Design by Nine

I have all types of sewing "handy helpers". Some, I have not used more than once, others I use a lot.. but the one that tops my list for multi-purpose, quick-fix, life-saver, is the Glue Stick! I buy them by the dozen from Nasco. No joke. I have them all over the house.

I remember the days before Glue Stick came into my life the things I would try...

Pins: That is all I knew about when I first started teaching myself to sew. Of course, I still use these..I think I have about ten different kinds in the drawer. My favorite are long silk glass head, they are hard to find but soooo worth it. Anyone who has melted a plastic pin head with their iron will tell you... get the glass.

Wash away glue: in the bottle... ah no. Oh I have some of this. And I have used it... think about kindergarten when it was fun to have to roll the glue off your fingers and someone else cleaned up after you. It is so much quicker to pin and hand baste than to use this stuff.

Permanet fabric glue: good for hats, not for clothes.

Stitch witch: It came in a roll like tape, it was fuseable webbing, you can get it in the sheet now. Get it on your iron and you will be sorry. I'm still not sure what this stuff is really good for.. it shows up on the outside of your fabric and it doesn't really hold. You save more time just sewing whatever it is.

Tape: clear, masking, double sticky, the tiny kind that is only 1/4 inch wide... All still good, but my iron hates it and machine needles don't like it much either, and you have to remember to remove before washing. Which, I never forgot to take off before washing until I got used to using the Glue Stick and ran out of it.

Wash away thread: Now this IS a nifty item.. If you get some, don't forget to keep it in a zip baggie, even moisture in the air is bad for it. The down side... you are still sewing the extra step and if sewing by hand you can't lick to thread or to knot. Also, you can't wash it away on fabric that can't be washed. What's it good for? Think hand gathers, multiple layers and quarter marking elastic.

Then there is the Glue Stick: It's Cheap, dries fast, dries clear, and washes out. You can get it in most stores. If your kids or pets eat it they won't get sick. Between two layers of fabric your dry iron won't even know its there. If your forget and steam it , it washes off your iron with water.
The sergers friend. It'll make you like putting zippers in, even long and invisible ones. Pocket placement, lace overlays, bias tape and blanket binding, interfacing, ric rac, and strap placement. For fabric that is not pin friendly try the glue stick. For little pieces that are hard to pin, glue stick it. Glue Stick will hold just about anything sewable long enough for you to sew it down,on, or together. Oh, I could go on and on.

Ok, so it won't solve world hunger, and you will still have to hand baste and pin. But it will save you time. Get a stick and see what it will do for your sewing.

Have you ever heard the expression "A silk purse out of sow's ears"?
After twenty-five years of being a poor or broke seamstress, I find that it is standard operating procedure.
I'm mending one of the costumes for the River Theatre's current production "Simple Salmon Discovers Lewis and Clark". I'm almost positive that this dress has played more roles than most actresses ever will in their lifetime. So I'm sitting here trying to decide just where to draw the line at fixing what is already broken on this dress. I know for a fact that re-sewing a dress just like it from scratch would be so much easier and last way longer. But NOT cheaper. A dozen or more quick repair jobs, patches of fusible interfacing, seams torn and repaired so many times that they barley align, (and even more dreaded) rips and repairs in the middle of nowhere; I know to fix everything that is wrong with it... the correct way... will take me six hours if things goes smoothly (unlikely), and ten if it doesn't (more than likely). So I am going to shoot for somewhere in the middle.
Somewhere in the middle means fix what is dire for the dress to last through to the end of the last three showings, and leave complete deconstruction and reconstruction for another time just in case the fabric disintegrates completely while in progress.

I realized something when my daughter tried it on to see if the repaired sleeve would actually work: The magic of dress-up never lessens. Whether you are two or one hundred two the magic of the costume shines right through. Regardless if you got at the thrift store on grab bay day, or it's a sequin and silk dress custom made for you, you can be transformed into the lead Broadway star we are all deep inside. Point driven home... an outfit that feels Fantastic on can really make your day.
So dress to impress... yourself!




AND Pictures are still in process...progress... the making...en utero... you know....
Pictures Coming Soon!

Too busy to picture and post right now! We're off to auditions at the River Theatre!

To all who will be there:

BREAK A LEG!