noob botched her first summer quilt!

Yeah, really thin, light weight, and smooth stuff can sometimes be a pain to sew well. Can't think of any specific tips right now, but i do know that practice really helps.

I didn't have much of a problem with M50 material as i thought i might, but thin silk sucked especially when i first started.

It's a pain in the butt, but you CAN take out the threads and re do it. They sell thread puller/cutters.

(i can only imagine what a PITA argon silnylon must be like to sew)

Experiment with adjusting the length of the stitch a little, experiment with adjusting the tension a LITTLE, and are you using a finer needle and thread?

I've had similar experiences although I usually kludge it somehow so it ends up being at least marginally usable. Almost every project has at least one subtle defect.

How can the insulation be 6 inches longer if you pinned it, weird?

I never use pins, I always just put some hand stitches in it to do the same, but that shouldn't matter.

Maybe cut off the botched part and try again? It won't be usable as a quilt but should enable you to experiment.

Squish down the fabric/insulation/fabric ahead of the sewing machine foot and feed it in a way it doesn't slip. Pull the fabric/insulation/fabric out the rear with the other hand.

Use more pins?

Jennifer,

What type of machine is it?

I've made a few quilts now and they all were a little different and challenging.

I used the method you talked about with the news paper, it's more of a pain then a help, I don't use pins as much to keep my quilts together, rather than pins I now use those black paper clips that you use to hold papers together, you can use pins it just works better for me to use the clips.

On your next quilt try sewing without the news paper and sew with the Apex up, I believe this is how I've done the last 3 quilts, make sure that you hold the materil in the front of the machine and from behind, don't pull the material through, but keep it tight and let the machine pull the material through, also if your machine has an adjustment for the foot tension you may need to adjust that.

Did your material pucker when you were sewing? If so you may need to adjust the thread tension/stitch length and foot pressure.

You will always get some left over insulation sticking out and some sagging material after turning inside out, but yours may be a little on the excessive side, don't get discouraged it just takes time and practice and knowing your machine.

On my machine I use a number 12 needle and the Guterman thread that you can buy at Joanns, the all purpose thread, this has worked for my machine very well, but every machine has it's quirks, if I can be of any help you can pm me and I'll send you my email so you can send me some detailed pictures of your quilt.

Jack

You could try basting by hand first with long (3/4 – 1") stitches, very close to where the machine stitching will go – that would be through the apex, argon, and newspaper layers. You can also try carefully machine sewing up to or just past the pins before removing them – just slow down and sort of manually turn the wheel as it goes over the pin (at least I can do that on my old Singer). How far apart did you put the pins?

I don't sew so I can't help there, but I would say that you didn't botch it at all, you're just in the learning phase! Botching it would be not trying at all in the first place…

+1 on basting by hand first. Yes, it's boring and time-consuming, but especially when you're just learning to sew, it will hold all the layers together better than the pins. This should prevent the insulation from stretching too much.

One more small tip — not sure if you're pulling/pushing/forcing the material through the presser foot… if you are, that could be causing a lot of the problems. Just let it feed through at its own speed, with your hands simply guiding it gently.

Practice is everything with sewing!

Edited for – gak – typo

It is a Brother CS 6000. Generally it's seemed to work very well – when I took my sewing class it also happened to be the one the teacher was using! So that was helpful….

I used an 11/80 (is that right?) for my needle.

YES! the fabric always puckered at the beginning of a seam but as I continued to sew the puckering stopped. Next time I would start a new seam – a few inches of puckering before it seemed to settle down. I played with the tension on some scraps and set it at about 4 which seemed to work the best with the stitches – but the puckering at the start never seemed to stop no matter what I did with the tension.

I am using Gutermann all-purpose thread.

I did NOT play with my stitch length – I kept it at whatever the standard setting was. I'll play around with some scraps to see if that stops the puckering.

I tried a few stitches without the newspaper and the apex seemed to get caught in the needle and foot all the time (it was apex up, then the two layers of nylon underneath).

I tried taking pictures of the finished product but it doesn't really show what was going on. I wish I had taken them during the process…….

So it is unusual for the apex to stretch that much, eh? I wonder what I can do to stop that. I'll try pulling everything a bit more taut as it feeds through the machine and see if that helps. I really didn't do a very good job of that, that's for sure. I kept having the bottom layer of nylon folding over and getting caught in the stitches, too (like a big fold that gets caught underneath). If that's a clue to what I was doing wrong???

Thanks for the encouragement, Doug!!!!

I tried to not push/pull the fabric, but being a newbie I'm not sure how successful I was at keeping a neutral tension between the front and back halves.

The pins/clips were about 3-5 inches apart.

What I wondered about is if the feed dogs were pulling the bottom layer of nylon through at one speed, the next layer wasn't pulling the same (as it was sliding more against the bottom layer), and then the apex just did it's own thing.

"Botching it would be not trying at all in the first place."

Yes seriously! Since I think you said you just got your first sewing machine I'm impressed. A bag is probably one of the hardest thing to do. Very brave. As for me I will wait until I can sew a project a foot long without botching something before I try one that hard.

"What I wondered about is if the feed dogs were pulling the bottom layer of nylon through at one speed, the next layer wasn't pulling the same (as it was sliding more against the bottom layer), and then the apex just did it's own thing."

I think that is probably exactly it, created or made worse by the stretchy fabric.

There is some water-soluble double-sided tape you can get for this purpose. In theory this would be great, tape (and retape) everything until it is just the way you want it, then sew the seam with the fabric fixed in place by the tape. Then rinse away the tape. I suppose you could even do this once at the end with the down inside. However…I have never been able to find a brand I can get to work right, even on much simpler projects. Maybe some people on here with a ton more experience can suggest a brand that works well.

What is that??? How does that affect things???

I have some googling to do now…..

It is supposed to hold the fabric layers together, the way you place them, so there is no differential stretching going through the foot. If the tape itself is thick enough and non-elastic it (in theory) should prevent "buckling" (I don't know the sewing term but I sure there is one) of both layers together, as if the fabric was heavier and not as stretchy.

The stuff I have seen is called double sided water soluble quilting tape. But it was too delicate for my bumbling. Something similar but wider and more heavy duty would probably work better for long seams.

http://www.joann.com/water-soluble-adhesive-tape/10959880.html

There is also "fusible" tape that you iron on and then sew through. I also sucked at that as well.

EDIT: humm, it is also called basting tape (guess this was mentioned above, except by hand):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd_0uj5GkBA

You could also get some that just stays in place (not so UL), rather than washes away. At any rate, the idea is that once it is in place if you sew over it then the top and bottom fabric layers, at a minimum, stay in place and don't slide relative to each other. I think if it were heavy enough it should help with the buckling that you can get with very thin fabric, a separate but related issue.

Of course more skill and a better sewing machine would probably help a lot too. :-)

"What I wondered about is if the feed dogs were pulling the bottom layer of nylon through at one speed, the next layer wasn't pulling the same (as it was sliding more against the bottom layer), and then the apex just did it's own thing."

I haven't sewn apex but ripstop nylon is very slick. I find I need to pull slightly from behind the machine and in front to keep tension on the fabric layers so that they do not pucker. As for the first few inches when starting… I usually start the stitches a few inches in so that I can grab the material from behind the machine and then run in reverse. This way i can keep some tension as it starts and when I reach the end I go forward and the material is no going to slip against each other.

By botched quilt, you mean you are ripping the seams and starting over right?

I mean I ordered enough material to have a practice go – and if it worked, GREAT! I ripped out A LOT of seams…now there are just too many.

And what started off as a 74" long quilt is now about 50" long, by the way…it just got to be easier to just trim off the end as I kept screwing up!

My favorite was the time I tried to trim the seam allowance to 1/2" as the instructions suggested…then found out my brand new super duper sharp fabric shears actually kept snipping the nylon all over the quilt. Oops.

I got one of those rotary cutters and it works great and makes perfect and straight cuts. But man you can do a tremendous amount of damage quickly if you are a boob! I will not elaborate, but imagine the three stooges as tailors.

If you end up having to trim it down and start fresh a few times, you might end up with a Charlie-sized winter quilt – still a win.

I've sewn with insulation on top. You have to press it down and feed it under foot to keep the foot arms from catching on the insulation.

What I do now, is have fabric/insulation/fabric and do the perimeter seam that stabilizes the insulation all the way around. Then, if necesary, cut the insulation 1/4" from seam. Then fold over the fabric on top and bottom, to hide the raw edge, and sew through it – top fabric main body/top fabric raw edge/bottom fabric raw edge/bottom fabric main body.

I've made 2 quilts with the Argon 67 and apex. Argon on top and apex on the bottom. Let the machine pull it through. I didn't use any layers underneath the apex. I pinned every 3-4 inches.

Nathan,

it doesn't bog everything up to have the insulation on the bottom?

And I like the idea of just doing the argon/apex/argon on 3 sides…then turning inside out. That seems like it would be easier to manage.

Sharon, yes! I didn't think about that – charlie sometimes needs a little insulation. This would be perfect!

But you guys are right….this is really fun…and addicting! A much better use of my time when I can't be hiking – instead of dreaming about expensive gear I don't need to buy.

Thanks for all the help – I'm going to take pictures during this next round in case I have similar troubles.

Ah yes, the painful learning phase. It's probabaly essential.

Fabric creep – yeah, always. Pins, pins and more pins, done beforehand over the full length of the seam. Only take them out one by one, close to the foot. Not needed (maybe) with heavier fabrics, but essential imho on the lighter ones. THIN pins too.

Fabric tension – essential on light fabrics. Hold fabric with two hands, one in front of and one behind the foot and keep it gently tight. Combined with pins, this will get you perfect alignment.

Needles – 11/80 sounds a bit too coarse (I think). I would be using a #60 needle on that fabric. I use 120 gauge thread on such light fabrics too.

Thread tension – it needs to be balanced top and bottom of course. It should not cause puckering of course, but keeping the fabric under tension helps there. Adjusting the bottom tension is not normally needed, and would depend on what sort of bobbin system you have. You only need high tension for very heavy fabrics.

Speed – commercial machines go a lot faster than I can handle. I prefer to go slowly and carefully. It works.

Cheers

Jen, google "walking foot". Patchworkers and quilters use these attachments all the time, to keep the upper and lower fabrics feeding through together. They essentially add feed dogs above, to act in unison with the ones below, to pull both layers of fabric though at the same pace.
They are machine specific, but I am sure that you can find one to suit your machine.
Good luck with your project.

actually I DO have a walking foot that came with the machine. Maybe I'll play with that a bit.

Thanks Roger…isn't the 60 needle BIGGER? meaning for thicker fabrics? I thought the 80 was for thin stuff. But then again…I don't know jack.

I'm going to keep practicing on the scraps I have left, trying to get rid of the "pucker" factor and I'll let you guys know how it goes.

Hi Jen

> isn't the 60 needle BIGGER? meaning for thicker fabrics?
Depends on which scale you are using!
On the Singer/Elna scale which we use in Oz, #60 is about the finest, and #100 is good for packs. I think there are bigger numbers again for leather.

I will add – most books tell you to use a thicker needle than you need, so you don't break it. That's OK for making cotton clothing I guess. But reality is that when 'they' advise a #80 needle you can usually use a #60 on light fabric. Really, what the number is indicating is the thicknees of the shaft and the size of the hole for the thread.
Don't be afraid to sew slowly.

Cheers

I have made a total of 5 apex quilts, always sewing with the apex on the bottom, directly against the machine. I've never had a problem with it getting hung up. Another tip would be to make the quilt 2" bigger on all four sides, pin the crap out of it, then sew just to the inside of the pins, leaving the whole quilt pinned until you are finished sewing. I did this on my last one and it was MUCH faster and easier then trying to stop and start a bunch while pulling pins.