Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Make an Extra Large Thread Rack

I'm in the process of moving my sewing work space from the basement to the attic. Ahhhh, sunlight. It has been down in the basement way too long. It will be crowded up here, but worth it.

I need another thread rack, so I'm making it again.

I get a piece of 2' X 4' peg board and 1/4" by 48" dowels and Wood Glue from a hardware store.

I used a dremel to cut the dowels into 5 1/4" pieces and proceed to glue them in, slightly slanted upwards.

thread rack

thread rack

I didn't put the dowels as close as I could have, you will have to experiment based on the amount of room you have available.

Hung up....

thread rack
I have 4 total, I'll take a pic of the work space when its all up here.

Friday, November 7, 2008

CraftStylish Sewing Room Contest

All you have to do, to win $7000.00 in prizes, is to use their room generator and "design" your "Ultimate Sewing room". There are over 1000 entries now so the judges who will be choosing the final 10 will have quite a challenge. The winner will be chosen by us peeps!

The Contest. Don't forget to register or log in before you start!

Check out my "Ultimate Sewing Room!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

More Patternmaking, and Tools

I suggested some pattern drafting and draping books in a previous post ,but I failed to mention necessary tools. A few good rulers, a tape measure and some curved rulers are necessities.



I own a set of Fairgate rulers, plus a bunch of misc. ones.
pattern drafting tools


I've also acquired some additional books because I went and looked and bought some after the last post...
more Patternmaking books

I picked up a copy of The Practical Guide To Patternmaking For Fashion Designers: Menswear because I also am interested in sewing for Men. The suggested books at the bottom lured me in and I got Classic Tailoring Techniques: A Construction Guide for Men's Wear too, because I made a man's costume jacket once for a relative and had trouble with the construction. Menswear has different rules than womenswear, because suits are much more structured for men that women.

I also now own a copy of Donald McCunn's book How to Make Sewing Patterns. Mr. McCunn has a Yahoo! group dedicated to making patterns and makes himself, as well as many other talented individuals, available for answering questions. He is also offering online classes, I signed up for the first one, but became ill and was unable to participate. And things have been too busy around here to try another one this year. The concept of the first class was unique, we were to draft aprons for a wine bottle. It was a cost saving idea, a wine bottle is much cheaper to obtain than a 1/4 size dressform, yet still requires darts for proper fitting.