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If you prick your finger and bleed on your fabric, grab a bundle of left over threads, spit on them and clean up the blood.
Your spit has the enzymes in necessary to clean up your own blood.
It works a treat.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Twilliebee

Hi, seems there are lots of tips and tricks to be found online. Just wondering if anyone has a favorite they'd like to share.
I just learned one from an Anita Solomon Grossman book which she uses when starching large quantities of fabric. I rarely startch, but I love this tip: partially dry your fabric and throw it in the fridge or better yet the freezer. Iron when you have time. Something about the coldness of the fabric makes it iron even smoother. Don't know why, but it sure works, especially when I don't have time to iron and don't want the fabric to get too dry or go sour.

LOLOLOL OMG all I can picture is all of us having NOTHING in our freezers but fabric!!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Twilliebee

Sprinkle, roll it up, put it in a bag and into the freezer---brings back memories of growing up in a family of 8 before permenant press.

When I'm hand sewing I use the tips that I've cut off rubber gloves for ease in pulling the needle through.

One of my favorite things is a flat wooden tv tray (purchased at Goodwill for $5). I covered it with several layers of felt and then made a muslin fitted "sheet" for it. I take it to classes, retreats and set it up at home right by my sewing machine. My own private little ironing board! No waiting in line to press at class, no taking up tons of space at home.

My favorite tip was the directions for making a large top for my ironing board. WOW. It is SO much easier to iron big pieces of fabric and binding strips......and I had it together in 3 hours. Easy, cheap and highly effective. My kind of tip..............

Quote:

Originally Posted by Twilliebee

I remember when I was growing up (long time ago :roll: ) that my mom sprinkled her clothes and put them in a plastic bag an put it in the fridge - and yes, the clothes did iron much easier than when we just sprinkled them and ironed them right away.

I love to iron, too. When I don't have time to sew but want to pick up the great energy in my sewing room, I grab some fabric that I have just bought or fabric that has been stored for awhile and iron it. I feel great afterwards!

And when I'm ironing and need steam, I use a spray bottle instead. Seems to give me more control, and my wrinkles (well, the FABRIC'S wrinkles) come out so much easier and more quickly.

I use to do that with my then husbands shirts some 40 years ago. It works

I just spent a week at Quilting By The Lake in class with Anita Grossman Solomon - great class and great time. My question is "Where the heck do I find liquid starch?" I checked my two local grocery chains, Walmart and Target and can't find it anywhere. Checked on line and they want a ridiculous price for it and shipping on top of that?

Here's my tip. I use two small squares of the rubbery gridded shelf liner that we all use under the presser foot to keep it from walking away for my machine quilting. I was away at a retreat and a friend wanted to machine quilt but didn't have her quilting gloves. She cut up some of this stuff into approx. 4" squares to put under her fingers and it worked for her. When I got home, I tried this and found it so much more convenient than the gloves, which you seem to take off and put on a lot.