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My Favorite Sewing Tips
Over the holiday season, I unexpectedly found myself with extra time on my hands, so, you guessed it, I retreated to my sewing room to sneak in some extra sewing projects. Not only did I have time to sew a couple of great gift bags for last minute gifts, but I made some beautiful quilted stockings to decorate my home. I'd like to share with you some of the sewing tips that I learned from this experience.

Prep Your Cutting Area
I know it sounds silly, but organizing my area before I started let me sew "production style," saving me enough time to accomplish more. I set up a separate cutting area, complete with a rotary cutter and mat, assorted straight edges and squares, and adequate overhead lighting for my aging eyes. I also stock assorted sizes and colors of sticky notes. I use the sticky notes as a guide on multiple girded cutting edges. This way I know that I've selected the proper width or length when cutting.

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Tie Up Your Scissors
Because I use a variety of machines, I tied a decorative narrow ribbon (about 1 yard in length) through the handle of a small pair of scissors. Loop the ribbon around your neck, and you'll have the scissors conveniently placed for clipping threads.

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Check Your Needle
Change your sewing needle at the start of each project. Needles do tend to get worn and may snag or pull fabric when dull. Take a minute to visit Clotide.com for a reference chart about needle sizes. Typically, I will use a size 80 to 90 sharp for most of my sewing, but heavyweight fabrics (denims and twills) require a larger size and lightweight knits sew best with a small needle-sized ballpoint needle.

And, if you have problems with skipped stitches or tension problems, always change your needle. You may not know this, but the sewing needle is the first item changed when you take your sewing machine in for service. You may save a few dollars by doing this simple check yourself.

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Refer to Your Owner's Manual
Today's sewing machines are so advanced compared to the machine that I learned to sew on about 40 plus years ago. I have an electronic machine that I purchased about five years ago, and decided that I really should read the owner's manual. I found out lots of great information about this machine and realized that I had not been using the machine to its fullest capabilities. From browsing through the owner's manual, I learned how to program a combination of stitches allowing me to add creative phrases to my quilted stockings. As a finishing touch to my stockings, I substituted decorative stitches for free-motion sewing to quilt the stockings. All learned because I took the time to read my owner's manual.

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Match Your Feet to Your Fabric
Your sewing machine comes with feet designed for different types of sewing. Though I tend to use my clear appliqué foot for just about everything, I've found that matching my foot to fabric and stitch is helpful. Some of my favorite feet include:

• Teflon foot for sewing oilcloth
• Walking foot for quilted fabric and velvet
• Ruffler attachment for making even ruffles (this is so much faster than using a gathering thread!)
• Piping foot or cording foot for sewing cording to fabric

One of my favorite books that explores creative uses for your sewing machine feet is called I Love to Sew with my Feet (VSM Sewing Inc., $29.95). For more information, visit: Husqvarnaviking.com.

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Use Pressing Equipment
As editor of Sewing Savvy newsletter, I review many sample projects before publication. And trust me, you can tell the difference between a project with the seams pressed properly and one without! I'm fortunate enough to have a relatively large sewing room so I set up two pressing stations: my full-sized ironing board with a full-sized iron and a small ironing board with a traveling steam iron. My small board is placed next to my sewing machine so I can press short seams quickly. For long seams, I'll use my full-size ironing board.

Properly pressing a seam for sewing takes three steps. First, press the seam after it was sewn. Next, using the tip of your iron, and on the wrong side of the fabric, press the raw edges of the seam open. Finally, turn the fabric to the right side, and press once again.

You'll love the results. If you don't have a small ironing board, you can quickly make one from scratch. At your local fabric store, ask if you can have the cardboard inset from a bolt of fabric. Wrap the inset with quilt batting, and cover in a decorative home decor fabric. It is a simple-to-stitch solution to pressing.

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