Need examples of sewing mistakes
 

I've been asked to do a presentation on fixes for sewing mistakes. Obvious fixes are applique on fabric tears, inserting a strip of fabric if the pattern piece was accidentally cut on the fold, or adding a bit of embroidery when a buttonhole is cut too large. What kind of sewing mistakes have you made and what did you do to fix the mistake?

Marilyn

Haven't done this one yet but what about when the quilt is all most totally quilted and you see a mistake that is all of a sudden obvious and it's a doozy. Corner of a block in backwards with a color bleed on a fabric that will be difficult to be removed.

While removing the fabric backing from an applique( completed,of course..) I snipped the top.....bummer! I first painted a little fray block on the edges,then put permanent fabric glue on a toothpick and rolled the glue under the cut edge,squished it together...not at all noticeable,unless you get your bifocals out and are the quilt police.

Running out of fabric when making a gored skirt in stripes that had to be matched (many years ago in Home Ec.) The teacher had me make a short triangular insert of white with several horizontal rows of narrow cotton lace and sew it into the skirt at the bottom, tiny bow at the top of the point or apex (think that is the right term). I've used that idea many times through the years to make a neckline look better.

Underarm gussets when I didn't do a test fitting and the blouse or dress didn't give me enough room to move my arms.

These days, most of my clothing construction involves re-vamping ready made.

When piecing a row of blocks to another row of blocks, there is always one seam allowance that does not stay in place and become folded under.

I made a basketweave pattern quilt than turned out cockeyed, so I appliqued dragonflies over it.

How about. Quilt finished and wash it ready to gift. Even with colour catcher one fabric bleeds. Can you fix this? Not sure of answer to it just threw in the question.

Hi Marilyn,
A queen sized quilt I made several years ago measured several inches narrower than planned. I compensated for the lost inches by sewing a 3 inch strip of fabric (black worked - yay) on the left and right sides of the white bed skirt. When the bed was made, and the center was centered, the bed skirt, bed rail and quilt all looked like they belonged where they were. It was a simple and easy
solution and now seems obvious - but at the time I was totally irked. Even though I was an experienced quilter, it never occurred to me that so many inches could be lost to quilting. About a year later, I was idly measuring the blocks on a quilt I was working on, and realized that there was about a 1/16” difference between a 3” inch quilted and unquilted square - not heavily quilted - just moderate hq. This is not a “fixing on the quilt” type of repair - but it did solve my problem.
Lefty - in Philly

I made a top from a non-stretchy plain fabric and realized (once I sewed it all up) that it was too small. I had no more of that fabric, so what to do? I took a pretty knit material with a pattern that would match and inserted a strip from cuff to hem on each side. It's decorative and worked like a charm. Here's an example of what I mean... http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=265039.0

Another fix...I was sewing another top and discovered that I accidentally cut the sleeves with the seam facing up. (I flipped my pattern piece and didn't notice that I didn't line up fold line). I had no more of that material and even the fabric store had run out of it, so no way to make more sleeves. I could either leave it a sleeveless top or reinvent the sleeves. So I went to the store, grabbed a wide matching ribbon and top-stitched that over the seam, in order to camouflage it. I also ran the ribbon down the side seams to make it look cohesive) Now it looks like I meant to do that. (yeah riiiiiight. LOL)

I had decided to teach myself to sew this summer so I made lotsa boo-boos. :o