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I keep a lint roller with my sewing supplies and roll it over everything in sight, when I am through sewing for the day. I even roll it over the carpet in the sewing machine area to pick up the threads from the carpet so they don't wind up in the vacuum cleaner brushes. I keep a separate lint roller to clean up any loose threads from a completed quilt top. My sewing machine is not computerized, so I can keep a magnetic wand nearby to pick up any loose pins, including any that fall on the floor.
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Love the tip about the coffee creamer container for filling your iron. We never use coffee creamer but had one for company over the holidays. I just threw it in the wastebasket about 30 minutes before reading this tip. I took it back out!!! Thanks
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I cut all scraps into squares of various sizes that I put into marked shoe boxes. I keep the 2" squares in a small box next to my machine and use as "anchor" cloth before and after I sew a seam. I take the sewn pairs on road trips and hand sew into 4 patches.
When my daughter wants to sit & chat while I'm sewing, or my granddaughters visit, they love to sew the 2" squares together on my extra machine. We get to visit and sew at the same time. |
Also, when I square up blocks and have all those little bitty strips of fabric, I put them in a ziplock baggie and throw out in the back of the yard for the birds to use in their nests. If I have a strip about an 1" wide, I run my rotary cutter up & down it several times and "whiddle" it down to tiny strips.
A couple of years ago, one of my grandsons found a nest with some threads in it. So cool!! |
Originally Posted by suesembroidery
buy clear christmas tree bulbs and stuff the scrap thread in them and hang them on your tree. I fill one up every year and write the year on them. They are prettier than you would think.
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Originally Posted by Jan in VA
I use a full 1" x 1.5" Post-it-Note pad flush up against the presser foot, held down with a fat rubber band or a strip of tape, to keep my 1/4" seams exact. I can sew two strips together in about 10 seconds using this! All my seams are straight, equal, and easy.
Jan in VA |
Originally Posted by pineneedles4
Another tip! I bought a makeup kit that came with very nice, very thick and expensive brushes for everything. I took one of the shorter handled, thick powder brushes to use for cleaning lint from my machine! It works so much better than the cheap plastic brushes sold for this purpose.
Vanessa in Oklahoma |
Originally Posted by suesembroidery
buy clear christmas tree bulbs and stuff the scrap thread in them and hang them on your tree. I fill one up every year and write the year on them. They are prettier than you would think.
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Originally Posted by grann of 6
I just came up with an idea yesterday when changing the needle in the sewing machine I have upstairs. In the basement I keep a baby food jar with a hole in the top for inserting discarded needles and bent and damaged pins. I didn't want to trek to the basement, so I put the old needle in the plastic case the new needle came in and wrote on the case that it was used. Now I can throw it out with the trash, so from now on I will save the plastic cases the needles come in.
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Originally Posted by PJisChaos
I always wind 10 bobbins when starting a new project. When I use all the bobbins, it's time to clean the machine and get a new needle put in it. Keeps me from having to remember the last time I did it! When paper piecing, I wind 5 bobbins instead as my needles dull a bit faster.
I have 3 machines and keep bobbins wound for each machine seperate so I don't get confused. Also, I use empty TicTac cases for the used needles, when full just toss in trash can. No pokes or holes in trash bags. |
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