middle. You can start in the middle of the area, and cut around. After you've cut out your pattern pieces in this section you could gently move your mat out to accommodate the other pattern pieces. These are my favorite techniques. Speed and accuracy, as long as you place things on the grain you can easily cut them out. D is for double needles. If one needle is good, sometimes two can be even better. If you've never used a double or a twin needle I encourage you to give it a try. There are so many options for creative to functional, and very heirloom sewing techniques that can be accomplished with the use of one shank attached with two needles. You only need one bobbin. The bobbin will zigzag between the two threads and accommodate both. It works with either lightweight fabrics, to knits to heavyweight denim fabrics. The sizes of the denim needles are determined by the millimeter distance between the needles. This is a 6.0 double needle 4.0, 3.0, 2.0 and the finest is 1.6. If you're wondering where you use these various needles I'll give you some guidelines. The 6.0 needle probably has the greatest limitations. That's why I'm going to describe it first. Most feed dog areas have an opening to accommodate a 4mm width. The newer machines go to much wider, up to 8mm. So, make sure that you have a machine that can accommodate a 6.0mm opening. This will make a great needle to do decorative stitching using either the right or the wrong side of the stitch. The 4.0 and the 3.0, I often use for knits. You can also get the double needles in a stretch needle which the blue shows. The 2.0 and 1.6 are often used for heirloom sewing or lightweight fabrics. Regarding the thread, you'll need two spools of thread. I like to work with one thread-- One is unthreaded from the top and the second thread is feeding from the underside. The reason? When threading the threads through the machine I like to accommodate it as one. And by having them go in opposite directions they do not twist. I've pulled out the slack of the needles, closed the top lid. You can use just a straight stitch, obviously that would be what you'd need to work with. Just let it stitch. I'm going to use more of it as a decorative. Just do some scalloping. I have a 3.0. You can see just by turning, you could use it for hemming but it sews like a straight stitch because it is a double straight stitch. As I pull it off let me cut the threads. I will do many more meanderings of this stitch. You can see how easy it works. It's decorative. You'll see later in this series, it can be very functional. E is for easing seams. When one seam edge is longer than the other let the machine's feed dogs effortlessly ease the fabric as you stitch. You'll be surprised the number of times that you'll use this technique of easing letting the machine's feed dogs bite or gather the fabric. Always put the longer layer toward the feed dogs. Let me explain. In this pattern, we have princess style seams. The seams shape around the body. The dart or the shaping is incorporated within the seam. You'll see in a few minutes that one of the seam pieces is a little bit longer than the other. When I pin the front to the side front matching the notches above and below the area here is one area where it has a shape that's longer as it sticks out longer than the other area. You can kind of see the difference. Underneath, it's a little bit longer, like this. You can see it kind of gaps. Traditionally, in a pattern the instructions usually express to do directional stitching. I don't like directional stitching at all. Directional stitching means always sewing both sides, sewing from bottom to top. If you did that one side of your garment is going to be perfect. The other side is going to have puckers. I always sew with a longer layer toward the feed dog which means one time you'll be sewing let's say the left side, from the bottom to the top and the right side from the top to the bottom. But you will not have any puckers. I have this area pinned together. The area that's exposed I'm simply going to match those areas so that as I stitch they'll be matched together a little bit better. You'll see what happens. The longer layer, I'll put it toward the feed dog. And this time, I'm actually going to be stitching from the shoulder seam to the hem. But it's not going to matter. It'll be just a great seam.

Now we have a 1

1 ratio of the seam just stitching along. As I get to this area that has the easing notice how this longer layer sticks out. If you just kind of match the edges-- This pattern has half-inch seam allowances so that's why I'm working with this narrower seam width. I'll just work with it. Even though it was extending quite a bit longer as the machine stitches it just automatically eases everything into place. You'll be surprised how much fabric you can ease into an area. So, all the shape of that seam. You can see, on the underside it's a puckered a little bit because it's been eased into place. After pressing it open, as we have on this side everything has been neatly shaped and eased into place forming the great princess seam incorporating the dart without any puckers. F is for fabric tubes. I'll show you how one quick motion turns a tube right side out. Whether you're working with spaghetti straps or wide belts you can easily turn them right side out using your favorite notion. I like to use the turner that has the cylinder and the second part has a wire with a corkscrew end. The two go together along with the fabric. Sew a seam allowance for your fabric sewing the tubes together and sewing the end closed. If you have a very long tube leave an opening in the middle instead of at the end. Insert the cylinder inside the fabric and the wire inside the cylinder. The corkscrew comes out. Just turn it so it comes out the end. It's right in this area. Start to pull on the wire. You may want to slightly press the seam allowance open with your thumb as you're going down the cylinder. Just pull it. Now, half of this has been turned so go to the middle again. Insert the cylinder and repeat the process. Big or small, from very narrow to very large you can quickly turn tubes right side out. Obviously, what we'd have to do for this tube is to do a little pressing, work the end out. In the middle, there's an opening. A little hand sewing or just even a little touch of a fusible web could fuse that closed. But with one motion pulling out that wire you can turn it right side out effortlessly. It's one of my favorite "A to Z" sewing techniques. G is for gathers. Use this streamlined technique to gather any fabric. There are many ways that you can gather fabric. The technique that I'd like to share with you first of all is the very traditional technique. That is to sew two rows of stitches parallel with each other, maybe lengthened a little bit about at 1/2" and 3/8", give or take. You can just kind of guess. Then to gather, go to the wrong side and pull the bobbin threads. The bobbin threads always pull a little bit more readily than the top threads. But before you do the pulling you'll need to go to the top side again. Place a pin in the fabric and wrap around your threads so that you don't pull out one end as you're pulling on the other. You can certainly do this. This is the most traditional of all gathering techniques and I use it on occasion. But truth be told, it's not my favorite technique for gathering. I'd like to show you that technique next. That is gathering over the bobbin thread. If you're wondering how this is going to work we're going to be sewing one stitch in the fabric on the wrong side, not with a zigzag but with a straight stitch to begin with. Then we're going to grab the top thread. I have the top thread that I'm holding. Lower the presser foot and take one stitch. As I raise the presser foot, you can maybe see that I am pulling up through the fabric this darker purple thread. That is the bobbin thread. Pull this thread as long, or just a little bit longer than you're fabric. I'm going to raise the presser foot. Then also, to release the thread to make sure that the top and bobbin are the same length tuck it underneath the foot and twist these together. Then, lower the presser foot. This is going to be the thread you're going to stitch over zigzag over, to be specific. We're going to set the machine for a simple zigzag stitch Maybe widen it by one width. Do a little testing to see. We're sewing on the wrong or right side of the fabric, it doesn't really matter. Then just sew, zigzag over the threads. Now, you have two threads, so it's a little stronger than just gathering one thread. Because I'm using the bobbin thread and the top thread I'm not going to have any issues of pulling out the threads. I don't have to, at this end of the fabric-- I don't have to have a needle or pin there to wrap the threads around. Now I just go to the thread that I have stitched over and quickly gather. It is the most streamlined way of gathering. If you want really tight gathers shorten the length of the stitch so that the zigzag is closer together and they'll be just a little tighter. This is the width I normally use. That is my favorite and I think the easiest way to gather. "Quilt." The term itself means comfort. When sewn with love and given to a child suffering with a life threatening illness or to a child who is a victim of abuse the comfort of this quilt is exponential. I'd like you to welcome Bob Urquhart. Bob is the chapter director for Quilts for Kids the Illinois chapter. He is a champion for providing quilts to those who need them most. Bob, welcome. Thank you, Nancy, for having me and allowing me to be here. When I first met you and talked with you you told me that one of the first quilts you made was for Quilts for Kids. That's correct. I was starting on a quilt from your ombre quilting show but I decided that, after doing some research that Quilts for Kids was a charity that I wanted to become associated with. They had a two-fold mission. To make quilts for children who were seriously ill and to also help keep fabric out of landfills. A lot of fabric is dumped if it's not sold. So, Quilts for Kids would take donated fabric and make these quilts for children who were suffering usually from cancer or some form of abuse. They are fun. The four-patch is kind of the style that you encourage. Right, and it's a very easy pattern. The only block that is actually assembled by the quilter is the four patch. Everything for the quilt except the batting and the thread is provided in a pre-cut kit that we send, free of charge to anyone requesting them from our website. I think this is amazing. You get all the instructions. You've gathered the instructions. You have a little brochure, and you even have a label. Right. So that if you don't have the fabric at home in your stash you can certainly just find it through the website. We'll reference that a little bit later. The sizes, they're not that large. No, they're about 42" by 48". Those sizes, we found, are really good for children up to about age 8 or 9. We do ask, if quilters are more experienced and able to make a larger quilt, up to like a twin size because we do serve children up to 18 years old that are in the hospital. These are 100% cotton so that they can be laundered, and loved. and used. Right, and these aren't quilts to be just hung on a wall. They're meant to be used by kids, drug around. Comfort. Comfort, yes, that's correct. As an Illinois chapter, you have donated these quilts locally. Correct. We have donated our quilts to Children's Memorial Hospital to their oncology unit. They've requested approximately 50 quilts per month. It's a pretty big challenge. Yes, it is. If you're not in the Chicagoland area you will find on our website references to Bob's website of the Illinois chapter so you can work with your local chapter. But you give this great kit away. Right. That's so wonderful. That's what makes us kind of unique from other quilt organizations. You mentioned that one of the most heart-warming things or portions of your donation is to go to the hospital and present these quilts. Right. To see the child's face light up when they're receiving chemotherapy and they get one of these quilts is just an unbelievable experience. A couple weeks ago, right before Thanksgiving we went and donated quilts. It was just a truly memorable experience. The gift is always in the giving. That's correct. It definitely comes through the love that is put into the making of these quilts. You're a relatively new quilter. Oh, definitely, yes. Less than a year. Look what you have done! To prove that you were worthy of being the chapter director you made the first quilt, submitted it. Right, got it approved. But I think a lot has to go back to you because without your inspiration-- You're sweet. Bob, I thank you. I know that many of our viewers will be going to your website finding it out. If you'd like to find out more about this program

I'd like you to go to

NancyZieman.com and click on "Nancy's Corner." At Nancy's Corner, you will be directed right to the website for Quilts for Kids the Illinois chapter, and Bob's great work and all the others that are with it. Also at NancyZieman.com, you'll see additional episodes and you'll see my blog. There'll be a lot more information there. Thanks for being with us for this first program of "Sewing A to Z." Bye for now. Nancy has written a full-color, fully-illustrated book entitled Nancy Zieman's "Sewing A to Z" that includes all the information featured in this series. It's $19.99, plus shipping and handling. To order the book, call 1-800-336-8373

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