MYOG troubleshooting hiccups

[Jon Rhoderick]

I'm having trouble with a few things
A. I'm recutting my RBH socks to be tighter, how do you adjust to sewing a thicker fabric, it won't run through the machine.
B. How do you make a full sized pattern?
C. What do you use to stiffen hoods if anything
D. Whats the best way to finish sewing, my thread is always unravelling.
E. Whats the best way to do button holes?

Some of these are probably boring to the MYOG vets, feel free to answer what you want.

[peter kvamme]

Some suggestions for you, but hopefully others will chime in too!

A. I'm recutting my RBH socks to be tighter, how do you adjust to sewing a thicker fabric, it won't run through the machine.
What do you mean by it wont run through? Not sure how to help on this one…

B. How do you make a full sized pattern?
Not sure if you mean scale up a pattern to full size, or creating one from scratch??

C. What do you use to stiffen hoods if anything
Have not done this, but have seen instructions that call for weed wipper cord in a channel along the edge of the hood to stiffen it. Look in the MYOG articles at Roger's poncho for an example.

D. Whats the best way to finish sewing, my thread is always unravelling.
Try backstiching by going in reverse for a few stitches before you clip your threads

E. Whats the best way to do button holes?
The easiest way to do buttonholes is by buying an attachment for your sewing machine, but thru hiker has instructions for doing it manually here:
http://thru-hiker.com/projects/manual_buttonhole.php

[Troy Ammons]

D. Always lock your stiches. Start a few stitches, reverse for a few then sew.

Sams at the end of a run.

I supose if you missed one you could dab a tiny bit of superglue ont he end and that should help.

[Brad Groves]

Hey-
B. I use plastic sheeting for patterns, ie Visqueen. It's cheap, easy to trace a pattern onto, stiff enough to hold its shape. Can pin, tape, or something together to trial fit.

C. The one hood I've made used no stiffener, but the I sewed the brim separately, and it was stuffed with down. I'd imagine that a flimsy "disposable" cutting board would make for a fine brim stiffener.

D. When you start or finish a stitch line, backstitch over it a couple/few times. In other words, stitch .25 to .5 inch, backstitch, stitch back over, backstitch, stitch back over, backstitch…

E. Button holes, mmm, fun. If you don't have an auto function, set your stitch wide and basically make a bartack, then make sure the needle is in the fabric and lift the presser foot, pivot the fabric 90 degrees, re-set the presser foot, make a tiny short bartack, pivot again for another larger bartack, and once more to close it. Cut a slit in the little box you made.

Cheers-

[Jon Rhoderick]

Wow guys great! thanks for the good answers
The thing with the socks is that they are thick and the pressure foot seems to not go high enough for them to run through, I tried finding them in the manual but I must have been looking in the wrong place.

[Roger Caffin]

> Whats the best way to finish sewing, my thread is always unravelling.
Serves you right! (Sorry, but it does happen!)
Leave a tail when you finish and pull both the threads to one side of the fabric and -gasp- tie a knot!
Not just a reef knot, but a double reef knot. Yeah, takes some time, but the alternative is unravelling.

Cheers

[Roger Caffin]

> the pressure foot seems to not go high enough for them to run through,

You won't like the answer: wrong sewing machine. Buy an old black Singer.

Cheers

[Matthew Bishop]

I've got another trick for stiffening brims which I used recently. Put some thin cord into the hem on the brim or other convenient seam and sink a lot of thread into it (several passes, and thick thread helps). If the cord is already a little stiff it will get a lot stiffer. I used kite line on a rain jacket mod, but 2mm or 3mm accessory cord (for rock climbing) is a heavier and stiffer alternative.

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