Ping Threads readers: have I missed anything?

Joy, I just glanced through the latest issue this weekend... nifty tricks in the issue were stuff I'm sure you've known longer than I, like a table of fiber properties, and how to make nice looking machined buttonholes.

Then there are the usual pattern reviews, most of which are for stuff I wouldn't wear, an article on slot seams (ho hum), wrap dress fitting (the hard way) and Joyce Murphy & Judy Barlup on "a new way to fit pants", which is what Joyce has been teaching for years. Oh, and plackets.

Kay

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This could be fun. What would you really want to see in Threads? How about: 1. How to get somebody else to cook dinner and clean up while you sew. 2. How to keep the phone and doorbell from ringing just as you get going. 3. How to have only 3 spools of thread and they always match and are 'just right' for the project at hand. Polly

Juno

Well, that one's easy: use only three different fabrics.

When I saw that the current issue has an article on bookbinding, I re-upped. I just wanted something besides *fashion*!

Some historical articles would be nice, too. (Even historical fashion would do, as long as they explain how the farthingales were made.)

I stumbled upon some neat historical sewing when it became apparent that I hadn't been oiling my treadle sewing machine properly. I tracked down

, and on page 26, right above the oiling instructions I was hunting for, there was a nifty way to make quick and easy buttonholes with your binding attachment. I also found that Gimp can extract an oiling diagram from a pdf file, but haven't quite mastered the trick of getting Gimp to extract all of the resolution. Got enough to fill a letter-sized sheet of paper, and circled the oil holes with a high lighter, so it should work. When I get around to it. The Necchi lycia works fine and I'd rather make jeans than oil machinery.

So now I've read the current issue (the TBR pile isn't getting taller!) and I was much impressed by the tip on page 18 about using panty-hose bands instead of rubber bands to bundle things: "the different-sized rounds cut from various parts of the leg . . ."

WHERE DOES SHE BUY HER PANTYHOSE!!!!!!

I haven't seen legs that were bigger around the thighs than they are at the ankles since the 1950s.

But for twenty years now I've been making clothes that don't require pantyhose, so I guess the question is moot.