MAKING SEWING A PLEASURE

A fully equipped sewing room is ideal, of course, but a corner in a room near a window can be made convenient and attractive. Limit your equipment to essentials: sewing machine, chair or stool, mirror, storage space and pressing equipment. They should be the best you can afford. First consider your sew­ing machine, for it is most important. There are several types available so select the one which best suits your requirements. Then learn how to use all the attachments. They are time savers and enable one to achieve many professional finishes with little effort. Learn how to care for your sewing machine — how to clean and oil it, using only oil made especially for your machine.

One should have ample storage space. A chest with three or four drawers varying from four to eight inches in depth is recommended. Use it for storing sewing equipment, patterns, fabrics, no­tions and other sewing aids.

The ironing board with pressing aids should be set up near, and to the right, of your sewing machine, if possible.

A full length mirror is desfrable for fitting, mark­ing hem lengths, pin fitting patterns, and testing fabrics for draping qualities, color, etc.

Sewing Equipment

Good cutting shears with bent handles are a must. Keep them sharp and reserve them only for fabric. Seven to eight inches is a good length. The bent handles will permit the fabric to lie flat when it is being cut. A smaller pair of scissors, about 5 inches in length, will be lighter and easier to handle when cutting notches, trimming seams, slashing, etc. Also pinking shears are useful for finishing seam edges.

Pins should be thin and sharp. The points should be smoothly finished so they will not in­jure fine fabrics. Silk pins are a little finer than dressmakers' pins, but both are satisfactory. Brass pins will not rust.

Needles come in a variety of styles and sizes. Sharps, crewels and milliners' needles are common for hand sewing. Sharps are medium length needles with a short oval eye. Crewels have a long oval eye and are easily threaded, while milliners' are longer in length. The most suitable sizes for general sewing are 7's and 8's. The higher the number, the finer the needle.

Always use a thimble for hand sewing. Fit it carefully so it is comfortable. Metal thimbles are thinner and sturdier than plastic thimbles, and they hold the eye end of the needle more firmly.

Tailors' chalk is necessary for marking pattern perforations and fitting lines. It is available with either a wax or clay base. The wax type may leave grease marks on fabrics other than wool.

A firm measuring tape with number "1" at opposite ends on reverse sides is preferred for dressmaking. Rulers are necessary for marking straight lines. The transparent ones are new and easy to use. An adjustable metal gauge is good for measuring hems, pleats and tucks.

Miscellaneous Aids

Beeswax is desirable for waxing thread, for sew­ing on buttons and smoothing the surface of an iron.

An orange-wood stick is helpful in turning and pointing out corners.
Tweezers are a help in pulling out tailors' tacks, bastings and machine stitchings. Keep one in your machine drawer.

A singer Ripper is handy for ripping seams.
A supply of notions, such as snap fasteners, hooks and eyes, bias bindings, seam tapes, as­sorted colored threads, etc., will save you time when needed.

Pressing

Careful pressing as you sew is just as impor­tant to the finished garment as good stitching.

Actually, pressing starts before stitching. The fabric is smoothed, straightened and often some shrinkage of the fabric is done by steam pressing before cutting.

The pattern should be pressed before laying out on the fabric.
In the construction of a garment make it a practice to: first, press as stitched; second, open seam with finger tips or point of iron, holding iron slightly above the seam; third, press seam open, stretch seam slightly and glide iron along lightly
.
Pressing smoothes the surface, shapes the fab­ric (at darts, cap of sleeves, curved seams, etc.) and shrinks fullness.

Pressing each seam, dart, or fold thoroughly before crossing with another seam or fold makes it easier to put your garment together correctly.

Most fabrics should be pressed on the wrong side. Glossy fabrics, such as chintz, polished cot­tons, etc., are exceptions. These are pressed on the right side to retain their sheen, and they re­quire very little or no moisture.
Pile and nap fabrics should be steam pressed over a velvet board or a spongy woolen pad. Never press dry. Instead, leave steam in fab­ric, and shake or brush pile and nap slightly.

To lift pile, nap, or fibers, or to remove shiny spots, hold iron above right side of fabric and swing iron to and fro allowing steam to brush surface and penetrate fabric.

When pressing silks, place a dry cloth on the fabric with a damp press cloth on top, or use steam from iron.

Acetate, nylon, Orion, Dynel*, Dacron, etc. should be pressed on the wrong side with medium heat and very little moisture, if any.

Always test fabric for pressing, using scrap of the fabric, before pressing garment.

 Dynel is a trademark for □ synthetic, modacrylk fiber of fhe  Union  Carbide and  Carbon Corp.

Pressing Equipment

You can do a much better pressing job if you have the proper equipment. An adjustable iron­ing board with a smooth padded surface is essen­tial. A good steam iron, or a good lightweight iron with a dependable temperature control makes handling of fabrics easier by maintaining a suit­able temperature for any fabric.

A tailor's cushion or press mitt, and a sleeve board are useful for pressing darts, curved seams and hard-to-get-at places.

Press cloths are necessary for pressing some fabrics. Chemically treated ones may be pur­chased ready to use. However, cheese cloth, light­weight drill, muslin or any other similar fabric can be used provided it is clean and lint less. A wool press cloth, one with a soft nap, is best for pressing wool fabrics. A pad, made of 3 or 4 thicknesses of wool interlining and stitched to a backing of muslin or drill, may be used for press­ing monograms, laces and for such construction details as zipper closings, pockets, buttonholes, hems and fabrics with a pile or nap surface. A small cellulose sponge is convenient for moisten­ing seams, and a clothes brush for bushing sur­face, lifting nap, etc.

Selection of Needles and Thread

Sewing thread should blend as nearly as pos­sible with the fabric in color, fiber and size. Silk and wool fabrics are stitched with silk thread. Cot­tons, linens and some blended fabrics are stitched with cotton thread (black and white available) or mercerized thread. The synthetic fabrics and blends of the pure and man-made fibers may be stitched with silk, mercerized cotton, nylon or Dacron threads.

The needle is selected with consideration for both the thread and the fabric.

FABRIC, THREAD, NEEDLE AND STITCH LENGTH CHART

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