Sewing Straight!

[hiker_DC]

Remember a few years ago when it was chic to have glassware with the air bubbles trapped inside? It was supposed to show that it was handcrafted. The gear that I make is the same way. My beautifully curving lines of the stitching indicates the handmade effort that goes into each piece. Straight lines are for professionals and people who need to spend more time outdoors and less time worrying about stitches.

Here's the bottom line. Curved stitches: (1) hold two or more pieces of fabric together (2) don't degrade the integrity of the fabric or the seam and (3) don't look all that bad.

Be content that you are saving tons of money by sewing the gear yourself and most of all that you are holding a piece of outdoor gear that YOU made.


Doc

[krugd]

I'm with DCHiker - relax and enjoy the curves. Sometimes if you try too hard to keep the line straight you end up making it worse. My wife refuses to sew b/c she expects every stitch to come out straight. she'll laugh at some of my sewing - but I've been using some of the gear for years now and it holds together.

With practice you will get better. Even I get long runs of straight stitch now and again.

[Newzy]

You don't need to sew quickly, slow down, use larger stich spacing. Makes it easier to undo what might get buggered up. Relax and enjoy it.

[nickelanddime]

I keep telling myself, "I like women, I like women..." So far it seems to work.

That's usually when my mind wanders and the stitches get erratic.

Like they all said, a good visual reference to hold to and taking your time works wonders. Also realizing that the only people who would ever make a harsh comment about someone else's stitches have either never made their own gear or are just a mentality of people that I don't like to associate with anyway goes a long way for me. Enjoy the fruit of your labor.

[Mountainfitter]

I am not sure if you can use this with your setup but on my table I drew a couple long straight lines. I keep my material parallel to the line and get a perfect straight stitch.. Sewing does take practice but I find short runs harder then long ones.. Then again I have an industrial walking foot Consew 206RB that goes 90 MPH...