SHORTENING THE BRIM ON MY STRAW HAT

 I have had this hat for a couple of years now and only wore it once.  It just looks quite ridiculous on me for some reason.  I think the brim is too big.  I have it in our camper and just thought I should start wearing hats because, on this arthritis medication, I am not supposed to be in the sun.  That is kind of hard to do when you are camping!  We do a lot of hiking and going to the beaches, so I am in the sun everyday we are there.

I thought I would try to cut down the brim of the hat and make it smaller.  After looking closely, I do think I can cut it down without it falling apart and then just sewing another seam.  It is just turned under on the edge and sewn.

I cut off about an inch around the hat and now I will turn under about 1/2 inch to the inside of the hat and sew another edge.

Each row of the sewing stitches on the actual hat had a little lip on it, you can see it sticking out on the very edge.  This made for easy sewing and having a perfectly round seam.  I could not pin it as I sewed, I just had to flip the seam to the inside and hold it about an inch in front of my sewing foot and then sew.  The straw fiber was kind of stiff so I had to flip and sew and flip and sew slowly as I went around the hat.

It really didn't take long at all and it was all finished and looked better on me. Now when I first trimmed the hat it had a piece of thin hard plastic sewn into the edge of the hat which I removed before I trimmed it.  I didn't think I would need this but actually, I did.  When I put the hat on after sewing, the brim kind of flipped up and all you could really see was the inside of the brim instead of the outside.  So after I sewed the first round of stitching on the hat I did another round and I zig-zagged the round piece of plastic back onto the edge of the hat.  I don't know if you can see this in the picture below where I have sewn the plastic round hoop back on.  You can see the plastic laying on the black chair in the picture above.  This curved the edge of the hat down and fixed the problem!

 Here is my finished hat now and I like it much better, but we went camping and I forgot to take it with me!  Now that didn't do me much good, did it!  We have one more small trip planned, so I will be sure and take it next time.

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HELP WITH THREADING YOUR SEWING MACHINE NEEDLE

As we get a little older, it gets a little harder to thread our sewing machine needle. I have an automatic needle threader on my machine, but it does not work properly.  That is my only complaint on my machine.  I wish it had a better needle threader.  Anyway, I have a little tip to help you out if you have to do it by hand.  I have always tried looking for a piece of white paper to hold behind the presser foot holder every time I have to thread my needle.  Well no more and this does a great job.

I added a tiny piece of white tape to the presser foot holder.  What I actually used was a tiny piece of white electrical tape. I purchased a whole pack of different colors at Harbor Freight.  I just checked and I don't see it listed on their site anymore, but there were many other stores available who carry it.  It looks like this.

Now I just cut a tiny square the size of my presser foot holder and placed it on the very tip of the holder.  It holds great and is an amazing help if you need it. 

Now put your presser foot holder back on your sewing machine and see what a difference it makes.  I would think you could also add a little bit of paint to the top of this foot and I bet that would work also.  

It just opens up the light so much going through the hole of the needle and makes this job so much easier.  Give it a try!

Back To School Skirt - Setting Pleats

 Mt granddaughter goes to private school and every year for the past 9 years I have altered her skirts.

Most girls don't iron anymore like I had to in my school days, so the pleats just do not hold in the skirt. If you have this problem or if you iron skirts this might help you.  I take the pleats on the inside and on the outside of the skirt and sew them about 1/4" from the edge.  You can only go so high until you can sew no more and that is where I stop.

1. This helps to set the pleats and it will hang better.  They use to do this for us years ago when you purchased a school skirt, but not anymore.    It must be a costly extra step because now it is left off.  If you want this finishing touch, you must do it yourself.  Just make sure you do it for the pleated edge on the righttside of the skirt and then turn your skirt inside out and do all the pleats on the wrong side of the skirt also.  Now if you just wash the heck out of this skirt like she does, it will hang at those pleat marks.  Also if you would iron this skirt it is so quick and easy because you do not have to try and figure out exactly where the pleats should be because it lays so nice when you lay it down and it falls into exactly where the pleat goes.  Two minutes of ironing would do the job!  Ironing What The Heck Is That!!  LOL    -  Does anyone still iron??

How I Embroider A Quilt Label - Part 2

 This was sent to me by one of the Janome Educators on a Janome Life post.  She made a darling quilt label which I do love, but I wanted you to see the difference in what the spray starch can do for your embroidery.  Also, make sure your fabric is tight in your hoop.  You can see the puckers in the stitch out and I think the spray starch tip would have pulled a lot of this out.  I do love the quilt label made with her own handwriting.  I wish I would have seen this before I made mine, I would have tried this wonderful technique out.  I think your own handwriting would make your label even more sentimental and precious for the family and friends who you make the quilt for.  See "How I Embroider A Quilt Label - Part 1"