I bought this machine in 1977 when we were a poor young family with one toddler and a little baby. We sold a car and had a little extra money and my Hubby, knowing how much I wanted to sew things for our family, gave me the okay to spend a rather huge amount on a Good Sewing Machine. I shopped all around, trying out the Top-of-the-Line everythings, and finally settled on this sweet Bernina. When she came home with me I was almost afraid to do anything for fear I'd break it! Funny.
Well, this workhorse of a machine grew up with my family and has sewed nearly everything you can think of. Baby clothes, Jeans, underwear, camping gear, upholstery, fancy-dancy clothes, ties, crafts, quilts, curtains, and so on and so on. I've thought of trading her in on the newest Berninas....they look amazing! Then I found out that MY Bernina, THIS model, is still considered the best one they ever made and is still worth quite a bit. So I decided to keep her. Even though she can't do all the super-fancy incredible things the newest model can do.
Maybe, someday, I'll get a new model. Maybe. But this old friend is staying with me. And we're back to making baby and toddler clothes! By the way, did you sign up for the drawing for the free little dress? Better check it out!
Now on to my tip for the day. I really don't like gathering stuff. It's so tedious! I'm a person who likes to sew things quickly (and my littered sewing room floor shows it!), so I like to find easier ways to do things. I have learned that my little old Bernina can do a mighty nice gather all by herself!
What I do is tighten the thread tension on the top of my machine. My indicator looks like this next photo (the little + indicator on the left), but yours will probably look different. Then set your machine for the longest stitch, just like you normally would when gathering. These adjustments take me two seconds. Now I run the fabric under the foot and sew just to the inside of the stitching line and...Presto! I've got gathers that are just perfect for some little girly outfit!
I cut two strips of fabric the same length for this illustration. Here is the finished product. All I have to do now is pin it to the garment and maybe do a little adjusting, and it's ready to sew down permanently. Try a few practice runs on scrap fabric and see what happens. It's easy!
4 comments:
Neat trick! I never knew about that...definitely will have to try it on my machine...but right now I'm going for a walk! :)
PS - Loved the title of this post. And the introduction to your old friend.
Also wanted to let you know that I made some cornbread the other day with spelt flour instead of wheat flour, and we loved it. Whole-grain goodness, but not so heavy.
Hmmmm...I need to try this...
What a neat trick! I hate gathering. I typically use the baste-and-pull method, but my thread typically pulls OUT before I can get my gathered piece pinned to my flat piece. Urgh.
I'm going to try this next time. Thanks for the tip!
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