Tips on holding fabric while sewng hem ??

[Redoleary]

On something like a rolled hem, I'll fold and iron both folds and hold it all in place with barrettes and just slid the barrettes off as I get to them.

[gmcttr]

I hold the fabric with my right hand in front and my left hand in back, sewing 12 or so inches at a time. I keep just enough tension between my hands to keep the fabric taught, but not tight. Takes a little practice, but after awhile, you can guide the fabric through letting the machine feed the fabric and your hands just keeping pace with the machine.

Exactly...make the two folds on a 12"-14" section, hold it taut as the little blue guy describes and stitch. Repeat as necessary.

I do use pins as required for more complicated work.

[lmoseley7]

I just wanted to echo what PapaSmurf and RamblinRev stated previously. First, you don't want anything sticky gumming up the thread injector. The time and or money it would take to fix that would outweigh the time savings of not pinning or using some other method in my opinion. Others will tell you it has worked for them, and if so, more power to them and IYOT (Inject your own thread). It's just not for me.

I am an 'impatient perfectionist' meaning I want it perfect, but I want it perfect right now, so I initially resisted the urge to use pins to keep my fabric undercontrol and instead employed the method described by PapaSmurf, which I use even if I pin, and just fold as I go. If you're doing a double layer hammock, I would suggest using pins at least sparingly or you might wind up with the two layers getting out of sync. Pulling out 11' of thread is not fun. Now that I've made a few things I use more pins than ever because now I want my results to look better and I've learned that it takes less time sew with the pins in than to tuck on the run.

[gmcttr]

And just so that everyone understands...when we talk pins, we're talking about the big 1.75" large head pins. Not the little bitty ones that are used to package new men's dress shirts.

And of course by "we" I mean me.

[tncamper]

I'm with Fronkey. I kinda freehand it, but it takes practice. Just get some cheap material and play.

[Ramblinrev]

And just so that everyone understands...when we talk pins, we're talking about the big 1.75" large head pins. Not the little bitty ones that are used to package new men's dress shirts.

And of course by "we" I mean me.

Get steel pins if you decide to go that way. Do this for two reasons... They are stronger and bigger and will stay sharper than nickel pins. But most importantly _when_ (not if but when) you drop the container of pins on the floor you can sweep them up with a magnet. That will save you hours of time on your knees trying to separate the pins from the dog/cat/gerbil hair.