Oh, those wooden buttons look divine! 
Yeah, the choice conundrum is real. Now I’m like but what about glass buttons…
Personally I wouldn’t buy a bunch if you don’t have a plan for them, but that’s a personal call on how much you want to store vs. how much the shipping cost means to you. 
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The shipping cost tbh doesn’t mean much, but shipping times might, and I remembered I also do better at actually sewing when I have a small selection of notions on hand… And then I found their novelty buttons and I have Plans for Small Child Activities 
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Ookay.
ooookayyy
OKAY.
I started a shirt pattern to give myself a little break from the frock coat. It’s an 1860s men’s shirt from the pattern maker Reconstructing History."
I was excited about it. I mean, just look at it!
You gaiz. This pattern is SO BAD.
I’m beyond frustrated. I can make it work but I’m having to change basically everything. It’s really bad.
I chose a size that would accommodate my wider hips. I knew it would be a bit roomy but figured I could take it in, etc.
Um.
This is the first, initial mock up with a polyester sheet I loathed.
It’s not a shirt.
It’s a dress.
It literally went to 4 inches below my knee.
I followed the pattern
I shortened it up and…
What’s this?
There’s enough extra fabric to hide a teenager in the side??
WHY.
This is not the sleeve. There is no sleeve on that side of the picture. That is just… side fabric.
This pattern is for a person with a 35" waist.
Obviously this was a lot of changes to be done. So I marked off what I could, scrapped the polyester bedsheet, and started a second mock up out of proper muslin (OH SWEET BEAUTIFUL PROPER WOVEN FABRIC I LOVE YOU).
AND THEN THERE’S THIS. (Ignore Aubrey the dress form’s hulk neck. This fits me.)
JUST EXTRA WRONG TO MAKE ME EVEN MORE ANNOYED.
See this yoke? It’s a nice looking yoke, or so I thought when I cut the pattern piece and looked at the attached drawing of the back of the shirt.
A nice yoke.
Yes.
Room for a few buttons, sits on the back of the shirt.
yes
(NO)
This yoke is a joke!! WHY???!!
I’m going to make it larger, of course. Maybe not QUITE as large as I sketched onto the mock up there, but large enough to hold a few buttons.
WHY
eta: I should say, I knew it was looking massive when I cut out the pattern, but I figured, gee how bad can it be??
O_O;;;;;
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Oh dear. That pattern is giving me all the yikes especially when you show the drawings and nothing is in proportion.
Yay for you figuring it out and making it work but that is frustrating when you bought a pattern so that you could be guided in doing it rather than figuring it out yourself
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Dear heavens that’s worse than anything I’ve encountered.
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I’ve decided to try sewing a garment. It’s, uh, been a while. I have a t-shirt I love the fit of and is simply made, without separate sleeves. I also have a jersey bedsheet I’ve been cutting up for craft projects, so I plan to make a t-shirt out of that.
So far I’ve traced the existing shirt, added seam allowances, and cut it out.
Next, I need to get access to my sewing machine:
I haven’t worked with jersey before. I’m guessing I should use a walking foot? I think I maybe have one somewhere, but I’m not sure I’ll know what it is when I see it.
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Jersey stretchy, yes? If it is, I would use a walking foot. 
Or if you have a serger you can use that I think (I don’t have a serger though so IDK for sure).
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I’d use a serger. FWIW I design clothing and sew professionally and use a lot of jersey and don’t use a walking foot when I sew it on my straight stitch machines (I have a Janome Magnolia home sewing machine and a Juki Industrial Straight Stitch). Walking feet are best for really thick fabrics like denim or leather when you’re in danger of only one layer of the fabric “walking” with the feed dogs on the bottom (so the walking foot adds them on the top) or for quilting when you’re working with a lot of bulky layers.
Whenever I use my straight stitch on jersey I make sure the presser foot pressure is light enough that I can lift the presser foot by touching it and that the thread tension is just right. I’d also consider using a zigzag stitch in the areas you need it to stretch most like the neck and arm openings. Unless it is a very tight t-shirt at the sides you can get away with a straight stitch at the side seams.
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Yes, jersey stretchy.
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Thanks. I don’t have a serger and it turns out I don’t have a walking foot anyway. Zigzag!
That will be fun. I’ll do some practice stitches to make sure I have the tension right and try to adjust the presser foot. I’m reading my instruction manual now but the diagram for how to adjust the foot doesn’t really show where on the machine the adjusty thingy is located.
Next issue: I have both #15 and #66 bobbins, and I don’t know which are which. I need to use the #15. I accidentally used the other once when my machine was new and that resulted in a trip to the repair shop.
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Yes, I forgot to say, zigzag!
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#66 bobbins usually have solid disks except for one hole and the “flat” sides are slightly curved in. #15 are flat on the sides and the disks have many holes. If the doesn’t clarify for your bobbins, let me know and I’ll check thicknesses. They’re slightly different but I don’t remember which is which.
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Baby quilt has been quilted, I’m stuck on what fabric to use as the binding because the grey border fabric is quite thick and I don’t really want to sew through 6 layers of it. Bonus cat.
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Lovely!
Is it big enough to let you turn the border under and hem instead of a separate binder fabric? Or turn the backing over the front- looks life it’s the same grey? Either way, if you trimmed the side you’re not turning over by the width of the hem, you’d have only 4 thickness of the grey to sew.
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It’s beautiful! I would use that yellow personally.
My adventures in t-shirt making ended abruptly midway up the second seam. I saw an upcoming pin was stuck in too far, but didn’t process the potential ramifications in time. Bam! Bent the needle, and I apparently do not have any spares.
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Nooo
I’m sorry. I’m sure you’ve checked, but no spares in any of the little machine compartments either?
No. I looked for spares before I even started sewing, because ideally I would have used a different needle (jersey or ball point rather than standard) and I couldn’t find any spare needles. I was surprised. They must be somewhere, but they are not in the machine, the sewing table, or the sewing box. Or the other sewing box. Ooh, I have a third box I can look in, brb!
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THANK YOU for asking this question and making my think through the answer. That third box? So many machine needles!
(Also crochet stitch markers, which I was desperately short on)
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Hahaha YAY!! I was worried I was being captain obvious LOL.
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