Everybody’s Talking Sewing

Remember my telling you about entering my garments in competitions? Well during those times I was simply full of bright ideas to make my stuff stand out over all the other pieces.

One of my more memorable endeavours involved making a larger then normal pleater board. I wanted to pleat yards of very thin, silky fabric with nice little 1/2″ pleats. At this point we’d created and had been selling our Pleat ‘N Go pleater board kit for several years, and I knew it worked perfectly.

My reasoning (reasoning - is that what you call it?) was that if the base was too small (only a 10″ x 15″) it would take too long to pleat a section, iron it, and move it, then do the next section.

Did I mention I was a lot younger and much more impatient then?

Anyway, I put together a very large base: 18″ x 21-1/2″ and then spent a healthy chunk of money getting enough of the poly-slating we use to create the rows on the base. After at least 2-1/2 hours of cutting and sewing the slats on, I decided maybe it WAS a bit big and cut the size down to only 12-1/2″ deep.

Silly, silly Annie - I still hadn’t a clue…

A few minutes ago I pulled the ‘big-board’ out to take a picture, and Molly decided it was hers - just like everything else around here.

So I finish putting this monster together, grab a big piece of fabric and rush to the ironing board to get started. All told, I’d put in about 5-days making this huge pleater board to make my life easier. Uh-huh.

Have to be careful - this is a ‘big board’; need to get the fabric in those slats evenly. It takes a bit of playing, but I get the hang of the silky fabric and the wide board. Well for the first row or two at least.

You know where I’m going with this don’t you? After about 4 rows the first one would start pulling out… that in turn led to the second sliding out of the slat… and I got to start again. The board was so wide and ackward, it was unmanageable! Add to that this really pretty - but really cranky fabric and I was doomed to failure before I even got started.

All these years later and I’m still beating myself up over it. Dumb, dumb, dumb. There was a reason the Pleat ‘N Go was sized at 10″ x 15″. I keep the ‘big-board’ around for two reasons.

1. Remind myself to really think something through before starting it
2. I wasn’t throwing anything out that cost me that much money!

<Back to Wearables>

Can you see me climbing on my soapbox? I’ve talked about this one before, and looks like it’s time again.

I had a phone call today from a lovely lady about our Nutcracker Tree Skirt pattern on our sister site Stitch Em Up. She was having a hard time finding fancy fabrics to make it and wondered if we had any suggestions.

My initial idea of checking out any local, independent sewing and quilting shops was meet with a comment that would chill the heart of any shop. “I did that and they had some wonderful fabrics, but the prices were too high. At least $1.00 a yard more then the regular stores.”

Oh boy. It was time for a short lesson in economics and options. I tried to explain that the small, individual shops didn’t have the buying power the chains did, so they couldn’t garner the same discounts (think Wal-Mart demanding specific pricing). While at the same time this allowed them a much greater freedom to pick different and unusual fabrics, trims and threads.

These shops could special order for her without jumping through hoops, most would be offering terrific classes beyond the basics, there were Quilt Hops, individual attention helping her find just the right supplies, and most employess were as fanatical about their sewing and quilting as their customers.

By the end of the conversation (bless her heart) she was going to head back out to one of the shops this afternoon and pick some fabrics.

Please, please support your independent sewing and quilting shop! I’m not suggesting you completely ignore the chains, but please make it at least a 50-50 proposition. Walking into my local store is like coming home: they all know me, ask about my projects, the fur-kids, my health, and of course what I’m hunting for that day. I’d be lost without them.

We’d be a far poorer society if all we had were big-box retailers and chain stores. Long live the Independent!

<Back to Wearables)