Understanding fabric grain and exact hand placement as you feed fabric (woven) into the sewing machine will forever help you eliminate puckered seams – making your sewing projects instantly look more professional!
AND… to stitch ‘up a hill’, you simply need to ‘level the sewing field’ as I show at the end of this video.
Truly – it amazed me how much I learned during my retail storefront/machine dealership years that TRULY helped me understand sewing machines. I’m thrilled to be able to share what I’ve learned with you so that you can sew – EVEN BETTER!
The puckers that just naturally occur (without any smart fabric handling as shown in the video) explain why vertical tucks on a bodice of a garment look puckered. Note this in the picture below. I’m not saying this isn’t a beautiful heirloom garment, but what I’m using it to point out is that tucks on the vertical grain are just bound to have a ‘puckered’ look. Perhaps this is what you are going for – I’m just explaining the ‘why’s.
To avoid that, work tucks or pintucks on the horizontal grain of a square of fabric, then lay that tucked fabric so that you cut out the yoke with the tucks going vertically.
This also explains why horizontal tucks around the hem of a skirt always look so nice – they are being stitched on the cross-grain of the fabric, which ‘gives’ a bit, again – as taught in the video. See this photo of another gorgeous heirloom dress, showing horizontal pintucks at the hemline.
Concerning a Walking Foot: the one you use TRULY must be designed to work on YOUR sewing machine make/model. I’m happy to work with you to find the CORRECT one for your machine. Just email me your make/model and I’ll be happy to see what I can find. londa@londas-sewing.com
Here is a ‘common’ low-shank model that I sell frequently, but again, let’s make SURE before you order this one, email me as above.
Do you have specific sewing machine ‘issues’ that you think I might be able to assist you with? Please comment below, or email them to me at: londa@londas-sewing.com
I’m currently assembling a list of topics for a new video-taping session, so your suggestions are much appreciated.