Saturday, August 17, 2013

JOY

What a gorgeous day! Perfect weather for a BBQ (veggie dogs, beans and potato salad today) with my sister and then Joe and I did a 32km bike ride thru Rondeau (the sister is not a biker)….and then veggie burgers for supper at the park. I could do this all year if it wasn’t for that nasty thing called snow!

I had a question from Jinxxxygirl on a previous post and seeing as I have no idea how to respond directly to a comment, I’ll have to answer it here and hope she sees it. She asked me the difference between a sewing machine and a serger – good question and one that is asked often. I was going to try to explain it but then I did a search on the Internet for some technical terms and found this answer that I thought was perfect. Why mess with perfection, just copy it!!!

- A sewing machine uses one upper thread and one bobbin and one needle.

- An average serger uses 2 needles, 4 threads and no bobbin. It also has a “knife” edge that trims the seam allowance as you sew to about ¼”. Two of the threads are needle threads, so it is like having a double stitched seam. The other two threads are “loopers”; one above the fabric and one below the fabric. The loopers bind the outer raw edge of the fabric.

Most sergers allow you to adjust the width of the stitching to do a "rolled hem" such as you find on purchased cloth napkins, etc.  This requires a separate “foot” on the serger.

Sergers are great for finishing seams to prevent raveling, finishing a hemmed edge so that you only have to fold it once before stitching (versus folding it under, then folding it under again). You still have to use a sewing machine to actually stitch the hem though. Sergers work great on knit fabric because the seams are flexible, but I use mine for all kinds of sewing. You cannot use a serger to put in a zipper or buttonholes and other specialty type sewing, so you need to have a sewing machine for these things. It is a real time saver, but one drawback is it is VERY difficult to tear out the stitching if you make a mistake, plus the seam allowance has been trimmed already to 1/4".
Thanks to a Diane P for this answer.
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Low end sergers, like mine, are a huge pain to thread thru the loopers which is why I have a love/hate relationship with mine. The one that I drool over has automatic threading and automatic tension settings. Some day I will own one!!  Look at a seam on any of your ready-to-wear clothing, especially sweat shirts and T-shirts. See that binded seam – that was done on a serger.

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I thought I would post another Christmas card today. I’ve done so well getting a good supply on hand. No last minute scramble for Christmas cards for me this year. The trouble is once you start sending out hand-crafted cards, people are really, really disappointed if you dare send them a store bought one!

 

I was still using up my wine and green paper from my Christmas card making frenzy last week. I had these two pieces left over so I taped them together and glued them to a card base. Then I ran silver swirly peel-and-stick lines around the edges, and a fancy circle one along the seam. I placed a silver peel-and-stick ornament on a piece of silver glitter paper and cut it out and then added it on an angle and added a silver line as a hanger. Then I used a Tombow marker to colour in the flower and the circles but the glitter paper soaked it up. I will add more colour before I send it out. The little Christmas trees are also peel-and-stick (can you tell I like using them?). Then I stamped JOY and embossed it with silver embossing powder. The upper sentiment was stamped in silver using a Stampin' Up stamp.  I like how this one turned out. I never make a plan or a sketch first so I never know if I will like the finished product or not.
 
That’s it for a gorgeous Saturday

Cheers

Violet

 

1 comment:

  1. Thank you so much Violet! I understand a little better now. I just want to make pillows and maybe some other simple stuff so i think what i need is simple sewing machine...
    Wish i could get my hubby to ride a bike.....You are so fortunate to share that together. Hugs! deb

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