Basting

[Delmonico]

No not what you do with a turkey in the oven, but long temporary stiches to hold thing in place better than pins.

When I use basting, I uses the ugliest, brightest and mosty contrasting color I can find on my thread shelf.  Makes it easy to see when I remove it.

[Silver Creek Slim]

Why do ya remove it? Don't it get covered up?

Slim

[Delmonico]

Some does get covered, some don't sometimes.  Depends on where and when.  When I worked as a security guard I often basted stuff instead of pinning.  I sewed by hand at work when I had nothing to do but listen for alarms.  That way I could just toss it in my saddle bags when I couldn't work on it.  Pins tend to come out with rough handling.

[Silver Creek Slim]

And, pins tend to poke.  The other day I was bleedin' like a stuck pig. 

Slim

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Oink, oink...

[Silver Creek Slim]

Oink, oink...

Be nice! 

Slim

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Sorry.

[Trinity]

And, pins tend to poke.  The other day I was bleedin' like a stuck pig. 

Slim

I hope it weren't yer pants bein' mended...  And I ain' talkin' 'bout yer pant legs! 

[Delmonico]

Durn you Trinity ya just brough back bad childhood memories from when mom used to sew, and that was only shirts.

[Trinity]

When undoing a brand new shirt from the store... Of course, you want to remove all the pins and there seem to be more and more with each new shirt.  Well my advice is: never NEVER forget to remove the "crotch pin"! 


I think they are put in there a-purpose!

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

Another way to avoid pinning is using the iron, but only if you'll be sewing right away. Last night I was hemming a skirt made with fabric that easily frays. I folded and ironed over about 1/8" of fabric all the way around, then folded it again to the correct hem length, ironing a sharp crease in the edge. I toted the fabric to the sewing machine and hemmed it up, using the crease as my guide. Now I have a fray-free hem on the skirt and it took maybe 15 minutes.



AnnieLee

[Silver Creek Slim]

And, pins tend to poke.  The other day I was bleedin' like a stuck pig. 

Slim

I hope it weren't yer pants bein' mended...  And I ain' talkin' 'bout yer pant legs! 

Nope, 'twas a new bib shirt I'z makin'.

Slim

[Delmonico]

Good idea Annie, I do that when I make cotton bandanna's, but with me doing hand work when something good is on TV and using the machine when their ain't that on don't always work.

[El Peludo]

This is the first time I have visited this "Child Board"; interesting stuff, here.  I have a lot of "observer time" in the fields of sewing and cooking, since I spent alot of my early growing up years around my Grandmas, and the were all - Greats are included - very domestic, as was the fashion of the era.  I have also done a bit of these particular disciplines, myself, mostly learned from that "observation", and then hands on experimenting.

This "basting" item caught my attention - I remember all of my Grands used basting in their sewing, but one way that I remember most vividly was that they basted their quilt tops to the batting and backing, before they put the quilt on the frame for quilting.  One of them ran her basting diagonally across the quilt, using a stitch that was a needles length.  She would pin it around the edges and a few places in the field, then she hung it about shoulder high using a clamp frame that Gramps made up and started basting; when she got down to where it was too much bending over to reach comfortably, she re-hung it from the other edge, and finished it off. It was then ready to be streched on the quilting frame.  And, as you mentioned, Del, she always used a thread that was a bright contrast to the material she was working on.  Actually, the quilting stitch is a basting stitch, just much shorter in length.

Gad!  Some of the things you guys get me to remembering!!   

[Delmonico]

Friend, that is what this is for, remembering as well as learning how to do.  I learned all I could about cooking from my grandmothers before they passed on.  Wish I would have thought to do the same from Grandma Carman with the quilting.

[Stina]

As a tailor, I do a LOT of basting, and there's really only one rule to follow as regards thread color:  "Baste in white, always right."  It sometimes happens that the bright, contrasty colors can rub off on light-colored fabrics, leaving little dots of, say, red, on your otherwise nice white shirt.

My gramma had a whole lot of other sayings to go with the above--"Baste in red, better off dead," "Baste in green, better not seen," etc.  But it all boils down to--use white, 100% cotton thread.  Synthetics can pull little holes in the weave.....

Stina

[Marshal Will Wingam]

Good tip, Stina. I'll remember that. My mother always used white, but I had no idea there was a reason for it. Thanks.

[Delmonico]

I never gave that a though, but I've never made a white shirt, I started doing the weird colors so they were easy to see and to use up some of the odd thread that my wife has.  Thank You, it's always good to here from a pro.

[Silver Creek Slim]

Great insight, Stina.

Slim(what's a newbie tailor)

[Stina]

Happy to help out any newbie tailors!  Everyone else has certainly helped out this newbie shooter....including you, Slim!  Lars and I were at an NCOWS shoot in Holmen back in May....

Stina