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What a thought provoking topic.

And timely as I’m looking to switch out my daughter’s closet and trying to figure out what she has and doesn’t have.

I’ve been very good about buying either sale or consignment ahead for her since she was first born, and she’s had a closet full of Tea, Hanna Andersson, GAP, etc. at a fraction of the price.…[Read more]

When your daughter rifles through catalogs and points to things and says, “you can make that for me?”

I’ve told myself I can’t get Parachute until I sew up the five cut-out and ready to sew items on my sewing pile. 🙂

Oh, the binding, of course. Yes, I can see how that would get bulky quickly. Again, I’m not trying minimize the difficulty of something I haven’t done, but just asking because I don’t know, is it different than making a mitered corner on a quilt binding? Perhaps because of the stretchiness of the knit?

If someone would like to write a tutorial on the chevron method (the V without the cross-over), I’d be so thrilled. It’s on my To Do list, but it’s not rising to the top anytime soon, I fear.

I don’t use the cross over method, too bulky. I cut a triangle out of each end and sew and turn. Perfect’V’.

Yay, maths! Geometry! Can we include some algebra too? 🙂 Just to work out correct angle to sew the band together 🙂

Yep, I’ve seen it done with one end crossing the other at the V point, but personally I think it looks better if the ends are joined at the correct angle to give a vertical seam in the neck binding at the V point.
Then there’s just the technical aspect of sewing an acute angled neckband into an obtused angled neckhole. Ha ha, look at me, now I’m…[Read more]

I have a Black & Decker Digital Advantage that I absolutely adore. Got it at BB&B for ~$35. It has a nice heft & is so easy to fill up with water!

The trick is in the neck binding. The join is sewn in a ‘V’ to give you the neat finish.

I buy Tefal, nice and hot and lots of steam.
Fairly tough too, my current one has survived being knocked over by a football in flight!

Good to know — my inherited Rowenta is hyperactive and has burned through more things than I care to think about. No wonder I inherited it. Definitely in the market for a hot, but not too hot, iron, sometime soon.

Would you not just … cut a V? What am I missing?

And I third it, which means I should probably work out how to do it, right?!

Thanks so much, everyone, for chiming in with all your different viewpoints and experiences. Hopefully it goes without saying, but just to reiterate, nothing I’ve written about my choices should be read as a comment on anybody else’s choices. What’s right for one isn’t right for all, and I do find it very useful to hear how others think about…[Read more]

Wendy I can’t agree more about what a buzz it is seeing my made clothes being worn again. I just received a gorgeous photo from the UK of a beautiful girl wearing my daughter’s outgrown dress and it felt like such a gift to me!

I haven’t posted here for a while, but this topic really struck a chord with me. I started sewing when my daughter was just over a year old and at the time, as much as I was enjoying the very different and all consuming experience of being at home with my baby, sewing was a godsend. It allowed me to explore creatively in a medium that easily fit…[Read more]