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Most of the time you want to avoid making holes in your fabric as you sew. But occasionally holes can make a nice decorative touch. That’s what a wing needle is for. It’s a regular sewing machine needle on top, but down by the eye it has two protruding wings. The wings work like an awl, pushing the individual threads of the fabric apart but not breaking them. So instead of a tear, you get a nice lacy opening.

Wing needles work on light to medium weight woven fabrics. So they’re great for linens, cottons, even some denim. Many people use a wing needle to create a row of holes between rows of machine or hand embroidery. This gives a nice old-fashioned effect like Victorian drawn-thread embroidery. Most people use this technique to create heirloom looks on the hems of bed linens, towels, handkerchiefs, aprons and pinafores. But you can use it anywhere you like. Think outside the box and you never know what you might come up with.

Wing Needle Hints:

• You can use the wing needle with thread or without. For example, if you wanted to do some lacing with a thick decorative thread or ribbon, you could run a row of wing stitches without thread to make the holes quick and easy.
• Make sure you test your needle out on a scrap piece of fabric first. Different weaves create different sized holes, and you want to get your spacing right before you sew on the actual project. To adjust the spacing between holes, just change the stitch length.
• Sometimes lighter weight fabrics will tend to pucker as the wing pushes the threads apart. You can fix this by backing your fabric with a lightweight stabilizer.
• For best results on linens and cottons, prepare your fabric ahead of time. Apply a light coating of spray starch, let it soak in for a minute, then dry iron your fabric. Repeat three or four times until you have a nice crisp foundation to work on.
• Use an open toe embroidery foot so you can see your work clearly. And you may need to change your throat plate to accommodate the large needle. Try making a stitch with the handwheel first. If metal meets metal anywhere, you need to make adjustments or you’ll damage your machine.
• You can create single rows of holes by using a straight stitch. Or you can make multiple rows by using a zig-zag or other decorative stitch.
• You can make a very pretty trim by placing an organza ribbon or piece of lace on top of your primary fabric and sewing with the wing needle.

Wing needles are easily available at your local sewing shop or you can get them online. They cost less than $10, and since you’re only using them occasionally, they last a long time. Why not experiment with a wide variety of stitches, tensions, backings, etc.? Make a sampler of your experiments and keep notes. That way when you need to use a wing needle effect in the future, you’ll have a quick reference chart handy.

Have you tried using a wing needle? Have any great tips to add to this list? Please leave a comment!

kay, so I learned the hard way. A few years ago, I ordered eight yards of the most gorgeous red heavy silkish fabric I’d ever seen. As I looked at it on my computer, I could see the very dress I was going to make with it. Maybe even a long jacket. Eagerly, I filled out the order form and sent in my credit card number. And then like a kid waiting for Christmas, I ran to the mailbox every day hoping it was there.

It took about a week (a watched mailbox never boils,) but when it finally arrived I was so excited I ripped open the package before I even got back to the house. And that’s when my heart dropped right out of my chest. The gorgeous red silk was actually a watermelon color with some weird ridges running through it. Definitely not the fabric I ordered. What a disappointment.

Not to be undone, I quickly got online to get the customer service phone number and fix the situation. No phone number. Just a generic email address and a submit form. Well, that was better than nothing. When I finally did get someone to talk to me about the mistake, I found out it wasn’t a mistake at all. And I learned the most important lesson about buying fabric online…

Colors On Your Monitor May Not Be Accurate.

Apparently, different monitors show color differently. So what was actually watermelon, looked like a deep cherry red on my computer screen. Always ask for a swatch, unless you know for sure what you’re getting.

Fortunately, the customer service representative took pity on me and said “It’s okay, just send it back to us and we’ll refund your money (minus a restocking fee, of course.)” Which leads us to lessons two and three…

Make sure you can get a hold of a real person at the company (by phone, preferably).

It’s best if the website has an actual brick and mortar store somewhere. But if not, a phone number and mailing address somewhere on the site is a good sign.

Check their return policy.

Be sure you can return the fabric if there’s a mistake. And find out who pays for shipping.

Remember when I said this was a few years ago? Well, I came across this pile of pink stuff just the other day. That’s right, I never did return it. At the time, I was a busy mom of three very young children and it got pushed to the back burner until it was just too late. I can’t even remember the website I ordered it from anymore. Which brings us to lesson four…

If you do need to return something, do it promptly.

There’s no sense in holding onto fabric you’ve got no use for. So, do you like watermelon pink fabric? Send me an email…I’ve got a present for the first person to claim it!

Got any online purchasing stories of your own? I’d love to hear them. Leave a comment!

Sometimes when you sew multiple layers of fabric, like with quilting or upholstery work, you’ll notice the layers tend to go together unevenly. It’s incredibly frustrating as you sew and unsew seam after seam. Sometimes you can just add a ton of pins along the seam to stop this, but it’s much more efficient to use a walking foot.

A walking foot has its own set of feed dogs to move the top layer of fabric, while the bottom feed dogs on your machine move the bottom layer. This means your thick stack of fabric moves along at an even pace and you don’t get weird wrinkles or bunches in your sewing.

You can buy industrial sewing machines with a built-in walking foot. These are designed to sew only straight and are often used by quilters and upholsterers. This type of walking foot includes a “needle feed” which means the top and bottom feed dogs and the needle all move in conjunction so the fabric is advanced to the back in one smooth step. They make sewing leather, canvas and quilts much easier, but they’re not always necessary–especially if you have a high quality machine to begin with

Home machines can have a walking foot, too. But it doesn’t work quite the same way as an industrial. In this case, there’s no needle feed and the walking foot isn’t actually “walking”. It’s just assisting in moving the layers of fabric better than a smooth-bottom foot would. Some home machines include a walking foot in their standard accessories. But if yours didn’t, don’t worry. You can purchase a walking foot for almost any machine at your local fabric store or online. It simply snaps or screws onto your needle bar just like any other specialty presser foot. There are no special settings you need to worry about.

Helpful hints:

Make sure you purchase the correct foot for your machine’s make and model.

Use a walking foot when you have more than two layers of fabric, or you’re sewing thicker fabrics like denim or canvas.

A good walking foot eliminates the need for lots of pins. In fact, some people skip the pinning step completely.

I’ve known about this book for a while now, and finally had a good look at it this week. What a treasure! It’s like having your own private sewing teacher on hand all the time. Hundreds of sewing teachers, actually, because the book is mostly written by regular visitors to PatternReview.com. The book takes the best tips from a community of over 200,000 members. Plus you get mini-tutorials from master teachers and designers like Susan Khalje, Kenneth D. King, Anna Mazur and more.

You can just open the book and start reading. Most of the tips are little more than a paragraph long, but solve some of the most frustrating sewing problems like:

• Fitting problem areas
• Sewing zippers and pockets
• Organizing your stash
• Sewing with difficult fabrics like velvet, fleece, chiffon and lame
• Using tricky trims like feathers and ribbon

But this is not just a great coffee table book, it’s a useful reference volume, too. The overall chapters are organized into general topics. So, you can find a quick answer to your immediate problems. The chapters include:

• Sewing gear
• Setting up your sewing room
• Design and pattern prep
• Fabric, thread and notions
• Layout, cutting and marking
• Fitting
• Sewing
• Finishing
• Embellishments

Because the tips are written by regular people who sew all the time, the solutions are practical and easy to understand. When you finish reading a section on linings, for example, you’re left with the feeling that it really isn’t that difficult. It makes you really want to go tackle that scary technique and overcome the stumbling block once and for all.

The only thing I didn’t like about this book was that I wasn’t able to put it down. Each tip led to another and another and before I knew it, I spent hours reading and planning new projects in my head (when I should have been upstairs sewing.)

I highly recommend this book for anyone who sews, or wants to sew. It would make a fabulous gift, sure to be loved and used regularly for a long time. It’s available in paperback from your local bookstore or online at Amazon.com.

Now that Halloween’s over, I’ve had a chance to talk with some people about their experiences with sewing costumes. Many of them used “glitter dot” fabric (that polyester stuff with the mylar dots glued on) and said they were so frustrated sewing with it. The needle gets stuck; the dots come off on your iron; they gum up your machine. One person even said “why do they even sell this stuff if you can’t use it?”

I’m right there with you. Sewing dance and skating costumes for so many years, I can’t help but sew with glitter dot now and then. The main reason people have a hard time sewing this stuff is that the heat and friction from the sewing process melt the glue and release the dots. Fortunately, there are a few tricks that help make the process easier.

1) Use a fresh sharp needle, even though the fabric itself is a knit. A ball-point needle won’t penetrate the dots, or at least not gracefully.

2) Lubricate the needle with a silicon liquid like Sewer’s Aid (available in the notions section of your local fabric store.) If you’re in a pinch, you can just rub candle wax on the needle.

3) Use a high quality thread (that hasn’t been sitting in the sun.)

4) Don’t press unless you have to, and then use low heat and only on the back side of the fabric (and use a pressing cloth.) Heat softens the glue and melts the dots. It’s a mess you really don’t want to deal with.

5) Try to sew most of your seams “right sides together” so the dots can’t escape onto your needle. If you have to topstitch, you might want to use some wash away stabilizer over the dots. Then just rinse it away when you’re done sewing.

6) Sew as slowly as you can, to avoid heating up the glue.

7) If the needle becomes gunky with glue build-up, you can use rubbing alcohol or nail polish remover to clean the needle (don’t forget to reapply the lubricant.)

When you’re finished with the project, discard your needle and give your machine a good cleaning out. You don’t want any stray dots or fuzz to stay inside the mechanical parts. Do you have any tricks for sewing with glitter dot? Share them with us in the comments.

I hate throwing fabric away. There are lots of great uses for scraps. But I use so much fabric, my scrap pile can sometimes get out of control and threaten mutiny. Keep those little soldiers in line by making a conscious effort to use them up whenever possible. Or better yet, get rid of whole baskets full at a time. Clear out the old and make room for the new. Here are a few ways to use up your scraps in a big way. Remember, anything more than a half-yard isn’t a scrap. Cut off the small bits, fold it up and put it on your shelf. (Your yardage limit may vary. Especially if you’re a quilter or make small items.)

Make a true patchwork quilt.

None of this matchy-matchy, fancy patterned quilts. Just cut up your scraps and sew ’em together. If you’re not into finishing quilts, you can donate sewn quilt tops to a variety of charity quilt programs.

Use fabric scraps for stuffing.

Whenever I need to stuff a pillow, a toy, even a duct-tape dress form, I try to use up scraps of fabric that are really too small to do anything with. Snips and clips of leftovers can be stored in one bag, so you can just reach in and pull out the amount of stuffing you need.

Use fabric scraps instead of styrofoam when shipping packages.

This is a great one, especially around holiday time. When you have to ship something delicate, just pad around the object with your scrap fabric. Don’t use too much, though, or you’ll wind up paying a bundle for extra shipping.

Use natural fiber scraps as firestarter.

I live in northern New England, so I’m constantly starting fires in our wood stove five or six months out of the year. I take linen or cotton scraps and wind them into a tight roll. Dip them in melted wax (recycled from old candle stubs.) Let them dray and keep them by the wood pile. The wax helps the fabric burn a long time, so I need less kindling.

Donate your extras:

Here are a few places to drop off larger sized scraps. If these places say they don’t use fabric, offer to teach a class for them.

Theater costume departments

• Schools–either to art classes, sewing classes or a theater department
• Pre-schools or daycare centers
• Retirement homes
• Scouts or after-school programs
• Sunday school programs

If you sew regularly and find you often have an unruly scrap pile, make it a habit to get rid of all of it at least once a year. Don’t feel guilty or sad, just do it. The new empty space in your sewing room will give you peace of mind. Besides, it’ll be full of new scraps in a month or two anyway.