With a 4mm stitch with the tension loosened off......
My machine will do a 6mm long stitch and go up to 6mm wide (Husqvarna Platinum 770 - a very nearly TOL machine), I would still lossen the tension off for basting though.
My longest stitch is 4mm, and today [Monday] I took a basted-together blouse[1] apart in just a few minutes. I hadn't even loosened the top tension.
But my tension *does* need balancing.
Sometimes I baste with a double thread in the bobbin, which causes the bobbin thread to run straighter, and allows me to use more force in pulling on the thread without breaking it. This is mostly for easing and gathering, but I'll sometimes use the double-wound bobbin to overcast the raw edges of yard goods that I'm about to wash.
Joy Beeson
[1] it fits fine -- darts are still too high, but this style of dart *can't* be made low enough for an old lady; before using the sloper again, I shall rotate the shoulder darts into side-seam darts.
I'm quite pleased -- it's the first time I've drafted a bodice from measurements since 1965, and that time I didn't do the sleeves. And *this* time I didn't have decent directions. (I do wish I could remember more about the book I used in 1965 than that it was written in the forties, so I could find it again.)
Moreover, the cheap shirting I'm testing the pattern in doesn't look half bad.
Tuesday: I've got all the pieces attached together again. Now to design a collar and a skirt. I can modify my old collar pattern, and my Injoo Kim pants[2] are practically already a straight-skirt pattern.
[2]Threads 89, June-July 2000, note that the back draft is drawn *on top of* the front draft.
First to your basting stitch and gathering. Try sliding the fabric along the threads, rather than pulling the threads. My threads never break, but that's because I simply hold them taut, and slide the fabric.
Second, I understand about moving bust darts--I'm also old (67). This is a joke I heard or read recently.
An elderly lady asked her doctor where her heart was, exactly. The doctor replied that it was about two inches below her left nipple. The next day, the doctor was astounded to read in the paper that one of his patients (the elderly lady) had been taken to the hospital with a bullet in her knee, and a suicide note pinned to her dress.....
On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 15:27:30 GMT in alt.sewing, joy beeson wrote,
I have a spool of Guterman polyester upholstery thread. I swear you _cannot_ break it by pulling on it by hand (a sharp edge will go through it easily, though.) I would use that in the bobbin.
InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.