Parklife!
22 April 2009, 13:07Yesterday I had an all-day hospital visit, but instead of being the super dull day I was dreading, it actually turned into the most relaxed and chilled day I’ve had in months! Some women go to the spa, I go to Nuclear Medicine for a bit of radioactivity, ha.
Part of the day was that I had two hours free before having to report back in, so instead of wandering around Camberwell, I went into the big park next to the hospital. We’re having absolutely gorgeous weather in London right now, and everyone was out with their babies and dogs, having impromptu picnics and tennis matches, so I found myself an empty picnic table and brought out my embroidery. Here’s my view of my project, and of my view of the bandstand:
It’s just a Sublime Stitching apron I’ve been working sporadically on, but it was really calming to just sit for two hours listening to the birds and watching people go by. And I’m really glad I brought my first batch of iced tea for the season (you can take the girl out of America, etc etc). Sometimes I bring garment handstitching to work on when I’m out and about, but having the embroidery to pick up whenever I fancy it is quite nice, too, and very portable!
And I’ve finally started sewing the Colette Patterns Eclair dress after taking way to long to cut everything out. But I’m having the problem I occasionally get when I sew really thin fabrics. Here, it’s silk crepe and silk habotai, but I’ve had it before with poly linings – the stitching puckers the fabric, despite my using a microtex sharp needle, the walking foot, and loosening the tensions as far as they’ll go:
The problem only occurs when I’m sewing two layers on their own – the interfaced sections are fine, as are more than two layers. Anyone have any advice? I’m half-wincing, hoping the answer isn’t to sew through tissue paper and rip it off, because I hate that…
UPDATE: Thank you so much for all your suggestions!! I’m wary to use anything that requires washing the silk since I’ve got really dark purple sashes next to pale gold and I’m afraid of colours running as well as changing the hand of the silks, so I don’t think wash-away stabilisers would be my first choice here.
But it looks like perhaps it was the bobbin tension that was the problem. Marie-Christine’s newspaper comment below got me thinking, so I tested a scrap using some of the edge of Saturday’s paper that didn’t have any printing… And it didn’t pucker, true, but when I was ripping off the newspaper, it was actually pulling my bobbin threads out so they were big loops. So it occurred to me that maybe my bobbin tension was too loose, even though the stitches looked fine. So I tightened that up, and the puckering is about 90% better now! Still a little bit, but enough that a good press makes it unnoticeable…
So I’m considering that a win and carrying on, perhaps with a combination of “taut sewing” and (if I can get out to Soho this weekend) sillk or cotton thread instead of my standard Gutermann Sew All polyester to reduce that last little bit of puckering to nothing…
Thank you!!
Tags: embroidery, hospital, silk
I was a little disappointed not to glow in the dark after my trip to Nuclear Medicine to identify a knee problem! You had much better weather than me – I hid in the refectory and read.
Sorry I cant help on your fabric problem but I hope you solve it soon.
Best wishes
Kim
— Kim Hood Apr 22, 01:27 PM #
Iced tea! Yay! I just made a batch yesterday before our aborted attempt to mow the lawn for the first time this season. (Thunderstorm…)
p.s. I’m not one to give sewing advice — I tend to come here for it. :)
— Sharon Apr 22, 01:41 PM #
I’m not very succesfull with ripping out tissue paper as well. Maybe you could try the stuff that can be washed away in cold water. Here (in the Netherlands) it’s called soluvlies, but I think in English it’s called “water soluble embroidery stabilizer”.
It’s sold by the metre and since you only need it for the seams you wouldn’t need much.
Maybe it’s worth a try.
— Danielle Apr 22, 03:32 PM #
Yay, I can’t wait to see the Eclair! Over here, we have something called Sullivan’s Spray Stabilizer. You just spray it on (after pre-washing) and it makes light fabrics a little more paper-like. It rinses out easily, I even use it on silks. Definitely a lifesaver, and you can probably order it online.
— Sarai Apr 22, 04:55 PM #
Well besides using some type of stabilizer (wash out or otherwise), I can think of a couple things having to do with the thread. Do you wind your bobbins slowly? Poly thread can get stretched while winding, which can pucker seams after they are sewn. Actually switching to a non stretchy thread like 100% cotton might help too. Good luck!
— Leslie Apr 22, 06:09 PM #
Well, I hate to break it to you… You might have used the horribly expensive stabilizer stuff? You might have used tissue paper that requires some care to take out? I do like my grandmas: I use strips of newspaper. Sure some black could (temporarily) rub off. But it rips
rightout. And it’s free..— Marie-Christine Apr 22, 07:10 PM #
If you’re already using a microtex needle, you’ve taken the only suggestion I have.
— The Slapdash Sewist Apr 22, 07:52 PM #
In her book “More Fabric Savy”, Sandra Betzina suggests “fine machine embroidery silk or cotton thread” because each marries with the fabric, does not stretch and cause puckers. She suggests a stitch length of 1.5 mm to 2.0 mm and a straight stitch presser foot. The needle should be 60/8, 65/9, or 70/10 HM or HJ.
I hope that helps.
— patsijean Apr 22, 10:15 PM #
For what it’s worth, when I have this sort of issue, I do “taut sewing” where you hold the fabric in front of and behind the needle as you sew. The idea is to keep the fabric taut as you sew, but not interfere with the feed. I find it works really well with very fine fabrics and all sorts of fabrics prone to creeping.
— Judy Ross Apr 23, 11:46 AM #
PS: I like knitting too for this kind of outdoors portability.. It’s good to have clothes fast with the machine, but how delightful to be enjoying the spring while being unhurried with some fiber thing..
— Marie-Christine Apr 23, 12:12 PM #
This is off-topic but was your copy of The Complete Book of Sewing by Constance Talbot published in London or New York? I love the faux wrap skirt. Our weather here in Oregon is gorgeous too.
— Karen Morrison Apr 24, 01:04 AM #
Last year I made a silk dress for my daughter’s wedding so I was looking for the “right” kind of needle with which to sew my expensive silk. The fabric store owner’s sister suggested using a smaller jeans needle. I was skeptical and asked her why a jeans needle. She said because they are very sharp. I tried and I got no puckering or pulling! I think I bought a size 70 neddle.
If adjusting your bobbin tension doesn’t work, maybe you can try the jeans needle.
Lovely park, lovely stitching. Glad you had a great place to go be mellow for 2 hours.
— Miriam in KS Apr 24, 04:06 AM #
Or perhaps I bought “needles”! One never knows when one is typing quickly if one has really struck all the keys correctly.
— Miriam in KS Apr 24, 04:09 AM #