While being snowed in this past weekend and being on a sewing frenzy, I discovered two steps in sewing quilted bags that I could skip, that not only gave just as good a finished product, but actually was even better.
When doing free motion quilting on a quilt, you need to switch your sewing machine foot over to a darning foot and pin baste the quilt sandwich together. So, naturally when quilting the much smaller rectangle used when making a purse/bag/tote, I assumed I would need to use the same process.
Here's what my early attempts at this looked like, pins, darning foot and all:
Later on, I accidentally quilted an entire rectangle with my regular sewing foot and afterwards realized, it really made no difference. I also decided to try quilting the rectangle without pinning it.... at all..... It worked even better! There were NO pleats or uneven areas at all. The finished quilted rectangle was flat and pretty!
Here's a rectangle being quilted without changing the sewing machine foot or pin basting it:
The bag turned out cute!
So I guess the moral of this post is: Don't do extra work just because that's the way its always been done. Experiment with your daily chores and jobs to see if there are unnecessary steps, that if left out, won't affect the finished product or job.
3 comments:
What a happy "mistake" to learn, huh?
We learn everyday if we pay attention, don't we?
I do not have a darning foot. The next time you are sewing, please make a picture and show me.
Marjorie
Yes, yes, yes! You are so right! I'm always reading things on the internet that says you "have" to do something this way or that for it to turn out. I don't know how many things I have done and skipped steps and guess what? Got the same results without the extra work.
One of my pet peeves is that everyone says you HAVE to sand things before you can paint them, doesn't matter what it is, or the paint won't stick. The paint will stick no matter what! Now with some items, you have to seal it to keep it on there but that's expected with things that get handled often. Sanding before painting won't guarantee anything!
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