UUUUUUGH!
We all have them. That one swing thing/technique you just can't stand doing. It's not necessarily something that may be time consuming, or even difficult, but you just loath even the thought of starting it, let along finishing it.For me, it was setting sleeves. I hated it. HATED it. It was a pain and annoying and just a big bunch of yuck. Now-a-days I have no problem with them. Must have desensitized myself. I don't love it, I'm not insane, but I'm happy with my ambivalence to sleeve setting. I feel that's a step in some sort of positive direction.
Now, you may ask, what my UUUUUUGH thing is? Cuffs on pants. Hate it. HATE IT!!! I can't tell you how much I hate setting cuffs on pants. It actually give me a head ache. Maybe it's the math. Wait, is that sexist?
A friend of mine came over with a slew of mending. Darting, patching, etc. In the pile was a pair of pants that needed hemming, and they were cuffed.
CUFFED! Thou art my demise (shakes fist in the air)!! The original length of the pants was already cuffed. Time to release the stitches! So I took out the cuff AND the hem of the pant leg. Joy. From there, I took the marked hem and folded the excess on that line. Then the pressin'.
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| Over 6" from the new hemline. |
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| Unfolded. |
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| After math. |
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| After cut. |
CUFFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lucky for me I didn't have to do that, but I could of had to (bad sentence). So you fold down, press and tuck under and pin. Then once you think it's over, you have to hand sew the flap beneath.
If you are really into your cuffs, you might sew the flap only to the part of fabric it touches leaving the well of the cuff completely open and then tacking the cuff at the seams. That's if you care. I'm sure you can see where this is going.
I find most fabrics have a stiffness to cuff height ratio, and I'm sure I could make up some wild calculation as to how many tack you need to keep your cuff up, but really, who is going to check to see if your cuff has been tacked all the way around. I won't tell a soul.
There you have it. After a good pressing these pants will be right as rain. I leave the pressing up to the wearer (my friend). Hell, I just did all of that for her. I braved the cuffy elements! She can iron them herself.
On another note, I actually had an impulse to organize my computer's cables and I liked doing it!
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| Before. |
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| **After** It's genuinely better, trust me :) |
How about you. What type of sewing technique do you loathe to do. You loath it so much you get ill. Let's grumble together.
Have a great Tuesday!
Yeah, that moment of decision when you have to cut, and afterwards you can't go back, sucks. I hate setting in sleeves too and while cuffs haven't bothered me much hemming circle skirts are awful!
ReplyDeleteI used to hate hemming pants until I learned this great trick from a tailor: Have the person put on the pants and stand normally. Take a ruler and place it along the back of the calf so that it's parallel to their leg and resting on the ground, then mark the pants leg with chalk where the top of the ruler rests. Have the person then remove the pants. To shorten the pants and mark the hem measure use the same ruler and add a new mark one foot down from the original mark - this is the finished pant length. From that line add hem allowance (and the cuff) if necessary. Normally the first measure is done in stocking feet but if the person will be wearing heels then they should wear those during the first measure stage. This is s really fast method and works well for multiples of the same thing such as costumes.
ReplyDeleteButtonholes. My aunt recently handed down to me her Viking 500, which does buttonholes. I'm not super thrilled about machine buttonholes but I'm a lot more thrilled about them than I am about doing them by hand. I was avoiding most of my patterns because they had buttons!
ReplyDeleteI hate collars, drafting and sewing them. And I hate sewing men's clothes. No matter how careful I am, I end up jacking something up.
ReplyDeleteI don't see the aversion to buttonholes. I've never minded them. I guess I powered through them so much, that they became old hat quite quickly.
ReplyDeleteI'd suggest marking off a sheet and doing about 15 in one setting. You get desensitized pretty quickly :)
(sound of head slapping). I used Phyllis' method for hemming about fifty dresses this fall, but...I could have used it for pants! Thanks gal!
ReplyDeleteAnd I still hate seam ripping. Working on a blog about finding the fail in a seam to make it die faster. That magic moment when you get the chainlock stitch to undo itself never fails to satisfy.
Oh! I got one. Changing the serger thread colors. Overlocking white on black fabric....eh, it wont be THAT bad! :)
ReplyDeleteI hate applying bias tape to the inside of necklines - I always have to pin, then hand baste, remove pins, sew on the machine, turn under, press, pin and hand baste again, then final sew on the machine. I find necklines boring and tedious!
ReplyDelete