Help! Chalk mark stains!!

Can you risk throwing it in the washer with a colour catcher?

Dear nerotensia,

Kate's right; you can probably wash them out. But why are you marking seamlines, anyway? There is a line on your machine for most every width of seam allowance you might use. All you do is hold the cut edge along this line to sew. If you're topstitching, you can use the foot or other mark to guide you by guiding your work along a chosen point.

Teri

I used chalk to make marks for buttons on the right side, I should mark with basting?

Yes - and use silk thread if possible! If pressed over, it leaves less of an impression...

Ah ha!! You need this stuff:

Here's what it is, it's a clear tape with marks for common sizes of buttons printed on it in different colors. Like 1" is orange, 7/8" is purple, etc. The bottom line is orange. It works for horizontal or vertical buttonholes. You just rip a piece off, stick it where you want the buttonhole and sew through it. Won't gum up your needle or your machine, doesn't make a mark on the fabric. When the buttonhole is finished, you just tear off the excess around the edges. What you sewed over, works like a stabilizer does when you do machine embroidery.

This is one of my most favorite notions. I LOVE this stuff. It's one of those things that my sewing room is never without. NAYY.

I know it won't help get your existing marks off, but it would prevent the next set. :)

Sharon

This site has a lot lot lot of things! I try to stay on the "basic" side with notions, however if I make an order from a site like that I would spend a ton of money :D , thanks everyone, hope will be better next time with your hints!

lol Yeah, you have to exercise some will power sometimes. ;D

I'm pretty basic on most things too. But when I find stuff that can really speed up my sewing (important since I charge clients by the hour) or drastically simplify a task, I'm all over it. lol The other thing that I'm rarely without in the sewing room is Wash Away Wonder Tape. It's a basting tape. Again, like the space tape, it both simplifies and speeds up the process. That's too good to pass up. ;)

Sharon

--a good stash infusion enabler. ;)

Dear nerotensia,

I mark my buttons one at a time, using a pin. Properly placed buttons are more accurate if the buttonholes are made first, opened, and then a pin pushed through the buttonhole (right side of buttonhole for horizontal buttonholes; TOP for vertical buttonholes). I button each button as it is sewn on, then mark the next one.

And while on the subject of sewing on buttons, the thickness of the fabric must be considered when the button is sewn on--the thicker the finished layers, the looser the button has to be. I make long shanks, even for my four-hole buttons, so that when they are buttoned, they look like they floated down and gently landed on the garment.

Teri

Erm... I honestly never thought there was any other way to do it! :) The only thing I'd add to this is that I mark the buttonhole placements with a Simflex.

That too is a given for me. I find a variety of toothpicks and matchsticks give the stalk height without guesswork, and the first pass of the thread holds them in place until I have finished the sewing on bit and am ready to wrap the stalk.

Dear Kate,

I love this being an international board. I've never liked the word "shank" It always sounds to me to be a metal ring, for a bull or something. "Stalk" is the word that I will use from now on.

I know it sounded pretty basic, but I had so many students who sewed their buttons too tightly, and also where a pattern indicated they should go. They ended up with bumps between the buttons, or the hem not lining up, and had to re-do them.

Teri

I always think of shanked buttons as the ones with the metal ring that cuts its way through even the heaviest nylon thread in two or three wearings, leaving your new coat with five matching buttons and a dangling thread! 'Stalk' is a much better word for a worked shank, I feel - sort of softer and more organic...

I hate that! Its as if The Powers That Bee have dictated The Buttons Go There ONLY, even if you have altered the pattern size and the buttons could be better placed and/or more flattering with a slightly different distribution. I got told off at school once for deciding that I didn't like the size and placing of the buttons on a shirt, and used smaller ones in groups of three!

I tend to place shirt buttons according to area of greatest need... Place one on a level with the bust point to hide the bra (this is the point of greatest and most likely gaposis), and one just under the collar band, and work out the rest of the spacing from there.

I think it was my mum (a very basic dressmaker, but a beautiful hand with embroidery) who taught me how to place buttons to match their holes. She also taught me the value of speed (do the straight/boring bits as fast as you can do them accurately) and hand work. I now have the machine she used when she taught me to sew: the world famous FrankenSinger 99K. It is FAAAAST but it only does straight stitch forward! I can also get it to do a single stitch at a time, and this fascinates the kids! Basic straight stitch is a real boon: most other machine operations are really only necessary if you are in a hurry. I love my machine buttonholes and hems, and delight in the different stitches and patterns I can create, but when push comes to shove on the stuff I usually sew, and a fine finish is where the real money lies, then I'll hand prick a zip (with a little seed bead on every stitch if you like!), hand roll a hem (very soothing!), hand hem a silk dress (really invisibility!), invisibly slip stitch a lining in place, and ALWAY stitch buttons by hand! :)

Dear Kate,

I wish we were closer so we could compare notes, and perhaps sit and sew together. These are some of the things I stressed to my students. They were fascinated by the re-enactment costumes I made for the Daniel Boone Home. I tried to use materials and techniques that would have been used in the Regency period. In fact, I'm working on a doll right now with authentic clothing and hairstyle from that period to replace one that I gave to my granddaughter. The whole wardrobe was stitched using instructions written in the early nineteenth century. All by hand, of course.

I found, in the university's clothing collection, a chemise (petticoat or shift) that was so exquisitely made that I thought the main seams were done by machine because the stitches were so small. But I was teaching a conservation class at the time, and we decided to clean it. This involved microscopic inspection to determine fibers (cotton or linen), and to examine the construction. We discovered that the teeny, tiny stitches were done by hand, and the finished felled seams were 1/8 inch wide. The "eyelet" was all done by hand, as well. This is what I strive for when sewing by hand. I love it.

Teri

When you absolutely MUST use these, such as on a regimental blazer or the like, a good trick is to sew them on with dental floss, using a small backing button on the inside of the garment so as not to tear the fabric. I have yet to meet the button which could eat its way through several lengths of dental floss.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans

I find I have great patience for doing this sort of thing on clothing, but I'm not at all interested in doing hand embroidery!

There's a pink silk corset (18th C) in the V&A collection - it appears on the cover of one of their books. If you didn't know the date of it was 150 years before the sewing machine in every home era, you'd swear it was machine made! And never forget that 4000 years ago they were weaving silk of such fineness that even with all our modern technology we cannot match it, never mind better it!

Great Scot! I only live about 2 miles from the Dan'l Boone Homestead and love to go there for a walk. Great place to see bluebirds. Where do you live, Teri? Sharon

I tried to use materials and techniques that would

Do you use the lapped zipper application for this? I love lapped zippers down the center back of a dress, even better than invisible zips, and have been known to hand stitch them several times. But I'll be blasted if I can figure out how to fold the neck facing down for the lapped side of that zip, so that the facing doesn't cover and interfere with zipping the zip to the top. All my tidy stitches go for naught when I can't make the facing look and work good. Sharon

hand roll a hem (very soothing!), hand hem a silk dress

Yes, lapped. I can't remember exactly what I do at the top, but it's never been a problem... I think I just fold it over a tad more than the unlapped side, and slip stitch it in place next to the teeth.

Try this, from "101 Sewing Secrets" (Singer Sewing Reference Library). It may look complicated the first time you do it, but it really isn't and will give you a lovely neat finish.

That's pretty much how I do it, but I do it without the glue.